Facebook Instagram Linkedin Twitter Youtube
Home Blog Page 9817

A worthy enterprise to save the future

A few days ago, I spotted this interesting piece of news that China has reportedly reassigned over 60,000 soldiers to plant trees in a bid to combat pollution by increasing the country’s forest cover. A large regiment from the People’s Liberation Army, along with some of the nation’s People’s Armed Police, have been withdrawn from their posts on the northern border to work on non-military tasks inland. Most will be dispatched to Hebei province, the area known to be notorious for the smog blanketing Beijing.

The idea is believed to be popular among members of online military forums as long as they can keep their ranks and entitlements. It comes as part of China’s plan to plant at least 84,000 square kilometers (32,400 sq.mi.) of trees by the end of 2019, which is roughly equivalent to the size of Ireland. The aim is to increase the country’s forest coverage from 21% of its total landmass to 23% by 2020, the China Daily newspaper reported. Zhang Jianlong, head of China’s State Forestry Administration, said by 2035 the figure could reach as high as 26%.

Companies, organizations and talent that specialize in ecological initiatives are enjoined to participate in the country’s massive greening campaign. Cooperation between government and social capital will be a deemed a national priority. Additionally, China clean energy plans call for the installation of 100 GW of solar power, 200 GW of wind, 350 GW of hydro, and 58 GW of nuclear power by 2020. From the status of notorious polluter of the environment, China aims to turn that around to being the champion for a sustainable future.

With China serving as role model and inspiration as to what government and society could do for the environment and create a better future for its society, I’m hurling a challenge to all Filipinos who believe in Human and Ecological Security and understand the urgent need to take the initiative to restore our denuded mangroves, watersheds and forestlands to win the future for all generations.

It’s a “whole-of-nation” undertaking that calls for collaboration amongst the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the Philippine National Police (PNP), the Department of Education (DepEd), the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), local government units (LGUs), and civil society.

In a nutshell, this is how it ought to be organized. The DENR, AFP, PNP, DepEd, CHED, and civil society should provide all the seedlings, prepare the areas for planting, and provide the manpower and drones to plant in target areas. LGUs mobilize their communities to secure and maintain the replanted areas, with specific focus on three denuded sectors: mangroves, watersheds, forests. Timeline: 2020 onwards. Goal: 1 billion trees per year on 1 million hectares annually, at a survival rate of 95%. Benefits: clean air, clean water, clean energy.

This is a specific challenge to:

• owners or lessors of large landholdings — individuals, corporations, learning institutions, mining companies, the military, church, indigenous peoples;

• local government units (upland, rural, coastal, urban);

• real property owners and developers (urban and/or rural);

• influencers on social media and in the mass media profession;

• civil society, i.e., civic clubs, NGOs, people’s organizations, the media, the religious, the academe, etc.

Those in coastal communities can do the mangroves — grow seedlings, plant, maintain and protect. Bakawan is a good specie. Restoring mangroves provides a safety belt against storm surge or tidal waves. And they provide new havens for spawning and feeding of marine life. Regrowing our watersheds means more water in our rivers necessary for agriculture, tourism, energy, and human consumption. What we do for watersheds can be replicated in denuded forest lands — grow seedlings, plant, maintain and protect. For watersheds, choose indigenous species. For forestlands, bamboo would be perfect.

According to official stats, 70% of us Filipinos are actively engaged in social media. Influencers in media can play a leading role in persuading and extracting commitment to generate a dedicated army of eco-citizens. Individuals and corporations with forest concessions, mining concessions, grazing lands, farm lands should maximize planting of protected and commercial trees in all barren lands to establish their perimeters, add value to their land, and provide livelihood to their employees and tenants.

LGUs should consistently beautify their areas of jurisdiction through their Clean and Green programs by creating protected forest parks, lining roads with trees, planting trees in communities that lack natural shade. Vertical greening is also a best practice. Contests and rewards should gain people’s excitement and participation. Schools, civic groups, and parishes — either in cooperation with, or independent of, their LGU — should add muscle to the effort by mobilizing their human resources to build nurseries, grow seedlings, and maintain/secure the re-planted areas.

To simplify the calculation. Let’s just assume that 2 million Filipino eco-warriors are mobilized to answer the call to save the future. They commit to:

• have a little nursery to grow seedlings (or buy from the nearest nursery);

• plant 10 three-month-old seedlings a week or 542 seedlings per year, or a total of 1-billion seedlings total per year; and

• maintain and secure the seedlings for at least three years;

• sustain the effort until 2028 when the Enhanced National Greening Program ends.

The AFP can mobilize its entire Reserve Force for the purpose. All former soldiers, sailors, airmen, and policemen too. The academic sector could require that all students — from grade school to post-graduate school — plant trees as a requisite for graduation and, in the process, instill the value of “maka-kalikasan” (being a nature lover). Civic clubs like the Rotary, Lions, and Jaycees nation-wide could roll up their sleeves and contribute significantly to human and ecological security. LGUs will have the lion’s share of manpower with 42,000 barangays to tap from. The use of drones for planting and reconnaissance would enhance survival rates.

The DENR has specific maps from the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority pinpointing the denuded mangroves, watersheds, and forestlands around the country. The cost of forest cover recovery could be funded through “debt-for-nature” swaps or through carbon credits. Nothing could be more worthy than saving our future. It would be our lasting legacy to future generations of Filipinos. Wouldn’t that be nation-building we could all be proud of? Everyone takes the credit. Lahat bida! Kayang-kaya pag sama-sama! (Everyone is a hero! It can be done if we are all together in it!)

IT CAN BE DONE!

 

Rafael M. Alunan III is a former Secretary of Interior and Local Government and chairs the Philippine Council for Foreign Relations.

rmalunan@gmail.com

map@map.org.ph

http://map.org.ph

Traffic flow: like blood flow

Interestingly, traffic flow is like blood flow.

Blood circulation is one of the many parts and systems that comprise the human body — an almost perfect machine with a master template that enables the body to function as one.

When we are born, the blood circulates normally to distribute oxygen and nutrients to, and collect waste from, body parts so that they can, as one body, function normally. The blood follows bodily functions so no blood gets lost or wayward, lest some organs get starved of oxygen or nutrients and the body dies.

As we get older and indulgent, plaque from cholesterol builds up on blood vessel walls and become blockages that slow down, or worse, stop blood flow. To normalize blood flow, blockages have to be removed, or a bypass is done.

Air, sea, and land traffic, like blood flow, must have a master plan with designs and rules to ensure a smooth flow. For example, too many air or sea arrivals at one time could cause land traffic. Surely we have a master transportation plan. The question is — are we following the master plan?

I can name so many blockages in our streets, mostly caused by poor engineering, education, and enforcement — parking along busy streets takes away at least one lane; double parking robs another lane; jaywalking and potholes slow down traffic; vehicles stop or are trapped in intersections preventing vehicles from going forward on a green light; buses and jeeps take and discharge passengers on the road instead of at bus stops; street repairs are done at peak hours; intersections that are too close to each other; U-turn, instead of cloverleaf-type traffic flow in highways; frequent swerving; tricycles on busy streets; no bypass road when clearly the situation demands it; etc.

A first step to address our traffic problem in Metro Manila is to name the Philippine National Police National Capital Region Head as the Traffic Czar, with all the resources and authority on traffic management, to remove all road blockages and enable bypasses to ensure smoother traffic flow.

This article reflects the personal opinion of the author and does not reflect the official stand of the Management Association of the Philippines or the MAP.

 

Renato C. Valencia is the Chair of OMNIPAY and member of the MAP Inclusive Growth Committee’s Sub-Committee for EMERGE (Educated Marginalized Entrepreneurs Resource GEneration).

map@map.org.ph

rcv3313@gmail.com

http://map.org.ph

Bureaucracy control and drug price control

Among the recent good news in the Philippines in terms of improving economic competitiveness is the big jump in its global ranking in the World Bank’s Doing Business (DB) report, from No. 124 in DB 2019 to No. 95 in DB 2020 reports, a jump of 29 notches.

I backtracked and checked the DB reports from 2015. There were 189 countries covered in DB 2015-2016 reports, then 190 countries in 2017-2020 reports. The Philippines simply reclaimed the No. 95 spot it occupied in 2015 (see Table 1).

The top 10 countries were consistently there except for Georgia which crawled up from No. 24 in DB 2016 to 7th. Many Asian economies registered improvement over the past five years — Malaysia, Thailand, China (from No. 90 to No. 31) and India (from No. 142 to No. 63).

Of the 10 factors in the DB scoring, the Philippines ranks low on these: Starting a business (No. 171), Enforcing contracts (No. 152), Getting credit (No. 132), and Trading across borders (No. 113). In short, the bureaucracy. Too many permits required to start and renew a business, to get credit, and to do exports and imports, and the bureaucracy is poor or lousy at enforcing contracts.

Nonetheless, two improvement in the Philippines’ score in 2020 over 2019 came from: a.) Protecting minority investors (+16), by requiring greater disclosure of transactions with interested parties and enhancing director liability for transactions with interested parties; and, b.) Starting a business (+2), by abolishing the minimum capital requirement for domestic companies.

These gains can be reversed if the bureaucracy finds ways to penalize businesses for various populist and bleeding heart arguments. One such move is the insistence by the Department of Health (DoH) to have a second round of drug price control this year. The first round was made in 2009 when Secretary Francisco T. Duque III was the head of the DoH. Mr. Duque loves price controls and price dictatorship. He dictates who should be penalized with mandatory and obligatory price cuts and who should be exempted.

In a BusinessWorld report last week, “Price-controlled drug list headed to Palace for approval” (Nov. 1), it said “Secretary Francisco T. Duque is set to endorse an executive order (EO) that will set a Maximum Retail Drug Price (MRDP) for 122 medicines to Mr. Duterte before this week ends… The MRDP will cover treatments for the Philippines’ top 40 diseases.”

There are many factors to determine pricing of commodities, foremost of which are government taxes, national and local, and the degree of innovation and competition. The most innovative products and services tend to have higher initial prices to cover the cost of R&D while the most competitive — lots of “me too” generic products — tend to have lower prices as the high cost of innovation has been recovered. For duties and taxes, the Philippines has among the highest in the region (see Table 2).

We should have more private players and investors, more competition, and less bureaucrats and bureaucracies, less regulations and taxation, bureaucracy control, and regulations control. Then we can have a higher global ranking in DB, and lower prices of many goods and services including medicines and healthcare.

 

Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. is the president of Minimal Government Thinkers.

minimalgovernment@gmail.com

Can blind auditions help women succeed? Yes.

By Faye Flam

IT’S BECOME a kind of sport to shoot down social science claims, whether it’s the notion that you can ace interviews if you stand like Wonder Woman or charm your next date by reading two pages of Moby Dick before you leave.

And now critics have taken aim at a prize target — a much-cited claim that symphony orchestras hire more women when they audition musicians behind a screen. There are big implications here, since the study has been used in diversity efforts across industries, which is why the take-down has taken off in the media.

But the blind auditions won’t go the way of the other results that have vanished into air upon a more critical analysis. One reason is that blind auditions really exist; they were not a contrivance set up by scientists in a lab, as with the studies that have become infamous in the so-called replication crisis. Those mostly relied on experiments from which researchers made oversized and often counterintuitive claims. Some, it turned out, incorporated errors in statistical analysis that made random noise look like surprising new findings.

In contrast, blind auditions were independently adopted by real orchestras, starting with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, in the latter part of the 20th century. The purpose was to prevent conductors from choosing their own students, or their personal favorites, and instead force them to focus entirely on the music. It’s also been adopted for awarding astronomers time on the Hubble Space Telescope — a limited resource that has only gone to a small fraction of astronomers who submit proposals.

In the 1990s, two economists — Claudia Goldin, an Economics professor at Harvard, and Cecilia Rouse, now an economics professor at Princeton University — set out to investigate whether blind selection in orchestras was the direct cause of a concurrent increase in the number of women hired for orchestra positions.

Goldin and Rouse went around the country to different orchestras to observe their auditioning practices and collect data on past practices as well as records of who auditioned and who got hired. Much of that data was buried in files in basements. They learned interesting things on the journey — including the fact that some orchestras used carpeting or other measures to disguise the difference in sound between male and female footsteps.

The results, published in 2000, were complicated. There are different rounds of selection — preliminary, semi-finals, and finals, and women did better in blind selections in some rounds but not others. This was reflected in the abstract of their paper, which admits up front that their data are noisy and some of their numbers don’t pass “standard tests of statistical significance.”

In an interview, Goldin said that they were particularly interested in seeing what happened to the subset of people who applied to both blind and non-blind auditions. Asking people to audition behind a screen might bring in a different, more diverse group of applicants, she said, but there were some musicians who applied to both kinds. Comparing how they performed in blind versus non-blind auditions would offer a kind of natural experiment. And that’s where those controversial numbers surface.

The paper says that, “using the audition data, we find that the screen increases — by 50% — the probability that a woman will be advanced from certain preliminary rounds and increases by severalfold the likelihood that a woman will be selected in the final round.” The results were cited by politicians and TED talk speakers, and often referenced by other researchers.

One of the critiques came from Columbia University statistics professor Andrew Gelman, whose blog posts have become known for identifying and explaining the kinds of statistical errors — or cheats — that have led to erroneous or misleading conclusions in social science and medical research.

He criticized the lack of clarity in the paper, writing that he could not figure out how they calculated the much-touted 50% figure, let alone the several-fold difference mentioned, so it was impossible for him to see whether these numbers stand up to statistical tests.

That’s a fair criticism. But even if their data were too noisy to determine that blind auditions increased female hires, that doesn’t prove that there’s no effect, or that discrimination didn’t exist. Goldin said that their number comes from isolating just the cases where the same people applied in both kinds of auditions, and applies, as the paper says, only to certain stages in the process.

A similar study of the Hubble Telescope time got a comparable result. When identifying information was removed from proposals, women became more likely than men to get approved — for the first time in the 18 years the data were tracked. As described in detail in Physics Today, the blinding also resulted in more time going to researchers from lesser-known institutions. Reviewers had to look at the substance of the proposals in more depth rather than relying on the track record of the proposers.

A third study looked at coders and found that in gender-blind submissions, women’s code was more likely to be accepted than men’s; but when the coder’s gender was known, women’s code was accepted less often.

We shouldn’t lump a study that examined decades of hiring data at real orchestras in with the headlines that oversold findings that forced smiles make you happier, that hearing words associated with aging make you walk more slowly, and that women are much more likely to vote for Republicans at certain points in the menstrual cycle.

Unlike those other disappearing findings — which blustered about a whole new understanding of human nature or offered people too-easy-to-be-true life hacks — this blind audition paper was modest, claiming only to shed light on a cultural phenomenon at a particular place and time. There’s no reason to throw it into the trash heap of bad science.

 

BLOOMBERG OPINION

NCAA step-ladder semifinals begin

By Michael Angelo S. Murillo
Senior Reporter

AFTER a break of two weeks, the National Collegiate Athletic Association resumes action with the championship rounds of Season 95, beginning with the first rung of the step-ladder semifinals today at the Cuneta Astrodome in Pasay City.

Third-seeded Letran Knights (12-6) and number four team San Sebastian Stags (11-7) battle in a knockout match set for 4 p.m. for the right to advance to the next step of the step-ladder, rendered as such after the defending champions San Beda Red Lions (18-0) swept the two-round eliminations.

Waiting for the winner between Letran and San Sebastian are the Lyceum Pirates, who finished second in the standings with a 13-5 card.

The Knights and Stags split their two encounters in the classification phase, with San Sebastian narrowly taking the first round, 102-101, and Letran bouncing back in the second, 99-82.

Letran is the best offensive team in the NCAA in the elimination round with an average of 84.3 points per contest, and is led by veteran Jerrick Balanza with 15.1 points, followed by Larry Muyang (12.8 ppg), Ato Ular (11.2 ppg) and Bonbon Batiller (10.5 ppg).

The Knights finished the classification phase on a high note, racking up three straight victories.

“Of course, we wanted to be on top of the standings but we ended up here (third). We’ll just work on where we are. After all, it’s not about how you start the season but how you finish it,” said Letran coach Bonnie Tan.

Last year the Knights also ended up in third spot but lost out in the semifinals to Lyceum.

San Sebastian, for its part, tinkered with early elimination but eventually found the finishing kick it needed to advance to the next round as the fourth seed.

The Stags’ push is led by league top-scorer Allyn Bulanadi (20.3 ppg), who exploded for 44 points in their victory over the Perpetual Help Altas in their final game of the eliminations on Oct. 18 to clinch a Final Four spot.

Veteran RK Ilagan is also steady for San Sebastian with a scoring norm of 14.7 ppg and 4.1 apg, both seventh best in the league.

“We’re happy to be in the semifinals,” said Stags coach Egay Macaraya after their win over the Altas even as he shared that they are hoping that the long break heading into the step-ladder would provide his players enough time to rest and recover.

San Sebastian makes a Final Four return after missing out on the playoff bus last year.

The NCAA step-ladder semifinals can been seen live over S+A and iWant.

Butker, Chiefs beat Vikings on last-second field goal

KANSAS CITY — Harrison Butker booted a 44-yard field goal as time expired Sunday, giving the Kansas City Chiefs a 26-23 victory over the Minnesota Vikings at Kansas City, Mo.

Quarterback Matt Moore, making his second start in place of injured Patrick Mahomes, passed for 275 yards, including strikes of 17 and 13 yards to Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill, respectively, to put Butker in position for his game-winner.

The Chiefs (6-3) used two straight three-and-outs from their defense in the fourth quarter to first set up a 54-yard field goal with 2:30 left for a 23-23 tie, and then the decisive boot. The win ended a three-game home losing streak for the Chiefs, as Moore went 25 of 35 with one touchdown.

The Vikings (6-3), who had their four-game win streak snapped, went ahead 23-20 early in the fourth quarter on Kirk Cousins’ third touchdown pass. He went 19 of 38 for 220 yards, while the NFL’s leading rusher, Dalvin Cook, managed 71 yards on 21 carries.

SEAHAWKS 40, BUCCANEERS 34 (OT)
Russell Wilson matched a career-high with five touchdown passes, the last a 10-yarder to tight end Jacob Hollister in overtime, as Seattle rallied from a 14-point deficit to defeat visiting Tampa Bay.

Bucs running back Dare Ogunbowale scored on a 1-yard run with 46 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter to tie it at 34. Seattle’s Jason Myers pushed a 40-yard field goal wide right at the end of regulation. It was the third missed kick of the day for Myers, who pulled a 47-yarder wide left and hit the right upright on an extra point.

Wilson completed 29 of 43 passes for 378 yards as the Seahawks (7-2) pulled within 1 1/2 games of the first-place San Francisco 49ers in the NFC West. Chris Carson rushed for 105 yards on 16 carries, and Tyler Lockett caught 13 passes for 152 yards and two touchdowns. Hollister caught two TD passes, and DK Metcalf had the other.

CHARGERS 26, PACKERS 11
Philip Rivers passed for 294 yards, and Los Angeles jump-started its running game in rolling over visiting Green Bay.

The Chargers — who entered the day with less than 40 rushing yards in four consecutive games, a dubious first since the Detroit Lions in 1947 — ran for 159 yards in their first game under interim offensive coordinator Shane Steichen.

Rivers completed 21 of 28 passes for the Chargers (4-5), who have won two consecutive games. Melvin Gordon, who had averaged only 2.5 yards per carry following a holdout that ran into the regular season, had his best game with 20 carries for 80 yards and two touchdowns.

DOLPHINS 26, JETS 18
Ryan Fitzpatrick threw three touchdown passes — including two to rookie Preston Williams — to lead Miami to its first win of the season, beating visiting New York.

Fitzpatrick, a former Jets quarterback, completed 24 of 36 passes for 288 yards and no interceptions. His tight end, Mike Gesicki, caught six passes for 95 yards. Williams caught five passes for 72 yards but was carted off the field in the fourth quarter due to a knee injury.

Miami (1-7) snapped a 10-game losing streak that dated to last December. It was the first win for rookie coach Brian Flores. Each team scored on a safety, a rarity in the same game.

RAIDERS 31, LIONS 24
Derek Carr threw for 289 yards and two touchdowns, and Josh Jacobs rushed for 120 yards and two scores as Oakland held off visiting Detroit with a late fourth-and-goal stop.

Raiders safety Karl Joseph broke up Matthew Stafford’s pass to tight end Logan Thomas in the end zone on fourth-and-goal from the one with two seconds remaining. The Lions had marched 76 yards to get there. — Reuters

Alaska Aces bringing in the pieces to return to heightened competitiveness in the PBA

By Michael Angelo S. Murillo
Senior Reporter

LAST WEEK the Alaska Aces was a party to a deal that sent their All-Star guard Chris Banchero to the Magnolia Hotshots Pambansang Manok, a deal that Aces coach Jeffrey Cariaso described as something they had to do in their bid to return to heightened competitiveness in the Philippine Basketball Association.

After spending five years with the milk masters, Mr. Banchero, the fifth overall pick in the 2014 rookie draft, saw himself on the move to the Hotshots in exchange for forwards Robbie Herndon and Rodney Brondial.

The trade papers were sent to the league office late last week and were eventually approved on Sunday.

“It’s always hard to let go of a player, regardless of their stats. Letting go of someone or moving someone is always difficult,” said Mr. Cariaso following their 106-99 victory over the Northport Batang Pier on Sunday when asked by media about the Banchero trade.

He went on to say that Mr. Banchero was a big part of what the Aces had accomplish of late, including a finals appearance in last season’s Governors’ Cup, but felt that the pieces they were getting in return for him would help them in the direction they want to take as a team.

“Chris Banchero is a really good player. He’s done a lot for us here at Alaska. But I really feel that this trade is going to help. With the part we are getting in return I think they will fit perfectly. And to get something, you always have to give up something,” said Mr. Cariaso, who replaced long-time coach Alex Compton during the in-between conference break.

The Alaska coach said that Mr. Herndon, while did not get much playing time with the Hotshots, would help with his shooting and high basketball IQ.

“Herndon is very smart player, an IQ player. He knows his spots and does not force things. He knows his role. And he’s a good shooter. We’ve seen that in the All-Filipino, though maybe not so much the last couple of conferences because he played limited minutes,” he said.

For Mr. Brondial, his energy and no-nonsense approach on doing his role would be a boon to the Aces, Mr. Cariaso said.

“Rodney is that role player that we need, that banger, that extra banger that we need; an extra big guy who does not care who his opponent is. He will do his best to try to defend. And he has good hands and can finish plays,” said the Alaska coach.

Mr. Cariaso also allayed fears of his team struggling with its guard play with Mr. Banchero now gone, saying that they are still covered with veteran JVee Casio and young guns Maverick Ahanmisi, Simon Enciso and Abel Galliguez still around.

The Banchero trade was the latest that Alaska had made, following those that sent Carl Bryan Cruz to the Blackwater Elite for rookie Abu Tratter and Ping Exciminiano to the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters for Mr. Ahanmisi prior to the start of the ongoing PBA Governors’ Cup.

Alaska (3-6) next plays against the Phoenix Pulse Fuel Masters on Nov. 13 where new acquisitions Herndon and Brondial are expected to make their debut.

Strawweight champ Pacio not taking things lightly against veteran Catalan

WHILE pundits and observers have given him the advantage in his latest title defense fight in ONE Championship, still world strawweight champion Joshua “The Passion” Pacio said he is not taking things lightly, especially against a veteran fighter like Rene “The Challenger” Catalan.

Returning to the ONE Circle on Friday for the promotion’s latest Manila event — ONE: Masters of Fate — at the Mall of Asia Arena, 23-year-old Pacio said he has a lot of respect for compatriot Catalan, 40, and is expecting nothing less than a very tough and spirited fight in their encounter.

“Sir Rene [Catalan] has been doing this for a very long time, even before I started taking up the sport. His greatest strength would be his wushu striking, and I would not consider his ground game to be his weakness as we have seen in his past bouts. In his tenure as a martial artist, he was able to develop his other skills, and that is why I have a huge level of respect for him,” said Mr. Pacio (14-3), who reclaimed the strawweight belt over Japanese Yosuke Saruta in his last fight in April here in Manila.

But the Filipino champion reiterated that despite the respect he has for Mr. Catalan (6-2), he is not allowing it to deter him from his goal and is bent on coming out on top come fight night to continue to assert his standing in the division.

“I mentioned before in an interview that I want to take him out in the first three rounds. It is something I am determined to accomplish, and I know that he plans to do the same. He has been working hard for this opportunity, and I am not willing to let go of this title,” said Mr. Pacio, currently the lone ONE world champion in Team Lakay.

Mr. Pacio went on to say that he is going into the fight with his Team Lakay stable mates in mind, in light of the current struggles they have been having in the promotion.

“I will do everything I can to defend my title and show the world the fighting spirit of Team Lakay,” he said.

Adding, “We failed to have the same success as we had last year, but I am not going to fail my family in Team Lakay on Nov. 8. This is my time and my title, and I am not going to lose it again.”

In Japan last month, Team Lakay stalwarts and former champions Kevin “The Silencer” Belingon and Honorio “The Rock” Banario both lost their respective fights.

Also falling short was Danny “The King” Kingad, who bowed to American Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson in the flyweight grand prix final. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo

James’ triple-double leads surging Lakers past Spurs

LOS ANGELES — LeBron James produced his second straight triple-double, and Anthony Davis scored 25 points and took 11 rebounds as the visiting Los Angeles Lakers defeated the San Antonio Spurs 103-96 on Sunday to win their fifth straight game.

James finished with 21 points, 11 rebounds and 13 assists. The Lakers went the entire 2018–19 season, James’ first with the team, without winning five straight games.

Dejounte Murray single-handedly kept the Spurs in the game, scoring 16 straight San Antonio points over a seven-and-a-half minute stretch of the fourth quarter. His layup with 4:10 to play — the 13th and 14th of those 16 points — tied the game at 90. But the Lakers responded with a 9-2 run over the ensuing two minutes to hold off the Spurs and claim the win.

Avery Bradley added 16 points for Los Angeles (5-1), while Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Dwight Howard had 14 points each. Howard also grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds.

Murray led the Spurs (4-2) with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Rudy Gay and Derrick White added 16 and 12 points, respectively, off the bench, with DeMar DeRozan scoring 14 points and Bryn Forbes hitting for 12 for San Antonio. The Spurs lost at home for the first time in four games this season.

Kyle Kuzma’s 38-foot buzzer-beater allowed the Lakers to finish the second quarter with a 10-0 run and take a 56-43 lead at halftime. Davis paced Los Angeles with 15 points in the half, with James adding 11 points, eight rebounds and eight assists, and Bradley hitting for 10 points.

Los Angeles outshot the Spurs 51.1 percent to 33.3 percent over the first 24 minutes. Gay led San Antonio with eight points before the break.

The Lakers expanded their lead to as many as 19 points after a Davis layup at the 8:36 mark of the third quarter before San Antonio found some mojo, clawing back to within 71-65 five minutes later.

Gay’s 3-point jumper from near half court at the end of the third quarter left the Los Angeles lead at 77-72 heading into the final period. — Reuters

NCAA board votes to let student athletes endorse brands and accept sponsors

LOS ANGELES — US college athletes can profit from brand sponsorships and endorsement deals under a new rule approved on Tuesday by the governing board of the NCAA, the organization that regulates US collegiate sports.

The unanimous vote follows growing pressure on the National Collegiate Athletic Association to lift restrictions on athletes that have kept them from sharing in the financial rewards generated by their performances.

The change will likely benefit athletes in high-profile sports such as football and basketball, which drive billions of dollars in advertising and revenue for media outlets, schools, coaches and the NCAA itself.

“Its a beautiful day for all college athletes going forward from this day on!” Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James wrote on Twitter.

James, who bypassed college basketball and went straight from high school to the National Basketball Association, cautiously applauded the move as “not a victory but a start.”

California has already approved legislation to allow student athletes to earn endorsement money, long forbidden by the NCAA as part of its mission to protect the amateur status of collegiate sports.

The NCAA board, composed mostly of university officials, voted to allow student athletes to benefit from the use of their name, image or likeness. It directed each of the NCAA’s three divisions to update their bylaws no later than January 2021.

“The board’s action today creates a path to enhance opportunities for student-athletes while ensuring they compete against students and not professionals,” NCAA President Mark Emmert said in a statement on the website ncaa.org.

The Indianapolis-based NCAA reported total revenues of more than $1 billion last year, about 80% of which came from television and marketing rights fees.

California last month became the first U.S. state to give college athletes the potentially lucrative opportunity to earn endorsement money, with Governor Gavin Newsom signing legislation into law that would take effect in 2023. Sponsors said it could encourage star athletes to stay in school rather than dropping out to turn professional.

New Jersey quickly moved to follow suit, with lawmakers last week introducing the “New Jersey Fair Play Act,” to allow student athletes compensation for use of their names or likenesses and also the ability to hire their own agent or lawyer. — Reuters

The Barry Attack

FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss 2019
Douglas, Isle of Man
October 10–21, 2019

Final Top Standings (All are GM)

1–2. Wang Hao CHN 2726, Fabiano Caruana USA 2812, 8.0/11

3–8. Kirill Alekseenko RUS 2674, Levon Aronian ARM 2758, David Anton Guijarro ESP 2674, Magnus Carlsen NOR 2876, Hikaru Nakamura USA 2745, Nikita Vitiugov RUS 2732, 7.5/11

Total of 154 participants: 133 GM, 2 WGM, 16 IM

Time Control: 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 50 minutes for the next 20 moves, followed by 15 minutes play-to-finish with 30 seconds added to your clock after every move starting move 1.

Have you ever heard of the Barry Attack? White plays 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Bf4 Bg7 5.e3 0–0 6.Be2 and then attempts to assault the Black king with Ne5 followed by h2-h4-h5.

POSITION AFTER 6.BE2

The English GM Mark Hebden probably has the most to do with the popularity of the Barry Attack. He famously defeated GM John Nunn, then one of the top players in the world, in two consecutive Hastings tournaments in the same line. At that time Nunn lamented that the worse part of his losses is that they came from an opening with such a stupid name.

Nobody seems to remember why it is called the Barry Attack. Lately Grandmaster Simon Williams has started giving the pawns their own names. “Barry” is the b-pawn, “Garry” the g-pawn, “Harry” the h-pawn, etc etc. Going by that logic the line we are discussing now should more aptly be called the Harry Attack since it has the most to do with the h-pawn.

But I digress.

Here is an illustration of how the attack works.

Hebden, Mark (2550) — Fox, Anthony (2095) [D00]
Hastings op 1994–95 (3), 1995

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Bf4 Bg7 5.e3 0–0 6.Be2 c6 7.h4 Bg4 8.Ne5 Bxe2 9.Qxe2 Nbd7 10.0–0–0 Rc8 11.h5 Re8?

This is one of the cases where 11…Nxh5 is the best defense — White gets an attack but everything else loses. 12.Rxh5 gxh5 13.Qxh5 f6 (13…e6 14.Rh1 Nf6 15.Qh4 followed by Bh6) 14.Nxd7 Qxd7 15.Rh1 Rf7 16.Qxh7+ Kf8 17.Rh3 with an attack.

12.hxg6 fxg6 13.Qf3!

Watching the f-file and at the same time preparing to swing over to h3 to deliver mate on h7.

13…Nf8 14.g4 b5 15.Bh6 N8d7

White is threatening g4-g5 and Black does not seem to have a counter.

16.Bxg7 Kxg7 17.g5 Nxe5 18.gxf6+ exf6 19.dxe5 fxe5 20.Rxh7+! Kxh7 21.Qf7+ Kh6 22.Rh1+ Kg5 23.Rg1+

1–0

You know what? GM Hebden actually played his first game in the Barry Attack from the BLACK side. The ease with which he was dispatched was an eye-opener and he buckled down to study the line, with the result that it became one of his most reliable opening weapons.

Pira, Davoud — Hebden, Mark (2460) [D00]
Seville op, 1987

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Bf4 Bg7 5.e3 0–0 6.Be2 c5 7.Ne5 b6

The text move is too slow. Black should put pressure on the white center expeditiously with 7…Nc6.

8.h4 Ba6 9.Bf3 Bb7 10.h5 Nbd7 11.hxg6 fxg6

[If 11…hxg6 simply 12.Qe2 followed by 0––0–0 and g2–g4]

12.Bg4 Nxg4 13.Qxg4 Rf5 14.Qh3 Nf8 15.g4 Rxf4 16.exf4 cxd4 17.Ne2 g5 18.Qh5

The threat is 19.Qf7+ Kh8 20.Rxh7+!

18…Qd6 19.Qf7+ Kh8 20.0–0–0 Bxe5 21.fxe5 Qxe5 22.Nxd4 Qg7 23.Qxg7+ Kxg7

Black has managed to survive the attack, but his pieces are too uncoordinated to offer sufficient defense.

24.Rde1 Re8 25.Rh5 Kg6 26.Nf3 h6 27.Ne5+ Kg7 28.Reh1 d4 29.R1h2 Rc8 30.f4

Having achieved a winning position White starts getting fancy and nearly loses his advantage. There was nothing wrong with simply 30.Rxh6.

30…gxf4 31.Rf5 Ng6 32.Nxg6 Kxg6 33.Rxf4 e5 34.Rf5 Rc5 35.Rfh5 Be4 36.Rxh6+ Kg5 37.Rh8 Kxg4 38.Rf8 Bf3 39.Kd2 e4 40.Rd8 Rc4?

[40…Kg3! 41.Rhh8 Kf2 sould have forced White to agree to the draw with 42.Rh2+ Kg3 43.Rhh8 Kf2 etc]

41.b3 Rc7 42.Rxd4 Kg3 43.Rh8 Kf2 44.Re8 Rg7 45.Rdxe4

White simplifies to a won rook and pawn endgame.

45…Bxe4 46.Rxe4 Rd7+ 47.Kc3 Kf3 48.Re8 Rc7+ 49.Kb2 Kf4 50.c4 Kf5 51.Kc3 b5 52.Re2 Kf4 53.Kd4 bxc4 54.bxc4 Rd7+ 55.Kc5 Kf3 56.Re6 Rc7+ 57.Kd5 Kf4 58.c5 Kf5 59.Re2 Rd7+ 60.Kc6 Rh7 61.Kd6 1–0

In the 90s Hebden really ran roughshod with the Barry Attack.

Hebden, Mark (2570) — Williams, Leighton (2110) [D00]
BCF-ch 82nd Swansea (2), 1995

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Bf4 Bg7 5.e3 0–0 6.Be2 Bg4 7.Ne5

Here is something you’ve got to remember about the Barry Attack — the knight is more important than the e2 bishop. Don’t allow it to be exchanged until you’ve got your g- and h- pawns rolling.

7…Bxe2 8.Qxe2 c6 9.h4

[9.0–0–0 also led to a nice win for GM Giovanni Vescovi. Here is what happened: 9…Nh5 10.g4 Nxf4 11.exf4 e6 12.Na4 Nd7 13.h4 Nxe5 14.fxe5 Qa5 15.b3 c5 (15…b5 16.Nc5 Qxa2 17.Kd2 Qa5+ 18.Kd3 Black cannot get to the white king while on the other side his own king is in trouble) 16.dxc5 b5 17.Nb2 Qxa2 18.Nd3 Rfc8 19.f4 Bf8 20.Kd2 Qa5+ 21.b4 Qc7 22.h5 a5 23.hxg6 fxg6 24.f5 axb4 25.fxg6 Bxc5 now a series of hammer blows brings Black to his knees 26.Rxh7 Be7 27.Qe3 Qxc2+ 28.Ke1 Qc3+ 29.Rd2 Rc4 30.Rh8+! mate in 3. 1–0 Vescovi, G. (2465)-Jakobsen, O. (2380) Copenhagen 1995]

9…Nbd7

Please be aware of the following trap. If Black goes 9…Qa5 don’t be afraid to castle, for after the “obvious” 10.0–0–0 b5 11.a3 b4 12.axb4 Qa1+? This looks irritating but in fact it loses by force! 13.Kd2 Qxb2 14.Nd3! the Black queen is trapped next move. GM Aaron Summerscale annotated this game for the website “chesspublishing.com.” His very perceptive comment was that a quick trip to the bar was in order. 1–0 Semrl, M. (2209)-Grilc, A. (2030) Ljubljana CRO 2000.

10.0–0–0 Nh5 11.g4 Nxf4 12.exf4 e6 13.h5 f6?

After 13…c5 Black is still fighting. But that’s the point of the Barry Attack — White’s moves are easy to find while his opponent is constantly scratching his head looking for the most accurate move.

14.Nxg6! Re8

[14…hxg6 15.Qxe6+ Kh7 16.hxg6+ Kxg6 17.f5+ Kg5 18.Qe3+ Kxg4 19.Qh3+ Kf4 20.Ne2+ Ke4 21.Qd3#]

15.h6 hxg6 16.hxg7 Kxg7 17.Qe3 f5 18.g5 Qe7 19.Rh3 Rh8 20.Rdh1 Rag8 21.Ne2 Qe8 22.Qa3! Rxh3 23.Rxh3 a6 24.Qd6 Qf7 25.Qc7 Qe7 26.Ng1 Re8 27.Nf3 Kg8 28.Qxb7 Rb8 29.Qxc6 1–0

White is two pawns up and Black has too many pawn weaknesses to hold.

In the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss tournament in the Isle of Man which just concluded, the Indian great hope, 15 year old GM Nihal Sarin used the Barry Attack with great effect.

Nihal, Sarin (2610) — Nebolsina, Vera (2252) [A45]
FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss (3.69), 12.10.2019

1.d4 Nf6 2.Bf4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.e3 Bg7 5.h4 h5 6.Nf3 0–0 7.Ne5 c6 8.Be2 Nfd7?!

He should have retreated the other knight so that the one on f6 could watch the squares g4 and e4. For example 8…Nbd7 9.Qd2 Nxe5 10.Bxe5 Ne4!

9.g4!

An alert reaction to Black’s inaccurate 8th move.

9…Nxe5 10.Bxe5?!

[10.dxe5! is thematic]

10…Bxg4 11.Bxg4 hxg4 12.Qxg4 Nd7 13.f4 Qc8 14.Qg3 f6 15.h5 gxh5?

It looks like the best defense is 15…fxe5 16.h6 Bf6 or 17.Qxg6+ Kh8 18.dxe5 Rg8 19.Qf7 Bxe5 20.fxe5 Nxe5 21.Qf4 White has an attack against the exposed king at no material investment, but Black is hanging on.

16.0–0–0 fxe5 17.Rdg1 Rf7 18.dxe5 Nxe5

There is nothing else.

19.Rxh5 Ng4 20.Qh4 e5 21.Rxg4 Kf8 22.Rxg7! Rxg7 23.Rh8+ Kf7 24.Qh5+ Ke7 25.Qxe5+ 1–0

By the way, for those BW readers who have watched “The Big Bang Theory,” Nihal Sarin might remind them of the boy-genius Sheldon Cooper. Nihal could recognize the capitals and the flags of all the 190 countries by the age of three. At the same age he also had managed to know and recite from memory the scientific names of most of the insects and plants. He was not very successful here in the Isle of Man, but it will be very interesting to watch him continue his giant strides in the chess world in the near future.

 

Bobby Ang is a founding member of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) and its first Executive Director. A Certified Public Accountant (CPA), he taught accounting in the University of Santo Tomas (UST) for 25 years and is currently Chief Audit Executive of the Equicom Group of Companies.

bobby@cpamd.net

Jets’ worst setback

Forget about the final score, which wrongly indicates a one-possession outing. Yesterday’s setback was one of the worst in the Jets’ history, period. For all their travails, there can be no excusing their 18-26 loss to the considerably overmatched Dolphins. It didn’t matter that they were on the road, and that they trekked to Hard Rock Stadium mired in a three-game rut while facing injuries to key players. Once the contest was under way, they should have been in position to assert their superiority.

As things turned out, however, the Jets couldn’t even rely on motivation to spur them to victory. In fact, they proved hard-pressed to keep up with the Dolphins, whose status as co-doormats of the National Football League was validated by some shaky action on both sides of the field. And not only couldn’t they capitalize against opponents with seemingly more to gain by tanking as opposed to competing. Instead of stamping their class, they wound up trading head-scratching moments that stunted any rally they tried to mount.

Certainly, no one sequence was more indicative of the Jets’ foibles than that with 6:29 left in the fourth quarter. Down nine and intent on gaining ground quickly, they went on a shotgun formation in their seven-yard line. Whatever plan they had became immaterial, however, as center Jonotthan Harrison’s snap flew to the right of quarterback Sam Darnold, who may or may not have been prepared, leading to a safety. A lack of effort? Perhaps absence is a better word; no supposed stalwart in green and white even bothered to try to prevent the ball from bouncing to the end zone.

In the end, the Jets were left to rue their many miscues. Head coach Adam Gase noted that “everybody feels like crap. You don’t put in this much time and effort to come out here and lose.” Interestingly, the same theme pervaded Dolphins counterpart Brian Flores’ post-mortem. “Anytime you win, it feels good,” he said. “That’s why we put in all the work.” Which, in a nutshell, sums up the difference between the victors and the vanquished: They both tried, but the former tried harder.

 

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.

1...9,8169,8179,818...13,779Page 9,817 of 13,779
© 2024 BusinessWorld Publishing.
All rights reserved.
Read our privacy guidelines
Facebook Instagram Linkedin Twitter Youtube