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TikTok Shop Launches TikTok Shop Business School to Help Digitize Filipino Entrepreneurs
TikTok Shop launched TikTok Shop Business School, a comprehensive one-day program for Filipino entrepreneurs that aims to equip them with the skills to grow their businesses in the digital sphere. The full-day program, which 50 TikTok Shop entrepreneurs attended, was comprised of master classes on Corporate Strategy and Business Model with Kim Lato, Founder and […].....»»
Down Under Promotions supports ICC Bluehawks and BPBL
CEBU CITY, Philippines —The Sydney-bound Immaculada Concepcion College (ICC) Bluehawks senior men’s basketball team has earned the support of Down Under Promotions Sports and Events in their preparation for the Australian Chinese Basketball Association (ACBA). To recall, the ICC Bluehawks will represent the Philippines in the upcoming ACBA, which kicks off tomorrow. Besides the Philippines,.....»»
New Ironman 70.3 Davao course `exciting - Princess Galura
New Ironman 70.3 Davao course `exciting - Princess Galura.....»»
MVP Cup 2024: One Invitational golf tilt fires off
Smart Infinity kicks off the summer by treating its members to a memorable and exclusive two-day golf tournament at the recent MVP Cup 2024: One Invitational held at the Manila Golf and Country Club......»»
De-risk from China, lean in on Japan
The Philippines’ relationship with China is complicated......»»
Kate Winslet has fun playing tyrant in ‘The Regime’
‘Elena Vernham is nothing like anything I’ve ever come across in my life before. I have to somehow transform myself and become this disgusting, sort of wild, tyrannical but vulnerable, interesting, multi-textured, complicated woman. I kind of dug into that. That was really my job, you know? I didn’t want her to just look like and be this perfect shouting dictator who is shrill sometimes. That’s not that was not interesting to me. That would have become a bit monotonous and exhausting to watch.’.....»»
It’s complicated
Times are hard and it is obvious that workers need to earn more to survive. A Filipino family of five needs at least P13,797 a month or P460 a day to meet their basic needs, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority......»»
‘Situationship’ and navigating through it
CEBU CITY, Philippines— Dating in today’s life is a bit confusing or complicated than what we used to in the earlier days. Before, you meet someone, hang out with them, get to know them then get together. But, today, you meet someone, run around the bushes, try to figure each other out, and not just.....»»
Daughter of missing landslide victim confronts grim prospects
MACO, Davao de Oro (MindaNews / 12 February)—The plight of a college student, whose father is among those missing after the tragic landslide in the mining village of Masara here on February 6, is further complicated by concerns about her education and the health issues of her mother and younger brother. Bea Esmero, a third-year […].....»»
Do you know what a ‘Sneaky Link’ is? Read on
CEBU CITY, Philippines— The dating scene of today has evolved drastically, and sometimes it is hard to understand whether the person you are seeing is someone you like or something you just enjoy being with. Complicated right? While others are enjoying each other’s company out in the open, others are enjoying the low-key style of.....»»
Bagong luma – the new old society
I once attended a public event where speakers lined up to share their experiences and expertise on a complicated subject matter......»»
Holiday gridlock
If the Marcos 2.0 administration wants to attract more investors, it can start with measures that are less complicated and divisive, and cheaper than amending the Constitution......»»
Get covered against 100 critical conditions for as low as P100
Health protection no longer needs to be expensive and complicated as Singlife introduces an affordable 100-in-1 medical plan via GInsure.....»»
It’s complicated
In armed conflict, public sympathy typically goes to the underdog. And perceptions of which side is the underdog or weaker force can be complicated......»»
No ERC decision yet on Meralco’s 5RP application withdrawal
The Energy Regulatory Commission has yet to come out with a decision on Manila Electric Co. urgent omnibus motion to withdraw its fifth regulatory period application for its proposed annual revenue requirement and performance incentive scheme, calling the case complicated......»»
Creating World of Frozen: Disney creative director shares process behind ‘most magical place on Earth’
Behind this “beautiful and nostalgic environment” is “a very long process” for “a very complicated project.".....»»
Learning from a difficult experience
After assisting my caretaker to get serious medical attention in a government hospital, I discovered that the Philippine public health system works. It is complicated, but it works......»»
Flesh and blood
Perhaps in all the years in this lifetime that Israel has been at war, we Filipinos never made enough sense of what it is really about. Not until we learned, since 7 October, how cruel and bitter it can be — in the photos of a grown man forever captured screaming into the air over his dead nephew’s body; of shrouded bodies that may never be identified; or a clip of a father holding plastic bags of his kids’ remains. And the babies. And the burned bodies. And the blood splattered all over a bomb shelter. No one — unless it is you or yours — can imagine how it truly feels. If you can feel rage and grief at seeing images alone, how much more can your heart take if it were happening right before you? “We are all human,” a father said on Tiktok. It was he who posted about that father with the plastic bags. “There is no difference between me and this man. When we talk of kids getting killed, bombed, or put on fire, it doesn’t really matter what you believe in, where you come from, or what religion you follow. This is never acceptable! You just have to be a human being to stand up and say stop.” Now I am not sure whether this man was genuine (heaven knows there has been plenty of fake and biased news) or if it was propaganda designed to turn sympathy toward a specific cause. But what he said about being human was true. Amid all the atrocious crimes we have seen in the war raging in Gaza, we need to view the whole situation through our humanity. When Gaza struck Israel the way Hitler hit the Jewish people — with extreme violence and a detailed plan to eliminate the enemy in very specific ways — we recoiled. We remembered. But when Israel defended itself, many condemned it. Why? Many immediately concluded that the war was a Palestinian issue, or about Israel’s attempt at occupation or conquest. It is not. So, while it is natural to react the way we do over civilian casualties and collateral damage — likely letting our emotions get the better of us — we need to muster the sense to take it all in with the correct perspective. We must know more, learn more. Shooting from the hip or erupting without understanding — well, wouldn’t that be just as bad as the perpetrators of the war? What is fact and what is fiction? We must seek the truth in light of the misinformation being deliberately spread on social media. One such claim was debunked on Associated Press recently, about the bombing of a hospital in Gaza supposedly by the Israeli military. This was spread in a social media post written in Arabic. AP said, “No such post exists on the military’s actual social media pages and its top Arabic-speaking spokesperson confirmed his office had issued no such statement.” To think this is but one aspect of the entire issue. Let’s begin with the fact that Hamas is a terrorist organization. It is not about Palestine, it is about pushing Islamic supremacy through force. Israel, if you think about it, has “no quarrel with Palestinians,” as Israel Ambassador to the Philippines Ilan Fluss, himself emphasized in a talk with DAILY TRIBUNE on Monday. “We are in a war against Hamas, not Palestinians — we have to defend our citizens,” he said. It is a “war of survival,” he added. Israel has long been fighting against Islamic forces that want to see it obliterated from the planet. “We don’t have a choice. We will fight. We will win.” The ambassador added, “The charter of Hamas calls for the destruction of the State of Israel. And it says that there is no political agreement…no political agreement can be reached with Israel. Israel has to be eliminated, and Israelis and Jews have to be killed. That’s the agenda of their philosophy. It has to be an Islamic land. “So, when people ask me today, what is the political future here? I say this is a question that you have to ask Hamas or the Palestinians, because in Israel, we have a government that makes decisions, makes a lot more, and when we sign a document, we respect it, and we can negotiate. We’re a political entity. “Hamas is not in a negotiating position. It is in a war position to eliminate Israel. Very simple. And you see the history. I’m not going into the long history, but Israel had pulled out of Gaza since 2005. We are not controlling Gaza. We are on the international border. So, it’s not about a few patients. It is about an organization that, every few years, initiates again an attack against Israel. This time it was the biggest…” However, the ambassador admits, on a personal level, that a solution seems hazy “because it is continuing and we are living in a complicated neighborhood,” he told this columnist. The enemies are “fundamentalists that are promoting these Islamic states, promising these fundamentalistic terror agenda…” Ambassador Fluss may be keeping it all real as a diplomat, but what he may not ever say is that this war is about all of us, too — humans and families and connected lives. When a Filipino caregiver refuses to leave her ward, sacrificing her own life to the end, that is humanity. But to believe that life is only worth living if another race or culture is removed, where is the humanity in that?.....»»
Chinese sci-fi steps into the spotlight
Once effectively banned, Chinese science fiction has exploded into the mainstream, embraced by the government and public alike –- inviting scrutiny of a genre that has become known for its expanding diversity and relative freedom. Its new status was epitomized by this week's Worldcon, the world's oldest and most influential sci-fi gathering, which closed Sunday after taking place in China for the first time. Held in the gleaming new Chengdu Science Fiction Museum, the event's star was Liu Cixin, author of the international phenomenon "Three-Body" series and inspiration for the domestic blockbuster "Wandering Earth". But the wider science fiction fandom has become a rare space where diverse voices have flourished and a vast array of issues -- social, environmental, even sometimes political -- can be explored. "In its nature, part of sci-fi is talking about the present," award-winning author Chen Qiufan told AFP. "It takes advantage of talking about outer space, or being set in different times, but reflects the human condition right now." Chen's own novel "The Waste Tide" is set in a dystopian future in China, where migrant e-waste workers toil in hazardous conditions, exploited by corrupt conglomerates. He grew up near Guiyu, once one of the largest e-waste dumps in the world. Ecological destruction, urbanization, social inequality, gender, and corruption, to name just a few –- "these issues are intersectional and intertwined with each other", said Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University's Liu Xi. Together, they "allow everyone to understand Chinese writers' exploration of Chinese society", she said. That can be rare to find in today's China, where the space for political and artistic expression has shrunk drastically over the last decade under President Xi Jinping. Spiritual pollution Historically, science fiction has had a turbulent relationship with Chinese authorities -– it effectively disappeared during the Cultural Revolution and then was banned as "spiritual pollution" in the 1980s. Though it returned, it remained relatively obscure. Writer Regina Kanyu Wang said it was only at university that she met other fans -- together they formed one of the smaller clubs on campus. Sci-fi was not taken seriously, and seen as something for children and young adults, Chen said. That had its advantages. "There was a lot of freedom... because nobody was reading science fiction, (authors) could just do whatever they wanted," the University of Zurich's Jessica Imbach told AFP. The global success of the "Three-Body" series changed everything, catapulting its epic themes of technological prowess and the fate of humanity into the public consciousness. "Whether you like science fiction or not, the social reality we are facing is becoming more and more like science fiction," said Yu Xuying from Hong Kong Metropolitan University. "We live in a high-tech era. And then your daily life is completely technological," she said. The pace of digital change in China, already fast, was accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Cash has all but disappeared, and stringent health regulations further enhanced the state's significant surveillance capacity. The international interest spike in Chinese sci-fi is also related to real-world concerns, Chen believes. "I think there are different layers of reasons for the phenomenon," he said. "But a major one is the rising economic and technological power of China on the world stage." A good vehicle China's government has been happy to capitalize on all this. "At a national level, science fiction is a good vehicle for conveying the country's discourse on its science and technology strength," said Yu. It can also help "highlight the relationship between the Chinese dream (a Xi-era aspirational slogan) and science", she said. Authorities have put their money where their mouth is. The nebula-shaped Chengdu Science Fiction Museum, designed by the renowned Zaha Hadid Architects, was built at lightspeed in just a year to coincide with Worldcon. The event, historically fan-led and funded, this year was a "capitalistic initiative, coming top-down from the Chinese government", said Chen. "They want sci-fi to be the name card of the city, showing China's openness and inclusiveness to the world," he said. Government attention comes with potential risk. "The Three-Body Problem" has a different structure in English, with the narrative beginning with a violent Cultural Revolution scene. In the original Chinese, it was buried halfway through the book to make it less conspicuous, the translator Ken Liu was told. Liu told the New York Times in 2019 that increasingly, "it's gotten much harder for me to talk about the work of Chinese authors without... causing them trouble". Some works he has translated into English, deemed too sensitive, have never been published in Chinese at all. "If you're very marginal if you have low print numbers in China, then it's OK, you have more leeway. If you're doing a mega big-budget movie... it's much more complicated," said Imbach. "That's what's now also happening with science fiction," she said. "As it's becoming more mainstream, there is increased scrutiny." The post Chinese sci-fi steps into the spotlight appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Biden fears US chaos could hit Ukraine aid
President Joe Biden admitted Wednesday he was worried that political turmoil in Washington could threaten US aid to Ukraine, urging Republicans to stop their infighting and back "critically important" assistance for Kyiv. Biden added that he would soon be giving a major speech on the need to support Ukraine's fight against the Russian invasion after the chaos in Washington alarmed US allies. "It does worry me," Biden told reporters when asked whether the ousting of Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy by hardliners in his own party could derail more funds for Ukraine's war effort. "But I know there are a majority of members of the House and Senate of both parties who have said that they support funding Ukraine." A last-gasp deal in Congress to avoid a US government shutdown at the weekend contained no fresh funding for Ukraine, and hopes for a quick solution have been further complicated by McCarthy's exit on Tuesday. The contenders to replace him hold a range of views but among them is hard-right Republican Jim Jordan, who has been notably skeptical on funding Ukraine. The timing is critical, with the White House warning that aid could run out within months just as Ukraine tries to push forward its slow-moving offensive against Russia before winter sets in. Biden indicated there was "another means by which we may be able to find funding" without congressional approval, but would not give further details. The president will get a briefing on Ukraine from his national security team on Thursday, the first to feature the new top US military officer, General Charles "CQ" Brown, the White House added. 'Keep our commitment' The president's comments reflected a change of tone, as Biden had told allies in a call on Tuesday that he was "confident" of getting fresh aid passed, according to the White House. The US president said he would now make the case for the importance of helping Ukraine as it battles the full-scale invasion launched by Russia in February 2022. "I'm going to be announcing very shortly a major speech I'm going to make on this issue, and why it's critically important for the United States and our allies that we keep our commitment," Biden said. Biden declined to say when he would make the speech. Russia has said that the questions over the future of US aid reflect growing fatigue in the West over its support for Ukraine. But the White House insisted that there were no cracks in the alliance when Biden spoke to the leaders of key European allies and others on Tuesday. "None of them brought up that they were concerned," Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters. "They have their own domestic political issues that they have to deal with as well." German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who was among those who spoke with Biden, said on Wednesday he was "convinced" of continued US support for Ukraine. The United States is by far the biggest supporter of Kyiv, committing more than $43 billion in military assistance to Kyiv so far, while Congress has approved a total of $113 billion in aid including humanitarian help. Without new aid being approved, the funding could run out in a "couple of months," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said. In a statement Wednesday, the US military said it had given Ukraine's armed forces more than 1 million rounds of seized Iranian ammunition. But the White House's Jean-Pierre said she "wouldn't connect" this with concerns over the future of US aid. The post Biden fears US chaos could hit Ukraine aid appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»