Million-dollar
coconut tree
Researchers in the Ivory Coast are asking US$1
million for this three-headed hybrid coconut tree which they believe could
substantially boost productivity of the tropical nut crop. [Coconut
tree with three heads]
Cannes film award dream,
but then reality returns
A Cannes Festival call-up for two independent films is raising hopes
of a rebirth for the struggling Philippine movie industry hit by rampant
piracy, high taxes and foreign imports.
“Serbis,” an edgy drama by Brillante Mendoza, is competing for the Cannes
festival’s coveted Palme d’Or, the first Filipino film to be in with a shot
at the top prize since the late Lino Brocka’s “Bayan Ko” (“My Country”) in
1984. Separately, Raya Martin’s “Now Showing” has been picked for the
Directors’ Fortnight section, an independent event held in parallel to the
mainstream May 14-25 festival.
But overall, the Philippine movie industry — once one of the largest in the
world — is struggling to re-emerge from the doldrums.
“At least that [selection for Cannes] is one piece of good news for the
industry, because we have had all the bad news the past five or six years,”
said Leo Martinez, executive director of the Film Academy of the
Philippines.
Mendoza and Martin are hopeful their selection will boost the independent
film scene and the industry in general, but admit there is a long way to go.
“Serbis” is about a family living in a movie theater that shows sex films,
the title referring to male prostitutes who ply their services to
cinema-going clients. Martin’s “Now Showing” — almost five hours long — is
about a young girl growing up in Manila, dealing with a grandmother who used
to be an actress and an aunt who sells pirated DVDs.
Neither movie has big stars and both focus on the seamy side of life, which
may affect their commercial value.
“Moviegoers will go to a theater to fantasize,” said Mendoza. “They don’t
want to see poverty, to see reality. They don’t want to see what they see
every day”
His “Serbis” barely made it to Cannes. He shot the film in just 12 days and
spent a month in post-production that has only just been completed. He sent
a rough cut to the selection committee late last month.
The independent movie scene is largely overlooked in the Philippines, and
both Mendoza and Martin say their works were financed largely by grants from
foreign foundations.
“We’re always looking for an institution to fund our future projects,” said
Mendoza, an ex-advertising writer who still produces or directs the
occasional television commercial to make ends meet.
With only three theaters in Manila showing independent movies, they cannot
even be sure if or when their films will be seen by the public here.
Mendoza says his audience in the Philippines is largely made up of movie
buffs and university students. Arguably, he may have a wider audience abroad
where his films are distributed.
“We have high hopes [the Cannes selections] will spur more productions,” the
Film Academy’s Martinez said. “But realistically speaking, our masses do not
care, or do not even know. They are unaware of these movies at all.”
And mainstream movies too have their own problems. “In our heyday in the
1970s to the early 1990s we used to make 200 films a year. Now we are doing
50 films a year,” said Martinez.
He blames the problem on the popularity of Hollywood blockbusters such as
“Iron Man,” which most theater owners prefer to book over Filipino fare.
Martinez also cites rampant piracy, with bootleg DVDs available as soon as
the movies hit the big screen.
Commercial movies also suffer from a 30 percent “amusement tax” imposed by
local governments on top of a value-added tax of 12 percent from the
national government, making it harder for producers to eke out a profit.
Both Mendoza and Martin concede their movies may have trouble finding an
audience in the Philippines, where moviegoers prefer star-studded love
stories or slapstick comedies.
But Mendoza thinks the slowdown in commercial movies could be a boost for
the independents. “In the mainstream industry you have, maybe, one or two
new films a month. With the independents, you have three or four a month,”
he said.
“Since we have the output this could be the start of a new kind of cinema.”
Pacquiao: The fight of my life
World Boxing Council super featherweight champion Manny Pacquiao of
the Philippines expects the toughest fight of his career on June 28 when he
moves up in weight to face WBC lightweight champion David Diaz.
The 29-year-old Filipino legend could complete a quest to capture five world
titles in as many weight classes when he fights the 31-year-old American for
the lightweight crown in a showdown of southpaws in Las Vegas.
"This will be my hardest fought battle," Pacquiao said. "It has been over
three years since I have changed weight divisions and I will be doing it
against the lightweight division's world champion.
"But this is my drive for five world titles in five different weight classes
and I will not be denied. I am fighting for history, for destiny and for the
people of the Philippines."
Diaz, 34-1-1 with 17 knockouts, makes the second defense of his title after
taking a unanimous decision over Mexican star Erik Morales last August.
"I will shock the world and beat Pacquiao at his own game, power for power.
He's a great champion but he's fighting in my division. I have worked too
hard for this world title and I will not give it up to him," said Diaz.
Pacquiao, 46-3 with two drawn and 34 knockouts, plans on taking it anyway.
"I saw how he took the fight to Erik Morales in his last title defense and I
am expecting to see the same fire power out of him when we meet," Pacquiao
said.
Pacquiao won titles at flyweight, super bantamweight, featherweight and
added super featherweight to that list in March with a split-decision
victory over Mexico's Juan Manuel Marquez.
Pacquiao avenged an earlier controversial draw against Marquez and added him
to the list of vanquished top Mexican fighters, a group including Morales,
Marco Antonio Barrera, Oscar Larios and Jorge Solis.
Coconut tree has three heads
Researchers in the Ivory Coast are asking US$1 million for a
three-headed hybrid coconut tree which they believe could substantially
boost productivity of the tropical nut crop.
Scientists at Ivory Coast's Marc Delorme coconut research station outside
Abidjan discovered the tree after mixing different strains of coconut palm
in an effort to build disease resistance. Coconut palms universally have a
single trunk and head - this one has three heads.
"We still don't have a buyer, but we are hopeful because we remain in talks
with certain partners to buy this hybrid," said Jean Louis Konan, head of
the center’s coconut research program.
Researchers decided last year to sell the hybrid to support the research
center, whose 800 hectares of coconut trees contain 99 varieties from across
the world. The center, which donates hybrids to different countries, is
striving to find a means of reproducing the three-headed tree using its
nuts.
"In selling this hybrid, our objective is to have the means to multiply on a
large scale to popularize it and increase the productivity of planters, as
all three heads produce coconuts," Konan said.
"It is a rare botanical curiosity", says Roland Bourdeix, who works with the
Marc Delorme research station. "We have 150,000 palm trees in this research
plantation and there is only one which has three heads like this."
The three-headed palm tree produces more than 150 large coconuts a year, as
opposed to the 30-80 coconuts of a normal tree.
Such branching is sometimes a result of an insect attack or mutating palm
frond, but in this case there is no sign of damage, meaning the branching
could be genetic. The palm was originally imported from Malaysia about 40
years ago.
"We are going to multiply the tree about 150 times to see if the progeny
have three or even four head," said Bourdeix. It will take 20 years to find
out.
Bourdeix believes moving the palm to the home of a potential buyer should
not be a problem. "Last year I was in French Polynesia and some people took
very high coconut palms to plant in their private islands, so I think it is
possible to move it - not very easy - but it is possible."
The research plantation is short of funds following the country’s civil war
and the three-headed tree is on the market to raise money for further
research.
The Marc Delorme research station, which dates back to 1949, is one of the
most important of its kind in the world but has struggled to keep going
during the Ivorian civil war.
Paradise in no-man’s land
Want to dive in disputed waters? A team of marine and eco-tourism
experts has begun assessing the potential of transforming a
Philippine-occupied island in the contested Spratly island group into a
tourist hideaway.
In 1978, the Philippine government proclaimed Pag-asa, the largest of nine
islands and reefs occupied by Philippine forces, as Kalayaan township,
attached to Palawan province, to bolster its territorial claim in the
potentially oil-rich Spratlys.
China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei also claim part or all of the
Spratlys, which have been regarded as a potential flash-point for conflict
in Asia.
The experts are now studying whether Pag-asa could be turned into a diving
spot and resort.
"If you want to leave the noisy world and be nearer to almighty God, then
that is your place," said the township’s mayor, Rosendo Mantes said.
Pag-asa, also known as Thitu island, lies in the South China Sea about 480
kilometers west of the western Philippine province of Palawan.
Mantes said security should not be a concern for potential tourists, citing
past agreements between the Philippines and other claimant countries to
avoid trouble and settle any conflict peacefully.
The last violent clash in the disputed region, involving China and Vietnam,
occurred in 1988.
"The crime rate there is zero; it's very peaceful," Mantes said of Pag-asa,
the only Philippine-claimed island in the Spratlys populated by civilians.
Journalists who traveled to the tropical island aboard an Philippines Air
Force plane last week saw long stretches of fine white sand beach, mostly
empty, except for some passing soldiers.
Aside from Pag-asa, the smaller islands of Lawak and Likas could be
developed for tourism. Lawak is a sanctuary for seagulls and other migratory
birds, while Likas is a haven for sea turtles, Mantes said. Other claimant
countries, such as Vietnam and Malaysia, have developed islands which they
control, he said.
A key problem is financing, which Mantes said could be provided by private
investors.
Jail for truants’ parents?
Philippine Education Secretary Jesli Lapus has urged Congress to pass
a law that would jail parents who fail to send their children to school. He
made his appeal after a bill calling for punitive action against such
parents was filed by a lawmaker in the House of Representatives.
“All school-age children in basic education must be in school. That is the
practice in other countries,” Lapus said, adding that poverty is not an
excuse to deprive children of education.
The government provides free education at primary and secondary levels in
the Philippines, but the Education Department has monitored high dropout
rates, especially with children whose parents want them to help with farm or
house chores.
“Education is life’s greatest equalizer. It is also the number one
anti-poverty measure we can make,” Lapus said.
Representative Rufus Rodriguez, who sponsored the bill, wants violators to
be punished with six years in prison and fines of up to 100,000 pesos.
Surgery videos banned
Medical students in the Philippines have been banned from videotaping
surgeries after one student allegedly uploaded a clip of a rectal procedure
on the internet.
Commission on Higher Education chief Romulo Neri banned “video cameras,
mobile phones with camera features and other similar equipment ...
particularly while attending clinical classes.”
Official sources said the ban was related to a video clip that last month
appeared on the internet video-sharing site YouTube, showing nurses and
surgeons laughing and cheering as a canister was removed from a male
patient’s rectum in an operating room.
The video has embarrassed the government’s Health Department and the medical
community, and the patient has threatened to sue for violating his privacy.
There are widespread suspicions that a medical student uploaded the video to
YouTube.
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Optimism over easing food
crisis
with record crops predicted
Good weather will help the world's farmers reap record wheat and rice
crops this year, the United States government believes, in what should allay
fears of shortages and help bring prices down from current high levels. The
US Department of Agriculture also forecasts a record global crop of feed
grain, used to feed livestock.
The USDA announcement last week is expected to calm fears of food shortages,
worsened by the recent cyclone that hit Myanmar's rich rice-producing
Irrawaddy delta, and by a larger-than-expected Malaysian rice purchase of
500,000 metric tons last week.
Disappointing harvests, the boom in biofuels and higher meat consumption
have pushed up grain prices in the past two years, raising food prices and
sparking protests in some 40 poorer countries whose people have felt the
effect most strongly.
Officials at the UN Human Rights Council is to hold a special session on May
23 to assess the effect of the food crisis on the right to food of millions
of people suffering from high prices, notably in sub-Saharan Africa and
South Asia.
"We're keeping our fingers crossed that we get good harvests this year ...
and that it brings prices down some from their high peaks," said analyst
David Orden of the International Food Policy Research Institute, a think
tank. Even with bountiful crops, Orden said, larger international food aid
efforts will be vital because prices will be higher than usual for the next
couple of years, at least.
The USDA said the world wheat crop will rise eight percent to a record 656
million metric tons in 2008-09. It projects global rice output at a record
432 million metric tons, up five million metric tons from 2007-08.
"This ought to take the edge off commodity prices" said private US
consultant John Schnittker, making it easier for poor people to buy enough
food.
Other signals that the supply crisis might be easing have come from India,
which says it might allow limited rice exports, and from the Philippines,
where traders held off purchases, hoping for new crops soon from Southeast
Asia.
The Philippines, the world's biggest rice importer, has so far bought about
1.7 million metric tons of the 2.2 million metric tons of rice it needs this
year, and officials and traders said they expect prices to fall within a few
months.
India, the world's second biggest rice exporter last year, banned shipments
of all rice except basmati in March, one of a series of protectionist
measures worldwide that triggered a wave of panic buying.
"We are reviewing the situation and may allow limited exports," India’s
Commerce Secretary Gopal Pillai said on the sidelines of a conference in
Kochi, adding that the government might also review an export tax on basmati
rice.
The USDA forecast depressed wheat prices on the Chicago Board of Trade, but
rice prices rose on the USDA prediction that Cyclone Nargis would reduce
Myanmar's rice crop by seven percent. The UN Food and Agriculture
Organization had said it expects Myanmar to export 600,000 metric tons of
rice this year.
The soaring cost of food has fuelled unease among governments and street
protests from Haiti to Bangladesh. The situation has worsened as grain
exporting nations curb shipments to ensure domestic supplies and keep
inflation under control.
The USDA said the record harvests expected this year meant there would be a
year-end world wheat surplus of 124 million metric tons, despite a rise in
consumption of 3.5 percent. The higher rice crop would leave a stockpile of
82.6 million metric tons, the largest in six years, it said.
Bypassed by the rice boom
Trinidad Domingo has just harvested rice from her modest farm in the
northern Philippines, but with the price of fertilizer and oil skyrocketing,
she says, she might sit out the next planting season.
Just like many small scale rice farmers in Asia, Domingo — who farms two
hectares — has not seen any benefit from the record prices being paid for
the staple. Instead, they have found themselves saddled with rising fuel and
fertilizer costs, and the diminishing returns that result from higher costs.
He Changchui, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s
regional representative for Asia, says fuel and fertilizer costs are the
“main culprits driving up food prices.” In Thailand alone, fertilizer prices
have risen by 30 percent since last September, according to He.
“We are all feeling the pinch, because what we earn simply isn’t enough to
keep up with our costs,” said Domingo, 56.
Domingo’s fellow farmers in Nueva Ecija at first thought they could cash in
on the supply crunch. With the price of rice rising by 40 percent in two
months and the government scrambling to build stock amid possible export
caps from rice-producing neighbors, the upbeat mood did not last long.
“The big traders didn’t want to buy anymore, fearing they would be accused
of hoarding by the government,” Domingo said. “Our farm inputs and
production costs, including land preparation, rose faster than the selling
price of our commodity.”
“I’ve just harvested, and the government wants me to plant again in May when
the first rains arrive, but I don’t know if I can,” she added.
The price of fertilizer has risen with China recently jacking up export
levies by more than 100 percent as other countries compete to stock up on
the commodity for their own food security plans. In the Philippines, where
20 percent of fertilizer supplies come from China, a bag of urea-based
fertilizer has gone up by 30 percent to 1,700 pesos. In all, about 60
percent of the country’s fertilizer needs are imported.
Domingo says she would have to spend around 50,000 pesos for 12 bags of
fertilizer, crude oil for machinery and water for irrigation.
“After all my trouble, I would probably just about clear 60,000 pesos once I
sell all my harvest,” she said. A year ago she would have earned almost
double that after costs and assuming prices had remained constant.
Florence Sevilla, an agribusiness specialist with the University of Asia and
the Pacific, says sudden increases in food prices have also wreaked havoc
among planters.
“Farmers would not normally apply fertilizer when the cost is high, so
production becomes low,” Sevilla said. “Because they also use tractors and
fuel, their costs have also markedly risen, and next to that the seeds and
other [inputs].”
Sevilla she blames the government for its failure to modernize the farming
sector, including the proper redistribution of farmland under its agrarian
reform program. “The problem is that our farmers remain as small land stake
holders. They do not have the capacity to spend for production,” she said.
'Make rice,
not babies'
Birth control at home and friendly ties with the world’s top
rice exporters will help the Philippines survive soaring food prices,
according to President Gloria Arroyo.
Even though yields are growing above the population growth rate of 2.04
percent thanks to state investments in the farm sector, Manila is some way
off self-sufficiency in the staple grain, she told a group of businesswomen
in Manila.
One of the world’s largest rice importers, Manila has been hard-pressed to
meet its import target this year of 2.7mn tonnes as prices have soared due
to bad weather, the rise of the biofuels industry, urbanization, and strong
global demand, among others.
“We are challenged to promote birth spacing because even if our rice
production is growing more than our population we have been importing rice
since the Spanish (colonial) times and we have not yet closed that gap,”
Arroyo said.
Population control programs in the staunchly Roman Catholic Philippines have
often foundered in the past due to opposition from the church, which says
artificial contraceptives promote sexual promiscuity and immorality.
Arroyo also gave herself a pat on the back for having anticipated the rice
price crisis. “The critical reaction is for exporting countries to husband
their own stocks because prices are going up even in the exporting
countries,” she said. “We have reached out to Vietnam and Thailand long
before the shortage.”
Arroyo said “traditional relationships are a key element as sellers are
forced to choose between hordes of willing buyers.”
She said “the buyers who bought early are the only ones with rice. Only
those who come to the party early leave with party favors. Thank goodness,
the Philippines is one of them.”
Filipinos
best at child care
The Philippines and Peru are doing the best job of vaccinating
children and treating them for critical diseases compared to other
developing nations, the Save the Children organization believes.
With 84 percent of its children having these basic health needs unmet,
Ethiopia places at the bottom of the list in the new report issued by the
US-based humanitarian group.
Save the Children also ranks 146 countries for how good they are for mothers
and children. Sweden, Norway, Iceland, New Zealand and Denmark tops the
list. Niger is last. The United States places 27th, one spot below last
year's ranking.
The rankings are based on data that includes immunization against childhood
diseases such as malaria and tetanus, access to treatment for leading
childhood killers such as diarrhea and pneumonia, prenatal care and other
factors.
Worldwide, more than 200 million children under age 5 do not get basic
health care when they need it, with the poorest children being the worst
off, Save the Children said.
In the Philippines, 31 percent of children under five are missing out on
such basic health care, the smallest proportion of any country in the
report. Peru is next at 32 percent, then South Africa (34 percent) and
Indonesia (35 percent).
"The Philippines has nearly cut its child death rate in half since 1990. The
health ministry, through USAID (US Agency for International Development)
support, launched a number of health initiatives in 1989, including a push
to increase access to oral rehydration therapy to treat diarrhea," said
David Oot, who heads the group's global health programs.
But inequities were still apparent, the group says. The poorest Filipino
children are 3.2 times more likely to go without basic health measures. And
Peru, despite placing second on the list, has the widest gap in child death
rates between the rich and poor - with the poorest children 7.4 times more
likely to die than the richest.
Ethiopia is last in the rankings, followed by Somalia (82 percent), Chad (78
percent), Yemen (71 percent) and Laos (69 percent). Some developing
countries, including Iraq and Afghanistan, are not included in the report
due to insufficient data.
The report said in terms of sheer numbers, India has the most children - 67
million - not getting adequate health care, followed by Nigeria (16
million), Bangladesh (12 million), Ethiopia (11 million) and Pakistan (10
million).
Dengue cases are soaring
The Philippines recorded 9,176 cases of dengue fever nationwide in
the first quarter of 2008, an increase of almost 34 percent over the same
period last year. Deaths due to dengue fever reached 108 period, also a
sharp increase from the 74 deaths recorded in the same period last year,
according to government Health Department figures.
Health officials did not give a reason for the increase in the number of
cases. The majority of the victims were male with the youngest victim one
month old and the oldest 87 years.
The Metropolitan Manila area had the most cases recorded with 2,832.
World Health Organization officials earlier this year warned that climate
change is increasing the incidence of dengue fever and other infectious
diseases in the Philippines.
There is no known cure or vaccine to fight dengue fever, which is
transmitted by the white-spotted mosquito.
Widower to be deported
A Filipino whose wife died after an epidural drug was mistakenly fed
into her arm via an intravenous drip after childbirth has lost his fight to
remain in Britain.
Arnel Cabrera, 38, had been allowed to stay after his wife, Mayra, died soon
after giving birth to a son at the hospital where she worked as a theater
nurse in western England in 2004.
A coroner’s inquest jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing on the
30-year-old in February this year.
Cabrera has been fighting a deportation order since his wife’s death, and
sent his son Zachary back to the Philippines as the inquest and legal
proceedings took place.
But his lawyer, Alex Rook, said the Home Office has now refused his
application to stay in Britain. A letter from the Home Office considered
that he “has not established a family life with his son in the United
Kingdom,” he said.
“As his son remains in the Philippines there are no insurmountable obstacles
to his family life being continued overseas,” the letter added.
“This is an absolutely dreadful decision,” Rook said. “If Mayra hadn’t been
killed, the family would still be living here. I will be writing to the
relevant Home Office ministers asking them to reconsider.”
The coroner also expressed his shock at the decision, describing it as
“extraordinary”. “I find it difficult to appreciate how the Home Office has
reached this decision,” said David Masters.
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