Category: Miscellaneous

At the end of February, the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) will tackle a challenging task: the creation of a landmark treaty to control plastic pollution worldwide. While most nations have agreed to participate, the scope and timing of such an agreement aren’t settled, with many countries, environmental NGOs, and the plastics industry expressing widely different ideas as to what should be included. But with media images rife of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and of the world’s most remote seaside beaches drowning in waste, just about everyone agrees it’s time to act: “The ever-in… Continue reading “As world drowns in plastic waste, U.N. to hammer out global treaty”

The Philippines is joining a number of countries gradually lifting restrictions on foreign visitors even as authorities worldwide still ramp up vaccination against COVID-19 to pull down the pandemic to endemic level or cut it to flu size. Starting Feb. 10, fully vaccinated foreigners from more than 150 countries will be allowed entry and skip quarantine in designated centers if they had tested negative two days before arrival. They will just have to monitor themselves for symptoms for seven days. From the advice of medical experts, then of military task forces, President Duterte now seems read… Continue reading “Cutting pandemic to flu size doable?”

February 1st marked significant importance for one Baihakki Khaizan. On that date, the Singaporean defender – one of the greatest players from his country – officially announced his retirement, calling time on an 18-year career that saw him play in four Southeast Asian countries. One day after Baihakki had celebrated his 38th birthday, the defender took to social media to announce his retirement, posting a poignant video with an equally touching caption. “The day has come for me to officially announce that I am retiring from the sport,” Baihakki wrote on his caption, with his video showcasing … Continue reading “Singapore Great Baihakki Announces Retirement”

We published a piece last week suggesting that the valuations of some high-quality growth companies were now discounting investor concerns about the Chinese market. In otherwords, a lot of the bad stuff was “in the price” or pretty close to it. The piece provoked a lot of feedback. Q4 2021 hedge fund letters, conferences and more Although the piece dealt primarily with valuations a number of you wanted to know more about other topics which have led to the market being derated. Our views on these are summarised below. Business RegulationThe South China Morning Post is today a particularly inter… Continue reading “Chinese Shape Shifting: Rectangles Turning Into Circles?”

The second episode in the New Guinea series of Mongabay Explores covers the struggles faced by Indigenous communities in Papua New Guinea to protect their customary land rights, and one governor’s perspective on how to change that conversation. Listen here: Papua New Guinea (PNG) is one of two nations that make up the island of New Guinea. Sitting on the eastern half of the island, it has a population of roughly nine million people who speak a combined 850 different languages, each representing a different tribe. This makes it the most linguistically diverse country on the planet. Less well kn… Continue reading “Podcast: ‘Carbon cowboys’ and illegal logging”

Olmin Leyba – The Philippine Star February 1, 2022 | 12:00am Seal historic world cup stintMANILA, Philippines — Hello, world. From a football minnow that dreamt big, the Philippines completed its amazing transformation into one of the world’s elite teams contending for football’s centerpiece prize. Behind a gutsy performance that led to a thrilling 4-3 victory on penalties over Chinese-Taipei in Sunday night’s AFC Women’s Asian Cup quarterfinals in Pune, India, the Philippines claimed its new status as a “World Cup nation.” This famous triumph sent the history-making Filipina booters to the ne… Continue reading “Pinays in wonderland”

SPORTING CHANCE – Joaquin M. Henson – The Philippine Star February 1, 2022 | 12:00am The Philippines’ advance to the FIFA Women’s World Cup was phenomenal as it was historic. The national team had never qualified to play in the FIFA World Cup, either men or women, so the feat was unprecedented. The farthest the men reached in the World Cup qualifiers was the second round in the last three eliminations. To make it to the World Cup, the Philippines had to qualify for the AFC Women’s Asian Cup, a competition the team had not qualified for in three of the last four editions. In 2018, the national … Continue reading “Pink Panther cometh”

Rick Olivares – Philstar.com January 31, 2022 | 8:02pm MANILA, Philippines – Three wins in four matches. After a rousing 4-3 win in a penalty shootout in the quarterfinals of the Asian Women’s Cup that gave the Philippines a cherished and coveted slot in the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, the belief inside the Filipina booters’ locker room is growing. “I think the locker room and everyone is, ‘Hey, we won this game and made history on top of history. Might as well keep going to the top and win this whole tournament,’” bared 25-year old forward Sarina Bolden, who scored the match-winning penalty … Continue reading “‘Why not win the whole thing?’: Sarina Bolden dreams of Philippines ruling AFC Women’s Cup”