Our conflicting life

We are in conflict with ourselves many times during life. Our future gives cause for concern; the past hold up captured, therefore we miss the future.

The grief and sorrow asked the hope, "How are you?" The hope answered, " I am a little bit low and sad today!" The sorrow  replied sarcastic, "I hope so!"

Nobody wants  to really know what might happen after reaching the retirement age. Sure, if we can observe our neighbors and all other people in our surroundings, we really don't like to know it. If we treat ourselves with care, our real age will not be shown. I don't make any secret celebrating my 65th birthday  this year. I enjoyed. I was proud to reach this age with God's help.

I am retiree now - but I love to continue my teaching at the University of Southeastern Philippines and offer my services as German Honorary Consul for the Mindanao people.

If I look around from to time, it seems that the respectable treatment of our beloved seniors around us are disappearing into the past and are forgotten by the younger generation. Praising the elderly nowadays means to attest them impudent and imperishable youth-fullness.

I must confess, I was not much better while talking to my parents and grandparents, who reached the 92th and 93rd birthdays with the help of our Almighty God. Especially my mother was  strong,  indefatigable,  a phenomenon,  intellectual and  spiritual on top until her last breath.

Let's forget our respect, sometimes just being artificial or an affected stammering, that "our old lady" or "our old gentleman" hasn't become senile yet.

On our way to an honorable and respectful age, we should try to fulfill some of our greatest longings in life.

During the last decades I met many people around the whole globe. Unbelievable, I found out, no matter where in this world, the conflicting attitude is everywhere. "It's an absolute certainty, that's doubts are the main certainty!" stressed already the German Author, philosopher and dramatist Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956).

Please allow me, once in a while being able to say NO. Please allow me deleting inferior and defeatist feelings. Please allow me admitting, that I can't do everything during a single day. Please allow me being no longer afraid about other people and their spiteful comments about me.  

Please allow me accepting my silence. Please accept me being terrible tired from time to time. Please allow me being excused even without having an intelligent reply. Please allow me being carried by salvation and bliss.

Hopefully, we may have enough understanding people with us to accompany us during the voyage of our sometimes very conflicting life. Thoughts to guide us by. Especially today on Christmas Day.

Five years after Philippines' strongest typhoon, scores still in harm's way

41SHARES400

(Agence France-Presse) 

TACLOBAN, Philippines — Diofel Llamado fled for his life when Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) devastated the Philippines in 2013, yet today he is back living in the same coastal area – even if it puts him in the crosshairs of a future killer storm.

On the fifth anniversary of the country’s deadliest typhoon on record, his return is emblematic of the struggle in developing nations to move people out of homes in the most disaster-menaced zones.

It is an especially urgent danger as monster storms strike ever more frequently, packing destructive rainfall that experts say is supercharged by climate change.

“You cannot think that you are safe,” Llamado, 55, told AFP. “Even when you are sleeping, you have to think like a soldier: one foot is in the graveyard.”

Yolanda struck in the predawn darkness of Nov. 8, 2013 as the then strongest typhoon to ever hit land, leaving more than 7,360 people dead or missing across the central Philippines.

The wall of seawater the typhoon sent crashing into densely populated areas – known as storm surge – is one of the key reasons it was so deadly.

Many people simply did not understand the term and did not evacuate despite official warnings.

Even some who fled were not spared – Llamado’s two daughters were killed when the rushing water collapsed an evacuation center.

Yet he has returned to live in the same storm surge-threatened area where his family lived before Yolanda.

Llamado says his small business making savory pastries would not survive a move, adding that the government-proposed housing in a safer area doesn’t even have running water and electricity.

“If someone will offer us a means of livelihood, we can live there. But until that happens, how will we survive?” he asked. “No one is going to give you food.”

Lesson not learned

His decision echoes the calculus poor people make in other calamity-prone nations in Asia and Africa, said Moustafa Osman, a Britain-based disaster management expert.

“Everywhere the single most difficult thing to do is to move people from their own village or territory and put them in a strange place,” he said.

“Unless you have a proper plan and a better alternative they won’t go,” he added.

Substandard housing, difficulties in earning a livelihood, no transportation and even conflict with the existing residents of a resettlement area are habitual barriers.

In the Philippines, roughly 15,000 of the poorest families were ordered relocated from the worst-hit city of Tacloban, yet many have not moved and those who have are struggling.

Maria Rosario Felizco, Oxfam country director for the Philippines, said the need to locate communities in areas less vulnerable to disasters has not been fully met.

“That’s the lesson we must learn. We must not wait for... a disaster before we think of that,” she said.

The peril that looms over communities in the Philippines and elsewhere is only expected to grow because of the influence of global warming on extreme weather.

Oxford University climate expert Friederike Otto said there is a clear connection between climate change and heavier, devastating rainfall.

The storms packing these intense rains are expected to get more harmful as the impact of climate change manifests itself, and because so many vulnerable communities live in threatened areas.

“How destructive a storm is crucially depends on who and what is in harm’s way,” Otto said.   

An Investment Boom in Philippines leaves Neighbors in the Dust

By 

Karl Lester M Yap

 and 

Myungshin Cho, Bloomberg TV

• Economy’s physical assets surge more than 10% on year earlier
• President Duterte plans to boost spending to a record in 2018

Capital investment in the Philippines is surging past the rest of Southeast Asia as the government and firms ramp up spending.

In the first nine months of this year, net physical assets in the Philippines grew 10.4 percent from a year earlier. That compared with a 6.9 percent increase in Malaysia and 5.8 percent gain in Indonesia, according to data from statistics offices.

There’s reason to remain bullish on the outlook. Philippine government spending jumped 28 percent in October, the largest rise in almost a year, with another record budget planned for 2018. Companies are also joining in: Metro Pacific Investments Corp. plans to invest as much as $16 billion through 2022 on road, water, and power projects, while Ayala Land Inc. is boosting capital spending to a record $2 billion next year.

President Rodrigo Duterte is building a network of railroads and highways across the archipelago in an ambitious $180 billion infrastructure program. Investment firing up adds another engine to the economy, headed for a sixth year of growth exceeding 6 percent and among the world’s best performers.

“The government is very committed to keep spending strong and that has maintained the robust momentum of the investment cycle,” said Eugenia Victorino, an economist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. in Singapore. “With growth firing on all cylinders, the Philippines is really standing out in a region where the outlook has turned more positive.”

Catching Up

After lagging its neighbors for decades, the Philippines is catching up. Growth in net physical assets -- or gross fixed capital formation -- averaged 14.4 percent in the five years through 2016, the fastest in Southeast Asia and almost twice as fast as Malaysia, according to the World Bank.

Duterte wants to transform the Philippines into an upper-middle income country by the end of his term in 2022, and the cornerstone of his vision is a plan referred to as “Build, Build, Build”. It includes the capital’s first subway and a 653-kilometer railway to the south.

“Capital formation goes hand in hand with the focus on infrastructure,” said Jonathan Ravelas, chief market strategist at BDO Unibank Inc. “The private sector has always been investing, but now public spending is catching up.”

Pag-asa Island visit shows stronger Philippines' position on sea disputes

'Pag-asa Island visit shows stronger PH position on sea disputes'

ABS-CBN News

Posted at Apr 24 2017 10:09 AM | Updated as of Apr 24 2017 11:47 AM

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A view of Philippine occupied (Pagasa) Thitu island in disputed South China Sea. Reuters

MANILA - A foreign affairs analyst believes Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana's visit to the Pag-asa Island signals a stronger position of the Philippines on the disputed seas.

• In shadow of China's reef city, Philippines seeks upgrade for Pag-asa

Professor Richard Heydarian said Lorenzana's visit to the island located in disputed South China Sea is a "major, major shift" in the administration's moves regarding the matter.

This is the reason, said Heydarian, why China was "gravely concerned" and "dissatisfied" with the incident, prompting it to issue a statement.

"Now, we suddenly have the Duterte administration trying to draw the line in the sand and sending clearer signal to the Chinese that we're going to stand our ground," he told ANC on Monday.

Heydarian said Lorenzana's visit to Pag-asa Island shows that resistance is an option for the Philippines when it comes to the disputed seas.

He believes the Duterte administration should also make it clear that despite pledges of investments, the Philippines is standing its ground on its claims and is not giving concessions to China on the matter.

"I think it's very important for the Duterte administration to make it clear that improvement of bilateral relations is by no means tantamount to the Philippines just giving up on its claims and relaxing its position on sensitive territorial and maritime issues.," he said.

The Philippines and China are set to hold bilateral talks on the dispute in May.

A Philippine flag flutters in Philippine occupied (Pagasa) Thitu island, in disputed South China Sea, as soldiers and civilians sing the country's national anthem. Reuters

Russian Navy in Philippines for joint drills

Friday, 21 April 2017

Russian navy in Philippines for joint drills

Ahoy, there: The Russian missile cruiser Varyag arriving at the international port of Manila. — AFP

 

MANILA: Russian navy vessels have arrived in the Philippines for joint exercises as part of a drive for new security ties under President Rodrigo Duterte’s revamped foreign policy of courting the traditional foes of Manila’s top ally, Washington.

The guided missile cruiser Varyag, accompanied by the fuel tanker ship Pechenge, are on a four-day goodwill visit to the Philippines, the second port call by Russian warships in three months.

The move is part of what Duterte describes as a pursuit of a constitutionally mandated “independent foreign policy”.

He has made no secret of his grudge against the United States and has made befriending Russia and China the priority of his diversification drive.

Captain Lued Lincuna, director of the Philippine navy’s public affairs, said the Philippines hoped to learn from the Russians during training activities and a demonstration of advanced equipment and weapons systems.

The schedule included training and sports activities with the flagship vessel of the Russian Pacific fleet, plus a Russian concert in a park.

Russian commander Captain Alexsei Ulyanenko said the port call would make a “significant contribution” to strengthening relations and maintaining stability in the region.

Moscow wants to help Manila combat extremism and piracy, stepping up cooperation and training in areas where the Philippines has traditionally worked closely with its former colonial master, the United States.

The relationship is expected to develop further next month when Duterte and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin witness the signing of defence agreements in Moscow. — Reuters

A fourth term?

SAT, DECEMBER 3, 2016 BY THE MINDANAO DAILY MIRROR LEAVE A COMMENT

IN MY OPINIONKlaus Doring

Since the Britains will  be leaving the European Union, Germany seems to become the richest and leading European country. Poll data published last Friday (November 25, 2016) shows that Germans welcome Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to run for a fourth term. SPD leader and Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, however, has less to smile about. Why? Later in this column.

I was not much surprised learning that around two-thirds of Germans say they welcome Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to stand for a fourth term as chancellor in next year’s election, according to a poll published. The “Politbarometer” poll, commissioned by the German broadcaster ZDF, found that 64 percent backed the chancellor’s decision, compared to 33 percent who opposed it. Among registered supporters of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, Merkel’s approval rate was as high as 89 percent.

Why nobody is not surprised any more? Who else could become German chancellor?

The poll also showed also that if the election were held this Sunday, Merkel’s conservative Union bloc – the CDU and their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU) –  would take around 36 percent of the vote, retaining their spot as the leading party. The Social Democratic Party (SPD), by contrast, would only win 21 percent. As “Politbarometer” points out, this would likely be enough for the Union parties to form a coalition with the Greens and centrist Free Democratic Party. It would not, however, be enough for Germany’s left-leaning parties to form a so-called red-red-green coalition, consisting of the SPD, the Left Party and Greens.

I mentioned before Sigmar Gabriel.The poll results also shed light on who voters would prefer to see leading the SDP, with current European Parliament President Martin Schulz significantly outranking the current party head Sigmar Gabriel. Some 51 percent of respondents said they would favor Schulz to be the SPD’s candidate for chancellor, compared to 29 percent who said they preferred Gabriel. Among registered SPD supporters, Schulz’s approval rating to lead the party into the elections rose to 64 percent, while Gabriel’s sank to 27 percent.

Schulz has not declared that he will run for the chancellorship. How-ever, he announced on Thursday that he will stand down from his EU post as president of the EU Parliament to return to German politics. The SPD is expected to announce their candidate for the chancellorship by the end of January. Martin Schulz read his announcement in Brussels in three languages: German, English and French. Little things like this demonstrate that, for Social Democrats, Europe was and remains very dear to their hearts.

Schulz’s decision to leave now also has to do with the fact that he cannot continue in office as president of the European Parliament. According to an agreement to which all parliamentary parties have subscribed, a representative of the conservative EVP must take over the position in 2017. So Schulz is now keen to exert his influence from Berlin – and not just as an ordinary member of parliament. For someone like him, there are two positions that suggest themselves: the office of foreign minister, or the SPD’s chancellor candidate in next year’s election.

So far, Martin Schulz has not commented on which of the two he’s aiming for, or whether he’s aiming for both at once. There’s little or nothing to be heard from the SPD on the subject, either. But that’s no bad thing – on the contrary. The SPD doesn’t want to decide on its chancellor candidate until January. Until then, it’s presenting itself as a party with at least two political heavyweights to offer: Martin Schulz on the one hand; and on the other, of course, the party’s current leader and Germany’s incumbent vice chancellor and economics minister, Sigmar Gabriel.

However, come to the decision that his friend Schulz would be the better candidate, the latter would be given the field. Schulz is up to both election campaigning and the job of foreign minister. From the SPD’s point of view, Schulz would also be a good choice for foreign minister. He’s experienced in the diplomatic arena, has excellent contacts, and is also accepted outside his own ranks. He’s made a name for himself as someone who speaks frankly. That would certainly make an agreeable change from Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who is more careful and deliberate. It would also be a counterpoint to Chancellor Merkel’s line, which focuses more on quiet tones and working behind the scenes.

Anyway, global politics will become more and more thrilling and exciting. A totally global change of restructuring might be possible. After elections in the U.S.,  Europe will face several national elections – also in Germany.

United or alone?

THU, JUNE 23, 2016 BY THE MINDANAO DAILY MIRROR LEAVE A COMMENT

IN MY OPINIONKlaus Doring

If it comes to relations with China, this question arises. Always. The German chancellor Angela Merkel is winding up her ninth state visit to China. Observers predicted this trip would be more difficult than previous ones: China is more self-confident. That’s also a chance! Yes, it is. And I agree with German TV commentator  Dagmar Engel in Berlin.

This commentary could be worded exactly like the commentaries on the chancellor’s past eight trips to Beijing. Was Angela Merkel outspoken enough on human rights, did she meet with artists and lawyers who are under threat, did she condemn the new repressive NGO legislation, did she demand free access to markets for foreign investors and did she criticize the Chinese steel industry’s surplus capacities and dumping prices? She was, and she did.

Let’s discuss the step in the right direction.

That’s the present. The future could be glimpsed, quite unexpectedly, in the joint final declaration. Chapter 2, as Dagmar Engel says, is about “cooperation in third countries and on third markets.” The Republic of the Philippines should be soon part of this “third-world-circle” too.

A first trilateral project – on disaster management and a university-level cooperation on coal mining – in example involving Germany and China has been launched in Afghanistan. That may seem like a small step, but for China, a country that normally follows strict noninterference policies, it’s a new direction. The German side’s plan is to get China involved and to use its influence – a strategy that already worked in the nuclear talks with Iran.

How about the new dimension of market power?

Concerning cooperation in third country markets, Germany’s idea is to include China, use its economic power – and make money.

Just one example: If the China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC) and Siemens join forces on high-speed trains in third countries, flanked by the China Railways Group and Deutsche Bahn in the fields of Chinese-European freight train transport and the service and maintenance of high-speed trains, that means a market power of entirely new dimensions. A look ahead shows the Chinese have ideas, too: the transfer of technology, learning a lesson from the German side’s superior image in third markets, making money and then continuing on their own. That’s what might happen – it’s a pattern that German businessmen have complained about often enough.

Germany cannot prevent that development single handedly. The European Union is big enough, but it would need a common strategy on China. At present, every country is taking care of itself first and foremost, a situation China knows to take advantage of. And just because China respects Angela Merkel and the German economic powerhouse, that doesn’t mean the goals are any different. Divide and conquer – EU heads of government including the German chancellor should counter the strategy with, Together, Germany and China are unconquerable.

Hopefully soon, I might be able to report and comment about Germany and the Philippines. And hopefully “to be united”. Especially, when it comes to Mindanao and Germany. A German Honorary Consulate is to be opened soon in Davao City….

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Email: doringklaus@ gmail.com or follow me in Facebook or Twitter or visit www.german expatinthephilippines.blogspot.com .

1

Do you again enjoy floods?

TUE, MAY 31, 2016 BY THE MINDANAO DAILY MIRROR LEAVE A COMMENT

IN MY OPINION
Klaus Doring

I asked this question already many times in the past. Also at this corner. While writing this piece, I have to admit, that the sun shines and the sky looks so beautiful and blue. Fact is: our climate changes. Nothing new. Many people around me squarely blamed the climate change and mentioned El Niño nowadays not only in Region 11 in the Philippines. I must confess: the weather really changed. Not only now.

Maybe you consider my headline a little bit sarcastic. Maybe this column may sound like a “curtain lecture”. It might sound as a “love’s labor lost”… “Much ado about nothing”! Really?

As Th. Campbell said in his “Lochiel’s Warning”, “Coming events cast their shadows before”. Of course: NO to floods! What a crazy question! But prevention is indeed better than cure. Let’s face it, if we don’t try to alter our lifestyle NOW, we may once again face to face with the disastrous effects of typhoons and heavy rains.  Much effort has already been undertaken regarding the issue by our local and national governments in segregating wastes properly. But many of us really don’t seem to learn. We are enthusiastic at the beginning, but we give up halfway. Why can I observe so many garbage at many corners? Why  indiscriminate dumping remains one of the causes of flash floods?

Most of our drainage systems are also still clogged by wastes of different kinds, rendering them useless. Guys, try to become “intelligent consumers”, meaning to say: we must be conscious of those products we consume and where they will go after we are done using them.

Natural disasters in-deed occur all the time. But they are getting more destructive. It seems we are no more having control over our beloved Mother Nature, which is suffering more and more – because of US!

I am still meeting people shedding tears over the “wrong  incoming president of the Philip-pines, Rodrigo Duterte”. Why? He is indeed opening up old sores and is bringing up old subjects. What’s wrong in agreeing with the EcoWaste Coalition expressing support to presumptive President Duterte’s plan to ban firecrackers and fireworks nationwide? It’s indeed saving lives and is protecting the environment and the public health from hazardous emissions and wastes.

Yes, it’s indeed high time that the Philippines, a climate hot spot, bid goodbye to New Year pollution and mayhem. I strongly agree that banning firecrackers and fireworks will indeed help in meeting the objectives of the Clean Air Act, Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, Clean Water Act, Climate Change Act, Animal Welfare Act and several other environmental and health laws somehow remained forgotten during the last years.

I am also glad to learn that the new president is planning to initiate major changes in the economic provisions of the Constitution, including those on foreign business owner-ship, to attract more investors. Personally, I do know that several foreign investors are still waiting for “the right moment” to settle down especially in Davao City and whole Mindanao – the many times forgotten part of the Philippines.

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Email:doringklaus@ gmail.com or follow me in Twitter or Facebook or visit www.germanexpatinthe thilippines.blogspot.com or www.klausdoringsclassicalmusic. blogspot.com .

World Happiest: Philippines Ranks 82nd

By Charmie Joy Pagulong (The Philippine Star) 

 1  168 googleplus0  1 

The report, which urged nations, regardless of wealth, to tackle inequality and the environment, showed the Philippines as a happy place to live in, one notch higher than China. Philstar.com/File

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines is the 82nd happiest place out of 157 economies, according to a report released yesterday by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and the Earth Institute at Columbia University.

The report, which urged nations, regardless of wealth, to tackle inequality and the environment, showed the Philippines as a happy place to live in, one notch higher than China.

The top 10 this year were Switzerland, Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia and Sweden.

The United States came in at 13th, followed by the United Kingdom at 23rd; France, 32nd, and Italy, 50th.
Syria, Afghanistan and eight sub-Saharan countries are the 10 least happy places on earth to live, the report said.

The bottom 10 countries were Madagascar, Tanzania, Liberia, Guinea, Rwanda, Benin, Afghanistan, Togo, Syria and Burundi.

Headlines ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1

In Asia, Singapore (22nd) was categorized as the happiest country to live in, followed by Thailand (33rd), Taiwan (35th), Malaysia (47th), Japan (53rd) Hong Kong (75th) and Indonesia (79th).
“There is a strong message for my country, the United States, which is very rich, has gotten a lot richer over the last 50 years, but has gotten no happier,” said Jeffrey Sachs, head of the SDSN and special advisor to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
While the differences between countries where people are happy and those where they are not could be scientifically measured, “we can understand why and do something about it,” Sachs, one of the report’s authors, told Reuters in an interview in Rome.

“The message for the United States is clear. For a society that just chases money, we are chasing the wrong things. Our social fabric is deteriorating, social trust is deteriorating, faith in government is deteriorating,” he said.

The report, now in its fourth edition, ranked 157 countries by happiness levels using factors such as per capita gross domestic product and healthy years of life expectancy.
It also rated “having someone to count on in times of trouble” and freedom from corruption in government and business.

“When countries single-mindedly pursue individual objectives, such as economic development to the neglect of social and environmental objectives, the results can be highly adverse for human wellbeing, even dangerous for survival,” it said.

“Many countries in recent years have achieved economic growth at the cost of sharply rising inequality, entrenched social exclusion, and grave damage to the natural environment.”

Yardstick of happiness

The first report was issued in 2012 to support a United Nations meeting on happiness and well being.
Five countries – Bhutan, Ecuador, Scotland, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela – now have appointed ministers charged with promoting happiness as a goal of public policy.

The 2016 survey showed that three countries – Ireland, Iceland and Japan – were able to maintain their happiness levels, despite external shocks such as the post-2007 economic crisis and the 2011 earthquake, because of social support and solidarity.

Sachs cited Costa Rica, which ranked 14th, ahead of many wealthier countries, as an example of a healthy, happy society, although it is not an economic powerhouse.