Sugar: the sweet enemy

ONE IN FIVE FILIPINOS is overweight and one in five overweight Filipinos is obese.

This statistic from the Philippine National Nutrition Health Evaluation and Survey of 2003 seems as fantastic at first sight as it was when it was first released years ago. Obesity in the Philippines?

It becomes all the more eye-popping when one remembers that 26% of Filipinos—one in four— live below the national poverty line.

That line was P7,017 monthly for a family of five in 2009, the year of the government’s latest poverty data. It’s tougher in Metro Manila: a family of five needed to earn P8,300 a month to escape being labeled poor.

One could surmise the overweight belong to the three in four Filipinos who aren’t poor. That would seem logical.

But there are children who belong to families officially classified as poor who are overweight and obese. How does one explain that?

Fast food and junk food
The 2005 Nutritional Status for Filipino Children conducted by the Department of Science and Technology’s Food and Nutrition Research Institute said a major reason for obesity among youngsters is their unparalleled access to cheap,widely available, high-calorie and appetizing food, otherwise known as fast food and junk food.

This is a valid reason but it still doesn’t completely answer the question: If one in four Filipinos is poor, why is one in five Filipinos overweight?

A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine may shed light on a probable reason why. This study showed that poor families in Ohio that moved to lower poverty areas were less likely to become obese and less likely to have glucose levels typical of diabetes compared to families that stayed in poor neighborhoods.

Previous U.S. studies have shown that poor neighborhoods tend to lack good sources of nutritious food and this contributes to obesity and ill health in residents. That means the poor are becoming obese also by eating junk food and fast food.

Whether or not we can draw the same conclusion about poor Filipino families is debatable. But this U.S. finding is food for thought.

The sweet common link
Is there a single reason why a growing number of persons worldwide, including Filipinos, across all economic classes are becoming too fat for their own health?

Yes, there is a common link, according to Dr. Robert Lustig, Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

It’s sugar. Or, more precisely, two kinds of sugar: sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS).

Dr. Lustig and two fellow doctors ignited a maelstrom of controversy this February by declaring that sugar and other sweeteners are poisons that should be regulated.

It’s not the first time a medical doctor has called sugar a poison but the research by Dr. Lustig and his team was so widely covered by traditional print media and on the Internet as to spark emotional debates in the medical and non-medical communities worldwide. One of the first works by a doctor calling sugar a poison dates back to 1972.

In a research paper published in the scientific journal, Nature, Dr. Lustig and his team proposed that governments levy a tax on all foods and drinks that include added sugar to discourage consumption. He called on governments worldwide to regulate soft drinks and other products with sugar as strictly as beer and alcoholic beverages.

The alcohol in beer, by the way, is made by fermenting sugar.

More controversially, Dr. Lustig asked that sales of sugar-enhanced food and drinks be banned in or near schools. He would also restrict the purchase of sugared products to a certain age limit similar to the 18-year old age limit on alcohol purchases in the USA.

Dr. Lustig loudly advocates this severe regulation of sugar because sugar is a poison in the medical sense of that term.

More specifically, Dr. Lustig and his team zeroed in on two specific types of sugars as poisons: sucrose (or table sugar) and HFCS (the most popular sweetener used in soft drinks worldwide).

He cited a widely used medical definition of a poison as any substance applied to the body, ingested or developed within the body, which causes or may cause disease.

The physical definition of a poison is any substance that inhibits the activity of a catalyst, which is a minor substance, chemical or enzyme that activates a reaction.

Based on these definitions, Dr. William Coda Martin classified refined sugar as poison in 1957 because all the vitamins, minerals, salts, fibers and proteins that make sugar useful to the body are removed during the process of sugar refining.What is left after processing is a substance full of empty calories that becomes toxic when consumed in excess.

Dr. Lustig agrees with this definition of sugar as a poison.

He does not, however, include naturally occurring sugars such as glucose in his crusade against sugar. Glucose is a sugar naturally found in all foods that have carbohydrates.

Dr. Lustig’s findings in his research paper echo his views at a symposium in 2009 entitled, Sugar: the Bitter Truth. The video of this symposium remains on YouTube and has had over two million hits.

In this video, he described glucose, which is the primary energy source for human cells, as the “energy of life.” Glucose is also known by much of the general public, especially by diabetics, as “blood sugar.”

HFCS: most dangerous of all
Soft drinks or carbonated beverages are the main sources of HFCS, the most dangerous sugar, in the diet of Filipinos or anyone else in any country where soft drinks are sold. And that’s practically all the 196 countries on Earth.

HFCS is a sweetener added to soft drinks and processed foods such as cereals, some meats, yoghurt and sauces. It’s much cheaper than sucrose and this accounts for the widespread popularity of HFCS among beverage and processed food makers.

In the USA, more than 450 calories of an American’s daily calories come from beverages and 40% from soft drinks or fruit juices.

HFCS is dangerous because it attacks the liver, said Dr. Lustig, since only the liver can metabolize fructose. He described fructose as a chronic hepatotoxin or a toxic substance that damages the liver.

“Fructose is a poison by itself,” he declared.

Among the liver's many vital functions is detoxification or the removal of toxins from the body. Fructose is metabolized by the liver unlike glucose, which is safely metabolized by cells throughout the body from complex carbohydrates.

The strain HFCS places on the liver starts a process that can lead to fatty liver disease and liver failure. The liver metabolizes fructose as a fat, hence the key role of fructose in encouraging obesity.

Dr. Lustig said 30% of fructose ends up as fat. Therefore, a high sugar diet equals a high fat diet.

“A low fat diet isn’t really low fat because the fructose/sucrose doubles as fat. That’s why diets don’t work.”

Fructose can also trigger the development of Type 2 diabetes since the high levels of sugar in the blood from un-metabolized fructose mean the pancreas has to produce more insulin, the hormone that helps control and keep stable blood sugar levels.

The increased demands on the liver caused by HFCS may ultimately lead to insulin resistance, which is the underlying cause of obesity and diabetes.

Dr. Lustig pointed out that acute fructose ingestion does not stimulate insulin to combat rising sugar levels, neither does fructose suppress the hunger hormone, ghrelin. The result is that the brain does not signal the body to stop ingesting fructose.

“Chronic fructose exposure alone causes metabolic syndrome,” said Dr. Lustig.

He described metabolic syndrome as a conglomerate of phenomena that includes obesity, Type 2 diabetes, lipid problems, hypertension and cardiovascular disease.

“Fructose triggers all of these,” he said. In this sense, fructose can be considered a poison.

He also said the high level of HFCS in some infant formulas was contributing to the epidemic of overweight babies in the USA and in other countries. One infant formula (also available in the Philippines) he cited had a 10.3% sucrose content versus the 10.5% sucrose content in a leading soft drink brand.

He also said there is no difference between HFCS and sucrose or table sugar.

“They’re both really bad. They’re both dangerous. They’re both poison.”

Differences of opinion
Although Dr. Lustig’s attacks on sugar are severe, the medical community in the USA has not unanimously drawn the same conclusions, however. The jury’s still out on whether sugar really is a poison or not.

The American Medical Association in 2009 voiced the conventional wisdom by saying that high fructose corn syrup does not appear to contribute more to obesity than other caloric sweeteners.

Other skeptics say more Americans are overweight because they’re eating more. The average American’s daily caloric intake has jumped 24% since 1970. Still others say sugary beverages (not specifically HFCS) are the culprit, and whatever form the sugar is in does not matter.

Some researchers contend that saturated fat and not sugar is the basic cause of obesity and chronic disease. Still others argue that it is a lack of physical exercise.

Defenders of sucrose and HFCS say that to date, research suggests that HFCS and table sugar aren’t that different. They’re both processed sweeteners our bodies seem to treat them the same way.

Dr. Lemuel M. Tocjayao, a diabetologist and Chairman, Department of Internal Medicine at De Los Santos-STI Medical Center, believes that an excessive intake of table sugar can be toxic and can indirectly cause diabetes.

“As far as I know, there have been no extensive studies to prove sugar is toxic, especially when sugar is taken in moderation,” he said. “Sugar is only one factor in diabetes.”

He noted that the American Diabetes Association does not regulate sugar, nor has sugar been banned for diabetics.

He cautioned, however, that sugar should be taken in small amounts or just enough to sweeten your food and drink. That small amount, he said, is one teaspoon for a cup of coffee.

(Published in Enrich magazine, 2012)

Order, diplomacy and Philippine coffee

THE FACE OF PHILIPPINE DIPLOMACY is a woman who can speak her mind in seven languages. That directness is probably the German in her. Or is it the Filipino in her?

"My husband always tells me I preach like a schoolteacher," says Delia Domingo-Albert, our ambassador to Germany and one of the country's most accomplished diplomats.

Ambassador Delia Domingo Albert

Among her singular achievements: chairmanship of the United Nations Security Council during the Philippines' presidency of this body in June 2004 and Secretary of Foreign Affairs, the first woman to hold this high rank in the Philippines and in the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) region.

She talks about German directness and Filipino casualness in a lively tour d' horizon that focused on effective diplomacy, organic Philippine coffee as a trade tool and the changes wrought in her character by exposure to things foreign.

Her husband, by the way, is a German who loves the Philippines. They have a home in Wiesbaden where their daughter was born. She was second-in-command of the Philippine embassy (then in Bonn) for eight years.

Consequently, Ambassador Albert has a powerful interest in German culture, dotes on Maultaschen (pasta squares filled with meat and spinach) and Rote Gruetze (a pudding made from different fresh red berries, eaten with vanilla sauce) and, not unsurprisingly, is now quite German in her dedication to efficiency.

That virtue is a resounding advantage when it comes to running an embassy in a country where relentless efficiency is the norm.

"Ordnung muss sein! (There must be order)," she says in flawless German. "I run a very well organized embassy. I expect the staff to know what they are doing... I expect them to speak German and expect them to work hard.

"I am known to be very demanding, but if you look at my curriculum vitae, I have run through all the departments. That is very rare in an ambassador. I know exactly what I can expect from everyone because I have done the job myself, so I think I am reasonable (with my demands). I like efficiency. My work ethic has produced good results.

"Puenktlichkeit (punctuality) is another of my standards. My husband has taught me that it is very inconsiderate of another person to be late and I always try to be on time."

Severe as these remarks may sound to the average Pinoy, these embody qualities demanded of any professional diplomat.

Her new posting to Germany will give her ample opportunities to practice the ambassador's art in a country no longer a stranger to her.

"I feel it is important to have a focus in order to be an effective ambassador. That is the way I like to work. It is a waste of possibilities if you use your position to simply represent," she points out.

"During my appointment as second in command in the 1980s, it was relatively easy to connect Germany to Asia due to the fact that Eastern Europe was still closed. I remember Foreign Minister Hans Dieter Genscher being very pro-Asia. It will be a challenge now to enhance that connection to Asia again.

"The competition (for investments) is fiercer as Eastern Europe has been able to cater to many of Germany's needs since its opening up to the West. My focus will be on bringing the Philippines back into the picture in terms of investment opportunity and as a reliable trading partner."

Her efforts towards this end is not confined to her work in the embassy in Berlin. Diplomacy, after all, is a two-way exchange.

"I've also suggested to German Ambassador (to the Philippines) Axel Weishaupt to gather Philippine and German individuals and look at what has transpired during our 50 years of diplomatic, business and cultural relations to help identify the strong points within this relationship, and to use these findings to formulate objectives for the next 50 years to create a roadmap based on the experiences of the past," she explains.

"The Philippines and Germany have a very good relationship and I am grateful for that. Yet this needs to be translated into economic cooperation," she continues.

She points out that Philippine companies should concentrate on finding niches that can translate into mutually beneficial economic activities. She is particularly keen on seeing partnerships in environmentally acceptable or "green" processes made possible by German technology.

She admits the "lively" political situation in the Philippines poses a challenge to marketing the country in Germany. She points out, however, that all countries go through periods of change.

"I remind them that we, as a country, have already been through a lot and are still standing. The fundamental laws of democracy do exist here and are not altered.

With the embassy as the frontline in the push to sell the Philippines, Ambassador Albert aims to showcase the best of the country in all aspects. For one thing, she will introduce organically grown Philippine coffee to Germany.

"We will be serving only Philippine coffee in the embassy to make it a tradition with our guests," she notes. "I plan to have an open house one day a week where anybody can come in to the embassy. I have always done that. I want to serve Philippine coffee, maybe with moscovado and bibingka."

She recounts her experience heading our embassy in Australia. "I remember in Canberra we used to open the embassy to groups of Australian school kids and we would serve them macaroons. And I would tell them, "You must always eat macaroons because they are made from coconuts that we sell to your country."

She intends to have other items on her plate. "Another thing is Philippine tablea chocolate. My mother used to make that and I just love it! In the same way that I was able to penetrate the Australian market with Philippine mangoes, I would like to promote organically grown Philippine coffee in Germany."

Ambassador Albert comes to her new job toting one of the most formidable resumes in the Philippine diplomatic service. She speaks Filipino, English, German, French, Romanian, Spanish and Japanese. She has represented the Philippines in nine countries.

In 1992, she was awarded the Knights Commanders Cross of the Order of Merit with Star by the Federal Republic of Germany for promoting Philippine relations with Germany, as well as relations between ASEAN and the European Union. In January 2004, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo conferred on her the Order of Sikatuna, rank of Datu, for her exceptional service to the Philippines.

The Philippine Women's University in 2003 conferred on her the degree of Doctor of Humanities, honoris causa, in recognition of her contribution towards building a gender-fair society as the first woman Secretary of Foreign Affairs in the Philippines and in the ASEAN.

She returns to a Germany far different from the Cold War front line state she knew in the 1980s. She looks forward to seeing the former East Germany, especially Leipzig, Dresden and Magdeburg.

"I now have the chance to witness the impact of the unification, which I literally watched from the front row. I saw the beginnings, I witnessed the unbelievable downfall of the Berlin Wall and I know of the hopes that were attached to those events at the time. I am curious to see what has become of it.

"Berlin is an important player in Europe. It will be a challenging job and I am very much looking forward to rediscover this country that I have only known as a divided country," she notes.

A career diplomat, Ambassador Albert has discovered that it does help kindle your professionalism if you love your job. "I've always wanted to become a diplomat. I've always loved history and I like to travel. It was the perfect match for me," she explains.

(Published in Starweek Magazine of The Philippine Star, Sept. 11, 2005)

Debris: The Great War 100 years hence

IT WAS FIRST called The Great War, and it was indeed the greatest war the world had yet seen until that time.

It involved the British, French, German, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman and Russian empires, and the republican but colonialist United States of America. Through a series of alliances, these Great Powers created a balance of power that held the destiny of the world in their hands at the start of the 20th Century.

It was then called The World War. This war, however, was later depicted to some of the peoples of these empires as “The War to End All Wars” in propaganda aimed at stoking both patriotism and idealism. Four years of incredibly lavish blood-letting never before seen in 5,000 years of recorded history led to the deaths of over 21 million soldiers and civilians in a totally misguided and ultimately unsuccessful attempt to bring about Peace through War.

It was also described as the world’s first “Industrial War;” the world’s first “Technology War” and the world’s first “Propaganda War.”

This war of many inhuman firsts—World War I— marks the 100th Anniversary of its outbreak this year, 2014.

European empires before World War I.

No nation, least of all those who fought in this tragic conflict, will celebrate a war that mass-produced mass murder; became a universal symbol of military incompetence and callousness, and introduced into the world the first of those man-made killing agents widely known today as “Weapons of Mass Destruction” or WMDs.

The world’s first WMD was poison gas. This new weapon of war was first unleashed in 1915 on French soldiers on the Western Front in Belgium. Poison gas killed 90,000 soldiers and crippled 1.3 million others on both sides during this war. Most of the poison gas victims were French and British fighting men.

This explains the great aversion to poison gas shown today by France, Britain and the USA—and their willingness to use military force to prevent the renewed use of poison gas. Their distaste was made manifest during the poison gas attacks by the Syrian government in August 2013.

British Tommies, victims of a German poison gas attack.

Such were the many horrible firsts introduced into a peaceful world by The First World War. This Great War or The World War or The War to End All Wars was only widely referred to as World War I after its far more terrible child, World War II, engulfed Europe then the world from 1939 to 1945.

Instead of a 100th anniversary celebration, however, the world will remember the tens of millions of victims of a war that gave birth to the chaotic world we live in today—a world in which military power is at its greatest height.

We, all of us, are debris of The First World War.

The road to world war
The date of the many commemorations of 1914 will vary according to country, but will begin in present day Bosnia. The Great War began in Bosnia on June 28, 1914. On this fateful day in the city of Sarajevo in Bosnia (then a part of the Kingdom of Serbia), a young Bosnian Serb student named Gavrilo Princip shot and killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary.

This assassination, which also saw the murder of the Archduke’s wife, ignited a diplomatic crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered to Serbia an ultimatum ordering compliance with a set of 10 harsh demands. Austria-Hungary had intentionally made the ultimatum unacceptable; its real intent was to provoke a war with Serbia.

Frantic to avoid war with an empire, Serbia met eight of the 10 demands. Austria-Hungary, nevertheless, declared war on Serbia on July 28 and bombarded Serbia this same day as a prelude to an invasion. These were the first shots of what would become The First World War only six day later.

This war, however, would have remained just another local war. It would have been confined to the Balkans, “the powder keg of Europe” and the most probable flash point for any European war. It would have, were it not for the two mutually distrustful alliances whose massive armies were poised for war at a moment’s notice.

The major protagonists: the British Tommy, French poilu, German landser and  Russian muzhik.

These two alliances split Europe: the Triple Entente consisted of the French empire, the British Empire and the Russian Empire while the Triple Alliance or the Central Powers comprised the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire.

The Russian Empire, which considered itself ruler of the Slav peoples including the Serbs, partially mobilized its massive armed forces on July 29 to deter Austria-Hungary from, further aggression. The German Empire mobilized against Russia on July 30 in fulfillment of its military obligations to Austria-Hungary.

Refusing to immediately mobilize in the west to counter the German mobilization, the French were finally forced to do so on August 2 when Germany invaded neutral Belgium and attacked French troops. Germany’s immediate strategic aim, which was detailed in the Schlieffen Plan, was to speedily defeat France before turning east to destroy Russia. Germany failed and the stage was set for four years of the most terrible warfare yet witnessed.

Germany declared war on Russia on August 1 and on France on August 2. The British Empire—the world’s largest—declared war on Germany on August 4. The British declaration of war immediately transformed a local conflict in the Balkans into an international conflagration thereafter called The First World War. Europe had blundered into war.

It is a war defined by horrible images seared into mankind’s shared consciousness: brave young men suicidally charging machine guns; the endless lines of trenches on the Western Front resembling open graves; the brutal winters in Russia freezing men to death by the thousands and the unimaginably horrific artillery barrages lasting up to a week on the Western Front that either blasted soldiers to bits or buried them alive in their trenches.

Landsern on the Western Front take a respite from battle.

Remembrance
A hundred years on and the hatreds that once divided Europe are today dimly remembered. In place of imperial alliances has appeared the New Europe in the form of the 28-nation European Union or the EU. There has been no Great War in Europe since 1945, an unbroken span of 68 years, and the longest period in modern European history without a war involving Europe’s major powers. The EU is achieving its aim of banishing war as an instrument of national policy.

It is in the spirit of this peaceful New Europe that commemorations of The First World War will together involve the countries that took part in this war. In April 2013, France and Germany—the bitterest of foes in the 19th and 20th centuries—agreed to finance events that will commemorate rather than celebrate the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War I. Both countries will do so until June 2014 in Sarajevo, capital of the present-day state of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Bosnia-Herzegovina announced the creation of an endowment for First World War centenary remembrance plans called "Sarajevo-Heart of Europe.” The central commemoration of the 100th anniversary will be a concert to be played by the Vienna Philharmonic on June 28 in Sarajevo.

It is ironic and a welcome sign of the demise of past national animosities that Austrians, whose ancestors ignited the First World War, will hold a concert in Sarajevo, the place where the war began, for Bosnians whom they attacked at the start of the war. A series of concerts will also be held throughout Bosnia-Herzegovina before that ceremony.

Poilus assault the German trenches. The man in the foreground has just been shot.

A quiet commemoration
Besides this joint commemoration in Sarajevo, however, it seems Germany would rather not remember the past but instead wants to focus on the future of the EU that it helped create in 1993.

“For us, it is about remembrance and reconciliation, and trying to learn lessons,” an officer from Germany’s embassy in the UK was quoted as saying. He said German commemorations of the First World War will focus on how the EU has brought European nations closer together.

The French also seem to want a quiet remembrance of the First World War. What they’ve so far announced is that France will carry out a policy of national remembrance. But in many of France’s cities, towns and villages where “La Premiere Guerre Mondiale” or “La Grande Guerre” or "La Guerre du Droit" (The War for Justice) are routinely commemorated every year, this policy of national remembrance in 2014 will certainly add to the patriotic fervor.

Celebrating victory
The United Kingdom, on the other hand, will salute its heroes very loudly. It will hold a series of national remembrance events for its First World War Centenary. These events will consist of an extensive cultural program and educational scheme to commemorate what it likes to refer to as The Great War.

The last two British soldiers who served in the Great War died in July 2009 within one week of each other. The last British soldier from The Great War was Harry Patch. Before he died at 111 years-old, Patch spent his last years urging his friends and admirers never to forget the millions of men on both sides who gave their lives during The Great War.

Battlefield in northern France.

"War isn't worth one life," said Patch, who was wounded and traumatized for life by the inhuman horror and carnage he experienced at the Battle of Passchendaele fought from June to November 1917. Passchendaele, the bloodiest British battle in The Great War, ended in a British defeat.

The British suffered over 500,000 casualties in a battle where men drowned in mud caused by unrelenting rains or were cut down in droves by German machine guns. The battle has become synonymous with the stupidity and heartlessness of the British generals who went through with the battle despite warnings to the contrary. The British soldiers were truly “Lions led by donkeys.” For the Germans, however, their victory despite being heavily outnumbered helped prevent the ultimate collapse of their Western Front.

Condemning the flawed British plans that led to the tremendous slaughter of British infantry, David Lloyd George, British Prime Minister from 1916 to 1922, said this of the Battle of Passchendaele in 1938: “Passchendaele was indeed one of the greatest disasters of the war . . . No soldier of any intelligence now defends this senseless campaign . . . ."

Tommies attack amid poison gas.

Russia remembers
But there will not be a grand commemoration of The Great War in Russia despite Russia’s key role in the defeat of the Central Powers. For over three years, the pathetically armed and badly led Russian armies unselfishly sacrificed themselves for their Western Allies. Their offensives saved France and Britain from early defeat by Germany and kept over half the mighty German Army on the eastern front.

The efficient Germans inflicted colossal defeats on the ill-trained Russians, eventually forcing Russia to surrender in March 1918 and quit the war. But it was a costly victory for Germany; over half of all German casualties in The Great War were inflicted by the Russians.

It is this bitter defeat in 1918 that has made the “Second Patriotic War,” as the Russian’s call The Great War, a source of shame and forgetting. As a general rule, the Russians never commemorate the war. Two million Russian soldiers died for their country but to this day, no national monuments worthy of the memory of her heroes or the other victims of the Second Patriotic War have been built in Russia. The Second Patriotic War is truly Russia’s “Forgotten War.”

But Russia now belatedly remembers her dishonored heroes. The Organizing Committee for the 100th Anniversary of World War I is now in the process of erecting a monument honoring Russia’s forgotten heroes on Poklonnaya Hill in Moscow. Russia also plans to take part in international events dedicated to commemorating the 100th anniversary of The Great War.

Muzhiks on the march.

The world forgets
It will be extremely difficult to awaken the world to an event, however shattering, that occurred in a dimly lit past. One barrier to any widespread remembrance of World War I is World War II. This far deadlier and more recent war is favorite fare on TV, the movies, YouTube and the Internet.

The powerful images of goose-stepping Nazis, massive Tiger tanks and Adolf Hitler haranguing adoring multitudes imprint the Second World War more easily on younger minds than does the First World War, which seems to be a “Grandfather’s War” fought in grainy black and white videos.

Remember, however, that the Second World War is also seen as a continuation of the First World War. German grievances over the harsh terms imposed by the victors that impoverished Germany, and the murderous effects of the worldwide economic depression of 1929 on the German people, gave rise to right wing groups promising to restore German pride and prosperity.

Among these fringe right wing cabals advocating Germany’s return to power was the “Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei.” This motley crew of misfits in 1919 welcomed into its ranks as its 55th member an obscure but decorated World War I veteran named Adolf Hitler. It took 14 years for Hitler and his Nazis to seize control of the Germany and six more years to plunge the world into a far more ghastly world war.

But both the First and the Second World Wars took place in the 20th century, the most violent century in human history. Happily, that century is over. And it is a remote possibility that a Third World War will consume the world in the first half of the 21st Century.

Wars are now “local” but must be condemned for their wanton destruction of human life. Peace is always preferable to war. That is the eternal lesson of The First World War the world chooses to forget.

(Published in the January 2014 issue of  Enrich, magazine of Mercury Drug Corporation)

Epifanio de los Santos: Filipino polymath

(Published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Dec. 4, 2011)

IF IT WEREN'T FOR the dogged determination by a group of intellectuals in 1958, the historic Metro Manila landmark we call Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (or EDSA) might well have been named “Avenida 19 de Junio” instead. Or “Pres. Ramon Magsaysay Avenue.” How does “Gen. Douglas MacArthur Highway” sound?

And if EDSA wasn’t named EDSA, what would we have called the People Power Revolution of 1986?

Epifanio de los Santos Avenue honors a man who, despite his relative obscurity today, was described by noted historian Gregorio Zaide as a rare genius because of his encyclopedic knowledge and talents, and by others as the greatest Filipino intellectual after Dr. Jose Rizal.

Epifanio de los Santos

The words “Polymath” or “Universal Genius” come to mind when one considers de los Santos’ achievements as a lawyer, historian, journalist, scholar, jurist, philosopher, bibliophile, biographer, philologist, painter, poet, musician, literary critic, politician, librarian, biographer of Spanish literature, translator (Spanish, English, French and German), linguist (Ita, Tingian, Ibaloi), researcher and philanthropist.

He was hailed as the “First Filipino Academician” and few scholars could match his extensive knowledge about the Philippines. At his death in 1928, he was honored as “Great among the Great Filipino Scholars,” a magnificent tribute to one of the greatest intellectuals this country has produced.

Fervent Patriot and Writer
Born to a rich family in Malabon on April 7, 1871, de los Santos or “Don Panyong” studied at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila where he graduated Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, in March 1890. In 1891, he took jurisprudence at the Santo Tomas Law School and obtained his Licentiate in Law 1898.

School uniforms and a classroom at the Ateneo Municipál de Manila

De los Santos was considered one of the best Filipino writers in Spanish in his time. He was the first Filipino to become a member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Language (a position denied Rizal), the Spanish Royal Academy of Literature and the Spanish Royal Academy of History in Madrid.

Despite his love for the Spanish language, de los Santos was a fiery patriot who championed Philippine independence through journalism. He became associate editor of the influential revolutionary paper "La Independencia" in 1898 using the pen name, G. Solon. He co-founded the patriotic newspapers “La Libertad,” “El Renacimiento,” “La Democracia” and “La Patria.” Among his famous patriotic essays were “Filipinos y filipinistas” and “Filipinas para los Filipinos”.

De los Santos also wrote extensively in Tagalog and was an eminent scholar of a group called the "Samahan ng mga Mananagalog" founded by Felipe Calderon in 1904. His peers in this circle of great Tagalog writers were Lope K. Santos, Rosa Sevilla, Hermenigildo Cruz, Jaime de Veyra and Patricio Mariano.

A passionate bibliophile, de los Santos’ Filipiniana collection was rated as the best in the world by foreign scholars, according to Zaide. This because de los Santos searched Europe, Asia and the Americas for rare Philippine documents in museums, archives and libraries. He also amassed a personal library comparable to Rizal’s.

Don Panyong’s art collection consisted of some 200 paintings and sculptures by famous Filipinos masters such as Juan Luna, Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo, Fabian de la Rosa, Arellano, Pablo and Fernando Amorsolo and Guillermo Tolentino. In Europe, he was recognized as the premier philologist and biographical writer about the Philippines.

A rich Filipino mestizo family in the early 1900s.

First Civil Governor of Nueva Ecija
As a politician, he was a member of the Malolos Congress, served as fiscal of Nueva Ecija (his father’s province) and was the first provincial Governor of Nueva Ecija in 1902 under the American civil government. His election made him the first democratically elected Governor and head of the Federal Party in Nueva Ecija.

He was re-elected Governor 1904. After his term as Governor, de los Santos was appointed provincial fiscal of Bulacan and Bataan. In 1907, he wrote an essay with the interesting title, “Fraudes electorales y sus remedios,” (Electoral fraud and its remedies) for the Philippine Assembly.

In 1918, he was appointed Technical Director of the Philippine Census. His last and most significant government position was Director of the Philippine Library and Museum, to which was appointed by Gov. Gen. Leonard Wood in 1925. By tradition, this post was reserved for Filipinos of learning and scholarship.

As head of the museum, de los Santos abandoned his personal collecting to build the museum’s collection of paintings, sculpture and all other art forms to an extent that his contributions exceeded that of his predecessors. He was still Director when he died from a stroke at the age of 57 in 1928.

A Triumph for Intellectuals
The North and South Circumferential Road, which Commonwealth President Manuel Quezon envisioned as the country’s most beautiful highway, began construction in the late 1930s. For reasons that remain unclear, the Americans renamed this road Highway 54 after the end of World War II.

In 1959, by virtue of Republic Act 2140, Highway 54 was renamed Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA), in recognition of Don Panyong’s genius and contributions to the country’s intellectual and artistic heritage. Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, however, was not the favorite choice for Highway 54’s new name.

It competed against three formidable alternatives: “Avenida 19 de Junio” (in honor of Rizal’s birthday); President Ramon Magsaysay Avenue (in memory of Pres. Magsaysay who died in 1957) and Gen. Douglas MacArthur Highway (for the man who led U.S. forces in liberating the Philippines from Japanese tyranny in World War II). Compared to these great men, Epifanio de los Santos was the dark horse in the race.

De los Santos’ assistant at the Philippine Library and Museum, Eulogio Rodriguez (who would later become Senate President), however, vigorously spearheaded the move to rename Highway 54 Epifanio de los Santos Avenue. After Rodriguez’s death, Juan Francisco Sumulong (de los Santos’ classmate at the Santo Tomas Law School), continued the campaign.

EDSA champions: Eulogio Rodriguez, Sr. and Juan Francisco Sumulong

His lobbying and that of the Philippine Historical Committee, the Philippine Historical Association, the Philippine Library Association, the Association of University and College Professors, the Philippine National Historical Society and the Philippine China Cultural Association won the day for Epifanio de los Santos Avenue. It was a triumph for the Filipino intellectual.

The text of Republic Act 2140 approved on April 7, 1959 reads:” The name of Highway 54 in the Province of Rizal is changed to Epifanio de los Santos Avenue in honor of Don Epifanio de los Santos, a son of said province and the foremost Filipino scholar, jurist and historian of his time.”

Historic EDSA
EDSA today is the country’s most historic highway, its name being indelibly linked to the People Power Revolution or EDSA I that restored democracy in 1986 and EDSA II or the EDSA Revolution of 2001 against Pres. Joseph Estrada. It is sometimes referred to as “Freedom Highway” because of these momentous events.

EDSA is the main circumferential highway in Metro Manila and runs some 24 kilometers (or 15 miles) from Caloocan City in the north to Pasay City in the south. EDSA is a 10-lane expressway that also encompasses the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) Line 3 extending from Taft Avenue in the south to Monumento in the north by 2011.

It forms the major portion of the Circumferential Road 4 (C-4) in Metro Manila and runs in a semicircle through the cities of Pasay, Makati, Mandaluyong, Quezon City and Caloocan.

In August 2009, Senator Mar Roxas filed a bill seeking to rename Epifanio de los Santos Avenue “Cory Aquino Avenue.” According to Roxas, “It is but fitting to offer in her memory the road that had made her famous all over the world.” Mrs. Aquino, Philippine President from 1986 to 1992, died on August 1, 2009.

Whether Pres. Noynoy Aquino will forcefully push the bill renaming EDSA after his mother remains unclear at this time. But it will do well for the President to consider who Epifanio de los Santos was, and why naming Metro Manila’s longest highway after him honors the Filipino as an intellectual.

The EDSA People Power Revolution of Feb. 1986 that toppled Ferdinand Marcos

Green and healthy buildings are on the rise

(Published in Enrich, magazine of Mercury Drug Corporation)

IT'S KIND OF KIND hard wrapping your head around data showing that buildings, yes, buildings are a major man-made source of unhealthy carbon dioxide (CO2) pollution, and also use up most of the world’s electricity every year.

Buildings emit about 40% of the total amount of CO2 in the U.S., according to government data. While comparable data is absent, it can perhaps be reasonably assumed the percentages are almost similar for the Philippines. Residential, commercial and industrial building operations also consume 75% of total electricity generated in the United States. Evidently, the building sector (industrial, commercial, residential and others) should be a primary target in any national effort to combat climate change and enhance human health.

“The world is putting 30 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year. The building industry is responsible for half of the total carbon emissions,” said architect Amado de Jesus, a founder of the “Philippine Green Building Initiative (PGBI)” launched this March. “One way to promote sustainability in the building sector is to raise awareness among building owners, developers, architects, engineers, contractors and occupants.”

Makati City

PGBI’s main activities include the adoption of a Green building rating system and standards adapted to the Philippines’ humid climate. PGBI will also promote sustainable building practices in aid of legislation and formulate public policy relating to climate change. New buildings are its main target group; retrofitting of existing buildings is also a goal.

PGBI pushes “Green Architecture,” which is a sustainable method of Green building design. Green Architecture is design and construction with the environment in mind. Green architects generally work with the key concepts of creating energy efficient and environment friendly buildings.

Energy Efficient Buildings
Energy efficiency over the entire life cycle of a building is the most important single goal of Sustainable or Green Architecture. In the Philippines, however, the fight for Green Architecture has only just begun. “To reduce carbon emissions we have to design and build Green buildings that use energy efficiently,” de Jesus explained. The Philippines is 48th among 212 countries in man-made CO2 emissions.

He noted that Green Architecture has two objectives: cut building operating costs (including energy consumption and maintenance) to minimize a building’s negative impact on the environment, and promote a healthy lifestyle to ensure the health and well-being of building occupants.

The Green Architecture movement in the Philippines involves construction design that is environmentally sensitive; in harmony with natural features in a project site; is energy efficient in that it emphasizes passive systems and uses materials that are recyclable and derived from sustainable sources that can be replenished or replaced so there is lesser wastage. It is basically the intelligent use of materials for the right purpose.

“It is the role of the Green architect to be able to meet these two objectives with as little compromise between protecting the earth and meeting human needs. The whole point of green architecture rests on accomplishing these two general objectives. Green architecture is proof that both man and his natural environment can live in perfect harmony,” de Jesus said.

“Green Architecture is very promising. It is the future,” said architect Anna Siao Ling, president of the 23,500-member UAP, the driving force behind the Green Architecture movement in the Philippines. “Currently, the prime considerations of Green Architecture are minimal energy use, as well as utilizing eco-friendly products—ideas which are already visible (in) Filipino designs in the past.”

She noted that sustainability is a trait which is very Filipino. “Just by observing how local homes are insulated with nipa and make use of bamboo blinds and rolling windows, we can attest that Green concepts are not foreign to us,” she said.

Green Rating Systems
The Philippines does not have its own building rating system and prefers to use the U.S. LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating System). It was only in 2009 the Philippines had its first Green building certified to LEED. This is an assembly and test building of Texas Instruments in Baguio City that received a Silver certification for maximizing the use of natural daylight; extensive water recycling and a reflective roof that significantly cut heat gain.

LEED is a Green rating tool and consists of a suite of standards for environmentally sustainable construction. Established by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), LEED is a means to rate the environment-friendly designs and energy efficiency of buildings that want to reduce negative impact on the environment. Since it began in 1998, LEED has reviewed over 14,000 projects in the U.S. and 30 countries.

The United Kingdom rates buildings according to the BREEAM environmental assessment method. In Asia, some of the existing rating systems are Japan’s CASBEE, Australia’s Green Star, Taiwan’s Green Building Label, Singapore’s Green Mark and Indonesia’s Green Building Council.

Europe is the world leader in Green Architecture and environmental awareness. But it is wise to remember that Green or sustainable architecture is a fairly recent phenomenon, even in Europe. In Germany, for example, it was only in January 2009 that the first German certificates for sustainable buildings were handed out.

In France, the government has put forward recommendations—the "Le Grenelle de l'Environnement,”—that provides a rating system to accelerate the pace of transforming new and existing buildings into sustainable structures. The first zero carbon office building in France opened in December 2009.

Other members of the European Union (EU) have their own national standards as regards Green Architecture. All of these, however, are guided by the greater goal of helping Europe reach its 2020 targets of 20% energy saved, 20% energy from renewable energy and 20% greenhouse gas reduction.

Mandatory European standards also address new or existing buildings, while the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive aims to promote improvements in the building sector.

How You Can Help
By altering his individual behavior, the average Filipino has a key role to play in pushing efforts promoting sustainable energy and infrastructure. “Earth Hour” and the Philippines’ shift to compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) are cases that prove the individual Pinoy is important in pushing a sustainable lifestyle.

Some 15 million Filipinos took part in “Earth Hour 2010” last March 27 to support the growing nationwide commitment to the environment. Organizers said the fourth staging of Earth Hour involved 4,000 cities in a record 125 countries turning off their lights for one hour thereby saving a huge amount of electricity.

During Earth Hour 2009, some 10 million Filipinos in 647 cities and municipalities saved an estimated 611MWh of electricity, the equivalent of shutting down a dozen coal-fired power-plants for an hour.

The government early this year again urged Filipinos to switch to more energy efficient CFLs, thereby cutting their monthly electric bills and reducing CO2 emissions. CFL use falls under the enhancing energy efficiency and conservation component of the Philippine Energy Efficiency Program (PEEP) whose aim is attaining a sustainable 60% energy self-sufficiency level beyond 2010.

The government plans to distribute 13 million CFLs nationwide this year, thus saving 611,000 MWh annually. By adopting CFLs nationwide in 2010, the Philippines became the first Asian country to completely ban incandescent bulbs.

PGBI is an initiative among professional building organizations that signed the “PGBI Declaration of Commitment.” Signatories include the United Architects of the Philippines, Philippine Society of Ventilating Air Conditioning Refrigerating Engineers, Institute of Integrated Electrical Engineers of the Philippines, American Society of Heating Refrigerating & Air Conditioning Engineers Philippine Chapter, Philippine Institute of Interior Designers, Geological Society of the Philippines, Heritage Conservation Society and International Council of Monuments & Sites Philippines.

(Published in Enrich, healthy lifestyle magazine of Mercury Drug Corporation, 2010.)

China’s space industry is alive and zooming

(Published in 2006)

CHINA'S COMMERCIAL satellite industry is moving into the Big Time—big time.

The sale of a communications satellite (NIGCOMSAT-1) to Nigeria and the more recent sale of another satellite (VENE-SAT-1) to Venezuela are historic firsts for China’s commercial satellite industry and a space program that will celebrate its 50th anniversary on October 8.

The date marks the founding of China's first rocket research institution, the 5th Academy of the Ministry of National Defense, and is recognized as the beginning of China’s space program.

There is little doubt Beijing will pull out all the stops to honor a program that has made China a respected player in the world satellite industry, and only the third country to send humans into space.

The Year of the Fire Dog also marks the 30th anniversary of formal relations between China and the European Union (EU). The close business and scientific ties between China and the EU are underscored by their cooperation in the “Galileo Project,” EU’s equivalent of the US global positioning system (GPS).

China is the first country outside Europe to join the Galileo satellite-navigation system. Its investment of 200 million Euros in Galileo and its constellation of 30 satellites counts among the over 400 cooperation programs in science and technology between China and the EU over the past three decades.

These business coups illustrate China’s renewed focus on the commercial satellite industry after deliberately concentrating first on the development of new generation carrier rockets.

Its successful bid for Nigeria’s first satellite signals a China that has learned the ropes and is using its knowledge to outmuscle the Big Boys. The Nigerian deal is China’s first ever sale of a made-in-China satellite to any country.

NIGCOMSAT-1

China closed the deal in December 2005 and beat 21 companies from the United States, France, Britain, Italy and Israel, among others. Before the satellite sale to Nigeria, China only manufactured satellite components for other countries, but never an entire satellite.

Chinese quality was a major reason for Nigeria’s selection of China as the provider of its first satellite. Nigeria said China had submitted a "superlative proposal" and its technical capability and expertise had met stringent performance requirements. NIGCOMSAT-1 will be launched in 2007.

China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC) described the Nigerian sale as a breakthrough in China's international commercial space program since China asserted its capability as a manufacturer and launcher of satellites for foreign customers.

CGWIC is the sole commercial organization authorized by the Chinese government to provide international commercial launch services, in-orbit satellite delivery and international space technology cooperation.

On the other hand, the Venezuelan satellite is China’s first sale to Venezuela and to any South American country. China and Venezuela signed the deal last November in Caracas with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at the signing ceremony.

VENE-SAT-1 will be launched from China in 2008. The satellite will make Venezuela self-sufficient in telecommunications and will cover sparsely populated areas not yet reached by commercial telecommunications.

China will also turn over satellite technologies to Venezuela in a effort to help the latter build its own satellites. VENE-SAT-1 is also called the “Simon Bolivar Satellite” after the South American independence fighter.

NIGCOMSAT-1 and VENE-SAT-1 are based on the DFH-4 (Dongfanghong or “The East is Red”), China's latest satellite platform. DFH-4s provide telephony, broadcasting, DTH TV, Internet and other services. Both the Nigerian and Venezuelan packages include launch services using Long March rockets.

China’s position as the smart new kid on the Big Boy block isn’t only because it products and services are cheaper than those from the US, the EU or Russia. Chinese quality has come a long way from the humiliation of 1996 when China's Long March 3B failed in its first launch and destroyed the Intelsat 708 satellite.

China began to offer the Long March launch vehicles for international commercial satellite launch services in 1985. In November 1988, CGWIC signed its first contract to launch a foreign communications satellite, AsiaSat-1, on a Long March rocket. The launch was successfully carried out in April 1990.

Long March launch vehicles

From 1990 to 2004, CGWIC conducted 24 international commercial launch missions for 30 satellites and six piggyback payloads. CGWIC has grown from a single rocket supplier to a package service provider that offers satellite, carrier rockets and ground system facilities.

DTH: rocket fuel for growth
China’s continuing forays into space are fueling the growth of its satellite industry that has also profited from the recovery of the world commercial satellite industry thanks to massive US military spending.

Through wholly owned subsidiary China Telecommunications Broadcast Satellite (ChinaSat), China operates two in-orbit ChinaSat telecommunication satellites and is majority shareholder in Hong Kong-based APT Satellite Holdings Limited, which has four Apstar satellites in space including the new Apstar-6. There is also the SinoSat-1 satellite operated by state-owned Sino Satellite Communications.

SinoSat-2, China's first direct broadcast satellite and its largest to date, is scheduled for launch this year on a Long March 3B, China’s most powerful launch vehicle.

Such a small telecom fleet for the most populous country on earth underlines China's insistence of doing things in-house and outsourcing whenever appropriate. China says it currently has 16 in-orbit satellites including telecommunications, remote sensing and meteorological units. Even the Chinese admit this number is way short of the urgent needs created by China's rapid economic growth and national defense needs.

But China will soon need more satellites with the explosive growth of its economy (averaging 9% annually for the past 10 years) and the recovery of the world satellite industry.

The Satellite Industry Association (SIA) is confident enough to predict that consumer focused satellite services (the key growth driver in 2003 and 2004) will continue until the recovery solidifies in a few more years. US government satellite spending is expected to remain at a high clip until 2020.

SIA noted that while the satellite industry is still fighting its way out of the telecom downturn, companies from every major region and across each sector (such as operators, manufacturers, value-added resellers and carriers) are reporting improved business.

SIA is in no doubt as to the main driver of this recovery. It said 53% of all global launches in 2004 were U.S. government related while 47% were commercial.

It said other key engines of this growth were strong consumer demand for video services, and the deployment of new user applications and equipment in both markets.

While falling prices and profit margins exist in most sectors, current trends indicate growth over the next few years. The increase in satellite services should lead to a revival of the manufacturing and launch sectors, which then will lead to more satellites being ordered and launched.

DTH satellite dish

SIA noted that satellite services were leading the industry’s ongoing recovery from the telecom crash of 2000-2003, accounting for 63% of industry revenues totaling $97 billion in 2004. It said direct-to-home (DTH) satellite television services made up 81% of satellite service revenues.

China’s announced intent to begin DTH satellite broadcasting in 2006 opens the door to further strengthening the satellite industry’s recovery while opening China’s huge DTH market to major satellite industry giants such as Intelsat and SES Global and to regional players such as AsiaSat and Apstar.

Research firm IMS Research said China had over 25 million digital satellite TV households in 2004, almost similar in number to the US.

IMS projects the number of digital satellite TV households in China to grow over the next five years and could reach 60 million by 2010 if China launches DTH this year as expected.

China’s huge DTH numbers dwarf those in the rest of Asia. In 2004, the leading DTH markets were Japan (3.3 million subscribers), South Korea (1.6 million). Malaysia (1.5 million), Australia (890,000) and New Zealand (490,000).

On the other hand, the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) estimates that Asia has 190 million multi-channel households (or those that receive satellite or cable services).

China’s telecommunications industry is estimated to have posted revenues of $72 billion in 2005, up 10% from 2004. China’s economy is expected to have grown from 9.5 to 10.3% in 2005 to hit $2 trillion. It is growing five times faster than Europe’s leading economies.

The launch of ChinaSat-9, a direct broadcasting satellite, in late 2007 is intended to exploit the coming boom in China DTH. ChinaSat-9, an Alcatel Alenia Space Spacebus 4000 C1 platform, will be fitted with 22 active Ku-band transponders for broadcast satellite services (BSS), including 18 36-MHz and four 54- MHz channels. A Chinese Long March rocket will be the launch vehicle.

SinoSat-2, ChinaSat-9 and Apstar-6 will lead China’s push into DTH. Apstar-6 will provide advanced broadband multimedia, new digital TV services and traditional telecommunications services to telecom and TV operators in Asia Pacific.

It will cover China with a dedicated high power Ku-band beam for broadband multimedia services. It will be the first civilian Chinese satellite equipped with an anti-jamming system to thwart attacks by Chinese government foes such as Falungong.

AsiaSat is forging ahead with it’s own DTH pay-TV service in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau. By moving into DTH, AsiaSat aims to increase its transponder utilization rate that in 2004 stood at 41% for AsiaSat-2; 74% for AsiaSat-3S satellite and 18% for its new AsiaSat-4.

The Ku-band payload in AsiaSat-4 offers spot beams for selected areas in either the BSS or the Fixed Satellite Service frequency band.

Peter Jackson, chief executive officer of AsiaSat, hopes that Chinese customers eventually will take up a large portion of the capacity aboard AsiaSat-4.

Enter the Big Boys
China began using foreign satellites for TV broadcasting in 1985. Since then, however, China’s promise of spectacular satellite service growth has been held in check by the government’s reluctance to open China to full-fledged foreign competition.

The conventional wisdom says China will remain more of a long-term player than a source of short-term growth. In recent years, however, China has loosened its tight regulatory grip, but remains less liberal than neighboring India.

Rupert Murdoch's Star TV has been a conspicuous beneficiary of whatever liberalization Chinese telecoms has had. Despite this seeming advantage,  Star remains on the look out for small online properties in China and aims to develop these assets into successful businesses in the long term, a strategy in line with the conventional wisdom about how to do business in Chinese telecoms.

Star said its consolidated operations in China during 2005 were close to breakeven. Its major growth driver was advertising revenues at Xing Kong, Star’s general entertainment channel. Star owns the world's largest library of Chinese films.

Star said China’s present regulatory framework for broadcasting casts a cloud of uncertainty. It felt pay TV lags behind the development of most other media while DTH and IPTV may be the means to boost development.

Because China continues to drag its feet on deregulation, non-Chinese satellite operators will have to partner with Chinese companies such as ChinaSat if they want to do business in China. AsiaSat has also complained about China’s restrictive policies.

This situation notwithstanding, formidable satellite operators such as Intelsat/PanAmSat and SES Global/Astra/Americom/New Skies Satellites stand poised to serve China’s needs for DTH and other digital services. Between them, both giants have 20 satellites serving Asia Pacific, including China. Intelsat operates 16 of these satellites.

These satellite operators still take the lion’s share of China and Asia’s satellite business. And they’re in Asia because of the region’s explosive growth in consumer satellite services. They’re also partnering with regional players to maximize their competitive strengths.

In December 2005, Intelsat and APT Satellite—the world’s leading and Asia’s leading satellite companies—signed a strategic cooperation agreement in which they agreed to market each other’s satellite capacity and ground resources, and to provide broadcast and telecommunications services to China and the Asia Pacific.

This strategic move allows Intelsat and its media and corporate data customers to access the Asia Pacific market through APT’s Apstar-5 and Apstar-6 satellites. On the other hand, APT will have access to Intelsat’s capacity in other regions of the world via Intelsat’s fleet of 28 satellites. This will expand APT’s reach and enable it to seamlessly carry traffic to wherever its customers need it.

Ni Yifeng, Executive Director and President of APT, said the agreement will significantly strengthen APT’s sales and marketing functions and allow it to provide more comprehensive services to its customers.

Intelsat said the agreement positions it to take advantage of any new business initiatives or opportunities that arise in the Asia Pacific region, including China, over the near and longer term.

Intelsat CEO David McGlade believes that entering into this agreement creates value at the company and customer levels. It also enables Intelsat to expand its service offerings in the region while creating a new avenue for customers of both companies to seamlessly take their traffic into or out of the region.

Intelsat has close ties with China, which historically is one of its top 10 customers. Twice in 2001, Intelsat came to China’s rescue when accidents knocked out China’s undersea cables, depriving up to 20 million users of Internet access. Intelsat used its satellites to restore Internet service to the affected users.

The 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing will present Intelsat and other satcos with the opportunity to dramatically grow their business. Intelsat, however, took 70% of the TV broadcasting business during the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.

The Net in China
Today, however, commercial satellite services such as DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) services via satellite and broadband via satellite hold the brightest promise for China’s satellite companies.

Satellite broadband looks especially promising and Northern Sky estimates $4 billion in revenues for this service by 2009. Driving satellite broadband growth will be broadband Internet access via satellite. Satellite Internet access might well become the satellite industry’s first truly mass-market service capable of competing against DSL on price.

Although China still limits Internet use and occasionally censors what it calls dangerous content, there is no stopping the growth of the Internet in China. The need for speed will be vital as China’s Internet users continue to rise, from an estimated 94 million in 2004 to 103 million in 2005. China had 22.5 million Internet users in 2000. The number of Internet users in China increases by 800,000 every week.

Private industry groups reported 43 million broadband subscribers in 2004 from 31 million in 2003.

PCs sold in China reached 22 million in 2003 (second after the US). There were 150 million cell phones sold in 2003 (1st in the world) while 1.7 billion text messages were sent from these mobiles.

These huge numbers make China the place to be for satellite service companies despite the tough regulatory environment.

The Chinese in Space
Two successful manned spaceflights in two years are enough to make any nation proud. China achieved this feat with its first manned spaceflight in 2003 and a second similarly successful mission by a two-man crew in 2005.

The success of the Shenzhou 5 and 6 missions is also a huge success for China’s launch industry. China’s participation in the Galileo Project is also being hailed as a triumph for its space program.

Next in line for China’s space program is a lunar fly-by mission. China has announced that the program’s monitoring system; launching field and ground application system have entered system integration and joint test. The first lunar satellite, called “Chang'e-I,” will be launched in 2007.

A space station is to follow suit but the crowning glory of China's space program will be a moon landing, probably by the next decade. And that's no starry eyed pipe dream.

Chinese "yuhangyuans"

Who let the dogs out?

(Published in Enrich, healthy lifestyle magazine of Mercury Drug Corporation, 2010)

A DOG OWNER is walking his huge, solid black German Shepherd along a dirt road on a quiet evening. A strange man, his right hand in his pocket, suddenly appears behind them.

The stranger quickly and silently approaches the man and his German Shepherd. He closes the gap. The German Shepherd turns its head, stares at the oncoming stranger, but doesn’t bark.

It then walks behind its owner as if to shield him from the looming danger. Undeterred by the dog’s change in position, the stranger whips out a gun and grabs the victim’s shoulder.

In a flash, the German Shepherd lunges at the stranger, its powerful teeth ripping into the stranger’s right thigh. The dog owner lets go of the leash and steps aside.

The German Shepherd continues to tear ferociously at the stranger’s leg. Still on his feet, the man fires at the dog. He misses as the wildly flailing German Shepherd ruins his aim. The dog’s massive jaws crush the man’s leg. The man fires and misses again. The dog owner shouts a command in German. The German Shepherd immediately goes to heel and sits down. The robber sighs with relief.

The attack, which is really a protection dog training exercise, is over.

Protection dogs
“That’s what a trained protection dog can do,” Eugene Reyes says as he beams proudly at the show put on by the German Shepherd his handlers have trained for the past six months.

A well-trained “personal protection dog,” he notes, is unafraid of the sound of gunfire. It won’t attack unless physical contact is made with its master, or unless told to do so, and won’t stop its attack unless commanded by its master and no one else.

Commands are normally in a foreign language such as French or German as an added protection for the dog owner. A protection dog is ready to die for its master.

Out on the training field, the dog “owner” and would be “robber,” actually two of Reyes’ experienced dog handlers, stow their gear. The “gun” is a starter’s pistol and the “robber” is dressed in a bulky, dark green, full body protective suit that resists dog bites. The imported suit’s right leg shows some damage from the German Shepherd’s attack.

This training ground is located in Quezon City, and is one of three such facilities owned by the “Eugene Reyes K-9 Protection Dog Training Club” founded by Reyes in 1994, the first in the country. ER K-9 is now the Philippines’ largest protection dog training school. Its clients are mostly Filipino businessmen and foreigners, and it once trained protection dogs for the Sultan of Brunei.

Reyes, a youngish looking businessman who has been around animals most of his life, explains there are two kinds of dogs: working line dogs such as personal protections dogs and show dogs that compete in dog shows. His interest lies in working line dogs.

Malinois and Shepherds
His favorites among working line dogs are the Belgian Shepherd Dog, more popularly known as the Belgian Malinois and the German Shepherd Dog, also called the Alsatian (Deutscher Schaeferhund in German). To the untrained eye, both breeds look almost similar in build. For Reyes, however, the Malinois is superior as a protection dog because of its agility and speed since it lighter, leaner and meaner than the Shepherd. Unknown to many, the Belgian Malinois and not the German Shepherd is the preferred protection and guard dog in the Philippines.

Belgian Malinois

The Malinois is bred primarily as a working dog for personal protection, detection, police work, search and rescue, and sport work in Belgium, Germany and other European countries, and in the United States, Canada and Australia. It resembles a smaller German Shepherd and can be recognized by its short brownish yellow coat and its black ears that stick straight up.

The more popular and larger German Shepherd is a very active and obedient dog. It is also highly intelligent and is considered the third most intelligent dog breed (the Border Collie and Poodle are number one and two). Shepherds are prized for their willingness to learn and an eagerness to have a purpose. They’re famous for their loyalty to their owners and bond well with people they know, traits often emphasized in Hollywood films that feature this breed. Remember Rin Tin Tin? Probably not.

German Shepherd

“All dogs can be trained”
Choosing the protection dog for your particular need starts with choosing the right dog. While Reyes believes “. . . all dogs can be trained, even ‘askals’ (street dogs),” there are certain breeds eminently suited by temperament to the tough job of protecting humans.

“It’s easier to train a Belgian Malinois or a German Shepherd than a Doberman Pinscher as good protection dogs,” Reyes points out. He notes Dobermans in the Philippines aren’t as protective as either the Belgian Malinois or German Shepherd, and are mostly seen in local dog shows.

Malinois and Shepherds are more intelligent than Dobermans and show superior temperament, meaning these two breeds adapt better to different situations, locations and people than Dobermans which tend to be territorial, hence its fame as a perimeter or guard dog. Besides, Dobermans are specifically bred for guard duty.

Doberman

Training Malinois and Shepherds to become protection dogs takes time, patience and money. Reyes prefers the motivational approach when training dogs, that is, rewarding dogs for doing a task. The quality of training is vital and dogs are patiently trained from 15-20 minutes twice a day over a period as long as a year by experienced dog handlers.

These two breeds are also favored as bomb-sniffing dogs by the Philippine National Police. These “sniffer dogs” can be trained to detect explosives when they’re as young as three months. The key is training the dogs to recognize the unique smell of the main ingredient in an explosive, which is often TNT.

“The club system”
Reyes also continues to emphasize a unique training system he introduced in the 1990s that involves training the dog with its owner. Reyes believes training the dog together with his master—which he calls “the club system”—is the most efficient way of training a dog. He suggests owners train with their dogs twice a week. Many obedience dog schools in the 1990s, however, required owners leave their dogs with them for up to six months.

An interesting aspect in training protection dogs is conditioning them not to be afraid of gunfire, blows from sticks, fists, feet and other hard objects. In training, dogs are often struck with bamboo sticks to remove their fear of strikes. The animals are also often exposed to the sound of gunfire. As Reyes points out, a dog that turns tail and runs away at the sound of gunfire is obviously not a protection dog.

“We gun test the dog to see its reaction. If it’s scared of gunfire, it’s always a no-no. We do this so the dog’s owner doesn’t waste his time and money trying to train a dog unsuitable for protection.”

How a dog is treated at home is every bit as important as the protection training it receives. “You should treat your dog like a dog but love it like a human,” is Reyes’ advice to dog owners. You should also treat your dog like another person in the family.

Dogs are man’s best friend—and can be man’s best protector if well trained. Eugene Reyes let the dogs out of an old training system into a new one that made dogs both man’s best friend and protector. I’ll howl to that.