Smaze, the abbreviated term for smoke and haze, which is blanketing various parts of Metro Cebu, Bohol, Leyte, Samar and Davao del Norte, is making my friends and relatives rather anxious that they’re now heading off to the nearest drugstore to buy surgical masks to ward off hazardous microscopic dust particles.
Together, the Environment Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Department of Health have come up with relevant information warning people about complications if they are exposed at length to smaze. This is especially true in urban centers where people are already exposed to air pollution because dust combined with toxic emissions from motor vehicles.
Except for info bulletins and health tips by the EMB and Department of Health, I have yet to hear the national government coming up with a comprehensive plan to address the negative effects of smaze not just on health, public safety but also on business, taking into account what is happening in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. I heard that airline pilots have been complaining of poor visibility. The wind direction has taken smaze to Papua New Guinea, which means this is not just a regional problem for Southeast Asia.
The ill effects of raging forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan have prompted schools to close in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore over the past couple of months as a health precaution. According to reports in the Strait Times of Singapore, Malaysians are waking up almost daily looking at soupy gray skies. What a dreary and threatening scene and should this continue, I believe even productivity at work becomes another grave problem.
According to the Strait Times, the damage to the national economy of Indonesia is between $30 to $40 billion. What is surprising is that despite the dire situation, there is, among members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), insufficient or even a lack of “direct, mutual and effective discussion” with Indonesia.
The paper scored the situation, saying this is uncharacteristic of ASEAN’s “oft-lauded spirit of cooperation and consensus”.
May I add that ASEAN member countries namely, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Brunei, Myanmar, Singapore and Vietnam have moved into regional economic integration this year through the so-called Asean Economic Community. Among the goals envisaged by the single market configuration under the AEC is a single production base under a highly competitive economic region.
If the smaze in Indonesia continues, the tourism industry in Southeast Asia will suffer a huge setback. Investors with big risk appetites, to quote the Strait Times, will become nervous.
The bad news is that it will not go away until March 2016, that is according to the Center for International Forestry Research based in Indonesia. The report has prompted a Reuters News report published in the Strait Times to say people in many parts of Southeast Asia will experience a hazy New Year.
Having said that, it is imperative on the part of the Philippine government, which is hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Economic Leaders Meeting (APEC ELM) next month, to take up haze or smaze as part of the agenda.
The APEC high level meeting cannot just ignore this crisis.
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If politicians want to be seen and heard nowadays, the place or show is Eat Bulaga’s Aldub segment.
The split screen romance of Alden Richards and Maine “Yaya Dub” Mendoza is taking the country by storm. Aldub is in the conversation every day. Why, it is even on the same page as headline news reports.
Last week, the split screen lovers starred in a huge live extravaganza titled, “Tamang Panahon” in the Philippine arena which was virtually filled to the rafters. The venue in Bulacan can accommodate 55,000 people and since the show was telecast live and made available worldwide via live streaming, virtual attendance could be multiplied ten, twenty or even a hundred fold.
To be seen in the company of Aldub Dabarkads, like in the case of reelectionist Senator Vicente “Tito” Sotto, is a political advertisement made in heaven. No wonder Sen. Sotto is number one in popularity surveys for “senatoriables”.
Sen. Tito Sotto is part of the Eat Bulaga mainstays Vic Sotto and Joey de Leon. The triumvirate has been saying they won’t allow politics in the show, but if politicians want to watch, it’s okay. Last Saturday, Bayan Muna Congressman Neri Colmenares had a selfie taken while attending the live show.
Colmenares, who is running for senator under the independent ticket of Grace Poe and Chiz Escudero, gamely posted his selfie in the social networking site, Facebook.
Well, new media platforms like Fb, Instagram, Twitter and add to that, the Aldub craze are not just changing lifestyles but also the mind set of leftist elements, who in another time and place would be caught dead rather than join traditional politicians in song and dance soiree just to get public attention and win votes.
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