Opinion

The bitter pill of Pacquiao’s win HOTSPOT - Mocha Uson (The Philippine Star) - July 17, 2018 - 12:00am Last Sunday, the nation had finally witnessed a long awaited win by Sen. Manny Pacquiao. He did not just win over Lucas Mathysse, he won by knockout – his first in nine years. Many have been bashing the “people’s champ” for a wide range of reasons lately, but all of these stem from one source: his burning passion to serve the country, both in and out of the ring. Before his match with Mathysse, I have been seeing a lot of bashing toward Sen. Pacquiao. On social media his detractors were saying that he should just stick to boxing and not meddle with politics, that he has done nothing as a senator, and to the extent that he is a misogynist harboring hatred against gays. I do not always agree with his statements, but I believe that Sen. Pacquiao does not deserve any of these remarks coming from … [Read more...] about The bitter pill of Pacquiao’s win

The unexpected bonus that came with the dramatic rescue of the Wild Boars footballers from a flooded Chiang Rai cave was the spotlight that suddenly shone on the technically stateless legal status of two of the boys and their assistant coach. It is hoped that the outpouring of sympathy from Thais and the global community will improve their chances of obtaining much-awaited Thai citizenship. The three are among half a  million members of ethnic minorities and highland people residing in northern and western Thailand who have no country to call their own, despite – in the case of many of them –having been born here. The dire circumstances of the cave operation revived the usually dormant issue of these stateless people. As much as the three who were plucked from the dark deserve to be granted citizenship, a speedy resolution of the issue for all the people affected would be most gratifying. For now, in the glare of international attention, the government has promised … [Read more...] about Room for half a million more

The smartphone footage shows the two blood-soaked men pleading for their lives. Moments later they were dead, two more victims of lynchings sparked by rumours spread on Facebook and WhatsApp in India. The two men were young and well-educated. Gregarious musician Nilotpal Das, 29, and his businessman friend Abhijeet Nath, 30, were both from Guwahati, capital of Assam state in the northeast. On the day last month when they were beaten to death by a crazed village mob wielding bamboo sticks, machetes and rocks, the friends were driving back from a day in the country, near a popular waterfall.  “He liked to listen to the sounds of nature to find inspiration for his music,” his grieving father Gopal Chandra Das, 68, says at their home, the television table in the living room now a shrine to his son.  Viral rumours about kidnappers, spread through Facebook and WhatsApp, have led to the lynching deaths of some 20 people in the last two months in India, according to a … [Read more...] about Death by ‘fake news’

Sister Juanita “Nenet” Dano lives in the second most densely populated district in Manila. The people of San Andres Bukid are desperately poor, many of their huts too small to deserve the name home. Before the advent of the Duterte administration’s anti-drug campaign, trade in narcotics was rampant in the community. No single district in the area was free of illegal drugs, Sister Nenet recalls. Two months into the implementation of the euphemistically titled “Oplan Tokhang” (Approach and Talk) Sister Nenet became disturbed; the killings were now happening every week. One question haunted her: “Is killing the only solution to the problem of illegal drugs?” Sister Nenet is a member of the Good Shepherd order, along with 170 other nuns stationed in the Philippines. She spent eight years as a missionary in Senegal, where she became fluent in French. After returning to the Philippines in 2011, she started social work among the poor families in … [Read more...] about Courageous Filipino fights back amid ‘anti-drugs’ bloodbath

Crypto-currencies like bitcoin have recently captured the public’s imagination because they offer an exciting alternative to traditional monetary systems. Bitcoin transactions are essentially a series of puzzles stored in public on the blockchain. The puzzles used to protect bitcoin are so complex that current computer technology isn’t powerful enough to crack them. The dailyReport Must-reads from across Asia - directly to your inbox But quantum computers could crack these puzzles in coming decades. Here’s how it could happen to your bitcoin. How does the encryption behind bitcoin work? Traditional currencies rely on trusted intermediaries like banks to verify and record all monetary transactions. The crypto-currency economy instead relies on a public ledger – the blockchain, which is maintained by all honest participants of the bitcoin network. Banks are usually required by law to authenticate the sender and recipient of any transaction. But … [Read more...] about How quantum computers could steal your bitcoin