No to Mining? Ah, basta . . .

One afternoon in my younger years I accompanied my father to purchase a treadmill for the family. The address in the newspaper clipping led us to a private residence. Since the gate was open we walked right in and knocked on the screen door. There was no response. Several repeated attempts brought no result.  Even calling out accomplished nothing. We knew we had the right place because of the sign at the door.

Finally, I pulled the screen door open and walked in, calling out. Eventually the owner emerged and we made our purchase.

On the way out my dad was furious. “You don’t just walk into other people’s houses!” he snarled.

“But no one was answering,” I protested.

“Well, you just don’t do that!” He shot back.

“So what should I do, then,” I asked.

Instead of a reply my dad growled something unintelligible under his breath, then angrily muttered: “What should I do…what should I do…” in that unique mocking tone older people use when the only rejoinder they can think of is to mimic you.

I came away from that experience with a mixture of vindication and frustration. With all due respect to my father, may he rest in peace, I felt a young punk's smugness at the time because I was apparently in the right even if my father would not admit to it. On the other hand, I was sick and tired at the realization that I live in a society that is all the time telling me what I SHOULDN’T do but hasn't the foggiest idea what I SHOULD do.

In an opinion piece in the Philippine Daily Inquirer entitled Forbidden, author Michael L. Tan believes ‘We are a nation of “bawal” (“do not”).  Look around and see how we are surrounded by bawal signs: Bawal pumasok, bawal umihi dito, bawal manigarilyo, even bawal mag-istambay (Do not enter, do not urinate here, do not smoke, do not “stand by”).

Tan attributes this to our history under a puritanical church and a succession of authoritarian governments since colonial times, so it is no wonder we are a ban-happy nation. We even have seasonal bans, like liquor and gun bans during election season. (Though apparently perpertrators of election-related violence didn't get the memo...)

Well and good. I’m all for greater order. I have often fancied that I would be a model Filipino citizen in Singapore with all its bans, modesty aside.

But it would seem this fascination for forbidding instils the idea that banning something is the be-all and end-all. The ban mentality is by no means limited to people in authority. The daily news carries a regular staple of protestors carrying signs with words like Ibasura (Junk), No to.., and Out now. Even calls for such and such person to resign is demanding his or her junking.   

So are all these bans for a good cause? To answer that, I apply one simple Rule of Thumb born out of that experience with my late father:

CAN YOU PRESENT A PRACTICAL ALTERNATIVE?

It is not enough to say Ah, basta . . .  (a Pilipino expression which defies any literal English translation. Roughly, it means: Just don't...)

Sometimes alternatives are available. No smoking? Well smoke somewhere else or quit. No jaywalking? Use the crosswalk, Einstein. Gotta pee? Find a washroom or seek cover (or just cross your legs…).

But as we get less personal and more general in our objections, things get a little more complicated. I’ll support any call to stop corruption or military/police abuses. But other issues are less clear-cut.

Ban old jeepneys? They are one of my daily irritants, but unless someone can come up with a solution to our chronic lack of efficient transportation, then we're stuck with these dinosaurs and their equally troglodyte drivers.

Junk the Visiting Forces Agreement because of supposed abuses by visiting foreign military personnel? Okay, but what do we do if China or some rogue nation comes knocking? Fight them off with our military castoffs? Yes, the outrage against abuses is valid, without question. But the alternative is leaving the entire country nearly defenseless.

I was reminded of this mindset when Philex Mining recently bagged top honors among 263 Publicly-Listed Companies in Corporate Governance in the 2015 ASEAN Corporate Governance Awards.

And quite predictably, among the laudatory posts on social media came the cries of No to Mining!

Mining, the detractors claim, is responsible for environmental destruction and violation of human rights, especially those of the indigenous people.

Without question, there are some catastrophes where mining was involved. The recent tragedy of a powerful mudflow from an iron mine in Brazil is such an example. Even the much-lauded Philex Mining, long held as the standard bearer for responsible mining, was not spared when its tailings pond was breached by unprecedented torrential rains in August of 2012.

But to say that mining caused these evils would be like saying cars cause accidents. As a survivor of a hit and run, I do not blame the vehicle but the brain-dead primate who had been driving it.

The award for best in Corporate Governance doesn't just mean Philex was profitable. Here are some of the categories in the ASEAN Corporate Governance Scorecard:

Excerpts from ASEAN Corporate Governance Scorecard

Clearly, the ACGS takes the environment and communities very seriously, and in these, a mining company excelled over more than 200 other business establishments of different kinds in the entire ASEAN region. In addition, mining is a major contributor to inclusive growth and social benefits.

The irony is that those who attack mining on social media do so with laptops, PCs, tablets, cellphones and so forth, all items produced from the fruits of the very industry they malign, like copper, palladium, nickel, platinum, and even gold. Ditto with the microphones and bullhorns they use in their street protests. There's the iron for the nails and steel bars for the buildings they live and work in in and for the vehicles that brought them to the rally. With new technology, new uses for these minerals are discovered. Again, I pose the basic question:

If we ban mining, where do we get our minerals?

Get our minerals from other countries? There’s just two things wrong with that. One is that we use up valuable foreign reserves, not only paying more to have them shipped here, but enriching another country's economy instead of our own. Secondly is that this is an example of not in my backyard mentality: We ban mining because of the destruction it causes our country but it’s all right to patronize the industry (and thus, advance the supposed destruction) in other countries. Hypocrisy.

Nationalize the industry? (The leftists' answer to everything if not their ultimate aim.) How does government control make mining suddenly less prone to accidents? Moreso with this government which has thus far displayed an unprecedented level of ineptitude and corruption.

(In fact, a high-profile official in the ruling party is allegedly protecting a small-scale mining company engaged in over-extraction of nickel ore.)

To ban mining because of the carelessness and corruption of a few would be like banning kerosene lamps and candles because of fires. If we do ban mining then frankly, the only alternative I can think of is what Pol Pot of Cambodia had in mind: Move out of the urban areas and live like peasants in huts made from indigenous materials. If the haters of mining are prepared to do this, to discard their cellphones, computers and vehicles, then I salute them.

But in my experience, when you press the anti-mining forces for a viable alternative, all they can do is continue to rattle off a litany of the 'ills' of mining, topping the whole pile of non-sequitirs and sloganeering with their automaton-like mantra: No to Mining! Classic Ah, basta... mentality. Repeating the same thing over and over does not strengthen your argument, people. 

I don't doubt for a moment that there are mining companies less law-abiding than Philex. These are more often than not the illegal small-scale mining companies who are not the artisanal pick-and- shovel operations prescribed in RA 7076 Small Scale Mining Law, but major operators with heavy equipment. But being classified as small-scale grants them exemptions from the restrictions imposed upon major mining companies. The big mining companies comply with the Mining Act of 1995 which among other things provides for environmental and social protection and improvement. Philex even goes the extra mile of planting trees not only in mined-out areas as required by the Act but in places where trees never grew. 

Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations of the Mining Act of 1995
(Images by Jilyn Amoroso)

Yet these illegal companies that flout the law and do not pay proper taxes if at all are ignored not only by the authorities but by the anti-mining activists. There is more political currency in the populist line of attacking big business, tossing about inflammatory buzzwords like 'oligarchs' and 'destroyers of the environment', attributing the crimes of the illegal companies as representative of the entire industry. And predictably, the Aquino administration in its constant pursuit of popularity points swallows it whole by drafting Executive Order 79 which freezes all new mining contracts. It also promotes a revenue sharing scheme that increases taxation on mining which is already paying enough taxes, royalties and permits comparable to other mining countries. The new scheme would impose taxes that would eventually kill the industry, so the Canadian Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines warns. Mining is a high-risk venture for investors; it requires not only massive capital over an extended period of time but a long wait before the profits start coming in.  Even then, the market is extremely volatile. As of this writing, the industry is suffering from depressed metal prices in addition to restrictive legislation. To make it even more unpalatable with punitive taxation will drive away already wary investors.

(Check out this video on the stringent requirements imposed on major mining companies to keep them responsible.)

By all means, if a mining company, big or small, breaks the law, prosecute them. Even though Philex Mining was eventually cleared of negligence for their accident, they were still fined P189M, which they paid without complaint and ahead of schedule in addition to the P4B for cleanup and rehabilitation. Unsatisfied, the aforementioned activists declared the spill toxic, a claim debunked by reputable scientists (not the bogus one presented by the protestors). The leftists even went as far as to accuse the company of causing 'zero fish catch' in nearby Balog Creek while conveniently forgetting to mention that Balog Creek was not a fishing ground to begin with.

Don't punish the industry with lies, deception and generalization. Punish the perpetrators. We must break free of that mindset that when a law is poorly enforced, the answer is to draft more laws that will just burden the law abiding and be ignored by the lawbreakers. In effect, anti-mining legislation only clears the field of competition for the illegal miners and actually encourages the violations.

Enforcement of the existing law is the key. This goes for anything, be it mining, smoking, traffic, VFA abuses, etc.

With the Philippines being third in the world for gold reserves, and with US$840 Billion in untapped mineral wealth as per the US Department of State  , to say that we are sitting on a gold mine doesn't even begin to describe it. 

(Image from Chamber of Mines of the Philippines)

All that wealth just laying there untouched out of ignorance and promotion of political agenda will go a long way to paying our burdensome debt as well as enriching our nation.

THE RING Film Series

Like many fans of Asian horror movies, my introduction to the genre came with the Japanese hit movie Ring. I was aware at the time that there was a Ring 2, but thought that this was as far as it went, never having heard of a Ring 3.

As it turned out, there was a whole slew of sequels, prequels , series, and spin-offs, several I had never heard of until researching this article. This hopes to provide an overview of the Ring (Ringu) film franchise to clarify its rather fascinating, yet bewildering evolution.

THE BOOKS:

The Ring universe originated with a series of novels and an anthology by Koji Suzuki:

·         Ring (1991)

·         Spiral (1995)

·         Loop (1998)

·         Birthday (1999), a collection of three short stories:

§  Floating Coffin

§  Lemonheart

§  Happy Birthday

·         S (2012)

·         Tide (2013)

The TV Movie:

In 1995 a television-movie based on the Ring novel was released with the formidable title Ringu: Jiko ka! Henshi ka! 4-tsu no inochi wo ubau shôjo no onnen (Ring: Accident?! Or Unnatural Death?! The Young Girl Whose Hatred Steals Four Lives). This was later edited and re-released as Ringu: Kanzenban (Ring: The Complete Edition).

(Of the entire Ring cycle, Ringu: Kanzenban is often regarded as the adaptation most faithful to the source material.)

THE MOVIES and TV Series:

This section deals only with the Asian versions of the series, not the US-produced remakes. It is presented in chronological order.

Ring (1998):

Ring (Ringu in Japanese) was based on both the Ring novel and Ringu: Kanzenban. Production of the film took approximately nine months, ending in early 1998. It was written by Hiroshi Takahashi and directed by Hideo Nakata and takes many liberties with the source material.

(N.B.: While articles and other sources invariably refer to the movie’s title as simply Ring, the Japanese poster displays the English The Ring. Moreover, the American-made version is entitled The Ring.)

  

PLOT:

Friends Masami and Tomoko are talking about a cursed videotape that, when watched, kills the viewer in seven days. Tomoko reveals that she watched the tape, and she is killed right on schedule.

Days later a reporter, Reiko Asakawa, learns her niece Tomoko and three of her friends were victims, their faces twisted in terror. Another, Masami, while she did not watch the tape, witnessed Tomoko's mysterious death and had to be confined in a mental asylum. Reiko decides to uncover the story behind the curse.

Rasen (1998):

At the same time Ring was being made Rasen (Spiral) based on the second Suzuki novel of that name, was also being produced by two of the five production companies working on Ring.

Rasen used some of the cast from Ring but was written and directed by Joji Iida, who wrote the Ring TV movie.

PLOT:

Following the events of Ring, the body of Ryuji Takayama who died at the end of that movie is examined by his friend and rival, pathologist Mitsuo Ando. Eventually, Ando learns of the cursed videotape, and that Reiko from Ring had recruited Ryuji who was her ex-husband, to investigate the videotape’s curse (now being referred to as a virus). Somehow, Reiko was able to escape the curse that had killed everyone else, despite having watched the tape. Personal issues drive Ando to investigate this odd development.

While using elements found in Ring, Rasen follows a different story arc and treatment. Much of the film deals with the romance between Ando and his co-investigator and student Mai Takano, plus this time Sadako, in a departure from her iconic Ring portrayal as a monster crawling out of a television, is now depicted as alluring and even manages to seduce Ando.      

(For some reason, while English-language sources generally refer to the first movie as Ring, with the Japanese term Ringu coming second, in the case of Spiral, the original title Rasen is used by both Japanese- and English-speakers; rarely is it referred to as Spiral. One possible reason is that Rasen is practically unknown among casual audiences. (See below.) Also, other sources sometimes translate Rasen as Vortex rather than Spiral, but most avoid this, perhaps to prevent it being confused with the unrelated horror film Vortex or Uzumaki by Higuchinsky. )

Joint release of Ringu and Rasen:

Hoping to maximize profits by riding on the popularity of the Suzuki novels and the television show, the studio released both Ring and Rasen on the same day: January 31, 1998. Ring went on to become one of the most successful and critically acclaimed Japanese movies of all time, but Rasen bombed big time.

It has been suggested that the simultaneous release was a mistake. Audiences who watched Rasen ahead of Ring may have been confused, not knowing that Rasen was a sequel to the events portrayed in Ring.

Thus, Rasen was consigned to being The Forgotten Sequel in canon and marketing, and as later installments show, the studio did everything to distance itself from it, along the vein of It never happened.

Ring 2 (1999):

In the wake of the poor performance of Rasen, the studio decided to recover their loss of revenue (and perhaps face) by producing another sequel, but with the following changes:  

• Rather than re-booting Rasen or basing the new movie on any Suzuki novel as Rasen had, Ring 2 would use all original material. Unlike Rasen, Ring 2 would continue the same story arc of Ring
• It would bring back the original writing/directing team of the first movie, as well as most of the original cast and characters
• While chronologically the third in the series to enter production, it would not be called Ring 3, but Ring 2

The film Ring 2 (Ringu 2) was released almost a year after its predecessors, on January 23, 1999 and picks up a few weeks after the events in the first film.

PLOT:

Upon investigating the body of Sadako Yamamura recovered from the well in Ring, it was discovered that she had died only a year or two ago, despite being sealed in for almost 30 years.

Mai Takano, assistant of Ryuji Takayama, explores the circumstances behind his death at the end of Ring. She eventually finds Reiko Asakawa who had watched the tape but somehow managed to avoid its curse.

While distancing itself from the movie Rasen and the Suzuki novels, Ring 2 retains Mai Takano as a protagonist, but no mention of Ando from Rasen. Here, Mai’s connection is simply as the unfortunate Ryuji Takayama’s assistant, using her character in the novel Rasen rather than that of the movie.

Ring: The Final Chapter (TV Series):

From January to March of 1999 a television mini-series aired with the title Ring: The Final Chapter (Ringu: Saishusho). It is basically a complete reimagining of the original Ring movie and novel stretched out over 12 episodes, rather than a remake. There are numerous departures from the source materials, such as characters in the novel being assigned different names and genders,  and the seven-day window of death being extended to thirteen. The series concentrated more on finding the answers, and is thus more of the mystery genre than horror.

The episodes:

1.   "The Seal is Now Solved"

2.   "Killed by a Videotape"

3.   "Someone is Watching..."

4.   "A Virus of Silence"

5.   "The Dead Person Who Was Reborn"

6.   "A New Person with Supernatural Power"

7.   "Sadako Will Appear Tonight"

8.   "Someone Will Die When the Curse is Solved"

9.   "Planned Memory"

10. "Sadako's Revival"

11. "Ryuji Takayama Dies"

12. "The Curse Was Not Lifted. The Thirteenth Day, a New Dead Person Destroys the World"

Rasen (TV Series):

In the heels of the Ring TV series came its sequel Rasen which ran for 13 episodes from July-September 1999. This was based on the novel Spiral, and, like the previous television series, was only loosely based on the source material. For example, pathologist Matsuo Ando from the Rasen movie is now a high-school teacher in this incarnation. He partners with his former student and now police investigator Natsumi Aihara to pursue Sadako who intends to return to life via the body of Mai Takano.

The episodes:

1.   "Sadako's Revenge: A Horror Greater Than The Ring"

2.   "The Dead Watch the Well"

3.   "I Come to Kill Myself..."

4.   "A Dead Person is Resurrected to a Legendary Village"

5.   "The Devil Was in This Room"

6.   "Nobody Can Stop Me Any Longer"

7.   "The Man Who Made Sadako"

8.   "The Child Who Died Twice..."

9.   "The Ring of Hatred is Complete"

10. "The Prisoner is Murdered by a Prison Guard"

11. "The Fortuneteller is Murdered"

12. "The World Will Fall to Ruins Tomorrow"

13. "The Immortal"

The Ring Virus (1999):

This is a Korean-Japanese co-production that was a remake of Ring released on June 1999 between the two TV series covered earlier. Even the Korean title is simply translated as Ring. The characters from the original now have Korean incarnations: Reiko Asakawa is now Sun-ju, Sadako is Eun-suh.  With minor variations, it follows the same solve-the-curse-of-the-videotape plot as the original.

Ring 0: Birthday (2000):

Released as Ringu Zero: Basudei in Japan on January 2000, it is a prequel to Ring and based on the short story Lemonheart from the Birthday anthology in the book series.

PLOT:

Taking place thirty years before events portrayed in Ring, it chronicles the investigation of  reporter Akiko Miyaji whose fiancee and fellow reporter died mysteriously during the ESP demonstration of Shizuko Yamamura presented in flashback in the first Ring movie. Akiko attempts to follow Shizuko's daughter Sadako who is thought to have inherited her mother's ability. Meanwhile, 19 year-old Sadako joins an acting troupe as therapy for the nightmares she has been having. Sadako's rival is found murdered by a mysterious figure in white. When Sadako takes her late rival's place in the troupe, odd occurrences begin, and Sadako is suspect. 

Sadako 3D (2012):

Based on the Suzuki novel S, it is a sequel to the little-known film Rasen, taking place 13 years after. It features a white-clad man dropping a woman into a well full of long-haired women in nightdresses. 

In keeping with the advance in technology since the last film, now instead of a physical tape the cursed video is now accessed online. This time two detectives investigate a string of mysterious suicides linked to the video.

Sadako 3D 2(2013):

Set five years after the previous film, once again a series of suicides are linked to Sadako attempting to be reborn.

Sadako Vs. Kayako (2016):

This crossover starts with Yuri Kurahashi buying a used VCR which has an old tape cartridge in it. It is, of course, the cursed video. Her friend Natsumi watches the video, not believing the legend they had heard behind the curse, but subsequent events coinvince her she will die soon. Calling on an expert in the supernatural, the girls are introduced to Suzuka Takagi, whose parents were killed by Kayako and her son Toshio from the Ju-On (The Grudge) series when the parents entered the cursed house. The expert believes that the only way Sadako can be finally destroyed (a necessity since Natsumi in a fit of madness uploaded the cursed video onto the internet for all to view) is for the girls to enter the cursed house to bring both 'ghouls' out, with the hope that they would destroy each other.  

What next?

Before Sadako vs. Kayako, many were of the opinion that as a film series, this franchise had been tapped out. In another long-running Japanese horror franchise Ju-On (The Grudge), the release in 2015 of Ju-On: The Final Curse received a lukewarm reception, yet they made a last gasp attempt with the crossover. That this final installment suffered the same fate of tepid reviews common to most horror crossovers begs the question whether any further installments will be made.

TRIVIA

The iconic image below used to promote the first Ring movie does not show the eye of Rei Inoo, the kabuki actress who played Sadako, as commonly assumed. The studio used instead one of the male production crew members for this shot.