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Recently The Guardian reported that the US had arrested a 29 year old Russian redhead for alleged espionage. Maria Butina follows a formidable list of beautiful femmes fatales who have lured away state secrets for their countries’ government. Whether through male or female operatives, the history of spying is long. From ancient history to the today’s use of drones and satellites to gather intel, knowing the opposition by spying seems to be a human behavior. Moses commissioned twelve spies, a leader from each tribe, to Canaan to spy out the land— to determine the strength of the enemies and the fortification of their cities. During the American Revolutionary War, the British Major John André conspired with the American General Benedict Arnold to sell a Continental Army fort, West Point and was hanged when caught. The World War I Dutch born exotic dancer, Mata Hari , served as a courtesan to the high ranking military and politicians in Paris gaining vital information for Germany before she was caught and shot by a firing squad. In the 1940s and 50s the KGB recruited Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, American Communists, to steal classified documents and designs. They also met an untimely demise in an electric chair in Sing Sing Prison. Seemingly, scandals and consequences accompany secrecy and duplicity. Continue reading →

Annually, leaders of the twenty-nine North Atlantic Trade Organization (NATO) countries meet in one of the member nations to discuss critical issues and agenda items of the alliance, but summits are held for special changes. Although NATO is considered the most successful military alliance in modern history, this year the NATO summit met in Brussels under a cloud of pessimism because of the major disagreement among the member countries.  President Donald Trump’s criticism of NATO allies and his trade wars with the European economies raised concern over the future of the transatlantic alliance At last week’s NATO meeting, President Trump urged members to contribute more in terms of finances, troops, and capabilities, just as the alliance is on the verge of making strategy changes. In his customary blunt straight talk, the President accused the allies of treating the US like “a piggy bank” by not paying their fair share of NATO’s costs. President Trump said that if Europe is afraid of Russian expansion, international terrorism, and an uncontrolled influx of migrants from other countries, they should share the burden more proportionately.  Trump shocked  NATO members further by saying they should not wait until 2024 to reach the goal of spending 2% of their GDP on their defense, but they should pay equitably now. Continue reading →

We hope that President Rodrigo Duterte will continue his war on counterfeit drugs. His policies may tackle the cultivation, distribution, and consequences of illicit drugs. For example, those fighting against counterfeit medicines complain that those prosecuted for this offense receive a  comparatively light sentence compared to the sentences given to criminals peddling narcotics. Yet, counterfeit drugs are very dangerous because they threaten national security by endangering the health of a vast majority of the people. Fraudulent operations, nevertheless, continue to operate and flourish in countries with weak drug regulatory bodies because of the dual accountability problem of poor funding and staffing and weak or corrupt customer services and policy agencies. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the counterfeit drugs business accounts for about 10% of the annual $300 billion global drug industry. This figure includes such pharmaceuticals  as fake birth control pills, cough syrup for children laced with a powerful opioid, and malarial pills composed of just potato and cornstarch. The WHO lists these as examples of poor quality, falsified medicines identified in recent years, all of which ignore the possible consequences for the public— health risks for and potential death of the users.  Furthermore, some drugs that are not classified as illegal or dangerous may become so if purchased from an online site that proves not to be legitimate or even a trusted pharmacy that unknowingly receives a shipment of untested and illegitimate drugs. Because this counterfeit trade is so lucrative, the growing supply has caused great damage around the world. Continue reading →

Political Islam made history again on Sunday evening by winning a landslide victory in the first round of Turkey’s June 24 presidential election. Despite the attempts aimed at deposing President Erdogan, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made history again on Sunday evening by his Justice and Development Party (AK Party), which has been in power since 2002. He received approximately 51.79% of the votes in the first round of the presidential elections and won the presidency again. President Erdogan made history by becoming Turkey’s first executive president and leading his party by an unprecedented number to rule for the next five year until the Republic‘s centennial in 2023. Erdogan has thus been elected as the first president of the new system. Having been in power for 16 years and with 13 elections and referenda wins, Erdogan overcame his closest rival. The President’s hard fought re-election campaign focused on two important factors that led President Erdogan to be reelected: one was national security and the other the religion factor. Erdogan steadily increases the hold of Islam on the nation, squelching other faiths as well as remnants of those supporting the founder of the Republic who held to a pillar of secularism. The Turkish public did not care much about the economy in spite of the Turkish currency being at an all time low. Many citizens apathy about the economy was because they believed that the economic and financial problems were instruments used by foreigners to weaken Turkey. Continue reading →

Social Entrepreneurship Technology and Business Institute (SETBI)  is co-hosting with the University of SouthEastern Philippines (USEP)the 1st International Conference on Inmates’ Transformative Education for Successful Re-entry on May 16-17, 2018 at the Social Hall of the USeP Obrero campus in Davao City.

Centered on the theme Hope for Restoration—Today’s Inmate is Tomorrow’s Neighbor, the conference will gather representatives from the five pillars of the Criminal Justice System, non-government organizations (NGOs), community leaders, academic leaders, criminal justice practitioners, and students. Researchers will also present their papers on the importance of education in the future development of the Criminal Justice System.

The event, which highlights the role of transformative education in reducing recidivism, will serve as an avenue for the researchers to share their experiences and findings of studies on prison-based education and other related topics such as drug addiction and rehabilitation.

In August 2017, USeP. SETBI, and Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) launched the College Education Behind Bars (CEBB) program—considered the first of its kind in the country. This allows Davao City Jail inmates to earn a degree from USeP while serving their prison sentence. In October 2017, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) also entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with SETBI for the possible nationwide expansion of the CEBB program.

The founding academic director of John Jay’s Prison-to-College Pipeline program, New York who is also a professor, writer, and journalist is among the main speakers of the conference. Other speakers include the heads of the following institutions: BJMP 11; Davao City Treatment and Rehabilitation Center for Drug Dependents; Commission on Higher Education; Department of Justice; Davao City Prosecution Office; City Anti-Drug Abuse Council; Police Regional Office 11; Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency 11; and Archdiocesan Social Action Center. An executive judge from the Regional Trial Court, a lawyer-faculty of CEBB, and a local media practitioner will also speak in the conference.

The partner-institutions, USeP represented by President Lourdes C. Generalao, and SETBI represented by Dr. Aland D. Mizell, President, and Atty. Susan Cariaga, Vice President, underscore that education is a right which must be afforded to all people and that it is a shared responsibility

The current trade war between China and the USA ensures that relations will continue to be difficult because China is about to overtake the world as the number one power. However, the United States does not want to admit that they will slide to second place. During Donald Trump’s election campaign before he became the US President, Trump criticized China by announcing, “We can’t continue to allow China to rape our country.” He also declared he would not let the United States be taken advantage of anymore and would always guarantee that America was first. According to President Trump's view on US relations with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), it was not important. ASEAN, in fact, is very important to the United States for many reasons. Perhaps most importantly, ASEAN has successfully pursued good politics alongside good economics. The United States badly needs regional powers that can counterbalance China’s growing geopolitical power. With its motto of “One vision, one identity, one community,” ASEAN welds great power because collectively the ASEAN countries have an intergovernmental force. According to an ancient Asian proverb, “When elephants fight, the grass suffers.” Undoubtedly, the trade war between America and China will have victims. Most likely, ASEAN will be one of the victims. Continue reading →

There is no doubt President new team Pompeo-Bolton team will present the most significant challenge to Iran's foreign policy in more than three decades. President Trump in selecting John Bolton as his new national security adviser and Mike Pompeo as his secretary of state, Trump two the most hawkish Republicans in his team. John Bolton is his third national security advisor. There is no doubt Trump's new foreign policy team will certainly increase pressure on Tehran from all angles, including putting more pressure on regional countries and U.S. allies to distance themselves from Iran.  Fore example Turkey This will have a negative impact on the Iran-Ankara cooperation not only in economic and trade matters but also in other areas.   “ If anyone seeks to betray the nuclear deal, they should know that they cannot escape its “grave consequences”, President Hassan Rouhani of Iran warned on Tuesday in an open reference to U.S. President Donald Trump who has repeatedly threatened to destroy the international agreement.  Continue reading →

The air strikes in Syria by the UK, the US, and France have attracted the attention of a plethora of media again. The US, in spite of Trump’s claims that Washington is withdrawing from the region, has carried out a limited attack on Syria, but its consequences will certainly affect Trump and his allies in the near future. Quickly responding to Saturday’s triune missile strikes on Syrian chemical sites, Russia emboldened its relation to Iran and bolstered the Syrian military. Most likely Russia will resume talks with Syria and other countries over the sale of modern S-300 air defense systems to protect against future US-British-French strikes America, France, and Britain boasted that they had taught Bashar al-Assad a lesson. It is really hypocritical to boast about teaching lessons to Assad given that this was a one time, limited attack that hardly dented Assad’s capacity to kill his own people. These three countries seemingly do not care enough nor do they have the political will to save Syrians from Assad’s regime. It is almost a joke for us to believe that U.S, Britain, and France have given a message that they will not tolerate Assad’s chemical attacks and will strike back if such crimes against humanity are committed again. That is not the real problem in Syria. Continue reading →