Glasses can change the future of a billion people
By Crispin Maslog MANILA: In the land of the blind, the one-eyed is king, so the saying goes. Of the world’s 7.8 billion people, 2.2 billion have impaired vision. Of this number, about half are treatable. In effect, they are one-eyed kings who are better off than the 39 million who are completely blind. Nevertheless, […]
Poachers endanger South-East Asia’s rich biodiversity
By Crispin Maslog LOS BAÑOS: Most days, except when it rains, I take regular one-hour walks along the lower end of the 4,244-hectare sloping campus of the College of Forestry, University of the Philippines Los Baños. The campus is at the heart of the Makiling Forest Reserve, which is a world centre for plant biodiversity. […]
The science and economics of COVID-19 vaccines
By Crispin Maslog MANILA: A mad race to produce a vaccine against COVID-19 has begun with the world’s superpowers leading the pack. At stake are millions of lives and billions of dollars. Among the frontrunners is the US with its futuristic-sounding Operation Warp Speed. Europe and China also have their own leading candidate vaccines. As […]
Coping with COVID-19 news fatigue
By Crispin Maslog Chair of the Board, Asian Media Information and Communication Centre, Manila MANILA: Media fatigue from months of intense COVID-19 coverage affects vital public communication. Media coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, continuing full blast for more than half the year by July, seems to have hit a bump. There are indications that people […]
Asia-Pacific nations lean to green energy instead of nuclear
The region should follow the Philippines’ lead and focus on renewable, not nuclear power. A year after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, questions remain over the role of nuclear power in the developing world, including South-East Asia and the Pacific. Nuclear power had a renaissance, driven by rapidly growing energy demands, and fading memories of high-profile […]
Proactive measures needed against disasters
In the closing months of 2011, flash floods caused by the wayward Pacific typhoon, Washi, swept some 1,500 people to their deaths overnight and left at least 2,000 missing in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao. Typhoons strike Mindanao very rarely, every 40 years or so. But when it hit Mindanao this time, it lashed […]
Bipolar Perspectives in Asian and American Community Journalism
As I sit down to write this requested little piece, it dawns on me after half a century in journalism and journalism/mass communication teaching in Asia and the United States, that I have essentially lived in two journalistic worlds—the American and Asian. Translating this into community journalism, one can say that I have been exposed […]
Philippines, Senior Consultant for the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication, Former Journalist for the Press Foundation of Asia 
Trump, Kim, and the Three P’s of Summit Diplomacy: 
