EMotors ‘Züms’ up

Former Universal Motors COO and Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. president Elizabeth Lee has put up EMotors Inc., the country’s first manufacturer and assembler of electric tricycles. Like Meralco that is riding on the new wave of the future with the recent purchase of the luxury electric car Tesla Model S, Beth Lee’s EMotors is set to change the way people live with the production of environmentally responsive, zero emission vehicles that can help mitigate air pollution problems and other effects of climate change.

EMotors has recently partnered with logistics solutions company Air21 for the use of Züm electric trikes in its fleet, underscoring EMotors’ goal to provide a local alternative solution to transport that also lessens our carbon footprint, and Air21’s readiness to embrace innovation to increase efficiency and implement environment friendly policies.

Beth (in photo with Air21 CEO Jerry Jara) said her company is the first to register with Executive Order 226 or the Investments Priority Plan, supporting the President’s thrust to lessen air pollution and clean the environment. Companies like EMotors will definitely have the support of top environmental champion Senator Loren Legarda and local executives like Manila Mayor Erap Estrada who is looking at the deployment of electric buses in the city.

Former Dutch Ambassador ‘Torn between two lovers’

Former Netherlands Ambassador to the Philippines Theo Arnold sent us his book, “Torn Between Two Lovers” whose main characters are a divorced European expat and a young Filipina whose growing attraction for each other is unraveled through an exchange of emails that also become surprisingly candid and insightful commentaries about this country’s culture, society and politics.

The book, in a manner of speaking, serves as the author’s avenue for sharing his observations regarding the Philippines as well as some life lessons he has learned. “Torn Between Two Lovers” posits questions on morality and cultural aspects of our society from the perspective of a Westerner, with the plot intertwining with the risks that happen when a young woman yearning for her own family gets into an affair with a much older man whose only commitment is companionship.

Arnold, who has chosen to retire in Manila and is now married to Elizabeth Victoria (after divorcing his Thai wife Kessara Larungko), sheepishly denies that the book has anything to do with his personal love life.

Ambassador Harry Thomas to stay on a little longer

Outgoing United States Ambassador and “everybody’s friend” Harry K. Thomas Jr., who has been doing the rounds saying farewell to friends, will be extending his stay until the middle of September when confirmation hearings for his replacement commence. US President Barack Obama nominated Intelligence and Research (INR) chief Philip S. Goldberg as the new ambassador to the Philippines. But unlike in 2010 when Republican senators placed a hold on Goldberg’s nomination as the State Department’s assistant secretary for INR, our Washington source says they anticipate no problem this time. 

A Boston native who is of Jewish descent, Goldberg is known as a top intelligence man whose position has been described as “critical to the safety and security” of the United States by senior US Senator and chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence Dianne Feinstein of California, who strongly argued for Goldberg’s INR appointment. The incoming ambassador is unattached and has two sisters, and he speaks fluent Spanish, which certainly came in handy when he was assigned to Chile and then to Bolivia where he was expelled by Bolivian president Evo Morales in 2008 due to accusations that the US was working with opposition leaders to undermine Morales.

Intelligence experts know that INR people are experts in their field and have been known to challenge from time to time the common “consensus judgments” of intelligence community members. An example was INR’s dissenting opinion on suspicions that Saddam Hussein was building WMDs (weapons of mass destruction) after the interception of 60,000 aluminum tubes purchased by Iraq. The US Intel community said the tubes – classified by the UN as “controlled items” and which Iraq was not allowed to import – were proof that Iraq was pursuing the development of nuclear weapons. The INR did not share this view, and subsequent events later proved the agency’s analysis to be correct.

Our A-1 source in Washington, who first disclosed to us the nomination of Goldberg in June, said Obama also nominated four diplomats as well as a former marine and a top fundraiser for new diplomatic assignments, namely Robert Blake for Indonesia, Thomas Daughton for Namibia, Michael Hoza for Cameroon, Eunice Reddick for Niger, top Democratic fundraiser Noah Mamet for Argentina and former Marine Corps Sergeant Major John Estrada for Trinidad and Tobago.

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