blackshama's commentary on Philippine issues

The hottest summer courtesy of El Nino in at least 10 years gave runners and walkers in the University of the Philippines Diliman campus a visual treat. This year the flame trees Delonix regia are in full bloom! In past summers it wasn't as hot and dry so the trees did not shed their leaves and few blooms were produced. It is the tropical version of the Japanese Hanami or the Cherry blossom viewing season. While Hanami tells us the fragile impermanence of beauty, the flame tree hanami tells us that summer burns but soon it will all be over.

I could have subtitled this post as "More ways to get back at the Devil! " But that may too much for our readers! Sir Thomas More, a.k.a the Man for All Seasons is also remembered as the Man Who Lost His Head for an oath. Of course, it is not JUST an oath for according to More, an oath is nothing but words and by the words it may be possible to take or not to take an oath. Robert Bolt's award winning play (which was turned into an multi Oscar winning movie) A Man for All Seasons has More (played by the great thespian Paul Scofield) say the following "What is an oath then, but words we say to God?" And from here is we can take another view of the Noynoy Aquino won't take his oath from Mr Chief Justice Corona but from his barangay captain issue which has hit the social networking sites and has our most esteemed Law deans, law students and interested non-lawyers discussing the issue. Some people say that the Constitution doesn't say that the Chief Justice...

Several people have asked me whether what we have been experiencing in Metro Manila for at least 2 weeks can be considered as a "heat wave". Since I teach a bit of meteorology and climatology for freshies on Environmental Science 1, I had to dig up my notes and find out what the definition of heat wave is. There is no fast and clear numerical rule for determining what a heat wave is. It is relative. For instance, in Scandinavian countries like Denmark and Sweden, three days of consecutive 28 c weather is officially considered as a heat wave by their meteorological agencies. In these northern European countries where people are used to summer temperatures peaking at 21 C, this is indeed unbearable. Visitors to London from the Southern United States laughed at a Times headline that went "London SIZZLES in the 70s . Southerners are used to having temps that reach above 100 F. In the Southern United States, two days of excessively hot weather is considered a heat wave. Th...

May 10, 2010, election day in the Philippines is historic in several ways. First of all it is the first time that the national elections are automated. Secondly, it is a chance for the electorate to get rid of the Glorious disaster of the last 9 years and thirdly it shows us that religious command votes no longer matter much. Besides the heat (and I was not that hydrated, stupid me and got a mild case of heat fatigue!) I noticed that even in precincts where the heat index would have reached 43 C, hardy anyone wants to leave the queue. It took many voters 4 hours (leading prez contender Noynoy Aquino not exempted) cast their vote. Congratulations Filipino electorate. Your vote was read by the PCOS machine. Some PCOS machines conked out apparently due to the heat. But equipment failure contrary to pessimists was estimated at less than 1% Within a minute after the polls closed, it seems that PPCRV has got a few results in its parallel count. Expect this to snowball as time passes. Electo...