blackshama's commentary on Philippine issues

Professor Torsten Wiesel 1981 Nobel Laurate in Medicine for his work on how the retinal cells in the eyes receive light and how the brain conjures an image, is now in town for a series of visits to our research universities. He was in DLSU earlier and proceeded to UP Diliman. He will visit other universities in his tour of the country. Over merienda at the Board of Regents (BOR) room at Quezon Hall, UP administrators briefed the professor about the University’s plans to further push forward our scientific development. Prof Wiesel is no stranger to the problems and pitfalls administrators face, for after receiving the Nobel, he became president of the Rockefeller University. Upon stepping down from this post, he assumed leadership of the Human Frontier Science Program which promotes and funds interdisciplinary collaboration between the sciences and helps train postdoctoral scientists. Professor Wiesel in these various engagements, advises government research bureaucracies on how the...

Those of us in the Philippine environmental science profession learn in undergraduate geology that Palawan is the most aseismic place in the whole country. For one thing, the island is a piece of the Eurasian continental crust that was ripped from the mainland as a result of the formation of the South China Sea more than 30 million years ago. Palawan is a continental island as compared to the other Philippine islands, which are called "oceanic" meaning their origin is from the oceanic crust. Volcanism built these islands. In graduate school, we had to pass the master's level course on geological oceanography. I was fortunately under Dr Margaret Goud-Collins (who is now affiliated with Woods Hole) who had not a few class days devoted on how the formation of Palawan. I fact the evolution of this island is linked with the evolution of the Sulu and South China Seas. Palawan is relatively aseismic since it is far from any plate subduction zone. In contrast the islands of ocea...

Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas. Decades of poor governance, dictators, hurricanes have all contributed to the country's desperate status. The country is at the same latitude as northern Luzon. And like the Philippines is in the path of tropical cyclones and is earthquake prone. The country is the first independent republic in the Caribbean declaring its freedom from France. But due to political instability, the US occupied the country from 1915 to 1934. French and American intervention in the past remains in the nation's consciousness. Widespread poverty has contributed to widespread deforestation. In the 1920s Haiti had 60% forest cover. In 2010 it had >2%. It is mountainous in the interior. Loss of precious topsoil reduced crop productivity, worsening the chronic food security problem. This also is the major factor in the recent devastating floods that hit the country in the last 2 years. And now comes the deadly earthquake. The buildings and houses in Haiti...

The Philippine National Police , which has deployed a thousand cops to secure the Jan 9 procession of the Black Nazarene, says that more people will come to the procession this year due to the environmental disasters we had experienced last year. The devotion is featured in numerous books for tourists planning a visit to the Philippines. It is probably the best known folk Catholic devotion in the Philippines. Of course it isn't the only one. Each and every town in the country has probably a folk Catholic devotion. The Nazarene devotion is what may be said as a functional one. Many folk Catholic devotions dating back to the Spanish colonial period have died out with political and social changes. The public devotions in Intramuros churches are now extinct, having gone with the destruction of the churches in WWII. Some have been revived, like the Marian processions on Dec 8. The Nazarene devotion is notable that it survived wars and revolutions. It dates back to the 1600s for the Naz...

The old Roman Church calendar had January 1 as the Feast of the Circumcision ("tuli" in Filipino) of Christ. Why there is a circumcision is told in Genesis 17 as a reminder of YHWH's covenant with Abraham. Verse 12 has it as " And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every male throughout your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any foreigner, that is not of thy seed." In the covenant, Abraham was promised that he will have many descendants by his wife Sarah. Abraham's son with Sarah' Isaac was circumcised 8 days after he was born, his eldest son with Sarahs servant Hagar, Ishmael, at 13 years and Abraham himself at 90 years. Christian Tradition holds that the real start of Jesus's shedding of blood for our salvation started on his circumcision. This was also the time when Jesus was named as Jesus. Another name of the feast is "The Naming of Jesus" The new Roman Calendar promulgated by Pa...