blackshama's commentary on Philippine issues

That science has contributed to the advancement of society cannot be overemphasized. Much of the applications of science that has resulted in innovations (e.g. gadgets) or a better quality of life (e.g. reducing the child and maternal deaths, extending the human lifespan) were due to governments creating and adopting the right policies. These policies encouraged the application of science and technology to ensure the best quality of outcomes for society. Government sets the environment that enables scientific research. It does this by directly funding research and rewarding innovation. Governments mainly do these through the research universities. While the business sector also contributes to innovation, government may provide tax incentives as policy to promote innovation. Who sets the research priorities? In most democratic governments, the scientific community and the government through various forums do these. Most governments have a science ministry headed by a cabinet ...

I always had an interest in the Confederate States of America (CSA). For one thing, it almost made it impossible what the United States claimed it stood for in the Philippines when they defeated our Republic in 1899 and ruled the country until July 4, 1946. But to understand our love-hate relationship with the USA, we need to look at the history of the CSA. President Duterte’s diplomatic rant about Bud-Dajo won’t have its bite without looking at what the CSA was all about. The fact is the agrarian slave based CSA lost the war to the industrial Yankee North. The fact is also, in Reconstruction, the CSA was rehabilitated and even with its incorporation with the USA, a lot of what the CSA stood for survived. Jim Crow, segregation, equal but separate remained in the Southern States. His Excellency Fidel V Ramos, President of the Philippines experienced this on a train ride to Georgia as a West Point Cadet in the early 1950s. This was something he recollected in a speech to cadets in...

While science can explain much about the natural world and has resulted in technological advances that makes life better, it has uncertainties. Any scientific and technological application in our daily lives has risks. The job of scientists, most especially statisticians, to is make sure these risks are at a manageable level. The medical and environmental sciences are two disciplines in which the conclusions of these sciences intimately affect our personal lives and that of our loved ones. The applications of these sciences in daily life, entail risks. A good medical doctor should be able to advise you of the risks of side effects of a drug. Likewise a good environmental scientist should be able to advise you of the risks of using environmentally damaging technologies. While environmental scientists and doctors of medicine can come up with the scientific theories of their disciplines, applying these in society is another matter. The application of these becomes more complex and ...