blackshama's commentary on Philippine issues

Christmas in the Philippines came late as like the winter monsoon.  Perhaps it was the economic and political crises buffeting the country and the world as a whole.  And the winter monsoon brought not cold air but rain, flooding Mindoro and Eastern Luzon. That these regions have been almost completely deforested has contribute more to the sorrow. It seems that the Earth is emptying its goodness. In Greek we call this emptying as kenosis. That Jesus Christ is born today is the joyful announcement of the Mass of Christmas Day. This birth involved a divesting of the True God turned Man of His accidentals of his divine nature (Christian theology does not teach that he lost his divinity). It was just his appearances to Divinity just couldn’t be found in the manger in Bethlehem. And the streets of Manila seem to have more of the poor whereas before their suffering were not easily seen. Human dignity seems to have emptied itself for many of these people are hungry. How can ...

A long time ago people had personal mottoes. These short phrases served to identify an ideal, principle or goal. The motto guides personal conduct.  If this motto is a personal one, it tells a lot about the person it signifies. In the Middle Ages, knights, kings, queens and noblemen had mottoes. Anyone who was capable of bearing arms had one. This developed further as part of chivalry and kings had the right to grant arms and of course mottoes. Thus one of the early Knightly mottoes include “Pro Deo et Patria”, for God and Country. It is still the motto of the Philippine Independent Church. Prince Charles as Prince of Wales has the German “Ich Dien” or I serve. Pope John Paul II’s personal motto is Totus Tuus or All Yours. Benedict XVI’s personal motto is “Cooperatores Veritatis”, although it doesn’t appear in his Arms as Supreme Pontiff. Well mine is the Latin Motto ”Duc In Altum’ or  in English “Put out to Deep Water”. In Filipino the motto is “Pumalaot Kayo” The m...

This was Ligpo Reef 27 November 1995. In the last 10 years the reef has experienced 3 successive bleaching events and a Crown-of-Thorns seastar infestation. I'll be surveying the reef on the 27th. Sadly this reef has been severely damaged.

It seems that NASA has accumulated a lot of indirect evidence for life outside Earth. Of course the prime candidate for extraterrestrial life is Mars. That Mars had lots of liquid water and has detectable methane in the atmosphere and these arguesfor the presence of life or past existence of life. The NASA Viking experiments in 1976, were designed to detect microbial life but the results were inconclusive. The robots landed on Mars but because of the strange soil chemistry, all the biochemistry experiments came out inconclusive. So astro evolutionary biologist Peter Ward argues that we must accept as very probable that life is common at least in the solar system and even more probable in the cosmos. Much of this life is not complex. But if we accept that there is extraterrestrial life then we have to revise our understanding of what life is. In biology class we are taught that living things have or can 1) DNA and RNA, 2) are made of cells, 3) reproduce, 4) develop and grow, 5) metabol...

In 1905, Albert Einstein produced scientific papers that have revolutionised our view of the universe. This was his annus mirabilis (in English, wonderful year). In this year, he published his papers on special relativity and his doctoral dissertation on Brownian motion. In the latter Einstein gives us an empirical way to statistically measure the size of the atom. From the annus mirabilis, we have 1) cellphones and 2) microwave ovens Of course, Einsteinian science has given us more techno gadgetry (digital cameras and MP3 players), but the two I listed are something that many people can't survive the day without. But even if Einstein is one of the two most recognised faces (icons) on the planet, (He ranks with Jesus Christ as the second of the two most recognised faces), there are things that we normally don't know about dear old Albert unless if we are diehard fans. One thing is that Albert Einstein two attempts at a PhD were unsuccessful. He was however able to withdraw his ...

The first CS Lewis book I ever read wasn’t “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” but “Mere Christianity”. You may ask why “Mere” was the first Lewis book I read. This has something to do with my spiritual development. Like Lewis, there was a time in my life that I became agnostic.  While a majority of my family was Catholic, we were a multi-faith family and a diversity of  religious views and practices are tolerated.  I have an uncle who became an Orthodox Bishop, several Seventh Day Adventists relatives, Born Agains, Iglesia ni Cristo relations, Episcopalians and Independientes, Muslims and a Buddhist all in one family. A personal religious position such was always respected. The unspoken agreement was that there should be no proselytizing in the family, especially on the dinner table. In our society that has long become religious plural, what does Lewis’ experience tells us about conversion? Just Merely. “Mere Christianity” should be read with “Surprised...

Yesterday the Institute of Environmental Science and Meteorology got a product demo of a Chinese made electric scooter. The scooter needs only 4 hours of charging time with a fast charger, has no emissions but needs four storage batteries. The scooter can manage to run for 10 hours with a maximum speed of 50 Kph and can carry a load of 200 kg. Not bad! The high cost of petrol has made people to consider "alternate"modes of transport. I put the word alternate in quotation marks since these modes of transport are as old as the internal combustion engine but they tended to cost more. Now that petrol is costly, people have begun to take a more serious look into these technologies. The market has already introduced 1) electric vehicles, 2) hybrid cars, 3) hydrogen powered cars and 4) biodiesel. There are other technologies that are still more experimental such as torque driven vehicles. All of these modes have their own advantages and disadvantages. Electric cars still will have t...

UP was known as University of "Pila" or University of Queues ( as translated in English not UQ as University of Queensland). Under the term of Professor Nemenzo as President, the university emabarked on massive effort to computerise and wire the various colleges and departments. This was quite successful that UP has now on-line enrolment and registration. In theory, a student need not leave the dorm or home to enlist in courses that he/she needs to take. In theory there is no need to queue. But there is a snake like queue outside my faculty office. Why? Upon closer inspection and chatting with those queueing, many students complain that the subjects they wanted had long been filled up. I thought that many students just had little chance to register on-line. But that was not the end of the story. The real reason is that the three major colleges of the university, science, social science and arts and letters have priority in enlistment in Revised General Education Courses. So ...

Many human diseases have their origins in birds. Some of these diseases include malaria, dengue and of course influenza. Some of the diseases use other species as vectors (e.g. malaria and dengue that need mosquitoes) and some have gone one step forward, use aerosols (from sneezing birds and people) to infect other hosts. The feared bird flu pandemic (it is already a pandemic among birds!) has made us think about the evolutionary significance of disease. Much as we would want to eliminate disease, doctors and public health practitioners will never be able to eradicate disease, for diseases are part and parcel of the evolutionary process. Diseases tend to select traits in populations and while a proportion of the population will succumb to the infection, the population over time will develop resistance to the pathogen. In short the population will be immune to the disease and the disease organism will live commensally with its host population. A possible example is the common cold. The...

I get my head shaved two times a month. Well since the harsh dry, hot, drier and cold Aussie outback climate accelarated the loss of my crowning glory, I decided to take it all off. This is a bow to male biology and an adaptation to the environment. I have shown how testosterone’s effects show itself. Oh yes, testosterone! This is the hormone that causes the descent of my orchis when I was in my Mum’s womb. For a few weeks, I was sexless until the hormones kicked in. And from then on I was, I am and I will be a man. Now testosterone in popular psychology and in some undergrad textbooks is linked with aggression. The aggression may be sexual or just plain competitive. And if we look into this competitiveness under the corollary of Darwin’s theory, it all boils down to sex once more to be more accurate, sexual selection. There is evidence true. Testosterone binds to many receptors in muscles to the larynx, to the brain. The muscles bulge and enlarges, the laryngeal cells enlarge and thus...

On October 4 each year animal lovers celebrate “World Animal Day” in kind remembrance of Saint Francis of Asissi, the poor man who considered animals and all of nature as his brothers and sisters. Of course St Francis is now considered to be patron saint of 1) animals, 2) environment, 3) environmentalists, 4) ecologists and environmental scientists 4) San Francisco and 5) All people named Francis. The Mass for All Creation  was once celebrated on October 4 but is now celebrated in the Sunday nearest October 4. I attended the Mass at our Carmelite parish. There was a lot of dogs, birds, cats, fish and of course the snakes and lizards. After all snakes and lizards are creatures of the Creator. There was a cacophony of barks and meows and chirps. Saint Francis is believed to have preached to birds, fish and tamed the man-eating wolf of Gubbio. Francis believed that all animals and nature praise God. This was a rather unusual theological position to take in the Middle Ages. The Ju...

I am a martial law baby. I was four when Mr Marcos through Secretary Tatad read Presidential Proclamation 1081, placing the whole Philippines under martial law. Mr Marcos wanted to radically restructure the body politic, shutting Congress, arresting his political opponents and gagging once Asia’s “most free wheeling press”. Nonetheless, the early gains were remarkable. There was a decrease in crime rate, new infrastructure made, orderly traffic and disciplined pedestrians. My older cousins who were teens then, had to stay at home after 12:00 AM as there was a curfew till 4:00 AM. This was to the delight of my uncles and aunts. Their sleepless nights were over, at least with regards to teenagers. I was an innocent child then. I thought that “curfew” pronounced in Philippine English as “karpew” was akin to having no cars for all. A fact that as an adult, I realized, was not far off the mark, there were no cars on the street after 12. My days after school were spent at play with the nei...

I first read John Steinbeck in High School. While in the USA, Steinbeck is part of the American Canon for high school, in the Philippines he is hardly read in schools except by English Lit students in college. The first Steinbeck book I read was the short novel “The Pearl”. Later on I tackled “Grapes of Wrath”, “Of Mice and Men”, “Cannery Row” and “Winter of Discontent”. Steinbeck is best remembered for these novels. But he isn’t generally known for his essays and non-fiction. My interest in Steinbeck deepened when my marine biology professor suggested I read the “Log from the Sea of Cortez”. In this travelogue, I learned about the other Steinbeck, the devoted marine biology student and scientist. The scientist has to keep an eye on nature and fish for pattern. And if you keep on doing so you may feel something “religious” and realize that you are related and linked to all and with all of nature. It is then advisable to “look from the tidepool and into the stars”. Perhaps the best li...

Black or White? The recent impeachment complaint against the Philippines President Gloria Arroyo has made people think about the truth about the “Hello Garci” recordings. The is a new organization of civic society people who are for the impeachment of the president. They call themselves as “Black and White”. To them the truth about the impeachment complaint is black and white.  The Black and White Movement “believe the issues surrounding the presidency and the impeachment complaint are as clear as Black and White. There are no shades of gray when it comes to the Truth.” But what is truth anyway? Is it black and white? Has truth have many shades or colours for that matter? The best remembered rhetorical question in the Gospels is that of Pontius Pilate who asked his prisoner Jesus Christ, “What is truth?” Take note that the Black and White Movement spells truth with an uppercase T, while the Evangelist writes it with a small “t”. Pilate asked the most famous rhetorical question...

It is heartbreaking to see New Orleans submerged under 20 feet of water. This is one of the loveliest cities in the United States, perhaps second only to San Francisco. I was there in 1992. I spent some time in Texas and I made the trip to New Orleans. I fell in love with the city that I resolved that I will find the opportunity to do some research work in Louisiana. Last year I was offered to do post doctoral work in marine evolutionary biology at Louisiana State University and was supposed to leave in late July of 2005 until bureaucratic bungles made me decide to put off the offer until next year. If I had gone, then I should be atop a roof waiting for the Louisiana Air National Guard to pluck me out! Baton Rogue (where the university is located) and New Orleans are among the worst hit of Katrina's wrath. New Orleans is between two mighty bodies of water. One is the Mississipi River and the other is Lake Ponchartrain with its long causeway. The levees that protect the city were...

Teaching the undergraduate environmental science 1 course at UP is extremely challenging since I had to consign the syllabus to the trash bin! Why? It is because the traditional idea of chopping down the environmental system into its spheres e.g. lithosphere, atmosphere, biosphere, cryosphere, hydrosphere etc with their problems may not reflect what is happening in nature. Of course we have to introduce these "sphere" concepts because it allows us to have a good initial grasp of the various physical and biological processes happening. However in nature, what happens in the hydrosphere for example has a direct effect on the atmosphere and of course on the biosphere. All these processes are linked. That everything is linked in nature is the central tenet of environmental science and environmentalism. The natural processes are linked and so too is the damage we humans inflict on these processes. Perhaps the history of our dealings with the environment can be simply summarized...

It was meant to be an old style war movie in which the Nips all die and the Yanks all live (with two exceptions). Too bad we no longer have John Wayne or ol' blue eyes on the screen. Nonetheless, it is a refreshing change from what Hollywood has dished out in the last 12 years or so. The 1990s slop of war pics focused on the futility of war and this started with Schindler's List and peaked with that Saving Private Ryan. By the time that Pearl Harbor movie came along, people were fed up. BTW, Pearl Harbor is the only movie in history to have offended all sorts of war vets. The Army nurses protested their being depicted as "sluts", the Pearl Harbor vets complained of the inaccuracies, the Japanese hated the idea that they were stereotyped once more and most especially the Japanese-Americans, whose painful experiences in America's concentration camps were once again put to light. After watching the movie, I immediately grabbed hold of 5 books on the Cabanatuan Raid f...

My Environmental Science freshman class recently planted several indigenous Philippine trees on unused land at the UP. The trees were Dao, Tamyo, Kaliskis, Molave,Kupang, Balacat, Bagras, Narra, Lankang-Gubat, Kamagong and Balite. Some of these trees are remembered just as place names. For example, Dau and Mabalacat in Pampanga used to abound in these trees. Today not a single Dao or Balacat tree can be found there. Likewise, Kaliskis,Kupang, Balite are names of many barangays in the Philippines. You would be lucky to find the trees for which the places were named in these places. Most of these trees grow tall and majestic. They were real landmarks all over the Philippines. Thus many of the trees are rare and some are endangered. But the memory of these trees on the landscape can only be gleaned from place names. In place of these trees, we have replaced them with alien species like Gmelina. At the University of the Philippines, much of the trees growing are foreign. The iconic tree of...

My freshie students planting a molave tree on unused land at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City

Talin Bay, Batangas. It is early morning and the shore is quiet for now at least.