I Like 2: Squishable Whale and Bunny

Check out Squishables.com and get a load of plump, round squishable animals to hug and throw around!

I fancy the squishable whale and bunny, though.





















There are other squishable animals there so simply take your pick and get some super-sized fluff.

Focusing on Trivial Problems

Manila Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales made a statement recently that raised the ire of the gay community. He believes that gay people shouldn't be made to participate in the Santacruzan because "they are insulting the purity of the devotion."

For the benefit of my non-Filipino readers, the Santacruzan is a colorful religious procession held every May in many areas of the Philippines. This said procession is actually a reenactment of the finding of Jesus' cross by Queen Helena (locally named Reyna Elena) and her son, Constantine (locally named Constantino). Apart from the usual rosary-praying and singing, the Santacruzan also features the most beautiful belles of the community, all led by Reyna Elena (said to be the most beautiful -- or the richest -- of the lot) and Constantino who is usually depicted as a child.

Not to incur the ire of our local tourism people and the Roman Catholic Church, but I'm not much of a fan of Santacruzans. You see, more often than not, the Santacruzan turns into a parade of beauties rather than a solemn procession. Call me a killjoy, but if I'd like to see a parade of beauties, I'd rather watch a beauty pageant than a Santacruzan. Besides, there are some parishes who choose their sagalas (these are what the "beauties" are called in the Santacruzan) not much for their beauty but for the generous donations given by their respective families. So technically, people watch these Santacruzans more for the elaborate gowns than the ones wearing them.

Considering that our local parishes allow this mardi gras to propagate in the guise of the Santacruzan, why should gay people be left out of it? The Santacruzan is a spectacle -- not a religious activity. Thus, the gay community will be very much at home in this venue. Plus, they hit two birds with one stone. They get to strut their stuff in front of an admiring crowd, they also get to show their religiosity.

I mean, honestly: let's not be hypocritical about it, Cardinal Rosales. Don't tell me that there is a difference between gays and straight females in outlandish outfits parading in a Santacruzan. The end result of this spectacle is the same. If ever there is a difference, it must be because the gays get more attention than the straights.

At this point, I do agree with gay rights activist Prof. Danton Remoto who says that Cardinal Rosales should focus his attention on the more prevalent moral misdemeanors occurring in society today. He'll have a heyday just from praying for all errant souls in government -- if ever they do have souls.

Gays in the Roman Catholic religion, especially in Santacruzans, are very trivial, and are the least of Cardinal Rosales' problems.

Sigh...I miss His Eminence Jaime Cardinal Sin...

I Like 1: The Flip Video Ultra Series Camcorder, 60 Minutes

Ooooohhh...if anyone out there in the Great Beyond would be so kind to donate to me this ultra-uber camcorder called the Flip Video Ultra Series Camcorder, 60 Minutes, then by all means, feel free to do so! I saw it on Amazon.com, and methinks that the pink one is really cute...


I super-like this little gadget's features: a whopping 2 GB memory (no need for memory cards and stuff), simple uploading of videos with its handy USB arm, one-touch video recording, and you can directly upload your videos to AOL Video or YouTube with it. It's also quite small and non-bulky, it can fit snugly in a small bag. I'm not that impressed with the two AA batteries, though. I wish it could just be recharged cellular phone-like. Nonetheless, it's one cool tech tool -- and I wish I had it...

*sniff*

Insights on the Impact of the UP Charter

Allow me to share an article by Prof. Michael Tan of the UP College of Arts and Letters (Diliman) who has a regular column in The Philippine Daily Inquirer. It discusses the impact of the newly-approved UP Charter, primarily on the said university's faculty members. It clearly mirrors my own experiences when I was a junior faculty member of the UP Division of Humanities at UP in the Visayas Tacloban College. However, I have to disagree with Prof. Tan on the issue of bullying by senior faculty members being a minor problem. In UP Tacloban, it is a major problem.

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UP's Brain Drain

“Congratulations on your salary increase.”

I got several text messages of that type last week when the new charter of the University of the Philippines (UP) was signed into law. I was surprised because the messages came from friends outside UP, including two Americans, suggesting that they were following the issue. When I brought this up with fellow UP faculty members, they in turn shared quite a few reactions to the new charter, and several—the younger ones in particular—said I should write about some of the issues in my column.

First, congratulations are in order for president Emerlinda Roman, who will be remembered in history for shepherding the bill through a not-always-friendly Congress, some of whose members opposed the charter mainly because of personal grudges. There was also opposition from some UP constituents, who feared the new charter might mean the commercialization of the university.

I have some fears, too, but it’s not so much about commercialization than not being able to tap the full potentials of the new charter especially with our human resources. The new law gives the university even greater autonomy than it used to have, including the area of salaries. Before the new charter, all our salaries—teaching staff as well as non-academic personnel—were tied to the government’s standardized salary scale, which meant that an instructor would get a gross salary of about P15,000 per month while a full professor (a position that takes about 30 years to achieve, if you’re lucky) gets a little more than P30,000.

The new charter allows the university to raise these salaries based on its financial resources, which comes from the government’s allocated budget as well as grants and other income. This is why my non-UP friends were texting in, thinking that new salaries automatically went into effect.

But salary adjustments are going to take time, as the university thoroughly reviews the options. I can see why our officials have to be careful because they can’t afford to just give higher salaries this year, and then adjust downwards in succeeding years if funds dwindle.

People within and outside UP tend to associate the new charter with these dreams of higher salaries, mainly because they think it will solve the problem of UP’s brain drain. For years now, we have been losing faculty to other good schools like the two around the corner on Katipunan Road, one on Taft Avenue in Manila and that one in Pasig City, where salaries are at least double those at UP.

But, there’s more to UP’s brain drain than salaries. In truth, many of our professors have found ways to supplement their salaries. I haven’t heard of anyone selling "tocino" meat yet, but insurance policies, yes, and paintings and antiques and real estate. Being a UP professor can also mean consultancies and invitations to teach part-time in other universities. You need permission to do some of these sidelines, but UP tends to be fairly lenient here, as long as these don’t interfere with UP duties.

Nurturance
Higher salaries, I hope, will mean fewer of those sidelines, but there’s more to keeping our faculty going. The bottom line is that UP needed a new charter to deal with what it had become, a strange and difficult hybrid. On one hand, we are larger than many mega-corporations with huge potentials and resources. On the other hand, we are hobbled as a government institution with bureaucracies that breed turfing and patron-client relationships and a tenure system that sometimes leads to complacency and lethargy. To some, maybe even large, extent, it’s these organizational management issues that contribute to our brain drain problem.

The ones who suffer most are our young faculty members, who eventually leave out of frustration. In the words of one faculty member who nearly left when she was younger: “It wasn’t the salaries, but the lack of nurturance.”

New faculty members are full of ideals, but also want guidance. Many have no inkling of what it takes to teach. Many of us had to pick up teaching skills on our own. Only in recent years, to the credit of the current administration, has the university intensified its orientation and teaching seminars for new and junior faculty and explored new teaching tools, including the Internet.

There’s more, though, than workshops on teaching methods. Younger faculty members need space to exchange ideas, and to innovate, but when they do this, the older ones sometimes react negatively, seeing these as demands or threats, rather than as opportunities to learn. Nothing pleases me more than passing on my course outlines, lecture notes, books and films to younger faculty members and then seeing them update and revise and create totally new modules.

Younger faculty members leave, too, when they see their careers in UP as a dead end, blocked by older ones when it comes to promotions and other perks, such as opportunities for further studies, or attending workshops and symposia. The best ones who have left were those who had languished in lower ranks. A few came home from overseas studies with a postgraduate degree but had to wait for years before a promotion.

The current administration has done a lot to correct these injustices. In the last three years, I’ve been pleasantly surprised when my department hires someone new and recommends him for a particular rank, and then gets a notice from university officials asking us to give a higher position because the new hire graduated cum laude or has a master’s degree.

All these—promotion, mentoring, collegial camaraderie—are part of nurturance.

Fighting cynicism
I think you can see here that the problem of younger faculty members leaving sometimes has to do with the senior ones. The bullies are the easy part; you simply ignore them. I worry more about the others who have tired out, or worse become jaded and cynical. The old system gave some security but little incentive, so professors ended up playing safe and teaching the same courses for years on end with little or no innovation, and certainly, even less willingness to let the younger faculty members learn to teach those courses as well.

Frustrations grow, too, when older faculty members become administrators and try to improve standards or enforce university rules, and end up being reprimanded for doing so. If they leave, with their years of experiences, the loss to UP can be great.

There were, even under the old charter, many reasons to stay in UP, especially greater academic freedom. But there will be greater incentive to stay if we see greater professionalism, where rules are enforced consistently and fairly and a meritocracy that rewards commitment and innovation, rather than “loyalty” (read: sycophancy) and conformity.

Some time back an administrator from one of the other good schools asked me if I had anyone to spare to teach in his university, even on a part-time basis. Before I could answer, he went, “Hey, please don’t send X or Y or Z.”

The other schools know whom they want, and don’t want. Do we know whom we want at UP?

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If you want to read this article yourself, simply click on this link.

The Faces of Philippine Public Service

I just saw this on ICanHasCheezburger.com, and I just had to share this with everyone. Reminds me of our government solons.

Was looking for a crocodile version but cannot find any, so I guess this will do. Yes, laugh all you want.

Website Watch 6: SubservientChicken.com

There are simply no words to describe it. It's a subservient chicken. Do with it what you will. Here's a screenshot to give you an idea:


If you're mad at your boss, check out the subservient chicken. If you and your boyfriend/girlfriend split up, check out the subservient chicken. If your parents disowned you, check out the subservient chicken. If you lost your job, check out the subservient chicken.

To sum it all up, if you're mad at the world -- even at yourself -- then vent out all your anger at the subservient chicken. Come out of the experience with a smile on your face.

Can't Get Enough of Avatar!

I blame it all on my officemate, Camille.

Prior to Camille's influence, I already found out about Avatar: the Last Airbender from my daughter's K-Zone. At first I couldn't understand how a boy with arrow tattoos and his flying six-legged bison could create such a fuss among kids who watched it in Nickelodeon. I thought that it was just another one of dem anime cartoons.

I was promptly corrected by Camille who explained that Avatar may look anime, but it's actually an American-made cartoon. Hmmm...interesting.

To further enlighten me on the subject, Camille let me borrow her DVD of Avatar. I watched it -- and I was hooked.

The synopsis of the story is actually stated in the beginning of each episode. The world of the Avatar is divided according to the four major elements: the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdoms, the Air Nomads, and the Fire Nation. Remarkable individuals with special powers over their respective elements abound from each nation, and they are called benders.

One day, the Fire Nation suddenly decides to declare war over the three other nations, and only one person can stop this invasion from becoming successful: the Avatar. The Avatar is actually a series of reincarnations of an individual with expertise in bending all four elements. Unfortunately, as the Fire Nation was beginning its initial onslaught for world domination, the Avatar vanished.

A hundred years later, the Avatar and his flying bison named Appa were found and reanimated by two kids from the Southern Water Tribe: Katara, a water bender, and her older brother and warrior-in-the-making, Sokka. The Avatar is actually a twelve-year old kid from among the Air Nomads -- a tribe that has long been extinct because of the Fire Nation purging -- so he turns out to be the last air bender, Aang.

Aang, Katara, and Sokka soon begin their quest to understand what the Avatar has to do to stop the war initiated by the Fire Nation. As they go on, Aang realizes that he has to master all four elements to conquer the Fire Lord Ozai and finish the war. Thus, the three search the world for bending masters of each element.

Since Aang is already an air bender, he still has the water, earth, and fire elements to master. Katara eventually becomes his first teacher in the art of water bending. Soon, they come upon a blind child from an illustrious Earth Kingdom family who can "see" through vibrations she feels using her feet in the person of Toph. She becomes Aang's earth bending teacher.

One time during training of fire bending, Aang accidentally burns Katara, and this causes him to become fearful of fire bending. Nevertheless, all of them realize that he still needs to learn that skill -- and Prince Zuko steps in.

Prince Zuko is quite a colorful character. Not only is he voiced by half-Filipino Dante Basco (the same guy who voices for Jake Long in Disney's The American Dragon: Jake Long), his character is in constant flux between good and evil. He is Fire Lord Ozai's only son and successor to his throne, but he was punished and banished by his own father for being more humane. To restore his dignity and honor, he searches for the Avatar high and low to capture and bring back to the Fire Nation. Acting as his conscience is his uncle, Iroh -- formerly a decorated and feared general and Fire Lord Ozai's older brother. He lost his will to battle after he lost his only son in his last battle in Bah Sing Seh -- the strongest Earth Kingdom stronghold. In Book 1 (Water), Prince Zuko is bad to the bone. By the end of Book 2 (Earth), Zuko somehow comes to the crossroads of his destiny and he has to choose whether to continue his loyalty to his father or to side with the Avatar and his friends. But by Book 3 (Fire), Zuko emerges a changed man who joins Aang and his group in defeating his father and restoring balance to the world. And -- wonder of wonders -- he turns into Aang's fire bending teacher.

There are other beautiful (and nasty) characters all thrown into the Avatar fray like Zuko's war freak sister Azula; Suki, leader of the Kyoshi warriors; Momo, Aang's flying lemur; Princess Yue of the Northern Water Tribe; Jet, leader of the freedom fighters...etcetera, etcetera, but each character is well-textured and certainly adds color to the entire story.

Avatar is already in its last episodes (I'm reduced to seeing Book 3 online only -- poor me), but it just gets more exciting as each episode goes on. It's certainly more thrilling to watch than our local teleseryes with stories that move too slow for the sake of advertisements.

Avatar is one cartoon that I'm sure, even adults will enjoy. Just check out all the fancy moves the benders make. According to its creators, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, the bending moves in the cartoon have their roots in actual Chinese martial arts. The flowing moves of Tai Chi were used for water bending techniques while the more stable yet strong moves of Hung Gar were employed for earth bending. The fast jabbing style of Northern Shaolin, meanwhile, constitutes the fire bending moves. On the other hand, the circular movements made in Bagua make for great air bending moves. (Thanks to Wikipedia.com for the information.)

Even the script of Avatar is noteworthy. Sokka's the joker of the group, and his one-liners simply crack me up. Even Momo who merely makes a croo-croo sound has his own hilarious moments. Katara is the more serious one, and her character denotes a girl trying to be the motherly, mature grown-up as a way to protect her friends. She can be affectionate, but her lines are not mushy. When Zuko finally decided to join Aang and his group, I half-laughed, half-pitied him when he collapsed to the ground (after an unfortunate accident with Toph) and exclaimed, "AAAARRRGGGHHHH!!! Why am I so bad at being good?!"

Give Avatar a try. Trust me: it will be worth your time.

Website Watch 5: ICanHasCheezburger.com

Are you an animal lover with a preference for cats?

Do you have a healthy sense of humor? (emphasis on the healthy part)

Do you stink at spelling?

If you managed to say yes to at least two of the three questions above, then you're ready to appreciate ICanHasCheezburger.com.

I find this website utterly entertaining, not only due to the fact that feline photos reign supreme over this site, but also because of the really funny intentionally-misspelled captions on each photo.

Below are just some examples of photos on ICanHasCheezburger.com:



I told you, they are cute...

Swimming in Muck: the Philippine Medical Profession

Transplant tourism, the rectum surgery scandal, last year's brouhaha over leaks in the nursing board exams, and now, Filipino hospitals involved in the US veterans' insurance scam.

Just when will all these controversies regarding the Philippine medical profession end?

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Let me give my dear readers an overview of these said scandals, starting with the Philippines being a premiere destination for "transplant tourism."

Early this year, it was revealed through media that several jail inmates, as well as people from the more impoverished areas of the country, have been living with only one kidney. As it turned out, these people sold their other kidneys to foreigners who paid them with quite a substantial sum of money. They were made to believe that since they still had one kidney left, their bodies can still function normally.

Blinded by money that could support their respective families for some time, these individuals are now slowly finding out the repercussions resulting from the loss of their other kidney. Most of them are no longer as physically strong as they were, and some of them are now deprived of specific food and beverages that could otherwise make their weakened condition worse.

The Department of Health (DOH) has already stepped in on the matter, banning the continuation of such a trade perpetrated not only by foreigners but also by wealthy Filipinos in need of kidney transplants. Both the kidney "transplantees" and "receivers" are up in arms regarding this issue, and debates on this matter have yet to be resolved.

It's creepy and somewhat twisted to think that people would be so desperate so as to sell their vital organs just for a few months' release from financial deprivation.

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The rectum surgery scandal, of course, is the one where an admittedly-gay person underwent surgery for removal of a six-inch long body spray canister which was inserted in his rectum by his lover. The said surgery could have gone on smoothly and quietly -- but medical personnel of the Vicente Sotto Medical Memorial Center (VSMMC) decided to do otherwise. All throughout the procedure, the poor patient became victim to jeers and cajoling from these beasts in white. Several of them even brought in cellular phones to the surgery room and took pictures and videos of the procedure. One of these cellphone videos even made it to YouTube and registered a whopping two million hits. For more details of this, just click on this link to my earlier entry pertaining to this issue.

Recently, names of the five main members of the surgery team who operated on the hapless gay patient were released. Just to make sure they get their just desserts, allow me to name these foul creatures who took their playfulness in the operating room a little too far:

- VSMMC head surgeon Dr. Philip Leo Arias
- Assistant surgeon Dr. Angelo Linawagan
- Surgeon Dr. Max Joseph Montecillo
- Nursing attendant Rosemarie Villareal
- Circulating nurse Carmina Sapio

Just a personal note to these five people: if justice is not given to you so-called paragons of the Philippine medical profession here on Earth, then may your souls burn in Hell.

Only five people were named as participants in the rectum surgery scandal, but I am very sure that there are more. The video proves that. Even these noisy onlookers should be deemed as accessories to the crime. Not even one of them thought of at least shushing the group.

I say, take away all of their licenses! Ban all of them from the medical profession forever!

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It's been some time since the issue about leaks in the 2006 nursing board examination has been discussed, but it still haunts the local nursing profession. A shadow of doubt now hangs over credentials of nurses going abroad. Even those nurses are already working in hospitals and nursing homes abroad are being regarded with suspicion.

I can't blame foreign employers for having this state of mind. I mean, honestly, how long has this cheating been going on? For all we know, we've already been sending nurses with bogus credentials abroad for some time already.

Look at the nurses who took part in the rectum surgery scandal. They make one truly wonder about the quality of nurses our nursing schools are producing these days.

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Now, here's something new to add to the list of the Philippine medical profession's foibles. the US State Department recently revealed that a number of Philippine hospitals are involved in a million-dollar US veteran insurance anomaly.

This is very embarrassing. Imagine: Philippine medical personnel are actually involved in including names of people who aren't even war veterans in a list of those who are supposed to be eligible for insurance claims from the US government.

If they thought the US State Department wasn't going to find out, then they'd better think again.

Somehow, I believe that this is sort of a comeuppance for Filipinos who always think they can "get away with murder," so to say.

I had an uncle who served as some sort of a guerrilla in World War II. I said "some sort of" because he wasn't much of a guerrilla. In fact, he was among those responsible for the burning of our town proper, as well as the eventual looting. They rationalized that they had to burn the town so that the Japanese won't have any place to hide. (Yeah, right.) My mother's ancestral home was reduced to ashes because of that.

After the war, this uncle of mine was able to avail of benefits due for US war veterans. Well and good, except that he also listed his wife (she was the one I was related to) as a veteran -- even if she was not. Thus, they received money from the US up to the day they bit the dust.

This is just one story. I'm sure there are others who also duped the US into giving more than they should.

And it pains me to say that we once again find Philippine medical practitioners at the heart of this scandal.

When will we ever learn?

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I don't know how the Philippine medical profession can get out of the muck it has submerged itself in. One thing is sure, though: our esteemed doctors and nurses should probably recite the Hippocratic Oath again and digest the principles that this oath stands for.

The Philippine government should also probably set aside its grand plans for "medical tourism" for the meantime and instead concentrate on moves to weed out unscrupulous individuals who mar the face of Philippine medical practice and strengthen efforts to come up with a credible, dependable, and world-class healthcare industry.

Either that, or probably we should just accept the fact that Philippine health service sucks and do nothing about it. How about playing golf instead?

Of Rice and Toots

Just a short take on the alleged rice shortage we are experiencing.

I remember a time way back in the past when the Philippines was training representatives from among our Southeast Asian neighbors about better agricultural methods. In fact, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) was opened in an area near the UP Los Baños campus -- located south of Manila -- to provide the knowledge and technologies required for better rice yields. Malaysians, Thais, Indonesians, and other nationalities flocked to this small compound in the moiuntains of Laguna to find out what secrets the Filipinos hold in terms of rice production.

We used to teach others what we know about rice.

Now, we are falling way behind our Southeast Asian brothers in terms of rice production. We are already known as the biggest importer of rice on our side of the world.

NFA rice which used to be shunned for its poor quality and funny smell is now a commodity that creates long lines of people to beat the debut screening of a Judy Ann Santos movie.

Commercial rice is now selling at almost P40 per kilo -- so far the biggest price jump in Philippine history.

Filipinos need their rice -- and they will have it by hook or by crook. The government recommends alternatives to rice like root crops or corn, but at the end of the day, Filipinos will still want to eat rice.

With this rice problem we are having now, intelligent rice consumption is probably the best that can be done under the circumstances. When I say intelligent rice consumption, I mean that a Filipino family must learn exactly how much rice they usually eat in a week so that they can budget their rice allotment and not end up with excess (and wasted) cooked rice.

It's either that or go for the "musical fruit" (camote) and create a symphony of "toots."