DOH Sec Ona is not making me hopeful about the Philippine health situation.

One is the striking lack of a Public Health background aside from advocating preventive nephrology and against brain drain, he has spent the rest of his career as a specialist and before becoming the new sec, the head of NKTI. The DOH needs not a specialist who has been stuck in a hospital for the majority of his career, the DOH needs a person who has worked in the communities and in public health programs.

But what really rubs me off is his desire to lift the transplant ban and allow "gratuity packages" for kidney donors. He fools no one. Everyone knows that the "gratuity package" is what he thinks is the appropriate market price of a healthy kidney. The gratitude of the recipient should not be expressed through a lump sum of money. Money that would actually tempt poor families to sell their kidneys. Add to that the inherent complexity of differentiating money given as gifts and money given as payment. A task I do not trust the DOH nor anyone for that matter to be successful in completing for all cases.

Lifting the transplant ban is stupid. Already, thousands of Filipinos die every year because of lack of available kidneys (and the prohibitive costs) yet Dr. Ona plans to siphon the few donated kidneys away from deserving Filipinos to other foreigners. I must use the nationalism card. The foreigner might be deserving as well but Filipinos deserve them too. What more, that Filipino will be working here and helping in the country's development. That foreigner will just pay a sum for the servics and then leave.

Actually, determining who is more deserving is not an important question. We should focus on the Filipino's right to health to which the State is duty bound to fulfill. Lifting the ban makes it harder for the State to fulfill its duty to fulfilling the right to health of Filipinos. As mentioned previously,  lifting it would just diminish the low supply of kidneys which would just rob more Filipinos their right to health.

Had a busy week and the following week is not looking good either. Times like these when I wish I want lesser and smaller things in life. or maybe it's just the colds talking.

The deadline for THE paper is looming. I'm at that stage where I hate everything I wrote.

I wonder when or if I'd ever get rid of that stage. I guess the only way to find out is to continue writing.

on miracles: maybe they happen. I've never experienced one but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Still, it would be pretty hard to convince me that there is no "natural" or rational explanation for an event. I do accept that things of very low probability do occur. hey, if they don't occur then Life shouldn't have existed.

Happy Atheist Solidarity Day!

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Parents sue DepEd regarding Sex Ed

One, how many of you hypocrites have children enrolled in public schools?
Two, private schools have been "overtaking the parents' responsibility" for years now. If you are going to sue someone, sue one who has committed the act and not one who is intending to.
Three, your invocation of a clause from the Constitution is irrelevant. The sex education module will not even affect the morals of children. It is not a religion nor a values ed class.
Four, you should sue DepEd because they have values class which is "overtaking the parents' responsibility" for the child's moral development. But you don't want that because according to you the youth already has twisted morals.
Five, it is actually your Church who wants to include the moral implications of sex in the module. So you should first complain to them.

Our art of medicine lecturer shared stories of "rude" UPCM graduates.

It was toxic in the ER. A journalist was asked to leave since he is not allowed. He threatened to expose this "maltreatment" of media and write about how he was wronged. The intern present having enough of the journalist just told him to leave and even showed the journalist his nameplate and said, "Be sure that you don't incorrectly spell my name, ok?"

I probably would have done the same thing but our lecturer warned us that it is stupid to fight the media. And since I was recently called rude by a teacher I respect, I should work on creating a polite public persona. At least one I could use for patients and business acquaintances i.e. people I need something from. Cleaning myself up would help since a doctor also asked me why I look like I haven't taken a bath (I actually did but commuting in the summer heat from home to PGH unraveled most of its effects).

The bishop who attended the DepEd consultation said that they will only agree to sex ed if contentious material against certain doctrine of people are removed particularly those against of the Roman Catholic doctrine.

Uh... no. The DepEd needs to follow secular molarity free from religious doctrine. If it is contentious i.e. offends the RC doctrine or any doctrine for that matter, the teacher can note this in class. There is no need to remove it.

They also want a spiritual component to be involved. From any other person, this would be an okay suggestion but this is coming from a bishop and you know that what he's referring to spiritual development is development to becoming a good Catholic.

And I don't agree that sex should occur within marriage. Nor should they teach that sex should only happen in marriage. Sex should occur between responsible adults who have both understood the potential outcomes of intercourse and have prepared for it. In other words, consenting adults. Adults need not be married. The module could point out that having children out of wedlock would be difficult for the current society but it is not immoral. Having sex out of wedlock is immoral only in religious ethics and not secular ethics.

And having religious teaching in public school is unconstitutional.

In the end, this consultation is a farce. The RC Church is not for sex education. They don't even want using the word SEX. The DepEd should have a firm stance and not be bullied into weakening their module. Worse, they should not be bullied into making a module that forces religious belief unto others especially young and impressionable individuals. If the RC Church is so worried about it sex ed, they should hold their own sessions. I think that is what Sunday school is for anyway.

One, there is no absolute normal. A doctor should know that there is always a small chance that an abnormal lab test is not abnormal for the patient.

Two, ask before attacking. I wouldn't have gotten annoyed have you chosen better words to criticize our work.

Three, don't assume that I don't know what I'm doing. I may not have experienced as many things as you have but don't treat me like I know nothing.

Four, yes. BHWs can last four hours listening to lectures. Their levels of internal motivation is quite wonderful.

Five, We did have a relatively good session. At least my classmates seem to have learned something.

I spent my Saturday afternoon with the child residents of Hospicio de San Jose talking
about peace, war and climate change.

LUIII officially ended with enrollment yesterday. And I really should be posting on LUIII so here it goes.

LUIII started with me hating medicine. Coming from a 4 week stint as a research assistant for a health policy project made me want to just stop taking up medicine and just take the plunge into the public health arena. Of course, my dependence on my parents and my desire to become a doctor won over so here I am a 2nd year med student.

To avoid the feeling of utter uselessness to Philippine society, I had to join organizations. I am active in three: MSSR, RSO and the MSC Social issues VolCorps. These organizations provide a venue to complement my medical education. UPCM wants us to be community-oriented doctors and I feel these three help me grow to be that kind of doctor. Summer immersions and real community work beyond medical missions? RSO. Updated on national issues? MSC SocIsh. Peace and human rights? Global issues? Networking? MSSR. I've got my bases pretty covered.

I was pretty sure I was sending off anti-social vibes during my first few days in med school. I couldn't even bring myself to say the class cheer. That all changed. I'm pretty sure I'm well integrated socially. Us having to follow a seat plan and that art of medicine module did move things along.

Academically, I exceeded my expectations. The subjects were challenging but surprisingly, I did well in the subject I feared most, OS 202 or Neurology and Endocrinology. I'm still bewildered by the score I got at the first lecture exam. Having friends who tutored me on the anatomy of the brain really helped. And the weird thing is that I got the same grades for the other OS subjects (except for the Thorax module were grades were curved) despite the feeling that I really did well in that abdomen and pelvis modules. The dreadful part is getting relatively low grades in our research subject despite having an arguably good paper, presentation and positive results on top. I have yet to evaluate this subject but they'll be hearing a lot from me and their stupid evaluation method.

Having a BSPH degree really helped. As the year progressed, I realized that I can "let go" of the histology portions of the modules since I already know them enough. The time saved was spent on reviewing areas where I was weak, such as gross anatomy. Medicine has been good because it allowed me to practice skills I learned in undergrad. At least when I get out, I have increased mastery over skills such as making health promotion materials, managing groups and writing research papers.

Overall, LUIII is a good year. I hope LUIV brings more fun and cheer.

my first AIDS candlelight memorial.

The current DOH has managed to make great strides in important health issues: smoking and HIV/AIDS. Huzzah!

AIDS Candlelight Memorial March later, 4pm, from Remedios Circle to Rajah Sulayman Park.

Day 2 was island hopping day.

Visited Palawan. Coron, Palawan that is.
Place is so beautiful, my pictures fail to capture its full beauty. But I tried.

Tomorrow is election day.

I have not been such a responsible voter. I have no idea who to vote for our local government positions. I don't have a complete list of senators. I don't even have a final president yet. At least I have a party-list group already.

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I feel like the candidate I despise will win tomorrow. I'll just have to hope for the best because I really can't stomach the fact that he will represent us in the international community. He will decide what laws will pass and who will head our executive departments. Heck! I'll even have to listen to his SONA for six years.

Part of me wishes he'll do a terrible job so at least the Filipinos will finally learn that voting for someone just because they can trust not to steal him isn't enough. Sure, you trust he won't still? But can you trust him to manage and lead our many offices? our nation's executive machinery? The president's job is not just preventing corruption. In fact, I don't even trust him to do that. Sure, HE might not be corrupt but what about the other members of the government? What about that auditor? that MMDA officer? that office clerk?

But I really hope he does well because I can't go serve the government if this system remains unchanged. I'll probably stick to newspaper and online articles though 'cause his voice and appearance make me cringe. I know I'm shallow like that.

So I have a bunch of reports and a couple of proposals messing my head.

How can I possibly have a vacation with me trying hard to be a researcher?

So much for a stress-free Palawan getaway.

But it is not so bad. I decide when to work and once you get over an issue, it is pretty smooth riding... uhm... er... writing.

I guess a career in research is a very plausible path.

Just attended the HIV/AIDS meeting hosted by the Philippine College of Physicians and Philippine Society of Infectious Diseases.

I learned new stuff regarding the pathophysiology of HIV/AIDS and the HIV/AIDS program of the health sector. I also met some people.

Someone told me that as a med student, HIV status doesn't matter since you chances are you won't be doing anything that would put a patient at risk of getting an infection. Disclosing it will only harm your career. Too bad cause we are supposed to be the lead fighters of stigma against HIV.

The only thing is I'd hope more people had attended and we hoped to have heard some views by religious groups. Ironically, many religious groups actually have hospices and clinics for HIV/AIDS patients but the top. Some religious health workers also encourage the use of condoms especially for sex workers. The problem is Top Management can't get through their silly hats the value of condoms. I guess obsession with the afterlife can do that to you. Unfortunately for them, living a good life doesn't seem to impede a person from getting to heaven. Well, I really don't know since I haven't died yet.

I've been very busy with sudden work both paying and non-paying. At least I get to practice photography again.

So I failed to write a recap of 1st year. Crap. I also failed to do very important org stuff, attend a summit on health financing and have a spontaneous dinner with college friends. O the things we do for our dreams.

I'm still going to write that recap. Promise!

Field work has been good but having minimal net access for five days is very hard. I realize how much I like community work but unfortunately, I also realize more and more how I'm too tied up to city life. Good thing I still have a few more years before I have to choose between the provinces or the city. Not that the city is lacking in people to help. Then again, maybe it is just the internet access that bothered me.

I'm going on immersion this afternoon.

First year is finally over. Second sem has been kinder than the first but I know that's just to make up for the B*tch goddess that is LU4. Still busy though and I have to finalize my summer schedule. Unfortunately, making money is not included.