New Years Resolutions

It's again the start of a new year! New year, new life. I am not big on new years resolutions because I don't believe that people can change from one day to the other. This year though, I want to try to work on a few things. I am getting older so I would like to reach my full potential before it's too late. So, here it goes:



1. I will exercise (more) regularly;

2. I will go to the gym and work on my abs;

3. I will eat healthier;

4. I will start learning German again;

5. I will save more (I will stop buying electronics! I am an addict!).

6. I will read more.

7. I will blog more often.

8. I will smile (even) more.

I guess that's it!

Happy New year to all of you!


Cheers!

Cathy

Christmas spirit

Wondering why it's not really Christmas here in my blog? It is because Zürich does not make me feel so christmasy. Above is a picture of the Christmas lights along Zürich's Bahnhofstrasse, the main shopping street. You will ask probably what those ugly fluorescent lights are doing hanging up above the street. Well, those are the Christmas lights. The futuristic, space age variety.

There is not so much Christmas spirit here. At least not the kind that we have in the Philippines. Here, I really feel that Christmas is purely materialistic. The whole idea is just to rush to buy presents.

I really miss Christmas in the Philippines. I miss the noche buena, our family reunions, laughter all around, the Christmas lanterns, Christmas carols, the children singing....hayyyy....who would have thought I will miss the sound of children singing jingle bells and silent night out of tune? "Thank you, thank you, thank you very much, thank you! " or "Thank you, thank you, ang babarat ninyo, thank you!" (you are so greedy, thank you)

A few more days and I will be home! The good thing is I am sure there will be enough Christmas spirit left for me to enjoy!

Why Ebola in pigs is a very bad thing

The news article about Ebola in Abs-cbnnews.com scared the hell out of me. Perhaps because I am a biologist or because I saw the movie Outbreak (1995).

I think we all know what viruses are. They cause diseases like the common cold, HIV, chicken pox, small pox etc. Ebola virus is a particularly bad one. This virus has inspired a few Hollywood movies and a lot of science fiction books with good reason. Ebola causes the Ebola hemorrhagic fever which has a very high fatality rate.

Anyway, what Philippine pigs have is called Ebola Virus Reston strain. This virus gave a few people in Reston, Virginia a bit of a scare in 1989 when it was found in monkeys imported from the Philippines. It inspired Richard Preston to write The Hot Zone (which in turn inspired the movie Outbreak). Ebola has a tremendously bad reputation (very ugly way to die, imagine blood coming out of every hole in your body), so when they realized that this strain was airborne they thought it would be very bad indeed. Luckily it turned out, Ebola Reston was not pathogenic to humans. Well, not yet anyway....

What we have to know about viruses is that they mutate very fast because they multiply very fast. They can be harmless now but be very harmful in an instant. Ebola Reston is now in pigs. Pigs are very close to humans. This is usually the route viruses take to "jump" to humans. The scary thing about Ebola Reston is it is airborne. It just needs one tiny mutation and it can be the material that will make Outbreak a true story.

So piggery owners in Luzon. Please don't sell or eat pigs from your farm that died from Ebola (double dead, for the Christmas feast) even if you got information that Ebola is not harmful to humans. Viruses change very quickly and if this one does, it might just become the bomb that kills us all.

Why the Philippines will not become a major tourist destination

The simple answer is because only the most determined tourist manage to organize their trip.

I am Filipino. I even have a travel blog. So theoretically, I should know how things are done. Do you think I am able to book flights and resorts? The answer is "NO"! Out of the 20 resorts I emailed across the the Philippines, only about 5 replied to my queries. I think it is even because they were German resort owners. After a few weeks, I finally found a resort that answered my inquiry. I reserved a room for the days I want. I just need to book a flight, the hard part is done you might say. Oh, well, you know I have been trying to book a flight to Puerto Princessa for a few days now and my credit card always gets declined for no apparent reason. I am going out of my mind.

Most of the time, people just want to go for a relaxing vacation and not an expedition. Going to the Philippines sometimes feels like going on a journey to Mars. I have spent hours and hours on the internet, trying to find information. It shouldn't be this hard.

Well, and then there are resorts whose rates are truly galactic in size. Anyway, they also don't reply to inquiries. I don't know who can afford to go to those places anyway. Their rates are hundreds of dollars per person. Here in Europe even with 4-5 star hotels, the rates are per room! I think those resorts are delusional, specially now with the financial crisis.

I am quite depressed because I have decided to give up to go somewhere special this time. I'm tired of spending my nights on the internet trying to book a simple flight.

List of resorts who replied to my inquiries promptly:
Coconut Garden Resort - Cacnipa Island Palawan- by phone
Las Cabanas Beach Resort - El nido, Palawan
Siargao Inn - Siagao Island, Surigao
Golden Monkey Cottages - El Nido, Palawan

It's about time! Philippines Plans Research Revival

Science Magazine has featured the "Balik Scientist" program of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) (Dennis Normile, Science 5 December 2008 322: 1459 [DOI: 10.1126/science.322.5907.1459).

The article starts with the question: "The Philippines government is hoping to reinvigorate its science base by improving science education, expanding scholarship programs, and raising research spending. But will it be enough to lure back expatriate scientists?"

Photo from Science Magazine with the caption: Uncommonly good.
This rice genetics lab in Manila is a rare hot spot of top science in the Philippines .
CREDIT: DUNG VO TRUNG/CORBIS
Note: I used to work in this lab at IRRI! It is so cool that my former colleages (Tita Miner!) have their picture in Science!

Will it? Actually, for me the question really is, will the government really do this? Even the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI, picture above) which gets funding from abroad (US, Japan etc) has a problem paying for cutting edge research. My point is, competitive research is expensive, so I just hope the government knows what it is getting into. It will be a shame for our world-class scientists to go home and then realize that they have no money to do anything.

It's nice to know though that the government knows that it needs to reverse the brain drain. That's one of the reasons why I didn't finish my PhD (my official excuse, at least =)). I thought, if I get so qualified, how can I come back home to the Philippines? There is no job for me. I will be jobless like all the other students I know who got their PhDs from Japan, and the US. They had no choice but to go back abroad or take a stupid job in the Philippines.

If the Philippines really want to get out of the rut, then the government must invest in research. It may seem absurd at first, to channel so much money into research projects no one understands (or eat) but it will prove to be worthwhile in the long run. Why do you think the Thais are so ahead of us? Because in the 80s they sent students to UP Los Banos to learn about Agriculture. They followed through, invested a lot of money in research, and now we are importing rice from them. Why do you think Switzerland is so rich? It is country without any important natural resource, they only have rocks (the Alps)! It is because they invest a lot in research. Imagine, country of only about 7,000,000 people has produced 27 Nobel prize winners! The most famous awardee is Albert Einstein himself. Switzerland constantly funnels a lot of money into research, enabling them to have the brains and the technology for companies like Novartis, Roche, and even Nestle. The ETH (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich), the most prestigious university in Switzerland, gets a lot of money from patents developed by its scientists funding even more profitable science.

If we really want cutting edge science, we have no shortage of cutting edge scientists! One of them is Baldomero Olivera, a UP alumni who is working on cone snail toxins important for neuroscience. He was awarded by Harvard in 2007 as "Scientist of the Year". Maybe a Nobel prize is even not so far away. Cone snails are found in our coral reefs . They are very poisonous, actually they are one of the most poisonous animals on earth. Dr. Olivera found that cone snail poison can be used to cure neurological diseases. You can read more about his work here.

Imagine this: cutting edge scientists doing cutting edge science working with our vast natural resources. If our government can make this happen, we will for sure get out of the rut.

Read the Inquirer news article here


PS
Science Magazine (and Nature Magazine, if I may add) is like The Oscars of the entertainment industry or Vogue of the fashion industry.

Hayyyy! I'm so tired it hurts!

The past few weeks I have too much work. I arrive home at 8pm everyday. It's really crazy! Times like this it becomes really obvious what are the important things in life. At a birds eye view, it seems, that I have everything I want in life. The problem is getting what we want always have a downside. Now, I have a wonderful husband I don't see, great friends I can't meet, a 5-week holiday I don't use, a nice sofa I don't sit on, a big flat TV I don't watch on and books I have no time to read. I just have time of course for work, work, work and more work so that I can have all of the things that I have no time to enjoy.

Where is the balance?

Just Wondering: Is the Philippines dangerous?

A few years ago, my husband overheard a conversation which went like:

Woman: They are going to the Philippines for holidays!
Man: They are really crazy! It is so dangerous there!
Woman: Yeah, they are really crazy!

Then a few days ago, my husband had a conversation with a colleague which went like:

Colleague: I want to go to Thailand for holidays.
My husband: Why don't you go to the Philippines, there are political protests going on in Thailand. The airport is closed.
Colleague: I don't like the Philippines. Anyway, also it is very dangerous.

Huh? Personally, I don't think the Philippines is more dangerous than Thailand, Bali, or India but the world perceive it to be. Why is this so? Okay, I admit, we had the kidnappings (a long time ago), a few coup d'etat, and an ongoing muslim insurgency to give us a bad reputation. When you think about it though, Thailand also had a coup d'etat recently (their airport is closed now even) and they also have a muslim insurgency in the south, Bali had the bombings and India had a few train bombings plus what had recently occurred in Mumbai but the Philippines is still perceived to be more dangerous than these places. Why?

When Trillanes and company went to the Manila Peninsula Hotel to express their grief, they let the people go and did not hurt anyone. Quite unlike what happened in Mumbai.

In his travels, my husband has been aggressed in Paris and Indonesia and has never had any bad encounters in the Philippines anywhere he went. The tambays (jobless men in street corners) in Baclaran really like him and would even watch our car.

Is it our media? Do you think they are too focused on the gruesome? Do you think they sensationalize crime too much that they put people in unnecessary fear? I really don't think that the Philippines is more dangerous than anywhere else. In Napoli, my friend discouraged us from bringing cameras because it might attract too much attention. I bring my camera anywhere in the Philippines -- Baclaran, Divisoria, Binondo-- and people in the streets would readily give me a smile and a pose. Still, the Philippines is perceived to be dangerous and the people who visit us labeled as "crazy".

Just wondering.