Fight for the Right to Live Free and Ride: The Jester-in-Exile Assails MMDA Resolution No. 07-07
First things first — let me turn into the Ghost Rider, but in this instance, I’ll be donning a toga instead of my leathers, but no less am I a biker.
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Honorable justices of the Supreme Court.
I am a biker, a taxpayer, and a citizen of the Republic of the Philippines. I stand before you to petition the Court to declare MMDA Resolution No. 07-07 unconstitutional, and pray the court to prevent the infringement on my rights by the implementation of this resolution.
Article III, Section 1, of the Constitution says in unequivocal terms that “No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, nor shall any person be denied the equal protection of the laws.” Read more
My Wandering Mind
just came back from the dead and I can’t believe it’s been 3 months since I last blog…
Well, my mind was just wandering around lately. I don’t see myself in the future the way I plan to be… The heck. What else can I say ‘living’ in this fucked up place.
And now I am complaining! Damn!
But the hell, I was dreaming too despite the fact most of the time my mind was wandering around… and I guess it’s worth posting. Just to keep myself reminded in the future that there was one time in my life that I have dreamed so much…
Quick Blog Tip: Creating Your Blogging Schedule
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If you are a regular reader of Pinoy Blogero, you may have notice that I always try to post something new every single day. With this much commitment, you may be thinking that I don’t have any more time left for other important things that a normal college student should have.
But in fact, I do.
I do this by making my very own personalized blogging schedule. This is to ensure that I could effectively budget my time and maximize all my time in doing more work.
Laying it all out
First, I lay out all my non-blogging activities that I have for the day on a sheet of paper with its corresponding schedules. I then lay out my blogging related activities and try to squeeze them into the free slots that can be found within the time table.
The first blogging related activities that I insert into the schedule are the ones that are of high priority. With this in mind, I label all those activities according to its priority.
No Guilt For Selfishness
Author’s note: I’m publishing this article online now, since the newspaper editor to whom I submitted this article seemed to be uninterested in publishing it and did not reply to my email.
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Not too long ago, I wrote an article entitled, “M.D.’s on Strike: Why Doctors are Leaving and Why They Should Be Leavingâ€. I posted it on my multiply blog and a mailing list I’m subscribed to. Some received it positively, appreciating the risk to bring out an unpopular idea in the open (the only thing that perhaps hindered its offline publication is that I published it online first. Also I have a sneaking suspicion that the newspaper opinion editor does not like bloggers). I also got not so few violent reactions and was accused of neglect of my duties as citizen and abandoning my fellowmen.
I have a hunch that those who emailed or left me accusatory comments on my blogs meant to make me feel guilty of my “selfishnessâ€.
But let me see, why do I need to be guilty thinking about myself? It is in our nature to strive for self-preservation. We are happy when we fulfill our basic needs and have work in keeping of our interests and joys. By striving to work in another place which can provide for the needs of my family and I, I work for our survival. By working on such place where my contributions to health care provision is better understood and appreciated, I work for my own happiness and personal growth. Are these things evil? Of course not. And yet, people see my resolve to work abroad and to encourage others to do, too, if they can, as an indicator of selfishness.
According to these people who call me selfish, there’s already a dwindling number of health care professionals in the country so I should not be adding to the numbers who are already leaving. They say I OUGHT to stay because it is my duty to my fellowmen to serve them. They say I shouldn’t complain about being dirt poor because every doctor goes through that stage of being “dirt poor†anyway. Note, however that those who told me to stay poor are those who are already on the other side of the globe, chilling in their parkas in the perpetual cold but can afford themselves laptops and a decent car to drive.
Saving Kids From Obesity Starts at Home
Several years ago, the word “malnutrition†usually brings about images of poor African children, bone-thin with protruding bellies, weak with hunger as they lie wrapped in their mothers’ arms, equally malnourished, or lying listlessly on the desert sand amidst vultures, awaiting death to overcome them. However, recent events caused us to conjure images of malnutrition as big, bulky humans with the same protruding bellies, not because of ascites, but because of excess adipose tissues. These humans suffer not from hunger of food but rather from not understanding the disaster that is obesity, the other half of malnutrition that has reared its ugly head in the recent years. Now, suddenly, both hunger and overabundance of food oppress us.
Like those stricken with hunger, children it seems are also susceptible to this rising epidemic. But whereas the cause of world hunger is more political and economic in nature, obesity is more of a personal issue.
A typical case was that of a mother, who I saw in my clinic, with hypercholesterolemia and hypertension. I advised her that even with medications, she has to modify her eating habits, so as to keep off the excess weight and keep her blood cholesterol and blood pressure at normal levels.
And her horrified response was: “But how do you expect me to do that? Do I have to cook separate meals for myself. The family simply can’t afford it!â€
After further discussion, I found out that what her family “couldn’t afford†wasn’t monetary in nature. It was the idea of switching the entire family to a different, “abnormal†diet that repelled her.
“My kids, all they want to eat are fried foods: fried chicken, fried fish, french fries, burgers, and chips. I don’t know what to do. So that’s why I also eat what they eat. And thus, the high cholesterol,â€Â she explained.
