News

THE TYPHOONS that ravaged the southern Luzon provinces earlier this month have sent us into a frenzy. No surprise there. In fact, we reacted right on cue.

It is a story with an abused plot (much like Philippine movies): disaster strikes, and we rise up united to fight off the calamity and put to rights the destruction it leaves in its wake.We do this so immediately that it almost always seems superficial and only half-sincere,

UNDOUBTEDLY, the annual Paskuhan is the University-event that most Thomasians look forward to every year. The amazing fireworks displays, sumptuous food, and up-beat music never fail to make everyone feel that the whole Thomasian community is one big family—united in all endeavors and occasions, and especially at the birth of Christ.

Interestingly, true to the spirit of Christmas as a time of giving, this year’s Paskuhan will highlight the Thomasian touch of compassionate sharing, the same manner that it did the first time, 13 years ago.

This is the seventh time that I shall be conveying my Christmas message to the whole academic community, and there seems to be always a persistent nuisance that attempts to destroy the mood of this joyous season. This persistent intruder is called crisis. Before we dare to point our finger to the so-called culprits, let us consider first how many fingers would point to ourselves. Let us rather use those fingers to strike our breast and acknowledge that we are partly responsible for the mess we are experiencing in our country.

A FEW days go a couple of typhoons wreaked havoc on several Luzon provinces, especially Quezon, where thousands died as a result of the landslides that were caused by the relentless logging in the mountains of the Sierra Madre range.

Because of these meaningless deaths, calls have been made to put a moratorium on logging, both legal and illegal. Also, there is a clamor to make illegal logging punishable by death.

What else is new?

EVEN the cutest of animals can strike fear in the hearts of men. At least health-wise.

The civet, a brown, furry, carnivorous mammal found in Asia and Africa, was discovered by Chinese experts as being responsible for the SARS epidemic that affected about 8,000 people worldwide, and ravaged airline and tourism industries.

According to the SARS Defense and Cure Scientific Group in China, the civet, the “most easily infected wild animal”, is the primary source of the Human Coronavirus which causes SARS.

IMAGINE bacteria-sized robots performing surgeries on your organs. In the future, these “nanosurgeons” will be a staple in every operating room, leaving no scars like conventional surgery does.

Nanotechnology is the development and engineering of devices which will operate at the atomic level. The “nano” prefix comes from nanometer, billionth of a meter or about 10 hydrogen atoms laid side by side.

WHAT do the Pope and the late Christopher Reeve and Ronald Reagan have in common? Aside from having become popular icons, they have bodies ravaged by diseases modern science seeks to prevent through stem cell research.

With high hopes of treating life-threatening diseases ranging from Parkinson’s to Alzheimer’s to diabetes, researchers are now hooked on harvesting stem cells or “primitive cells” that can be cultured and grown into any kind of tissue.

DUE TO the heightened alarm against “substandard” nursing schools, the UST College of Nursing (Nursing) drafted the first core competency standards for nurses during a seminar-workshop last Oct. 25 to 26 at the Nursing Auditorium.

“We will use the competencies identified as our guide to maintain the standard,” Nursing Dean Glenda Vargas said.

Three major television stations dominated the finalists for Best Programs of 2004 in the first USTV Students’ Choice Awards themed, “TV on TV: Thomasian Visions on Television.”

The mainstream programs of long-time rivals ABS-CBN and GMA-7 gained the votes of the Thomasian community.

ABS-CBN’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Studio 23, completes the three finalists for the Best TV Station category.

TO REINFORCE its international linkage, the University forged a five-year pact with the Portuguese Centre for the Study of Southeast Asia (CEPESA) last Oct. 26 at the Central Library conference hall.

According to Fr. Lucio Gutierrez, O.P., assistant UST Central Library archivist, the agreement re-establishes UST as part of the global academe while enriching Thomasians’ knowledge about the Portuguese heritage in the Philippines.