Tag: April 10, 2012

FOR THE first time, the UST Health Service conducted a vein wellness screening last March 26.

Health Service Director Ma. Salve Olalia said the wellness program sought to prevent more threatening leg vein conditions.

“We are aware that many of the Thomasian community members suffer from leg pains and swelling. Many have varicose and spider veins,” said Olalia. “We want to help in the early diagnosis of these conditions.”

A Doppler machine, a tool used to measure blood flow velocities, was used to check leg veins.

HIS MOTHER may have been the icon of Philippine democracy, but President Aquino III is fast becoming the nemesis Cory fought against more than 25 years ago.

The President himself is contributing to the summary execution of democracy by engineering the impeachment of Chief Justice Renato Corona. Whatever one’s reservation may be about Corona, his “midnight appointment” as chief jurist by former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, and the quality and fairness of his leadership of the Supreme Court so far, his impeachment by the Aquino administration is tantamount to an attack of the judiciary and of constitutional democracy. It is nothing but a naked attempt by Aquino to shove Corona out of his post so that the President could appoint a head magistrate loyal to him and subservient to his interests.

Amihan, noun – (1) an annual seasonal pattern that is dominated by trade winds and characterized by dry and cool northeast wind, which ends some time in May or June; (2) refers to Varsitarian alumni.

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Disclaimer: I wasn’t a Journalism student. I majored in Legal Management.

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THREE years ago, I applied for the Varsitarian just to have “something to do.”

On March 30, 2009, after a rigid selection procedure, I was accepted to the world of the Varsitarian, which I had never imagined I would be attached and devoted to.

SOME few nights before our graduation day, a good friend from the University of the Philippines texted me, expressing his dilemma about graduating.

“I don’t want to rush it. I only have one shot in making my undergraduate thesis,” he said. “As what The Hunger Games said in its trailer, ‘make sure they remember you’.”

I pondered on what he said, asking myself: Will I be remembered by this University? Have I ever done anything that will leave a mark in UST?

I also wonder now if the other graduates are thinking the same way as he does.

FATE justifies what reason cannot.

Back in 2008, I remember entering UST with a heavy heart—not that I despised being a Thomasian, but because I was still too absorbed with my past. I felt quite disillusioned with the sudden shift in my world—as if being forced to swallow something that my juvenile mind had yet to comprehend.

Adjusting took quite some time and for months, I felt like an ant walking along a sea of giants. Everything around me seemed imaginary.

But as months passed, I regained my composure. It was not an easy process, but I developed a firmer grip of myself.

FILIPINO indie filmmakers continue to join the bandwagon that Lino Brocka’s socially conscious films have benchmarked, depicting the miserable plight of menial workers and the downtrodden. They create a bricolage of poverty films that might as well put dirt on Imelda Marcos’ immaculately clean shoes. But there is a fine line between a film trying to uplift the society through its social awareness and those that use poverty only as an affectation.

CONGRATULATIONS, graduates! What now? As the commencement exercises passed, the pre-graduation jitters that came upon me turned into some sort of post-college, pre-employment psychosis. Like most of my friends, I was simply jubilant because years of school-related toil have finally ended for now, but at the same time, I was at a loss. The questions looming in my head were dreadful and often made thoughts of graduating so soon bittersweet. “Is this it?” “Years and years of studying concluded in one night--really?” “What now...WHAT NOW?”

THE PHILIPPINES took a step forward in being world-class in terms of scientific exhibits.

The rather eccentric P1-billion Mind Museum, which opened last March 16 at the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig, contains more than 250 interactive exhibits, five thematic galleries, an auditorium, and a laboratory.

Mind Museum curator Maria Isabel Garcia said the exhibit was intended to promote greater “public understanding of science.”

“This museum will let every Filipino enjoy the complexities of science, as it was shown tactically [in the museum],” she said.

THE RECENT death of a Psychology freshman in his sleep raised questions about the science of “bangungut.”

Bangungut—from the Tagalog root words “bangon” (to rise) and “ungol” (to moan)—was first referred in the country in 1915 as Sudden Unexplained Nocturnal Death Syndrome (Sunds), a disorder common in Southeast Asian countries.

However in the Philippines, bangungut deaths are now widely attributed by health experts to acute hemorrhagic pancreatitis.

Pancreatitis is a sudden inflammation of the pancreas caused mostly by too much intake of alcohol and highly salty food.

According to a research by Dr. Godofredo Stuart Jr., Sunds could happen with the combination of excessive alcohol and overeating before sleeping.

IF WORDS alone cannot express, let photographs do the talking.

In this digital age where digital cameras, cell phones, and webcams dominate the social arena, immortalizing any event is now possible with a simple click.

But amid all the fuss and ease to capture every fleeting instance, what does it really mean to “articulate a moment”?

For Enrique “Jun” de Leon, a maestro in the art photography, the need to define every moment through photographs is the hardest part. A professional for 39 years now, he said taking photographs is just as natural to him as humanly instincts.

“In photography, you have to learn the rules before you can bend them. That is when you articulate the moment,” he said.