(Not so) Dirty Creeks 2: Makati again

My first posting on this subject was last January 18, 2011, Dirty creeks 1: Makati. Here are two of the six photos that I showed there. This is on a creek in front of Makati Medical Center (MMC), a known and expensive hospital in the country.

A few months after I posted it, I noticed that the creek has been regularly cleaned. A personnel of Barangay San Lorenzo where this creek belongs, wrote in the comment section,

"dear sir,
FYI , barangay San Lorenzo has already assigned creek cleaners who will clean, dessilt the garbages in urban creek area. thats beside the mapa office near makati med.they were assigned to clean it regularly.
thank you"

I checked the creek and there was indeed a regular cleaner boat there. Here are the photos I took sometime in early July 2012, about a month ago.

The solid wastes floating on the creek are gone, nice to see this. Of course the water is not really clean, it came from upstream.

Here, notice the informal settlers just beside the creek, this is in front of MMC.

In that posting last year, I also showed photos of a creek in Barangay San Antonio. It was dirty. Now it is clean, here are photos I took last week, early August 2012. There are wild plants and trees that grow on the creek. They are unsafe because some dangerous wild animals would be hiding there. Or worse, some criminals being chased can jump into the creek and hide behind those thick shrubs and trees.

It is good that the Makati City government, not the barangay government, ordered the cleaning of this creek. Lower photos are among the tree parts and mud that were collected, to be transported by trucks.

I am happy that the local government is doing its job cleaning dirty creeks. Makati is the financial center of the Philippines. It is not good that the surroundings like its small creeks are dirty and ugly. I hope that such clean up will be done regularly.  

Climate Tricks 14: Flooding, El Nino and Arctic Ice

* This is my article today in the online magazine,
http://www.thelobbyist.biz/perspectives/less-gorvernment/1340-rain-rain-everywhere
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It has been raining almost daily since nearly three weeks ago here in Metro Manila and other provinces in the country. Just last week, my daughter did not go to her kinder school for three days due to cancellation of classes. The rains yesterday and today though, are stronger. There are forced evacuations in many river deltas, in San Mateo, Rodriguez, Marikina, Pasig, and other places in surrounding provinces. I got news from my folks in Negros Occidental that heavy rains were also pummeling the province and nearby islands.

Here is the latest graphics of sea surface temperature (SST) anomaly (deviation from normal temperature) as of August 06, 2012. The Philippines, from north to south, from east to west, has between 0.5 to 1.5 C colder than normal. The colder than normal weather and SST is also experienced in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, southern Thailand and Vietnam, northern Australia.

Source, http://www.osdpd.noaa.gov/data/sst/anomaly/anomnight.current.gif

El Nino has actually returned, since last month, after nearly two years of La Nina and cooling. This El Nino-La Nina natural cycles occur every 3-4 years on average, although in global cooling period, La Nina are longer by several months than El Nino phases. But from the above image, Nino region 3.4 (central tropical Pacific) seems to have slumped back into cooling, especially the northern part.

Bob Tisdale showed the long term condition in Nino 3.4, the main indicator of whether the planet is entering an El Nino or La Nina phase. Bob did not put a linear trend here, but the trend is either a flat lining, or a decline in SST temperature anomaly there.

Source http://bobtisdale.wordpress.com/2012/08/06/july-2012-sea-surface-temperature-sst-anomaly-update/#more-2023

Meanwhile, some warming religionists keep painting a bleak future scenario of the planet. Here is one example: a projection in 1972 that the Arctic will be ice-free by 2000 or 12 years ago. I put beside the news story, the most recent charts and satellite photos of the Arctic ice, as of two or three days ago.

Sources:

1. News report, http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=zmI0AAAAIBAJ&sjid=L5wEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5376,3200988&dq=ice+free+arctic&hl=en

2. Graphs and satellite photos, from http://wattsupwiththat.com/reference-pages/sea-ice-page/

In particular: from top right:

a. Arctic sea ice extent, from International Arctic Research Center-Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (IARC-JAXA),
b. Arctic sea ice extent, from Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI)
c. Arctic mean temperature, above 80 deg N, from DMI
d. Satellite photo of Arctic sea ice extent with anomaly, from National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC)

So those people who keep saying that “polar ice are melting at alarming rate” or “ice-free Arctic” or “ice free Antarctica” in _____ years (the shorter the more alarming the better) either do not know what they are talking about, or simply fooling and deceiving us.

Back to flooding in the Philippines. The warmists should admit it -- the planet is not warming. In certain areas or certain times, the planet is plunging into deep cooling. More rains, more flood, are not indicators of global warming.

Problem is that climate fanatics have turned their craft into religion. Regardless of data showing otherwise, they simply believe, they simply have faith, on warming.

Now we wait how many died, how many were evacuated, how many millions worth of properties and crops were damaged. And man-made warming has nothing to do with it but it keeps being blamed.
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Meanwhile, the rains and flooding have not stopped yet until now, evening of August 08. This afternoon, I entertained my two young daughters when I had fun in a flood in front of our gate :-)

See also:
Climate Tricks 9: Ignore Skepticism, Flat-lining Temps, June 13, 2012
Climate Tricks 10: Demonize CO2 as a Pollutant and Evil Gas, July 03, 2012
Climate Tricks 11: Coal and James Hansen, RE Law and the WWF, July 18, 2012
Climate Tricks 12: More Flooding is Caused by Warming, July 21, 2012
Climate Tricks 13: Block Skeptics and Keep Fooling the Public, July 25, 2012
Manila Flooding, August 2012, August 07, 2012

Manila Flooding, August 2012

No tropical cyclone or storm yesterday and today, just plain heavy rains due to southwest monsoon affecting so many provinces in the country. Some photos below, mostly from the facebook wall of "24/7 Cool and Smooth Rhythms."

Marikina river overflowing...

The University of Santo Tomas (UST) center field. Other photos below in front of Manila City

SM Bacoor in Cavite, not far from Manila.

Fat-Free Econ 19: Population Decontrol, Not RH Bill

* This is my article yesterday in TV5's news portal,
http://www.interaksyon.com/business/39513/fat-free-economics-population-decontrol-not-rh-bill
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A big population is often blamed as the cause of various human problems. This is ironic because the human species is the most intelligent and most innovative among the existing species in the planet. People are assets, not liabilities.

In the never-ending debate on population, many people do not look this way. They think that humanity is a voracious species that tends to over-consume and over-exploit existing resources of the planet, resulting in unsustainable use of such resources, if not “destruction” of the planet as claimed by the anthropogenic global warming (AGW) or “man-made climate change” campaigns.

Below are some news reports and data pointing at this misplaced argument.

Paul Ehrlich was a famous biologist from Stanford University who gained prominence in the 1960s-1970s, giving the most alarmist, the most desperate view of the world as a result of rising population and its impact on overuse of natural resources. He was the Thomas Malthus reincarnated during those decades.

In February 1968 for instance, he predicted that within seven years or by 1975, mass starvation would happen, with up to “500 million” starving in the next few decades. In 1969, he proposed "sterility drugs in reservoirs and in food shipped to foreign countries..." Sterilize the world, especially those in poorer countries, to avoid a scenario that he concocted.

In the famous paper, “Population, poverty, politics and the RH bill” released by faculty members of the University of the Philippines School of Economics - my alma mater and many of the authors there were my former professors - this table was among those presented:

Then in a presentation during the Philippine Economic Society annual conference held in November 2011, the president of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies and also a friend, Dr. Josef Yap showed this table:

Blood Donation 3: Apheresis

Last Thursday afternoon, I got a text message from a long time friend Joei V, if I can still donate my blood, I said Yes. The patient, a relative of her, was in Medical City in Ortigas, so I went there.

The last time I donated my blood was more than a year ago. I have tried donating twice between last year and this year, but I was rejected. In one case, I have sore mouth or "singaw". The patient, a cousin of my friend, was in serious or critical condition, she was at the ICU of St. Lukes QC for days. The second time, I tried donating blood to Joei herself, she has ovarian C and pregnant for her second child at the same time. Problem was that I came from a drinking party the night before. With delicate patients like her who will undergo surgery the next day, MMC's blood bank rejected my offer.

Unlike my previous blood donation, this time it will be an apheresis procedure. They will get only a particular platelet or blood cells and the rest of my blood will be returned back to my body. It's an efficient system but will be more time consuming compared to an ordinary blood donation. While the latter will take only about 15 minutes, apheresis will take about 2 hours or more.

Here is the machine that will separate the wanted platelet or blood cell and ordinary blood. In front of my inclined "bed" is a tv with cable.

The whole procedure actually took about four hours. First, they have to screen and test my blood to test for any impurity which might endanger the patient instead of helping him/her. It's more than an hour wait to get the result. The med tech guys at the blood bank said I could not eat anything "heavy", crackers was ideal, so Joei bought me skyflakes and water. I gobbled about 4 packs total :-)

Then when things were clear, no impurities (no HIV, no dengue, no malaria, etc.) in my blood, they set me up for the machine.

What I felt was when the machine was drawing blood from my arm, the cloth around my arm would inflate, I have to squeeze a small rubber ball to quicken the outflow of my blood. After sometime, the cloth will deflate, it's the process were the unneeded blood is returned back to my body while the needed platelet is deposited in a plastic container.

While waiting, I was able to watch BBC news update on the Olympics, then Bourne Supremacy on HBO, then motorcycle daredevil stunts on ESPN. Enough to entertain me as sleeping while undergoing apheresis is a big no-no.

There are many Nos and prohibitions for blood donors, if they wish to help patients. Like no alcohol at least 24 hours before blood donation, no tooth extraction for several weeks or months, no tatoo or body piercing over the past 12 months, not taking any maintenance drugs, no hypertension, no diabetes, no high blood, no fever or cough, no contact with a commercial sex worker for several days or weeks, should be at least 18 years old, at least 110 pounds in body weight, etc.

That is why I advice my younger friends, they should not have tatoo in their body, because they will never know when they will be required to donate their blood, say a family member or a dear friend of them would suddenly have an emergency need for it, they cannot donate their blood even if they are super-fit and healthy, within 12 months that those needles and ink were piercing their skin. Healthcare is mainly personal responsibility, not government responsibility.

This is Medical City in Ortigas. It is a modern hospital, possibly comparable to the modern St. Lukes Medical Center, Makati Medical Center, and Asian Hospital.

I have a brief chat with the med tech guys at the blood transfusion section. They narrated that there is really a big supply gap in blood. They estimate that for every 10 bags of blood that they dispense, only about four bags come in from some donors. So they have to buy blood somewhere else for their patients. I commented that the location of Medical City is rather "far" from populous areas, unlike say, St. Lukes QC, MMC, and Asian Hospital.

Anyway, back to my main point: healthcare is mainly personal and parental or guardian responsibility, not government's. Preventive healthcare more than curative healthcare. Have a healthy lifestyle, one can drink occasionally like I do, but not too often. Drink lots of water, do not believe the soda companies and their heavy ads. Have lots of fruits, veggies, fish, non-fried food, etc. All the essential vitamins and nutrients we need are found there, no need to buy probably those vitamins and supplements that are heavily advertised.

And no need for drug price control and related policies by the government to intervene in the competition among innovator pharma, among generics pharma, among drugstores and pharmacies.

Oopppss, I nearly forgot to mention. Joei herself is undergoing chemotheraphy for her ovarian C. She is a brave lady. With two young kids, aged 3 years and 3 months old, I pray for her full recovery in her battle against big C. I told her that my elder brother, his wife and my sis in law, died of cancer too.
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See also:
Tips in blood donation, December 23, 2010
Tips in blood donation, part 2, April 03, 2011

Criminals 13: Death by Fraternity Hazing

My deep condolence to the families of young students who have died of violent fraternity hazing and initiations, the latest of whom is San Beda law student Marc Andrei Marcos. And to families and friends of victims of murder and other forms of killing.

I have my share of stories about those frat hazing and frat rumbles when I was still an undergrad student in UP in the mid-80s. But let me share below what a friend, Atty. Theodore "Ted" Ty, a professor at the UP College of Law, wrote about the subject. Andrei was brought to a hospital last Sunday night severely beaten, and died the next day.

I deliberately refrained from posting anything on the latest killing of an aspiring fraternity member (Andrei Marcos) simply because anger and rage simply does not cut it when it comes to the utter stupidity of such traditions. I have written so many angry words already on this and have realized that no amount of anger makes a difference on those who would beat their own number and others of opposite number--in the name of brotherhood.


Those who know me know that I have always taken a strong position against fraternity violence and have spoken/written about it so many times. Those who belong to fraternities and have lived through their versions of this stupid ritual will defend it as essential to brotherhood; you have the right to define your notions of brotherhood and defend your rituals, I have the right to disagree with the stupidity of your notions and your rituals.


What is worse than the stupidity of this ritual is the utter cruelty of the code of silence--your version of the mafia's Omerta--that you live by. At least the mob was honest about its malevolent intentions and had no pretense that the infliction of pain was for anything more noble than "you had it coming."


No, what is worse is that the Omertà you live by deprives those who are orphaned of the only thing that they now have to hold on to after you took the life of the one they loved--the truth.


What do you tell the mother who bore Andrei for nine months in her womb when she asks you, "who among you killed my son?" What do you tell the father who lent his name to him, and dreamt that he would one day proudly carry that name with a law degree when he asks you, "why did he have to die?" What do you tell those who loved him when they ask you, "we just need to know what really happened"?


I have spoken to such a mother who asked me, her counsel, the questions she could not ask of those who killed her son, questions that attempted to make sense of an utterly senseless loss. She is a courageous woman, resolute in her determination that those who killed her son, Marlon Villanueva, should be made to account for what they did. She speaks very softly, always respectfully and apologizes for the inevitable tears that stream down her cheeks whenever she mentions the name of Marlon, her murdered son. She had no resources other than the love she had for the son she was deprived of; she had no longing other than to see that justice was served for those who killed her son--in the name of brotherhood.


I recall her face now as I write this and grieve for yet another mother, whom I have not had the pleasure of meeting, who bears this latest, senseless loss. I grieve for those others who have been orphaned in the name of brotherhood throughout the years: they, who live on and who try to make sense of the permanent absence of that life that was taken from them by those who would dare call him "brother."


I know that angry words will not stop you from killing again. I know that no amount of law will prevent you from enforcing your stupid rituals. I know that your code of Omertà will not result in meaningful prosecution of those who took the life of Andrei Marcos. I know that once the news cycle fades, Andrei will, like many others before him, become another number on a page.


I take comfort only in knowing that one day you shall be made to account for what you have done by an authority that is far, far greater than any that you might elude in this lifetime. I pray that when you are asked, "why did you do this to your brother?", you will be able to answer, with every ounce of sincerity you will be able to muster, "in the name of brotherhood."

Amen Ted, you wrote it very well.

When I was an undergrad student in UP, I was also recruited by at least two fraternities. One was the Ilongo frat, UP Silak. I think my body and heart were too weak to accept potential physical harm, I did not report to the group for the first phase of initiation after a brief "intro", a light slap on the face by a friend who recruited me and assured me that he'll stand by me. After I did not show up, I think he did not like me after. That was nearly three decades ago.

Another friend from one of those Greek named frats in the second floor of UP Palma Hall (then called Arts and Sciences or AS building), my dorm mate in Molave Residence Hall, also recruited me. Again, a brief intro, a slight slap in the face. I think I was simply a coward to physical violence then, I did not show up again for the first phase of the frat initiation.

When I moved to Yakal Residence Hall, one of my roommates joined another Greek named frat. There are are many Greek sounding frats in UP. My roommate then survived the initiation. I saw his legs, severely battered by paddles and even a baseball bat or other hard objects. He was laughing while showing me his swollen and battered legs, also beaten arms, implicitly bragging that he was able to survive real physical pain inflicted upon him, and that he was ultimately accepted in a known frat in UP with several highly influential political leaders of the country as among their alumni brods.

Then I moved to Narra Residence Hall, my first group of roomates were all alumni of Philippine Science High School (or "Pisay"), really bright boys, and two of them, Ariel and Gort, were members of another Greek named frat at the College of Engineering. While I did not see their system of frat initiation or someone who has undergone it, I saw how they prepared for a frat rumble. If they have a rumble with another frat, Ariel and Gort would ask me then, "Noy, our brods would come here to prepare for a rumble". Since they were very nice to me, I would be nice to them too and said "no problem." About 15 to 20 of their brods would assemble in our room, I saw different types of baseball bats, metal bars, chaku, etc. Then different jackets to hide those things in their body when they go out. It was good that I did not see any gun. Those guys were just prepared for a rumble but were not violent enough to carry a gun. Also, while their frat would be involved in one or two rumbles in a year with another frat, either from the same college or from another college, I did not hear serious injuries resulted from their rumbles. But I still cringed at the thought of those baseball bats hitting someone's head even once.

And still in Narra dorm, there was a rumble once between a group of Muslim UP students and another Greek-named frat composed mostly of body builders. Me and several dorm residents were watching tv at the lobby one afternoon, when suddenly a friend and fellow dorm mate, Mags, a Tausug, pulled his long sword or "kris" and chased a member of a frat who wandered at our dorm. It was a bit scary, the man was running for his life while Mags was chasing him with a really long sword, the distance between them was only about 3-4 meters. The man escaped harm by jumping over a temporary barrier at the dorm entrance, a long table.

I doubt if Mags had the intention of killing that man that day because I know Mags personally, he was a tall, silent but very friendly person. He brought his sword in his room after the incident then got out. We were able to talk to him, he was still mad that their opponent from an enemy frat was able to enter our dorm.

I don't remember if there were deaths in one of the rumbles among many fraternities in UP that time. I think there was none, but I heard of some deaths in frat rumbles in UP in succeeding years. Like the case of a member of Scintilla Juris frat who was beaten to death when he was cornered by an opponent frat near the main library building.

Those were in the mid-80s in UP, those were the days. I have plenty of frat men friends then and now, but I never envied them.

I wish to see the day that violence in the hearts and minds among men and women would significantly decline. Such violence will never go away, some people simply do not know how to control their anger and emotion. But at least such violence should be drastically minimized and controlled. By the individuals themselves, and the rest of society members.
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See also:
Criminals 8: Extortion Culture in the PNP, June 13, 2011
Criminals 9: Crime Wave in Metro Manila?, August 10, 2011
Criminals 10: London Riots, August 10, 2011
Criminals 11: Kim Jong Il, North Korea, December 20, 2011
Criminals 12: R. Ecleo, A. Ampatuan, J. Reyes, June 02, 2012

Typhoon Gener Flooding

Almost all classes in Metro Manila and surrounding provinces, from pre-school to university levels, have been suspended this afternoon. Many were also suspended this morning. But the bigger news was the huge storm surges in Manila Bay, pushing huge waves up the sea wall and again, flooded Roxas Blvd. this morning. And again, the US Embassy was closed, staff were evacuated -- something that all the anti-US and anti-government street demonstrators, all the forces of the rebel NPAs, could not do.

Some satellite pics of the path of storm Gener, and the new low pressure area (LPA developing south of Manila.

More photos of the flooding the past two days. Most of these photos I took from the ANC facebook photos, a few from interaksyon.com. None of them came from my cameraphone.

Aftermath of the storm surge in Manila Bay. Tons of solid wastes from rivers, coastal areas and flooded houses washed on shore, were dumped by the huge waves along Roxas Blvd. Lower photos, flooded villages in Marikina, Bataan.

Lesson: Continued climate stupidity, of calling these things as "proof of a warming planet" or "testament of man-made climate change", do not prepare the people for more worse flooding to come, for these things to occur in the coming years and decades. Each phase of global warming-global cooling cycle lasts for several decades, or even centuries.

People are told to prepare for rising ocean, when people should prepare instead for rising rivers and lakes, more frequent. If you have global warming, you should have less rain, less flood, not more; less snow, not more.

The climate and warming racket simply wants to keep fooling and deceiving the people. That way, the oodles of climate money will keep pouring into their pockets.
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See also:
Warming Hysteria: Typhoon Ondoy Flooding, September 26, 2009
Australia floods, January 13, 2011
Global warming hits Asia, part 3, February 15, 2011
Typhoon Nesat ("Pedring") in pictures, September 28, 2011
Thailand flooding, October 2011, October 15, 2011
Vietnam flooding, October 18, 2011
Typhoon Washi ("Sendong") in Pictures, December 19, 2011
Storm Ferdie Flooding, July 21, 2012
Climate Tricks 13: Block Skeptics and Keep Fooling the Public, July 25, 2012

Population Control 9: On so-called "Expanding Choices" for Couples

The Reproductive Health (RH) bill or Responsible Parenthood bill was the most applauded topic when the President delivered his State of the Nation Address (SONA) a week ago. Which means majority of those inside the Batasan were gung ho on taxpayers-funded, large scale population control measure.

The debate for and against the measure spills in various fora, including facebook. A friend, Peter Casimiro, posted this in his fb wall last July 23:

The demographic time bomb..is beginning to explode. Time for Pinas to use leverage wisely!!

Aging Japan-Chinese Workers Drive Jobs to Southeast Asia

bloom.bg

Jose Winylito Tanquis has reason to be proud as he raises a flag to signal the launch of the 58,000- ton “Ocean Symphony” in the Philippines. Not only did he help build the cargo vessel, his son John now works at the yard.

I commented on it, below are our exchanges from July 23 to 30. Posting this with Peter's permission, thanks Peter.

Nonoy Oplas That is why government-sponsored or taxpayers' funded population control measure, aka RH bill, is wrong. People are assets, not liabilities.

Peter Casimiro LOL!! on the bogeying of the holes Michael!. So true on the natural resources issue as well, and particularly water..it's already wrecking havoc in some parts of the world (ex. India). Hi Nonoy! I somewhat agree with you on the population control measure, but the RH Bill isn't a population control measure per se, it's really on women's reproductive health and on pre-natal care (both mother and child). It certainly includes a bunch of family planning measures, but even that is much needed in Pinas, as it's more of a resource issue (closely tied to Michael's point as well). Just the simple math of our pop sustainable issue throws us into a tizzy - Pinas total land area is the size of the state of Arizona which has only 6 million people and Pinas has way over 90 million people - we can't sustain that "well" as it is, what more if the growth rate stays at the current rate? (that's "partly" why we import a lot of agri products, rice, etc.).

Nonoy Oplas When government spends billions per year for NFA subsidy to sell cheaper rice, it gives "more options" to rice consumers. When govt subsidizes by at least P5 B/year MRT alone, it gives "more optioins" to commuters whether they take the bus or jeep or MRT. All govt subsidy programs are giving "more options" to their supposed beneficiaries, the only people who have zero option whether to finance those programs or not are the taxpayers. So what prevents the pro-population control people to pitch in their own money to buy condoms, pills, maternal facility, etc.? Why do it via coercion?

Peter Casimiro Haha..Nonoy who's being coerced? The bill provides only the "opportunity" to take the benefits of subsidized care, your presumption of coercion is perhaps "somewhat" true if these subsidies were only possible if tax rates were increased. As to your point, there is nothing that prevents those who wish to help from helping, the problem is it isn't sufficient. Now since the target audience of the RH bill are mostly the poor who do not have the personal resources to seek such medical care then are you saying that assisting to provide such care from those able to pay taxes (which by it's very nature is a form of wealth redistribution) is a form of "coercion"? If so, then all other uses for taxation is also a form of "coercion". Who then would build the roads you drive on? the police force you rely on for safety? the teachers that impart knowledge on our children?..if its coercion..I'd say allow more of it..because there isn't a single country in this world that has successfully developed into a stable nation without such coercion.

Nonoy Oplas Sure, I do not advocate zero government and hence, zero taxation, zero coercion. I advocate limited govt and hence, limited or minimal taxation and coercion. If you read the explanatory note of the previous bills (Cong. Lagman, etc.), they were very explicit in saying that the country's fast population growth is a problem, that we are now the world's 12th largest country in terms of population size, is a problem. Hence, the need to control population. Since this looks "unpalatable" to control population, they called it "RH" or "pro choice" bill when it's clear, control population. China did that, Singapore and Japan did that. And precisely why you posted that article in the first place -- that countries like the Philippines with fast population have the advantage. Check what you posted again.