Defying the Odds

What is your greatest fear? For me, it’s losing vision. Although we’re quite advanced now, it scares me to death thinking I would only see darkness all the time.

Most likely, blindness would limit what you can do and what you can achieve. You wouldn’t enjoy life that much. What would happen to you, your future?

Despite of that, there’s a long list of achievers who are visually impaired. To name a few there’s Stevie Wonder (Music), also deaf Helen Keller (Literature), Marla Runyan (Olympic Runner), Louis Braille (Educator/inventor), Thomas Pryor Gore (US Senator), Erik Weihenmayer (world class athlete) and Olegario "Ollie" Cantos, a blind Filipino who was the advisor to President Bush on disability issues from the Department of Justice.

Actually, all of our body parts are necessary as created by our master. For some reasons, there are born with physical challenges.

On January, Jessica Cox is in the country to inspire Filipinos to do more than what she has done. She also paid a courtesy call in Malacanang.

A Filipino-American, Cox was born without arms but can do anything. She become the first person to be certified to fly an airplane using feet, drives cars, plays piano, martial arts (black belter), had a degree in psychology from the University of Arizona and now a recognized motivational speaker. Jessica holds the distinction of being the first woman pilot in aviation history to fly with her feet.

How did she do that? She admits it was not easy, Jessica said she is guided by her favorite words of wisdom: “Never let fear get in the way of our opportunity.”

Also in the picture is the world famous Manny Pacquiao. We all know he started from humble beginnings and look where he is now. A billionaire and considered as the greatest Filipino athlete. He tried and won.

It is normal that there are times we have doubts in ourselves. If we could do certain things or if we could pass the test. All of us face challenges or problems some time. It depends on how we deal with it and respond to the situation. There’s a time we get afraid but for me, it’s advisable to move on and do something. It’s a cliché but praying and asking for discernment matters. Faith is an important ingredient to overcome things. Many have said to think out of the box, be open-minded and always stay positive. That would keep you going and continue the fight.

Reference: http://globalnation.inquirer.net/diaspora/diaspora/view/20090302-191847/Look-ma-no-hands

Pinoy Elections - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Election is a chance for a country to start again. It gives us hope for better governance and a better future. It signals change, beginnings and hopefully good days ahead.

Elections can make or break a nation. This campaign period, we can see how these candidates behave and how they market themselves.

The Bad and the Ugly
For some which has more than enough funds, they started campaigning early to get ahead. They have this excuse that they’re just introducing themselves, to be known or just leveling the playing field. This is despite the Comelec rule for campaign period which all must follow. Some even has a brilliant excuse that everyone’s doing it to justify their action. They could give a thousand reasons but the bottom line still is that they’re not following the rule. What a good trait for a leader. It’s just annoying seeing politicians faces everywhere (from TV to mineral water labels). Ain’t a good view and more seen as vandalism.

Part of the game is destroying the opponent. Expect these gentlemen (and women) to throw sweet nothings to each other.

Another thing that’s irritating is the surveys. I hope surveys would be banned for now as this also conditions the mind of the people (especially the ignorant).

Other issues that make us sick this campaign/election time are:
- Singing, dancing politicians (rapping included).
- Posters/trash all around.
- Cheating, vote buying.
- Political dynasty/Traditional politicians
- Traffic because of their convoy
- Killing in desperation.
- Candidates who do not attend forums.

I also can’t believe that someone, who’s already in the highest post in the land would run again in lower position disregarding delicadeza (sense of propriety). What was she thinking? Sneaky isn’t it? The used to president (Erap) would also run and all these are allowed by COMELEC. Sometimes, you just don’t understand Comelec (or the people behind it).

The Good
The good part of election is knowing that we have the power to achieve change. That on this day (May 11), all are equal in casting one vote.

I hope we would take time to watch and listen to forums to know their platforms and how they stand on certain issues. I hope we won’t get swayed by the surveys and by the celebrities endorsing them.

We should look at their track record and how they try to follow the (election) rules (moral included). How they would represent the Philippines, it’s people well.

It’s nice that there are still groups and volunteers who are not tired of doing their part for a clean election. There are volunteer supporters for the candidates they believe in and not just waiting for something in return.

It’s cool that there are candidates who chose not to throw dirt against their contender and just focus on their visions and abilities.

I hope we would be extra observant this election as this would be critical where we are going for the coming years.

This Pinoy Would Stop Malaria

I can’t wait to see tomorrow’s headline. That tomorrow is actually probably 5 years from now when Rhoel Dinglasan’s discovery - a new kind of malaria vaccine would be confirmed and would be used to fight the disease.

Malaria is the cause for the deaths of nearly a million children under age 5 each year — mostly in Africa — killing one child every 30 seconds. Half the world's population remains at risk — including travelers to affected countries.

Rhoel Dinglasan, an entomologist and biologist from John Hopkins University developed a transmission-blocking vaccine (TBV), it is aimed not at protecting individuals from the disease but at preventing mosquitoes that carry it from spreading it. He found an antigen, called AnAPN1, that causes humans to create antibodies that prevent transmission of malaria by mosquitoes. Get enough of these antibodies into mosquitoes, and you lock the disease up there and prevent it from infecting us. Sounds good, but how do you implement such a strategy? You can hardly vaccinate the mosquitoes themselves. Instead, you put the AnAPN1 into their food source: us. A mosquito that bites an inoculated person would pick up the antibodies and then be sidelined from the malaria-transmission game.

TBV would be given along with a traditional immunity-conferring vaccine (it would be given in a combination). The traditional vaccine that would make the TBV acceptable doesn't exist yet either, but progress is being made on that front. Right now, for example, PATH MVI is testing a vaccine called RTSS, which reduced risk of infection for one strain of the disease at least 50% in late-stage clinical trials for 16,000 infants in Africa — not perfect, but still useful in places where 25% of infant deaths are caused by malaria.

The vaccine so far works against the major types of malaria and all species of mosquitoes tested.

Not only would malaria eradication save millions of lives, it would also free up many countries from the crushing costs of dealing with the disease — costs that make economic growth impossible. The American economy, when it is not in recession, has typically grown about 3% per year since the 1970s. Countries with malaria, by contrast, lose 1.3% of that potential growth — nearly half — just to the consequences of the disease, according to a study by leading global economist Jeffrey Sachs. "It's like a huge tax on economic growth".

Hopefully, this malaria-control initiatives going on would succeed so we could finally say goodbye to this deadly disease. There’s no doubt that this Pinoy’s contribution would put this to an end.

Note: PATH MVI, PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative is a research funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Sources:
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1954177,00.html http://globalnation.inquirer.net/ofwspotlight/ofwspotlight/view/20100119-248174/Filipino-discovers-new-vaccine-vs-malaria
http://www.malariavaccine.org/