NY Times Opinion Article: Health Care's Lost Weekend

"Doctors, like most people, don’t love to work weekends, and they probably don’t enjoy being evaluated against their peers. But their industry can no longer afford to protect them from the inevitable. Imagine a drugstore open only five days a week, or a television network that didn’t measure its ratings. Improving the quality of health care and reducing its cost will require that doctors make many changes — but working weekends and consenting to quality management are two clear ones." - Excerpt from NY TIMES Article Health Care's Lost Weekend By Contributing Columnist PETER ORSZAG, Published Oct 3, 2010 (Read the rest of this Artcle).

Being a fellow medical professional (with certain temporary and soon to be remedied limitations) can very much attest to this fact, seeing as i myself had given up so much of my own precious weekends in service of a Humanitarian profession with regards to non humanitarian cases (e.g a drunkard who got into an argument and got a bottle smashed on his head). This would greatly help Doctors provide better healthcare, although with an unfortunate side effect of their being unavoidable on certain days (and i know very much from experience that critical emergency care comes during the worst times, namely either early in the morning or on the quiet weekends). I'm very much interested how this matter turns out with regards to the American Health care system, but hopefully, nothing will be sacrificed with regards to patient Health Care and hopefully isn't being done for the sole reason for making more money. And if it does work out, I wonder how this can be adapted for other countries as well.

The Church and State

Artist-Tour Guide Carlos Celdran Nabbed for Demonstration Inside Church
By NEIL RAMOS
October 1, 2010, 1:30pm
MANILA, Philippines - Popular tour guide, artist and commercial model Carlos Celdran was apprehended by police for staging a lightning protest inside Manila Cathedral Thursday afternoon.

According to reports, Celdran marched in the middle of the church during the homily brandishing a placard with “Damaso” written on it and held it up in front of church goers.

He was supposedly heard shouting “bakit mahihirap lang pinagbabawalan sa family planning.”

He also castigated church elders for getting involved in politics.

Celdran was immediately arrested and brought to the MPD headquarters in UN avenue.

Dressed akin to that of national hero Jose Rizal, replete with bowler hat, Cledran was apologetic but firm when he faced the media.

“I apologize for being rude. But it was necessary for me to be rude,” said he adding, “I am sorry for the method I used, but I am not sorry for the message I made.”

Celdran explained the necessity of his actions, citing the supposed threat made by church leaders to stage civil disobedience rallies following President Noynoy Aquino’s declaration of support for modern contraceptives.

At least one bishop said Aquino could be excommunicated.

“If you make threats about civil disobedience you gotta figure out what it feels like,” Celdran intoned.

Celdran said the Church needed to be reminded “to respect the constitutional provision on separation of Church and State.”

Though Celdran, who identified himself as a member of the Filipino Freethinkers and Rational Hero.com, didn’t explain why he had “Damaso” written on his placard, many believe it referred to the “Damaso” character in Jose Rizal’s much-fawned novel “Noli Me Tangere. “
Damaso is a powerful friar hated by many for supposedly abusing his position.

The mass is meant to mark the second anniversary of the May They Be One Bible campaign, a joint effort by Catholics and Protestant leaders to distribute Bibles to five million poor Filipino families.

Among those at the ceremony were Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales, the Papal Nuncio Archbishop Edward Adams, and other Catholic bishops.

Protestant Bishops Fred Magbanua of the Philippine Council for Evangelical Churches and Nathaniel Lazaro, chair of the National Council of Churches of the Philippines and Rev. Richard Pridmore of the Union Church of Manila were also present.

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Funny thing, I may not have really paid much attention at class during my earlier days 9along with so many other people, weather they'll admit it or not) but one thing that is sure, some things did stick in my mind even if it was leagues and leagues away, and one of these things is that, im very much sure that The Church is very much Separated from the State. Dont get me wrong, both sides can make suggestions to each other, but actually strong arming the other side? whats going to happen next, the Inquisition is going out again and hunting "Heretics". Going back to the stone ages are we? So when did the Church get the authority to threaten the president with excommunication? There was a sore nerves pinched somewhere. and what ever happened to freedom of speech? Is Hitler running the country in the guise of Pres Noynoy? Don't get me wrong I am very much a devout catholic, but at the same time I am very much a person who is supportive of the State of Law that governs us and prevents the people of "low morals" or "moral deficiencies" to run amok and take advantage of the other people living their lives. I guess some of the dumb arsed events happening to this country can be (conveniently) placed at the feet of our previous president (The Great Moled One, if you need a clue). Sometimes you just cant helped but be tempted to grab a gun and go postal on everybody governing our country or otherwise. I may not be an educated person regarding the matters of Law and the Constitution, I'm merely just another person residing on this piece of dirt ball governed by some people who don't know any better than the average flea on my dog's arse. Uh oh.. I guess I had better keep quiet now before the Country's Gestapo starts knocking on my door (that is if they can even read, being illiterate b@$&%#s).

A Modern Love Story

On a Precipice, Wings Spread

One of the more common lines from my theology classes from college was that one of the greatest things that God had ever given us that separated us from everything else in the world was the concept of Free Will. The inherent ability to decide for ourselves what we deem is best for us and what would be, in our own humble opinion, a source of immense happiness. This is of course coupled with varying degrees of intelligence and mental processes. So in the end, with this supposed combination, we can unconsciously go thru so many possible options about possible things that would give us that desired sense of happiness and well being, right? Wrong! Unfortunately, some of us are guilty of having a tendency to over think things, to the point that we loose the perspective of things and incidentally, loose the opportunity to grasp at that ever elusive "desired moment of happiness".

This article in the New York times had made for great reading and somehow, in my humble opinion, had dispersed some of the "cobwebs" and "dark stories" that is pervasive in society that some how, inadvertently, creates in us the sense of not to bother anymore such desires to have a loving partner, or the idea that "there is no perfect partner/love story for me and its all made up by Hollywood script writers". after reading this wonderful work, it will hopefully open up for you, dear reader, the sense of being thankful for the life partner you do have, and if not yet but are searching, that things aren't totally that impossible or bleak. Its not that we dream impossible things, but rather, we never bother to dream in the first place, when in reality we should.

Dumb Arsed Drivers...

As i commute around the greater metropolitan manila area, I cannot help but be surprised and shake my head at the idiocy and the plain brazenness of some of the drivers of public utility vehicles. These are people who depend on their skill as drivers and they actually have the telemetry to drive as if they are racing against Mario Andreti or are participating in the Le Mans Race and are vying against other drivers for the Championship Gold Cup at the finish line (even if this is only actually going on in their own deluded psyche). All other privately driven cars are at the mercy of these deranged fools, and even if you do decide to try to intimidate them with your own driving skills then you either better have 1 or all of the following parameters covered: (a)Have really humongous cajones made of steel, (b) packing a personal defense weapon (anything that can be more intimidating than a lead pipe as this is what the offensive drivers will be packing), (c) have the calling card of some Police or Army official on your person or within your wallet (or even better than that, Having such a personage as a Drinking Buddy, Best Friend, Relative or someone who's willing to give you an odd favor now and then) , (d) have an even more offensive attitude then the driver you'll be taking on verbally, (e) have a posse of bruisers in your passenger seat or (f) Have St Peter's direct line on speed dial on your cellphone.

These are some of the things that you have to drum into your noggin every day once you decide to step into the drivers seat of your car and you have to go somewhere. Low gas? Pesky Traffic enforcers? Occasional Street Beggars? Persistent Street vendors selling useless crap at exorbitant prices? These are merely the icing on the cake. Once you pass thru their area of vegetation, then you're in the clear. But those friggin dumb-arsed drivers that ply the roads of manila as if they were doing bumper cars in the amusement park and not ferrying blank-faced passengers to their desired destinations (blank faced but are really silently making peace with their Creator of their respective religions at the same time preying to the aforementioned celestial being to smite the offensive driver before he causes them to leave the prime material plane for the spiritual world). But the best part of all is when these aformentiond Dumb-arsed drivers actually get caught by diligent Traffic enforcers have nothing else to do but scratch their heads in mute apology! Sometimes I'm thankful i don't own a gun.. Or do I? Hmmm...!