Summer of discontent

Throughout the NMI archipelago, there’s the roiling summer of discontent steadily rumbling like an active underwater volcano ready to erupt. The silence is deafening. This could easily be seen in the cringing faces of our people everywhere especially after the super disastrous storm.

I’m sure this assessment doesn’t resonate well with the powers that be. But it’s reality in both form and substance. Your only exit is to deal with it!

We’re caught flatfooted once more—the economy sputtering to complete halt—hasn’t done much to pull employees out of more than a decade of stagnant wages and salaries. What’s a “stagnant” wage? It’s when your income stays the same for so long while the cost of basic goods have all skyrocketed at the same time. This is reality of vicious hardship in the islands!

Yet, we’re basically stuck with what we have today in terms of income. While new projects give distant threat to boosting revenue generation, we’re plastered with another hurdle in the dual disaster that slows tourism to a screeching halt including business operations derailing revenue generation.

In spite of it all, I’m still hopeful the depressing tidings of vicious economic slide and consequential stagnancy could be changed with vision. And please note: I’m speaking of “vision” not your black and white television.

Reliance on technology

It’s hard divorcing the new culture wrought by technology of instant messaging, exchanges in social media, and global access to prominent dailies or websites.

Remember the old days of communicating? You write your letter, seal and mail it hoping it gets to its destination some 21 days later? Today, we send it instantly with tons of related files too.

Technology has made most everything accessible where information is at the tip of your fingertips. It makes it mandatory that you’re at least computer literate.

In hospitals, information technology has improved immensely such that physicians could draw a patient’s file unto their computers without waiting for a staff to fetch it. It makes attending to the sick quicker. But you see this in better-equipped hospitals.

Even the filing of cases in court is done via E-Filing from across the globe. You may be in Paris but the Internet grants you time to file your case on the dot here.

Even auto-mechanics use computer equipment to identify what may be wrong with your engine. At least there’s no second-guessing and saves you unintended errors and cost.

The commercial port in Bangkok is an interesting place occupied, inch-by-inch, by huge cargo ships. You wonder how they’d eventually exit. A computer controls movement in and out of the port. At some point of the day, the space is empty and you wonder how each ship exited the harbor.

A certain company nearby has the technology to shoot down to the depth of the ocean to find seabed resources. It could tell you what you have, how much of it and how long will it last when harvested for global marketing. Wow!

But for all the global technological advances, no one has invented a device to predict earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. It would be nice to have this technology given that we are situated in the Pacific Ring of Fire.

Health of our People: I was a beneficiary of an interview by a Public Health group out surveying Type II diabetes. I’m pleased to see the thoughtfulness of relevant questions asked that led to other queries beyond what’s already prepared. The staff did this in order to secure clearer understanding of issues.

The work is far from complete but it’s a good start to begin monitoring everything there’s to know about the illness afflicting a good number of local. Its origin begins with pancreatic malfunction, unrefined complex sugar clogging up in our blood vessels, how this effect eventually kills the kidney and its subsequent result, or infections in our lower body or extremities that could lead to amputations.

My interest is in focusing on the onset of pancreatic malfunction, if it’s an issue that could be treated and revived or is it simply history once it goes out of commission. This is where CHC could commission a study so we secure information up ahead what else to expect in the treatment of adult onset diabetes or Type II.

Have been a diabetic for nearly 20 years now. Lifestyle changes are needed though there’s nothing we could do about genetic predisposition. I’m talking heart ailments as you approach midlife or golden years. Healthy lifestyle or otherwise we all leave from massive heart attacks or stroke after 70.

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The craze for longevity is as interesting as it is infuriating. Doctors from all over met at a certain venue to find out how the Chinese get to live up to 120 years. Well, they consume a lot of green in their food and drinks. Here, it’s beer and some more fatty red meat, tons of salt and some more sugar in drinks topped by a slam-dunk on the living room couch.

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We used to be relatively active spending time at the family farm at day’s end or on weekends. We no longer do this preferring mowing the iPads and iPhones than anything else. There simply are too many distractions from doing personal initiative to stay relatively active.

Imagine if half the people here are sedentary who eventually slide into obesity. Boy! It would be a helluva a struggle getting out of bed in the morning and another challenge staying awake at work! It seems we’re headed that way. Your health begins with you. Start rearranging your schedule so you include fun walk with your family.