MARCH is not the month with the most number of fires in the country. The bathroom is not the best place to run to when you’re caught inside a building on fire. And firefighting is a skill that combines science, experience and common sense – for a judgment call that seeks only one objective: control [...]
IT WAS bound to happen. I had just picked up an abandoned, filthy-looking mutt off the street, with only an old towel for protection. After we had decided to keep her, I wore gloves whenever I handled her for the first couple of weeks, as she had been diagnosed with skin problems and worms. One [...]
THE STORY of Joseller “Yeng” Guiao – basketball coach, politician, public servant and loving father, not necessarily in that order – will never have a short shelf life. That’s because the road to Guiao’s personality is a two-way street. You share a hearty laugh with him or listen intently as he stresses a point with [...]
BATANG ina (child mothers) is how they refer to women like Maphil Sungahid, whose childhood is interrupted, practically snatched from them, when they suddenly find themselves pregnant. At 17, Sungahid did not know how to deal with the problem of having to provide and care for another human being. After a failed abortion attempt a [...]
POP quiz: What do many of our fellow Filipinos have in common with Pamela Anderson? Is it (a) Breasts that can be seen from outer space; b) A sex video starring your ex-husband that has been distributed all over the Internet, or c) A potentially deadly disease. If you answered (a), you most likely work [...]
“A ROOM of her own” is what it used to be. But why stop there? Why indeed, when she could have an entire home to herself. A library, gallery and archive all hers. The Ateneo Library of Women’s Writings (Aliww) is proudly the first of its kind in the Philippines and in this part of [...]
Being sick is no laughing matter. But it does help to see the lighter side of things YOU’RE lying in bed, bogged down by fever. You’re shaking and shivering, coughing your lungs out and thinking you’ve lost your nostrils because your nose is way too stuffed. No this isn’t a scene from “The Walking Dead” [...]
THE ENGLISH slang word runs is so graphic, referring to diarrhea and obviously derived from what you do when you’re about to do what has to be done. Diarrhea is so common in developing countries, especially during summer, that we’ve begun to believe it’s normal, another one of those inevitable inconveniences in life. But we [...]
PICTURES and stories of India portray vibrant cultures and cuisines that reflect their people’s diversity, adventurous spirit and passion for life and flavors. In various corners of the globe where Indians have made their presence felt, this vibrancy is shared with the rest of the world. In the Philippines, one of the avenues that reflect [...]
11: Total number of diseases listed in the Department of Health website under “Weather and Season-Related Diseases.” The list includes typhoid, cholera, Hepatitis A, food poisoning, diarrhea, sore eyes, measles, dengue, malaria, sunburn and prickly heat. 41: Body temperature in degrees Celsius of someone suffering from heat stroke. The normal temperature is about 36.8 degrees [...]
The ocean recedes, the seabed appears, the seawater boils, and a big wave rears its towering cowl, and heads for the land: it covers the surf, and covers the sand. With the speed of wind it cuts down the trees, carries off houses, drowns prayers and pleas. It rips across seashores like a curse returning, [...]
