A Rare Visit by a Muse

Dear Child,

Life may be short and uncertain,
The path strewn with rocks and a lot of pain
For all the tears and winter’s rain,
Be brave! Your sufferings don’t disdain.

In my reassuring company,
Life was easy and full of glee
The mighty ocean and the restless sea,
Were no match for you and me!

All good things must come to an end,
My life like yours God did lend
Creatures like us in every bend,
Cry at goodbyes and hearts are rent.

Hang on, have faith and don’t be sad,
A lifetime of learning will be your rod
In all your tasks – don’t fear, be glad,
I will be there, my cherished lad!

Jose Bonifacio
February 5, 2009

Kamagong Stump in Cabanatuan City

My heart sank when I saw the freshly sawed off tree stump. For so many years I watched this kamagong tree sprout new leaves, blossom and bear reddish fruits, in harmony with nature's unrelenting rhythms. It had become a landmark that I always anticipated seeing during my daily bus trips to my clinic in Aliaga, Nueva Ecija. Tall, massive, and imposing, this giant was probably a century old before chainsaw teeth sank into its last annual ring. Situated along the national highway in Barangay Bitas, Cabanatuan City, it has been there for as long as I can remember, a proud and sturdy monument to life that had its humble beginnings in the seeds of the distinctly sweet and velvety mabolo fruit. Aptly named "iron wood", the word "kamagong" evokes images of strength, durability, and permanence. In my amateurish forays into Dendrology, the numerous old folks I talked to recalled days when this tree used to be very common and was wantonly cut down because of the value of the ebony core that has been claimed by many as capable of bending six-inch nails and snapping chainsaws. The finely grained ebony core is used in making fine furniture and martial arts sticks. Kamagong is mabolo, an evergreen indigenous to the Philippines. It is a close relative of the persimmon, but I find the crimson and somewhat furry mabolo better-tasting despite its cheesy smell. This of course is subject to debate because I know some people who loathe the weird cheesy smell. I used to believe that kamagong was different from mabolo until I was educated on this matter by Mr Ramon Bandung of the UP Herbarium. I related this new knowledge to a friend because of our ongoing debate which had taken on taxonomic proportions! He probably found the legend aspect of the story charming, and refused to believe, insisting that kamagong is an entirely different species. Fortunately I was shown Dendrology and Taxonomy books by the kind herbalist, removing any doubts that kamagong is, indeed, mabolo, or Diospyros philippinensis or Diospyros blancoi for taxonomic hairsplitters.

© 2008 raulespinozaramos, md

Doctors in Macatbong

Ang Holy Week Sa Bayan Ko

Etched in the Filipino psyche, Holy Week continues to serve as a constant reminder of betrayal and the redemptive sufferings of Christ...On a similar plane, Filipinos continue to struggle under the heavy cross of iniquity, injustice, poverty, unemployment, and corruption while the web of lies and deceit is continually woven by leaders who have chosen to play the roles of Judas and Christ's tormentors...For how long will this calvary last ?

Childhood Ramblings in Hagonoy, Bulacan

As a young child in Purok Balut, Barrio San Agustin, Hagonoy, Bulacan, I used to frequent my late Nanang Terang's ornamental garden and the adjoining creek where our motley group of sun-baked kids sucked the marrow out of our early childhood years capturing hapless ant lions, ladybugs, dragonflies and damselflies, beetles and crickets, crabs, frogs, and fish. They were our constant companions as we soaked under the sun, exploring and declaring dominion over countless playgrounds. We filched indian mangoes and tasted nature's bounties in the same spirit as Yevtushenko's "Stolen Apples". At night under the pale moonlight my father would regale us with tales of creatures that lived in the vastness of space. Fireflies flickered in the darkness and occasional meteor fragments rained from the sky. We counted the stars and looked for the big dipper, the little dipper and the "tatlong maria", and often asked how far these stars were and how long it would take us to reach them...Can our children boast of the same childhood ramblings or are they so enamored with the stale and lifeless fruits of technology?

©2008 raul e ramos, md

Fire and Ice

FIRE AND ICE
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favour fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
Robert Frost (1874-1963)

Iskolar ng Bayan

Kanser ng Bayan

Those who sneer at the nobility of the past are in for a rude awakening. Our lives cannot rest on laughter and gaiety alone. Those who refuse to look at our present wounds by covering them with layers and layers of frivolity will awaken one fateful day to the reality of a cancer gone mad... Can the lesion heal itself? Can a malevolent spirit send us to heaven? What treatment does a physician prescribe for a pestering lesion? A boil or even a cancerous mass deserves extirpation. Half measures will only prolong the patient's agony and give ample time for the infection or the cancer to spread and destroy the body...Lalagyan lang ba natin ng plaster ang kanser ng bayan? raul espinoza ramos, md

In Defense of Bloodsucking Leeches (mga limatik sa Pilipinas)

Unlike their human counterparts, bloodsucking leeches fall off once they are engorged. As they reach the point of satiation, they disengage and start to digest their meal. Much maligned and often portrayed in movies and literature as capable of bleeding their hosts to death, these poor annelids from subclass Hirudinea are all carnivorous but only a few are truly bloodsucking brutes ! Their value in medical research and in maintaining nature's delicate balance cannot be overemphasized. Along with other "unloved" creatures like barnacles and sharks and crocodiles and snakes and fungi they know what satiation means and they help us survive and live peaceably in the blue marble. Unfortunately, insatiable, scheming, and power-intoxicated politicians can suck the lifeblood of this nation!

reramos, md

Hook, Line and Sinker

Zankterva

Tatum, Patricia, Bernice, Yurii, Xavier, Nicole and Nadine flash their impish smiles... The magical days of childhood never cease to amaze and to draw a sentimental tear. How can one ever forget days of innocence and pure delight at the things life has to offer? Dusty little feet, eager hands and bruised knees, terrible ant and bee encounters, the pesky neighborhood dog and the sweetest lemonades... all these form a priceless chain of irretrievable and hauntingly poignant events that define childhood...

Paradise Found

dragonflies coconuts bananas mangoes guavas tilapia mudfish carp bato-bato maya tamarind macopa mahogany narra molave ipil-ipil castanas king mango apple mango star apple cicadas frogs catfish gourami barn-owls turtles crabs shrimps butterflies crabgrass oranges eucalyptus duhat binayuyu giant gabi santol susuhong salagubang kabuting hapon lemon grass palay corn apulid snakes termites praying mantis grasshoppers kamagong guyabano calumpit ilang-ilang breadfruit cashew bamboo buho bayawak catmon kamias jackfruit crane damselflies paramecium algae caterpillars cogon alibangbang earthworm ants bees dragonflies talahib quails mimosa dayap mice saluyot turkey mansanitas men...

The astounding biodiversity of the Philippines is a very rich heritage that many of us Filipinos take for granted. Always looking over the horizon, we fail to realize that what we have always been looking for is right under our feet...
© RaulERamosMD

The Cabinet of Dr Caligari

What was inside Dr. Caligari's cabinet? Potions? Voodoo dolls? Evil Intentions? Political Schemes? Greed? Lust for Power? Ineffective Drugs? Stupid Laws? Thank God the mad Dr Caligari and his sleepwalking Cesare limited their evil designs to a few victims in the quaint mountain village of Holstenwall, Germany and not the Filipino nation! Unfortunately in these modern times the lives of the great majority of world citizens are caught in the deadly web of greed, lust for power, and malevolent designs masquerading as acts of benevolence. Who decides what for whom? Who directs? Who follows? The deadly mix of widespread poverty on the one hand and scheming and power-hungry politicians on the other creates another Holstenwall in our midst, a macabre setting where the ordinary man is caught in the middle...
RERamos, MD

A Time For Us

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

Susan Erens, Encore !

Profession Under Siege

Medicine and politics are like water and oil - they do not mix! Confronted by pressures from all sides, the modern practice of medicine is like the gallant light brigade amidst cannonfire from the more materialistic and often sinister forces of politics and big business, made worse by snipings from shady characters out to make a fast buck !

reramos, md

Class of 1975, Nueva Ecija High School

It is hard to forget our barkada's afternoon walks from the Nueva Ecija High School to our watering hole which happens to be our house along Diversion Road in Cabanatuan City where we fought the most hotly contested basketball games and mind boggling chess battles made more piquant by the scent of freshly baked nutribun (a government-subsidized bread for schoolchildren) and inihaw na pusit (roasted squid) and bibingka (rice cake) that we bought by the roadside with our meager allowances. We were a raucous and happy bunch of kids gamboling along life's mileposts, immune to violent upheavals. Little did we know that dark clouds were looming over the horizon and that our lives would soon be engulfed by the growing darkness...Martial law was declared and life was never the same again for most Filipinos... © 2008 rauleramos, md

Poor Patient, Poor Doctor

The patient has a fast-spreading cellulitis of the face, which stemmed from a pimple near the nasal opening which the patient squeezed a few days before consultation. The area of the nose occupies the central part of the dangerous triangle, so called because any infection in this area can lead to fatal consequences if bacteria or other pathogens are able to penetrate the cavernous sinus and consequently the brain itself. The astute physician makes the correct diagnosis and hurries to write his prescription, backed by long years of medical schooling and thousands of patients later. In a country where the market is cluttered with both efficacious and substandard drugs, the physician, who fears the possibility of a fatal complication, writes the generic name of the drug but sadly enough, stops short of writing the brand that has given him the most number of successfully treated furuncles, boils, and other staphylococcal skin infections, because the law has deprived these faithful disciples of Hippocrates of the right to choose the best drug for their patients. The unwary patient heads for the nearest drugstore and is met by a well-meaning but ignorant saleslady who dutifully helps the patient select from ten available drugs bearing the same generic name. The wrong choice is made, and the patient dies from a fulminating septicemia three days later, all because of one unintelligent law. Physicians, whose noble calling is guided by the dictum primum non nocere (first, do no harm), are powerless in a silly and tragic event such as this. Who suffers most? Who is to blame?
© 2008 Raul E Ramos, MD

Blue Marble

Cabanatuan New Year

The bedrock of Philippine society, the family, during emotion-charged moments like Christmas and New Year...Filipinos tenaciously cling to old fashioned values that center on family, education, and religion. Closely knit, highly intelligent, and deeply religious, Filipinos have many things to be proud of and be thankful for.

Rain

Steinbeck's Genius

With the bust of John Steinbeck, the genius who probed deep into the human heart. Like Dostoevsky, he gave us a crisp and magnified view of humanity stripped to its barest essentials, where existence is in a continual flux...

Turn of the Century Filipinos, Circa 1900's

A proud race steeped in religiosity, close family ties, education and blessed with an indomitable spirit...

When Scientists Were Artists

83rd plate from Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur (1904).

I sure hate to think about it but modern scientists have become so enamored with science's purported alienation from art, subjectivity, emotions, the abstract, the immeasurable, and similar human inclinations...Of course, who can argue against success? Are the beginnings of scientific inquiry really that obsolete? Have we become more human with our immaculate scientific mindset that abhors the minutest reference to our more subjective wanderings?

And where will this new found tryst with cold science lead us? Just asking...

Macatbong Forest

Literature Friendly

Cicadas are well-known for their vocal talents and their unrelenting soporific hum. Often cited in poetry and literary texts, the familiar drone of their timbals heightens feelings of isolation, a pleasant solitude where one communes with nature, away from the drab and often petty concerns of our daily lives. It seems we have a lot to learn from this humble yet very successful member of the animal world. Man's well-developed brain has certainly put homosapiens way ahead of other creatures in many respects, yet it has miserably failed in maintaining man's balanced relations with the environment...Is too much consciousness really a disease?

Casablanca

Innocence Lost

Rowing Upstream

"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past" - The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald In this immortal work we are reminded of the primeval desire to go eastward, towards the green light that defines our lives, that, inspite of ourselves and our failings, our upstream voyage brings us to a destination far more incomprehensible and distant than all our journeys combined - ourselves...

rauleramos,md

Nurse Medics, Both Sides Now

Hippocrates and Florence Nightingale forged a pact in heaven...Nurse medics of Saint Dominic Savio College enroute to Batangas on this very stormy day - gusty and very chilly winds and torrential rains...

Explorer of the Human Soul

Feverish frenzy perusing the immortal works of one of the world's greatest writers. His novels plumbed the depths of the human soul - difficult reading but it's really worth it! The concepts of suffering and internal struggle pervaded most of his works. A lot of people disdainfully say 'philosophy is dead and fiction is in its death throes'. I strongly disagree. I believe that when the going gets really tough man will fumble in the dark clutching at straws wondering where in his history the fatal error of arrogance seeped into his evolution, attacking as cancer cells would the human body...

Four Generations

Mother, Impong Tenteng, and three kids and myself - picture taken February 22, 1959 in grandma's house in Cabanatuan City. In this wooden abode the distinctively woodsy scent made a lasting impression on me. Wide wooden floors and walls, antique chairs with inlaid nacar designs, huge glass vases with heart-shaped waterplants and camia blooms plucked from the gardens. From the dirty kitchen below Nana Bina could be seen stoking the fire, cooking the breakfast meal as the strong and homey smell of coffee beans and Darigold milk and garlic wafts to the upper floor... © 2007 rauleramos, md

Joys of Clerkship

UERMMMC Junior Interns take a two-week "breather" in the community work aspect of the year-long clerkship rotations. It was 1983 and Limay, Bataan was a big challenge to our group as we tried to utilise newly learned skills in lessening our patients' pains... Trekking back to the local health center after a day's immersion in community work.

Cultivating The Mind (1989-1994)

Filipino nursing students at the Makati Medical Center-RTRMS explore the innermost regions of the human body... Heady days teaching Zoology, Anatomy & Physiology, and Microbiology. We pored over anatomical texts, dissected live and anesthetized frogs and cats, mastered the intricacies of microscopy, and even the dynamics of the cardiac cycle ! It was a succession of intelligent students whom I had the opportunity to teach. During our rest periods we dabbled in philosophy and ethics. At least two notable students were regularly borrowing my books including one by Dostoevsky. But it was not all seriousness - we often burst in fits of laughter at the most inane and ancient of jokes. It was not a burden to any of us. It was an unforgettable experience...

Nordic Beauty II

The first Miss Universe, Ms Armi Kuusela of Finland, endeared herself to Filipinos when she married debonair Filipino businessman Virgilio Hilario in 1953. Discovered this photo while rummaging mother's old photo files many years ago...

And Then There Were Five

Days of Nadine's playing the Voltes V tune, under the dedicated tutelage of Jenny, the piano teacher. Max was still an infant and had locks of really curly hair, a maternal gene gone transiently expressive...Yurii had not yet experienced that unfortunate episode with the microscope where, in the general excitement over the quaint- looking apparatus, he took a misstep and fell from the table where all five where fighting tooth and nail for the best position to touch the microscope, their first actual encounter a real post-Leeuwenhoek model. Joshua the toddler was asserting himself, fighting for his own niche. Xavier, on the other hand, already had a serious air about him, despite well-spaced mischief... Is there a song written for these unforgettable growing-up days where children grow as fast as mongo seeds?

Grandpa's Friends

Handsome and well-chiseled faces, immaculate clothes...

La Mer II

The sea beckons like a mother to a child lost in the unfamiliarity and confusion of life. A magnetic, primeval attachment, an invinsible umbilical cord that binds us to our humble origins, an inextricable past... la mer as the French would call her, a matriarchal haven for distressed souls...

Paco Park, 1974

Maynard, Nelson, Roy, myself, and Alfredo. There comes a time in one's life when you feel most invincible - failure or sickness or any ill event is hardly ever imagined. Success is certain and death is unknown or outside the sphere of existence...

Fish Harvest, Macatbong, Summer of 1977

This photograph, taken with a Kodak 135mm box-type instamatic camera, has rich painting-like tones, making it one of my old favorites. Even the posing gives that 'moment- snatched' effect.

Nordic Beauty

Donna S, Finnish-Norwegian friend who encouraged me greatly to continue with the ardous task of unrelenting study and adjustment in first year medical school when she was studying to become a nurse. There were no cellphones then and the texting phenomenon was still a long way off...Letters handwritten in ink and handcrafted gifts were regularly exchanged, low-tech but exuding a sweetly familiar scent, human warmth and tenderness unlike the cold and impersonal liquid crystal display...

Hagonoy Bash, 1959

Daisy, Marichu, Fe, myself, mother, Hermie and Butch

Our Time Will Come ! Remembering Tatay...

Gutsy and full of spunk, this fighting pair is ready to claw its way to the top of the heap in life's arena where relations are conveniently forgotten... It is sad but it is real - Darwin was right all the time (survival of the fittest), Steinbeck too when he said that a man can be great and kind but he must get there first ! Grrrrr...

On this sad day we remember with fondness our dear Tatay ( who always said blood is thicker than water) who will surely be proud of us when we finally win our biggest battle !

La Mer

Pacific Ocean, Dingalan, Aurora Province. Joshua and Max and a playmate reenact man's adventurous inclinations.

Nadine and our 40-year old indian mango tree

Time flies so fast. It really seems just like yesterday when as kids we used to frolic in these very familiar surroundings. Every tree was known to us and the time of fruit-bearing was greatly anticipated. Mangoes, guavas, camachile, duhat, and tamarind were regular fare. We knew like the palms of our hands every nook and cranny, even where the birds wove their nests and regaled us with their birdsongs and multi-colored eggs, which we poached once in awhile. We were one with nature, albeit with the characteristic "amoy-araw" after a day's rambling through thickets and rocks, cogonal patches and rivulets, where the trickling of clear water was a familiar and soothing sound. We collected flowers and leaves, seeds, fruits, mushrooms and marveled at nature's rich diversity. Spiders, snails, cocoons, butterflies, colorful birds, fish, damselflies and dragonflies, crickets and beetles were a regular treat. Occasional encounters with wasps and ants and the inevitable wheals they made were considered a normal part of such pulses of activity. At night when we moved about in gasera-lit rooms, a peek through the windows would reveal steady lights from distant houses and flickering stars and fireflies. Under one mosquito net we dreamt after recounting the day's misadventures amidst the incessant croaking of frogs and soporific hum of cicadas...

Grandfather's College Days

Gregorio Espinoza (back row, fifth from left) and classmates at the University of Manila College of Law. Note the posing characteristic of a bygone era. An air of seriousness, direction, and purpose. Isn't it true that those who sneer at these now rare traits actually do not possess these characteristics and are merely sourgraping and rationalizing their mediocrity?

Mother

It's really sad to see an old ancestral home give way to the inroads of modernization, something which many people mistake for progress. In this magical kingdom I had secret hiding places where everything seemed big and I was small, dwarfed by the walls, cabinets, chairs and tables from which emanated a distinctive woodsy scent complimented by the sweet smell of camia and ilang-ilang flowers picked by trusty and reliable Nana Bina, our man Friday who stayed with us until her death. When I came back to visit before it was remodeled, the walls, cabinets, chairs and tables did not appear big any longer and I kept on wondering how in the world could they have appeared so huge compared to myself?

Ramos Brood Minus Myself

This picture, which I took using a box-type Kodak instamatic camera, must have been taken in the mid-70's.

Kid Factory II

Juana Afan, Maternal Grandmother

When I am dead, my dearest,
Sing no sad songs for me:
Plant thou no roses at my head,
Nor shady cypress tree.
Be the green grass above me
With showers and dewdrops wet:
And if thou wilt, remember
And if thou wilt, forget.

I shall not see the shadows,
I shall not feel the rain;
I shall not hear the nightingale
Sing on, as if in pain:
And dreaming through the twilight
That doth not rise nor set,
Haply I may remember,
And haply may forget.
-Christina Rossetti "Song"

Metamorphosis

Human Activity

Hope of the Fatherland

Tamaan Ang Bato-batong May Sala...

Filipino nurses are leaving the country in droves for purely economic reasons. This tragic phenomenon illumines the sad state of the country’s economy and how people are trying their best to survive in a climate where too much politics and corruption have destroyed whatever hopes this country had decades ago when it was second only to Japan in terms of economic prosperity in Asia.
Is there a professional in his right mind who would sell all his possessions or plunge into heavy debt and leave his family for a lonely life abroad if conditions were right in his or her homeland? “Kapit sa patalim” is the mindset that pervades present day psyche of Filipinos. It is better to risk dying in a foreign land while earning much needed dollars, or pounds or dinars or rials or yens than to die in wretchedness in this country plagued by politicos whose filthy hands are always in the nation’s coffers.
The call to nationalism is empty and meaningless in the face of poverty where even professionals like doctors and nurses find it increasingly difficult to feed their families, educate their children, and live decent lives. Existence precedes essence! How can a nurse or a doctor be nationalistic and cling to local jobs when the pay is a pittance and one has to scrape the bottom of the proverbial cookie jar already emptied by thieves and opportunists in the government? Economic statistics, for what they are worth, are just that, inert and non-nutritive figures.
Many years ago it was unthinkable for a doctor to turn his back on what is considered to be the noblest profession and study to become a nurse. I mean no offense to the nursing profession but why must the revered doctor occupy a niche reserved only for nurses when his position is “higher” in the health care setting? Hippocrates must be turning in his grave together with Galen, Osler, and all the gods of medicine! Against his professional instincts the doctor turned nurse has to fight for physical survival. Otherwise he or she must contend with poor pay, too much politics, criminality, corruption, etc.
Nurses do not have the luxury of time in their struggle to improve their economic standing and that of their families. “Isang kahig, isang tuka” is another adjective that, in a nutshell, describes the lives of millions of Filipinos today. This sad situation, I believe, has contributed to the maturity of our young professionals so much so that right after graduation there can only be one central thought – that of escaping the Philippine economic Alcatraz! Against this background what do we have? Again the center stage is brimming with squabbling politicians and dishonest businessmen – two species that have developed a symbiotic relationship through the years. Why are Filipinos helpless against inferior products and substandard services? We have no Ralph Nader to defend us against unscrupulous and scheming businessmen because politicos owe them many favors like campaign contributions for one.
Our nation’s leaders have to learn from Gandhi, Ho Chi Minh, Mandela, Thatcher, Mabini, Rizal, and countless shining examples of selflessness and dedication. Instead they are preoccupied with endless preening and jockeying for the next political exercise. Filipino masses are not stupid. They are keenly aware of who is doing God knows what to this unfortunate country. They know that many if not the majority of present leaders can hardly be differentiated from a gallery of you know what. You see them everywhere – in every photo opportunity, handing out miniscule bottles of medicine in useless medical missions, mixing it up with victorious sweaty boxers, crying crocodile tears with grief–stricken families, kissing innocent babies, posing with the latest heartthrob, planting trees that will never grow, the list is endless.
What must the average Filipino do in a situation like this? Are we to follow the steps of Che Guevarra and later die in the process? Are we to retreat to religion and use it to rationalize this hapless condition? Are we to hide our heads in the morass of fiestas, fun, and gaiety to numb our pains?
It is obvious that Filipinos, using innate intelligence and resiliency have opted for the productive choice of seeking greener pastures. Pragmatism is a new Filipino trait in the face of unfavorable conditions in the country. What is the use of becoming a dead hero if you have mouths to feed? Will mantras, chants, and prayers be enough? God helps those who help themselves. Fleeting and superficial thrills will numb our senses, yes, but only for a while. Reality reemerges when the anesthesia is gone.
I vomit each time I hear our leaders pleading for geographic nationalism. They want us to stay and serve our sick and dying fellowmen in putrid hospitals. But our families are sick and dying too! Charity begins with oneself and the nurse and his or her family must survive first before anything else. The hypocrisy of our leaders is just unbelievable. While they luxuriate and fatten their buttocks in airconditioned offices, ride in imported vehicles and waste saliva debating trivia, the great unwashed suffer hunger pangs, disease, lead squalid lives, and continue to hope for a better future. The lot of professionals, the cutting edge of society, is hardly any different. After spending so much money for a medical or nursing career, what is there to find in the local job market? And we are expected by these holier than thou politicians and leaders to waste away in this country?
Is it lack of nationalism to go abroad and practice one’s profession in a country where the pay is better? Is nationalism defined by geographical boundaries? Was it lack of nationalism when Rizal was an exile in Europe?
True nationalism is found in our hearts and we carry it wherever we go. The nursing graduate who goes abroad to seek better job opportunities is a true nationalist because he or she cannot bear to see the country wither away in the global arena and is doing something about the situation. No wasted saliva, no photo ops, no kissing of innocent babies, no handing out miniscule samples, no crocodile tears – just plain and simple being a Filipino at heart - God-fearing, intelligent, resilient, and imbued with a deep love of family and country!
This is the winter of our discontent. Shame on our leaders who are guilty of opportunism, grandstanding, stealing from the nation’s coffers, and stealthily masking selfish motives with false nationalism, false piety, false dedication. The modern day Filipino is highly intelligent. Alert, active, imbued with a sense of mission, love of family and true nationalism, the nurse will go abroad if only to help the family and the country.
For my part I will do the same rather than rot here. I love my country too! I love its mountains and its seas, I love mangoes and bagoong, I eat rice and tuyo. But spare me the patronizing and condescending attitudes. I will serve my country by earning in a foreign land but it is only temporary. I will return to the land of my birth, like a bird coming home to roost.
-Raul and Nadine Ramos, a joint effort
© 2007 Raul E. Ramos

Stubbing One's Toe

"The famous uncertainty principle, formulated by the German physicist Werner Heisenberg, has shown that our knowledge of atomic phenomena is limited because the experimental procedures with which we must carry out our observations inevitably interfere with the phenomena that we wish to measure... When it comes to trying to predict its tolerance to perturbances, we are in the position of someone asked to deduce the whole of medicine by observing one human being. With respect to its individuality, then, the earth is not so much like a cell as like an individual person. Like a person, the earth is unique; like a person, it is sacred; and, like a person, it is unpredictable by the generalizing laws of science..."

-Jonathan Schell, The Fate of the Earth

Rainbow's End

Dr. Zhivago - Poetry in Prose

Pasternak's poetic masterpiece is timeless for it deals with the human condition - love and the indomitable human spirit amidst wretchedness, war, hunger, and all the iniquities man has to endure. In this cauldron of human existence we find chords anchored to our hearts and each time a man is killed or maimed or made to suffer pain or indignity, we feel a tug on our hearts... ©2007 raulespinozaramos, md

Father's Scouting Unit

In those days boy scouts acted like real men. Imbued with sterling traits - honesty, loyalty, bravery, fortitude, and love of country, they proudly donned their uniforms. I guess it would now be difficult to find a lad who could tie different knots, identify trees and edible wild plants, pitch tent, use a bowie knife properly, or survive in the wild using basic lore. Bleeding hearts and apologists for today's whining hip-hop
generation hasten to rationalize this sad state of affairs as an adaptive mode of a confused lot... There is no tenacity to excel or to fight for a worthy cause, only whimpering about harsh conditions and seeking early relief or compromise... And the leaders we have today? We don't have statesmen in our midst - we merely have elected officials...

Lyrical Lines

" My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends--
It gives a lovely light! "

- Edna St Vincent Millay (1892-1950)

Two Tykes

Max and Joshua acting before the camera with their new caps... Childhood is bland without occasional mischief and the accompanying impish smile.

Two Lolas

Born in the late 1800s, she rode horses in her prime and packed a wallop as far as life's problems and challenges were concerned.
Feisty and full of worldly wisdom, Impong Tenteng, as she was fondly called, never completed formal education yet her mental prowess was so keen and analytical...She espoused a mundane philosophy that always went for the jugular, or the crux of any situation. She smoked a lot, hated vegetables, ate a lot of red meat, and lived to a ripe old age of ninety-five. Her sister on the left, Impong Orang, lived to more than a hundred years... © 2007 rauleramos, md

Chinese Lass

Rapid modernization has its aesthetic side... Lithe figure garbed in chic apparel floats by this Great Wall marketplace... What is beauty? Perfect symmetry? Order in complexity? A fixed set of parameters defined by an aquiline nose, deep-set eyes and the scarcity of melanin? Alas, most definitions are either too cold or culture-bound. Beauty is really in the eyes of the beholder...

Of Fish And Men

Nadine and Xavier pose beside a day's catch from Ramos Pond in Macatbong, Cabanatuan City, Philippines.

Child's Play

"You could not get a human being to build anything unless the child had put together a set of bricks."
- Jacob Bronowski, The Ascent of Man

Makiling Climb, October, 1980

It was hardly planned. With meager supplies we set off to scale misty and legend-shrouded Mt Makiling. Memories of the sweetest water I've ever tasted gushing forth from a mountainside spring remain etched in my mind. It was a moonlit night when the three of us, Buddy, Gabby, and myself were treated to a symphony of sounds from howler monkeys, owls, and hornbills set against the constant hum of cicadas and other insects and the incessant courtship croaks of mountain frogs. Clouds moved swiftly by, carried by silent high winds. We had a small cassette player and 'The Best of Bread' but we turned it off in favor of nature's music. A bonfire was lit and a few pictures were taken for posterity. A few beers, mindless chatter, and a pervasive awe set the stage for sleep...Reality set back in at dawn as we broke camp and continued with the ascent... The summit was covered with fog. Plants looked stunted, gnarled and shrubby. Moss and small ferns contrasted with the giant ferns we espied halfway through the climb. On the way down we tore the seat of our pants as we skidded on our behinds accompanied by raucous laughter. For souvenirs we had 'limatik' hitchhikers (forest leeches, genus Haemadipsa) gorging themselves on our blood, and a taste of that exotic mountain citrus, that super-sour 'cabuyao', guaranteed to make a brave soul convulse in revulsion. The best souvenir however, is the indelible mark Mt Makiling made in our hearts. I think that is the legend... © 2007 rauleramos, md

Three Musketeers

Childhood Innocence

The big ones that didn't get away

Boy, those bigheads are heavy ! Raised in our ponds as an experiment, we nearly forgot about the bighead carps (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis) until a storm swept past Nueva Ecija and some "big fish with large heads" were caught in the nearby river. We later realized that the carp fry had matured and some escaped the flooded ponds into the nearby Cabu River. Over the years several species of native fishes have alternatingly dominated the pond population. The indigenous pond population consisted of a balanced and stable number of 'gouramis', 'liwalu', 'lukaok', 'hito', and 'dalag'. At one point the ponds were teeming with carnivorous species like mudfish or 'dalag' (Ophicephalus striatus) and native hito (Clarias macrocephalus). They were replaced for a short period by the highly prolific 'alembong' whose eggs were so numerous we used to make fish roe patties out of them. Then the 'tilapia' (Tilapia mossambica) took over and continue to be the dominant species...

A Moment Snatched

A hunched figure of a man beneath a dark cloth was making some adjustments with his bulky apparatus. Final instructions not to move were given and then there was a blinding flash ! Time had been stopped dead in its tracks ! For a few seconds I thought I had become blind. It is quite a frightening experience to have one's picture taken in those days. Days when everything looked big and we were small. Vivid memories of days spent in priceless child's play - the secret hiding places, the tall trees, the big dogs that chased us out of our wits, the armies of crabs, the first fish we caught, the hapless frogs and beetles and dragonflies that we held in our hands... Why is childhood so magical ? ©2007 rauleramos, md

Reverence For Life

That man is truly ethical who shatters no ice-crystal as it sparkles in the sun, tears no leaf from a tree, cuts no flower... The farmer who has mown down a thousand flowers in his meadow to feed his cows, must be careful on his way home not to strike off in heedless pastime the head of a single flower by the roadside, for he thereby commits a wrong against life without being under the pressure of necessity.
-Dr. Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965)

"Kung saan nagmumula ang sikat ng araw..."

I love my country warts and all /

Hauntingly Sad

Le Milieu Divin

"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience." - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955), the famous Jesuit scientist came close to being defrocked as a result of beliefs to which he clung until his death which fell on an Easter day.

The world is now rediscovering his writings one of which is my favorite 'Le Milieu Divin'.

Tao Ako!

Took this photo yesterday while my son Xavier was being initiated to UP life - a unique and memorable experience akin to being given a blank piece of paper - what comes out depends on what you write. Such liberalism! The UP Oblation, strong and endearing symbol of naked humanity... echoes of Ecce homo, immortalized by Nietzsche in his magnificent opus. What is a man? The most elemental questions are never answered...

Sleepy Shores

Pains numbed by the stillness of the night,

Wounds lost in the engulfing darkness

Like tears in the rain

The deafening silence

hides dying utterances

As my being recedes

to a dreamy stupor

Is this half-death?

RERamos

The things we miss

Dusk finds night creatures emerging from their nooks and crevices. Crickets, bats, snakes, frogs, and a multitude of yet unnamed forms assert themselves in the unrelenting struggle for survival. Sadly though we are hearing fewer croaks and seeing less bioluminescence. Where have all the native frogs and fireflies gone? Are these citizens going the way of the dodo? When I was a kid we used to catch tiny native frogs, beetles, and red dragonflies that herald the onset of the rainy season. Bird nests were everywhere and colorful avians nestled on low, fruit-laden branches, unmindful of our presence, as we frolicked in the bushes in harmony with the rhythms and whims of nature...

Like our molave ( Vitex parviflora )

Local folks call it mulawin. The wood is hard and also highly-prized, like the kamagong. Now rare, I consider myself fortunate to have one towering resident in my backyard.

Isn't it queer that while the government asks us to plant more trees, it simultaneously allows logging to continue? To those who become rich at the expense of our country's forests - may your tribe become extinct! To our hypocritical leaders who play footsies with chainsaw-wielding buwayas, may God remove you from the gene-pool together with these thieves!

The firetree and Kalayaan

This sprawling firetree beside Kalayaan Hall in UP Diliman is a mute witness to smoldering passions and fiery idealism. We entered UP during the dark days of our history as freedom-loving people... How can one ever forget our dedicated and super-intelligent professors like Augustus Mamaril (Embryology), Remedios Roderos (Genetics), Filipinas Natividad (Physiology), Prescillano Zamora (Botany), Reynaldo Yago (Invertebrate Zoology), Nanding Josef (Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy) and Lydia Pena (English) ? To them we are most grateful for the high standards they set. We really strove to abide by the famous bluebook inscription - honor and excellence. The main library became a second home where we pored over thick volumes, hid in-demand books behind shelves of nondescripts, wrote rejoinders to loathsome pages, slept and and feasted on a storck or two ... Heady days spiced by long walks, ikot rides, tedious hours in microscopy, indignation rallies, fraternity rumbles, Rodic's tapsilog, "terror professors" and police truncheons...

Tokyo Chill

A breath of fresh air, nippy and invigorating...

un homme et une femme

Henry David Thoreau

Ramos Pond in Barangay Macatbong, Cabanatuan City, Philippines, is home to several species of fish, notably Tilapia mossambica, mudfish, catfish, carp, small shrimps, and molluscs. The three ponds are surrounded by bamboo, narra, mahogany, mangoes, java plum, acacias, ipil, eucalyptus, and many other tree species. Migratory birds are often spotted hunting for snails at certain times of the year. I consider this place a humble version of Thoreau's famous Walden Pond. It is a shame that unthinking local authorities once attempted to convert an area adjacent to this picturesque place to a garbage dump. The feisty residents of this small village, who had better environmental sense, fought hard for their rights to a clean and healthful environment and won.

kamagong seeds ? mea culpa...

Today is a serendipity-filled day !
After searching for a long time I finally located the famous and highly-prized "iron tree", commonly known as kamagong (Diospyros philippinensis), now very rare because of greedy loggers. The proud owner of the kamagong tree, Mr. Ancheta of Poblacion Centro, Aliaga, Nueva Ecija, gave me 27 mature seeds for planting. I hope at least some of these seeds will grow into the mature tree that is known for causing chainsaws to snap and nails to bend...Updated June 13- It's not kamagong after all but dungon-late (Heritiera littoralis). The wood is just as hard though. Thanks to Mr. Ramon Bandung, herbalist of the UP Institute of Biology. Kamagong is mabolo, Diospyros philippinensis. I still consider myself lucky...

may offerings

summer colours

today we harvested a few macopas, tamarinds, indian mangoes, and duhat, providing an otherwise dreary day with a kaleidoscope of colours. summer is incomplete without this visual feast. the trees occupy special niches in our 640-square meter residence.

ebbing summer days

Summer is nearly over. The first rains of May came at dawn today and woke me from sleep. It came in sheets and I was unable to do my five kilometers. Why do I feel vulnerable each time summer gives way to long days of continuous rain? On the other hand, after succumbing to the reality of puddles and soaked shirts and mudtracks, the rains seem to offer a haven, an excellent camouflage for tears and sadness. Who will ever know one is crying in the rain?
reramos

firetrees

today i planted eighty firetree seeds in small plastic bags. firetrees are adored for their fiery red blooms that light up the summer skies. they grow to great heights and the bullet-shaped seeds are encased in a hard scabbard-like pod that requires quite an effort to open. of course i do not expect all seeds to germinate and become adult trees... if half or a third of them reach maturity that would be a good batting average already!

shifting gears

Clouds Over Macatbong

ethereal question

arakawa

"A good question is never answered. It is not a bolt to be tightened into place but a seed to be planted." - John Ciardi