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.

Françoise Hardy - Parlez moi de lui

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...