There is much debate concerning the uses of AI, but there is also something to be said about how it can be employed to make tuberculosis (TB) screening faster, more efficient, and more accessible, especially in the Philippines, which is flagged by the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of the 10 “high-burden” countries in...
Author: Veronica Margarette Tapia (Veronica Margarette Tapia)
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Lessons on the beloved potato (or how it fits quite nicely in Filipino cuisine)
Think of a few of your typical savory Filipino dishes—adobo, menudo, kaldereta, nilaga, maybe even kare-kare or sinigang. You can easily imagine all of them incorporating that ubiquitous and beloved brown-skinned vegetable. “I don’t think you will grow up or get to this age in the Philippines without having potatoes, because we love our potatoes,” Reji Retugal, Philippine representative of...
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The Little Prince and the child you were
Everyone who knows the story will recognize the little golden-haired boy from a distant asteroid, towed by a flock of wild birds and stopping at one planet after another until he lands on Earth, his small red heart under a glass globe back home among the stars. Here in the heart of Quezon City, in...
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There’s more than dance in ‘Juan Tamad’ by Alice Reyes Dance Philippines
Near the rear of the Metropolitan Theater as you turn left from Dr. Basa Street in Ermita, Manila, there’s a long, wide studio with open windows facing a wall of mirrors. The dancers of Alice Reyes Dance Philippines (ARDP) are trying on their animal costumes for the first time. Krislynne Buri, playing Paboreal (peacock), gets...
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Talaingod 13: What it means to commit ‘child abuse’
On July 15, the Tagum City Regional Trial Court Branch 2 in Davao del Norte rendered a guilty verdict on a “child abuse” case filed against 13 former and sitting lawmakers from the Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives, as well as 10 lumad school teachers. “Wherefore,” the decision read, “in light of the...
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The American potato’s 7,000-mile adventure
First, you put all the dry ingredients in a big stainless bowl—200 grams of standard potato granules, 250g of all-purpose flour, and 3g of salt. Once they’re incorporated, you can form a well in the center for the wet ingredients—four eggs, 200 milliliters of water. Mix until everything coagulates into a stiff dough. You massage...
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Martial law 52nd: Little fires in the rain
The latest tropical depression had already exited the Philippine area of responsibility, but the rain persisted. In the morning, the weather bureau put out a thunderstorm advisory for Metro Manila and other parts of Luzon, and sure enough, it poured hard all afternoon before the skies gradually lightened on that evening of Sept. 21, the...
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BTS Army ‘Walk of Love’: Purple moving around the edges
Immediately at 7 a.m. on Sept. 8, a Sunday, you hear the music from the speakers as you walk across the park before even seeing the throngs of purple-shirted people gathered under the vast dome-like architectural canopy of the public space. The very center of this wide area is cordoned off in a square of...
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Alex Lacson and Rotary District 3810: A tension of viewpoints on patriotism
“I’m fighting for the truth,” he said, and the other countered: “We’re all fighting for the truth.” A meaningful tension of viewpoints hummed throughout the discourse that followed guest speaker Alex Lacson’s talk, titled “Patriotism and a Silent National Crisis,” during the Rotary Club of Manila Bay’s (RCMB) second membership meeting held last Aug. 15...
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Memory played by acoustic guitar (or the singer and her song)
It’s not every day you see an inebriated Lolita Carbon onstage with Cooky Chua and Bayang Barrios, singing their cover of Tropical Depression’s “Kapayapaan.” They sway, each voice husky, standing close together on what little space could be stood on in the slice of platform strewn with wires, mic stands, and effects pedals. In fact,...