The best news report I encountered this week was that a Dutch company is doing research that will lead to painless needle-free injection! How wonderful it would be if medication can be administered without having to “stab” someone with a needle, no matter how fine. What a relief for parents of young children who may need to be administered “shots” amid tantrums and wailing and something accompanied by threats or bribes! However, the news about it was not comprehensive enough, so it was quite clear that they still call an “injection” when administering it.
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I’m sure that item was not the last to come out about it, but it will surely be welcomed not only by parents of young kids, but also by adults with “needle phobia”. I can hardly wait for further revelations about it. Science is truly marching on – even during a pandemic. How soon the world can avail of this new method is not known yet, but for sure, people all over the world are excitedly awaiting it. Will this mean that we will no longer have to struggle with children who happen to have needle phobia?
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Meanwhile, it seems we are now dealing with the effects of climate change, but we should appreciate the fact that our country seems to be spared from the worst of it. Among the worst incidents are those of flooding in several countries, including our own. It was quite a shock to hear that in Luzon, some areas have been hit by floods that are “chest deep” for men of normal heights! When scenes of those flooded areas are shown on TV, one cannot help sympathizing with residents virtually “swimming” through dirty and muddy water.
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But seeing pictures and scenes of flooded places with grown men struggling through muddy and surely dirty water makes one wonder if they are not likely to be hit by some diseases that could be fatal. I hope our Health Department is doing its best to attend to those people and advising them what medication to take after having to wade, or virtually “swim” through such floods. Especially now with classes expected to start soon, there is a great need to adopt protective measures, especially for young students.
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When I saw a report about a volcano in the Canary Island erupting, I wondered if that is also another effect of “climate change”, and remembered that we also have several volcanoes in our country. In our province, we have the Canlaon Volcano hovering over the two provinces of Negros. When I was a child, I heard some elders discussing volcanoes, and I remember very clearly their saying that all volcanoes in a country are connected to each other, and if one erupts, those in areas with volcanoes should be prepared!
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Let us therefore pray that none of our volcanoes decide to throw a tantrum and continue to behave themselves. In the island where our city is located, we have our own volcano named Canla-on, or Kanla-on as some books and news reports refer to it. But, so far, it has been behaving itself, and let us hope and pray that it remains so. What about Taal and Mayon, two other active ones in our country? Are they behaving themselves? Well, there hasn’t been any report about their behavior, so, as the saying goes, “No news is good news”.
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Remember Tiananmen Square? That was in the international news a few years ago because of a massacre that took place there. Families of the victims and some officials has erected a memorial, a very striking figure in stone that showed faces of allegedly of some victims. Human rights groups, I understand, were the ones who initiated it, but the present administration has decided to remove it. Perhaps they do not want something so horrible, a reminder of that incident, but human rights groups are protesting against it.
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I think it was because their mayor referred to it as a “Pillar of Shame”, but obviously human rights groups are protesting against its removal. This will be something to look out for in the coming days. Will the mayor persist in his plan to remove it, or will human defenders persist in their protest against its removal? I think we will be getting interesting reports about this in the next few days. As for the mayor who is advocating for it how will his attitude serve him when reelection time comes? Meanwhile, let us wait and see who will blink first!*
