There’s been a spate of “food” and “food supplements” being advertised unethically. So, yes, this post is dedicated to the Ad Standard Council (ASC) of the Philippines, whose one and only job is to regulate and screen the advertisements we see in the country. They can’t even get that right.

Examples include the advertisements of vitamin E supplement purporting to create an “inner glow” and at that instance an element of “beautification” is taken clearly out of context. Children supposedly taking “chlorella growth factor”-laced multivitamin supplements for that extra growth spurt is another example of the spurious claims not backed by science but marketing skills hidden under the guise of “no approved therapeutic claims”. While the ASC may think that there is probably nothing brazenly wrong with some of these advertisements, the bottomline is simple. When the consumer is deceived to purchase a product whose claim is not backed by any form of science, this form of deception is ethically and morally wrong. Even if it means it is financially remunerating for the manufacturing company.

It was not until a few weeks ago when “Lola Remedios” was emblazoned all over media for the indication of “lamig“. According to a blog site, “ph.theAsianparent.com”, Dr. Randy Dellosa is quoted to interpret that “lamig” is a form of mild muscle spasm. In short, the diagnosis is based on a complex of symptoms including fatigue, pain, and numbness of certain muscle areas. This folkloric diagnosis, otherwise called “ngalay” is a tale as old as time. The recognition of “lamig and ngalay” as part of the Filipino (and Mexican) culture has propagated from generation to generation. Yet the manufacturers indirectly imply that these Tagalog words describing a symptom is therapy for these symptoms. Taken into context, it is, in actuality a therapeutic claim.

A concoction made up of ginger, honey, mint, clove, and fennel, I am not quite sure if it was really a grandmother’s recipe to start off with. While they capitalise on the ad with an old woman endorsing this as a food supplement, they also say that it is IMPORTED and distributed by a local company. As the picture depicts an elderly taking this product to the next level, they go on to claim that one doesn’t have to fear about side effects in the long term, yet place a stern precaution that it is not intended for pregnant and lactating women and those with allergy to menthol flavours. They are silent when it comes to pediatric patients (and I don’t think that it’s their market but staying silent about something yet claiming it is effective even for the elderly is dangerous stuff). So if the product is not therapeutic in nature and has issues on safety, why then place a warning?

What is most disturbing is how little the public values taking “supplements” without looking at the contents of the supplement and how dangerous this is when people are taking therapeutic agents concurrently, resulting in a drug interaction, adverse reactions, or therapeutic failure. And that’s not fair to the public.

One thing you have to hand it to this group is how good the marketing is.

The other day, Del Monte Pineapple Juice launched an ad that would top the insane. A family eating the favourite Filipino food – Lechon Kawali! After a few seconds, they zero in to pointing out the cholesterol dangers of that delicious oily fatty meat. Before you can even blink, there is Del Monte Pineapple Juice, indirectly (or directly?) available to scour all that cholesterol away!

While we understand that advertising is supposed to be an avenue for marketing and eventually selling a product, we all know that demonstrating truth in advertising is something that is wanting nowadays. That is why there is a product endorser who acts as the mascot, or there’s a weird, funny, sad, emotional, happy or phantasmagoric story line bordering on lunacy to catch the attention of the gullible consumer.

Technology and social media have practically changed detailing of a product. Whether it is ethically right or simply for profit has the lines of moral principles all blurred in this capitalistic environment. But let’s not make these marketers get their sales simply because we didn’t ask the right questions before purchasing the product.

There is a Chinese proverb that goes:

one who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; one who does not ask a question is a fool forever.

The people in the respective agencies that need to oversee the compliance of the advertisements on any form of media, should do their job. Because they are, in the end, equally accountable for this lapse by the ASC. Perhaps self-regulation is a foolish idea after all.

In the book entitled “Maybe you should talk to someone” by Lori Gottlieb, chapter 12 is most memorable because it hits home. The title is based on the essay “Welcome to Holland” by Emily Perl Kingsley, a mom who has a child with Down’s Syndrome. It talks about having your life’s expectations turned upside down.

When you’re going to have a baby, it’s like planning a fabulous vacation trip – to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It’s all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The flight attendant comes in and says, “Welcome to Holland.”

“Holland?!?” you say. “What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I’m supposed to be in Italy. All my life I’ve dreamed of going to Italy.”

But there’s been a change in the flight plan. They’ve landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven’t taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It’s just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It’s just a different place. It’s slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you’ve been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around…and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills…and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandt.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy…and they’re all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say “Yes, that’s where I was supposed to go. That’s what I had planned.”

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away…because the loss of that dream is a very, very significant loss.

But…if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn’t get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things…about Holland.

Welcome to Holland, by Emily Kingsley

The story here my friends is simple. There are times that we will never get what we work for. What we wish for. Life is never made to be fair. As one friend of my mom (who has Lymphoma) would say, there are good days and there are bad ones. We smile at the good days, punch away with the bad ones and when we’re still alive tomorrow, we thank the almighty for another sunrise.

When Emily had a child with Down’s, she landed in Holland. Not a bad place to be. But like most mom’s, she wanted to be in Italy. Those of us who have had bad days never expected our flight plans to be redirected. It is infuriating. After all, we chartered that destination for the longest time. We rationalise that pent up anger because Holland isn’t the place we wanted to be.

If we huffed and puffed at every misdirection in our lives, we’d end up miserably angry at ourselves and at the world. But the story of Emily provides us a lesson in hope and reality.

The other day was a bad day for my mom. Whenever she hears people moving on to the after life, she gets more depressed. I can’t blame her. I’d feel the same way if I were in her shoes. If I made you complete the sentence Before I die _________________________, how would this sentence look? Get married. Go skydiving. Say sorry to my wife.

And so many, if not most of us, make a bucket list. Gottlieb tells us like it is:

We think we make bucket lists to ward off regret but really they help us to ward off death. After all, the longer our bucket lists are, the more time we imagine we have left to accomplish everything on them. Cutting the list down, however, makes a tiny dent in our denial systems, forcing us to acknowledge a sobering truth: Life has a 100 percent mortality rate. Every single one of us will die, and most of us have no idea how or when that will happen. In fact, as each second passes, we’re all in the process of coming closer to our eventual deaths. As the saying goes, NONE OF US WILL GET OUT OF HERE ALIVE.

Lori Gottlieb, “Maybe you should talk to someone”

The lesson from Emily’s essay on “Welcome to Holland” is straightforward. We make plans, but sometimes those plans don’t come to fruition. For most of us, the alternative route isn’t as devastating as it seems. You see, wherever life takes us, we need to roll with the punches. It’s the only way we will survive a world that’s never fair.

And if you liked this post, get the time to download the book from Kindle or purchase the book. Because who knows, Holland might just be a good place to be, after all.

I will make this introduction brief. Many have inquired on my take on Dengvaxia. I will dot the “i”s and cross the “t”s. I will not delve in politics but on science. After all, we all know where politics has led us. Hopefully, this article will educate everyone, using layman’s terms on the good and bad of Dengvaxia.

Does the vaccine work? (Efficacy)

Like all medicines and drugs (and supplements), there is no 100% guarantee on anything. More so for biologicals that require appropriate cold chain handling from the get go up to the time before it is administered to the patient! Because of the many unknowns in between, an investigational drug in clinical trial settings are sadly, handled much better, than when it is already in the market.

There is no perfect vaccine (or medicine to treat an illness). But to answer the question, yes it works to a certain extent. Efficacy endpoints vary from patient to patient. Their immune status, genetic markers, allergy history, age, risk factors and overall disease are but a few considerations on why patients respond to or fail to respond to or develop adverse effects to medicines.

How a vaccine is handled should be exhaustively evaluated as well. Some vaccines are easily destroyed when they are left to stand at poor temperature controls. In the private clinics, vaccines are given to patients directly from the refrigerator (or other appropriate cold chain source). Public health programs must assure that this cold chain is addressed properly – from the warehouse to the program site to the time of administration of multi-dose preparations. Vaccines inappropriately stored properly are like blank bullets. It gives you a false sense that you’re protected when in reality you’re not.

The take home message here is that the drug itself cannot be solely the problem if it doesn’t always work the way it’s expected to. It’s like giving license to a bullet and expecting it to do wonders at protecting you from harm. Without the gun and without appropriate knowledge on how to use the gun, the bullet can either be useless or deadly.

Is it safe? (Safety)

Like all medicines fresh out of clinical trials, there is much information that still needs to be gathered. Yet.

With all the essential clinical trial phases already concluded, relevant findings on the safety (and efficacy) of a medicine at the time it is released for commercial purposes is most likely ready.

Everyone needs to remember that there is NO SUCH THING AS A DRUG WITH NO SIDE EFFECTS. When someone tells you that, the person is lying. No one can assure anyone with absolute certainty that adverse reactions will not occur. However, adverse reactions need to be monitored and managed appropriately.

After all, even medicines which have been in the market for the longest time have side effects. Through the science of pharmacovigilance, we are able to pick up other side effects that once were not seen when these medicines were initially marketed. That’s because when more people are using a medicine, we get to have more information regarding how the drug is to be used and not used. For example, paracetamol is available as an over-the-counter medicine used to treat anything from pain to fever. Making it available as an OTC medicine is based on data continuously being gathered even if it has been in the market for half a century. Yet it is one of the most common cause of drug-induced hepatitis worldwide when used improperly.

Approval from regulatory agencies, anywhere in the world, are based on documentary evidence submitted at the time of application. For example, cancer medicines are approved based on a limited number of patients because the overall population afflicted with the disease may actually be small from the onset. Regulatory authorities may, in certain instances allow drugs for special diseases or compassionate purposes, to submit parts of the application while they are completing the whole clinical trial. In regulatory science, this is called a “rolling submission”.

The appropriateness of this type of submission practice is dependent on how stringent the review is in each regulatory agency for every country.

As the drugs roll out of the pharmaceutical market, there needs to be continuous monitoring of the claims, indications, special precautions, contraindications, drug interactions and adverse events. Only then can we know which medicine is good for both the goose and the gander. As I mentioned, the more patients using a particular medicine, the higher the probability we will find out more about what a drug can, or cannot do.

Is Dengvaxia useful during an outbreak?

Sadly not.

The fact that the certificate of product registration of this vaccine has been revoked, will take it awhile to make it available again in the local market. Let’s make it clear. There is NO BAN. The FDA cannot “ban” products at their whim. What revocation means is that the applicant will need to start the whole application process from square one.

But more than the so-called “ban” as a reason for its usefulness (or not) during an ongoing outbreak is the immunization schedule for Dengvaxia. Based on the manufacturer’s data, it is given 6 months apart for 3 doses – 0-6-12 months – in order to achieve the optimum immune response for the vaccine.

Finally, the approved age for vaccine use is 9 years and up. Even on the presumption that, say, more than 80% of Filipinos in certain areas of the country may have had one episode of dengue by the time they are 9 years old, majority of the patients with severe dengue are children 4-7 years old. Which makes this vaccine useless for the people who need it most.

The final say

Unfortunately, nothing in this world is risk free. In the world of medicine, the astute physician weighs benefits over risks when deciding what is best for the patient. Patients must be made to fully understand that thin line of risk over benefit. And consent to agreeing with their healthcare provider on how to prevent, cure or provide comfort against any illness. After all, it is our Hippocratic oath – to first do no harm – that makes us decide, in our best judgement, to err on the side of the best interest of the sick.

On a lazy summer beautiful weekend, the mass shooting in Texas and 13 hours later in Ohio, left an ugly carnage reflecting hate and prejudice. But that’s not the story of this writing.

The World Wide Web reeled its ugly head when the dark side showed how the internet and social media has become an indirect yet lethal instrument of sowing discontent.

This snapshot investigative writing published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer last August 6, 2019 gives us a peek into the dangerous world of trolling:

From a pig farm in an undisclosed location in the Philippines to popular coffee shops in the country’s urban business districts, the dark side of the Web is churning out material ranging from seemingly harmless but eyebrow-raising claims of popularity by Philippine politicians to lethal creeds of racism posted by the gunman in the El Paso, Texas mass killing on a supposedly free speech online forum called 8chan which is being run by an American expat in the Philippines.

While the Philippines is becoming an international hub for internet trolling that caters mainly to political clients, according to a Washington Post investigative report, other reports painted a blacker, deadlier picture of some web site operations originating from the country.

The mass shooting was followed almost half-a-day later by another that claimed nine lives in Dayton, Ohio but the El Paso carnage offered clues to how the Philippines is becoming like a war room for internet operators that provide services akin to call centers but work in hard-to-detect anonymity which allows them to flaunt laws and shields them from accountability.

Read more: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1151006/dark-web-connects-ph-to-mass-shootings-in-us-filipino-pols-vanities#ixzz5wBVlCIuG 

We live in very dangerous times. The battle ground has shifted to social media. With so much disinformation being sowed by keyboard warriors, the gullible are led to believe what friends and foes post online. Trolling engages people who are easily suggestible into believing lies and disinformation and make them seem real and making a parallel universe come to life.

And that’s the problem. Oftentimes without reading the article, someone presses the SHARE button too quickly. A haphazardly placed article by some random opinionated lowlife who makes a living trolling online is being shared multiple times. The following has begun. And the consequences are magnanimous.

Accountability is low. Consequences are high. Truths are buried and muddled by half wits who use technology as a tool for financial remuneration – no matter what the repercussions are.

We live in different times my friends. A time where war is born from keyboards and dark secluded places we used to call homes. A time where influencers quickly transform opinions into social media yet refuse to take full responsibility of their actions. Where followers are easily duped into believing lies from pretenders and peddlers or information.

Trolls are critics with no credentials. And the fight on social media between trolls vs. trolls puts every ignorant fool in between that chains of war. We need to fight that war by not feeding it with our attention. Only then, will the trolls die.

When we were young, we were taught the concept of heroes as those who needed to die for a worthy cause.

With technological advances and the evolution of social media, the twenty first century saw a paradigm shift of who and what a hero can be. The hero could be a real one or  pigment of one’s imagination depending on the platform he/she was generated from.

Creating positive changes in the lives of people we serve or the community we live in may spark the hero in you. The late Christopher Reeves had once said, that a hero is “an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.”

In this day and age of populist politics globally, there is a dire want for a hero to emerge from the rubbles. Deception, lies and propagandist agenda are eroding the very core of whatever values are left in many of us.  When people who have no moral compass lead the gullible, we end up being boxed in a situation where we are forced to reconcile with rationalising that wrong is right.  And that’s a bad thing because the only reason we begin to imbibe disinformation is when there are personal agenda and become indoctrinated at circumventing logic. 

Mark Manson, author of “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck” has a new book entitled “Everything is F*cked: A Book About Hope” hits the mark when he points out:

Bravery is common. Resilience is common. But heroism has a philosophical component to it. There’s some great “Why?” that heroes bring to the table – some incredible cause or belief that goes unshaken, no matter what. And this is why, as a culture, we are so desperate for a hero today: not because things are necessarily so bad, but because we’ve lost the clear “Why?” that drove previous generations.

We are a culture in need not of peace or prosperity or new hood ornaments for our electric cars. We have all that. We are a culture in need of something far more precarious. We are a culture and a people in need of hope.

I would like to believe that the relative joy altruism brings, still sparks in each of us. In spite of all the noise that clutters a populist era, there are those who fight for an egalitarian society based on the principles of justice and truth. A culture of good should never be perturbed by a society that lacks accountability to its people.

Francois de la Rochefoucauld puts it correctly when he says that “there are heroes in evil as well as in good.”

The choice of evil versus good is ours to make. As our national hero Jose P. Rizal puts it bluntly, “there can be no tyrants where there are no slaves.”

I see her we everyday on my drive to work. She must be in her mid-20s now. I’ve seen her pregnant twice. Often times I’ve asked myself who takes care of her children. On several occasions, I see her getting off a jeepney in front of where she works. But rain or shine, she is at her work station. Tapping on my car window. Holding up an empty cup. Peering into tinted glass, until I make two quick taps, and she moves away and begins the same ritual in the next vehicle.

She is only one of several mendicants that beg along the village gates. And the streets of every town and city in this country. Metro Manila alone is home to over 1Million beggars.

For the record, I have nothing against beggars. As a matter of fact, seeing children asking for alms on a rainy day, all soaked and having to ply the streets for a morsel of bread is heart breaking enough.

And while I agree with concerned citizens that it is the role of the government to provide food, shelter, health care and education to its people, half the effort is on the people.

Growing up, we didn’t have much. My parents were young, innocent, idealistic and unemployed. The rest of my life story is history. We literally crawled out of the gutter. But I was never ashamed of our humble beginnings. That is the pride of my relative joy. But this is not about me. It’s about the challenges life throws our way. The lemons made into lemonade. The stale bread made into crumbs and used another day for our daily bread.

Life isn’t fair. No matter what life throws your way, no matter how unfair it may seem, refuse to play the victim. Refuse to be ruled by fear, pessimism and negativity. Refuse to quit.

The struggle is real in a world that is unfair. We need to realize that everything we do are based on choices we make. It’s not your parents, the economy, our government, the weather, our sex or an argument or age that is to blame. You and only you are responsible for every decision you make. Period.

How strange that resilience is the one factor that changes one’s compass in life.

While there is nothing wrong in begging for a meal, there are a million opportunities at improving our lives. Unfortunately, there are those who simply settle for mendicancy. Or stay unemployed hoping to have government provide cash support.

For example, I have many friends and family looking for good household help. I don’t understand why those on the streets refuse to being employed as household staff and earn a decent living. After all, this government has signed into law that all household help members should have equal rights and privileges in government mediated contributions like SSS and Philhealth! What better job opportunity than having free board and lodging, three meals a day, and a salary to top it all! If there are professionals willing to wash clothes, care for other people’s children or clean other people’s home in a land far beyond, leaving family and friends to become household help in other countries, I don’t understand why these street urchins refuse to get employed gainfully.

It is for reasons like this that I have little pity on mendicants. The woman I see on the street, day in and day out is there probably because she’s just plain lazy to get a job. Or she’s probably part of a syndicate that uses beggars to profit.

In life, there are consequences on the choices make. At the end of our lives, we are accountable at which one we feed. Whichever it is, we take responsibility because only we, can define our purpose.

I tap on the window of my car twice when she peers to look in. But I don’t look at her. I look straight ahead. She moves away. And I cannot help but glance at the side mirror and breath a small sigh of despair and wonder at whose emotions she would challenge next.

There are just days where kindness has no place in the universe.

Today was one of those days.

My mom had asked me to go to the supermarket, the nearest is Robinson’s Supermarket at Madison Galleries, in our neighborhood.

Every time I go to this supermarket, I need to remind the cashier for the senior citizen/PWD lane, that the lane is a priority for them. It’s disappointing that both the supervisor and the other employees of the supermarket simply look the other way when there are people who are not seniors or have a disability queueing this lane and the senior citizens having to queue at other lanes.

I went up to the supervisor and loudly (yes emphasize on the loud), reminded him that it’s my nth time to remind them that:

(1) there is a sign that says that there is a priority lane for the seniors and disabled. They emblazoned that on the very large sign. Why can’t they follow it? Or is the cashier clearly an ignoramus?

(2) if they just put it up for compliance with DTI requirements, and they cannot follow the sign they put up to the letter, just take it out!

There were two young girls on the lane snickering and I told them that they’re either stupid, uneducated or blind! If you can’t read it, you don’t have a right to even flash a debit card to pay for your chips and Gatorade. Their parents ought to be ashamed of how they brought up these imps.

I write this to remind everyone that there are signs for a purpose. It’s not just because you’re in the Philippines or you live in an exclusive subdivision and pay with a debit card, you think you can make your brain cells melt and feel entitled. There is a reason for signs on the street, in the malls, on the walls, in the supermarket, in the toilet…it’s for you to read stupid! The signs are not suggestions! You don’t plan on following the signs then f*ck you! Don’t complain about the way the government is run when you can’t even discipline your own backyard.

There’s a jerk born every minute. And they come in various forms. But for the establishment not to follow what it preaches, well, I think there’s something very wrong with the hired help.

Sometimes there are just things that need to be said. Because often times, stupid people deserve that.

There are just too many morons in the universe these days.

A friend of mine posted this and I am sharing it with everyone.

Often times I will not show how grateful I am but my gratitude is overflowing for the multitude of blessings in my life. After more than six decades of existence, I don’t blow candles to make wishes anymore. To say that my cup is over-filled with joy because of family, friends and acquaintances is an understatement.

My life journey is made up of rollercoaster rides. I have felt the pangs of hunger, the sadness of solitude and the disappointments in failure. To be where I am today was not an easy climb. There were days when you wondered if principles could be exchanged for an extra meal on the table or a temporary material joy. But because I sleep better in the evenings with a clear conscience, I will always choose to embrace good.

While there are days of despair and frustration, there are good ones as well. Whichever is the overwhelming one, dictates our mood for those days. We cry. We get angry. We laugh. We grieve. We complain. We are, after all, human. When it is not right, we have the right to express our grievances, so that mistakes are corrected and justice prevails. We cannot take everything sitting down and leaving it to our God to exact vengeance or a come uppance on. There are just situations that need a normal human reaction – and not simply walking away.

Yet with whatever drama life provides, there are a million and one and more reasons to be grateful for. Our daily bread. Our friends and family who share our joys and pains. Another sunrise or sunset to experience. Another day to be grateful for in spite of it all. Each morning, we get to create a new beginning in the chapters of our life.

Let’s not forget that in this world,

Someone else is happy with less that what you have.

No one wants to write about death. Or dying.

To many, it’s not only a morbid topic. It is taboo to talk about it.

Of course we’d rather talk about the joie de vivre in our daily chronicles. It is, after all, what sparks joy.

Death is a stranger to this world. Until it comes knocking at your door.

For most of us, we go through the routines of daily living – Eat. Pray. Sleep. Love. Hate. Work. – Repeat!!!

But life is never fair. And neither is death.

Those who died yesterday had plans for this morning.

And those who died this morning had plans for tonight.

Don’t take life for granted. In the blink of an eye, everything can change. So, forgive often and love with a full heart. You never know when you may not have that chance again.

When we make plans in our life, death is never on anyone’s bucket list.

After all, no one prepares for death except those who are terminally ill. They’re actually the lucky ones. Those taken in their sleep or who die tragically, leave behind a family or loved ones who will never be able to say their final goodbyes.

No one knows exactly when our time in this world is up. Here today, gone tomorrow.

The last six months were brutal and painful. Many people who were very close to me had passed on. Death was on the doorstep each month. While we grieve at the loss, there is a bit of joy in the closure of pain and suffering. It takes the sadness of life, to appreciate the beauty of death.

If there are two things that are permanent in this world, it is change and death.

Nothing in life is promised except death.

– Kanye West

There’s something about love that makes everything different.

Many things mark us as Christians and as Catholics: the sign of the cross, our liturgical celebrations, our churches and places of worship – all inspired by Scripture and tradition. But at the heart of all this and what holds all things together is the commandment of love: love of God and love of neighbor; love as Jesus loved us. Without love, all things fall apart.

When I read those lines, it struck me how much as a Catholic nation, these very reasons to love – both friends and enemy – are quite challenging these days.

The last few months have been heart breaking and gut wrenching for me and my family. And as I look around my relatives and friends, they too have had their own ups and downs. But the struggles are real. There are days that you feel like giving up.

These trials in life are but part of our journey. And our little triumphs in spite of those bad days couldn’t have been possible without love.

Love is what keeps us grounded. Humble. Faithful. Prayerful. Grateful. Forgiving. And most of all, together.

In this world, without love, nothing matters.