No matter what some of our own people may say about how they envy those living in the United States or other countries such as those in Europe, I don’t think there ever was a time when I agreed with them. Only yesterday, news came out that in some states, they had to deal with two to three feet of snow! Oh, of course native Americans are used to that, but I wonder how those from Asia and other parts of the world in tropical areas, could stand it. We know many Filipinos have opted to migrate there, but I am sure they had a lot of adjusting to do.
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For me, nothing is more idyllic than to live in countries in Asia like the Philippines where the climate is tolerable all year round. Oh, we have our typhoons and floods now and then, but never have we known of casualties as many as some countries have, attributed to their climate. Of course I am writing from experience, having been caught by winter in the U.S. and some European countries like Russia and Germany, but, thank God, we were all provided with warm clothes, and heated hotel rooms. Otherwise, maybe some of us might have frozen to death!
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But we were not the only ones, I mean the journalists in the team – those trips were presidential state visits, most of them during the time of President Fidel Ramos and others during that of Joseph Estrada, but of course I never regretted joining whenever I was invited. Those were wonderful experiences that I am sure some of my colleagues in Bacolod envied. It seems, however, that it will be a long time before state visits will take place – the COVID made sure of that!
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Meanwhile, it must be true that politics is like an incurable disease that cannot be prevented by vaccination. In the United States, their ex-President Donald Trump continues to protest his defeat and has been hiring a lot of lawyers to find fault with the victory of Joe Biden so he can get back to the White House. The latest news about him is that he had dismissed his original lawyers and got another set whom he must believe capable of unseating Biden and have him proclaimed instead.
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But I do admire the efficiency and dedication of America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation or FBI, for their thoroughness in doing their job. Imagine, they were able to identify a lot of those rioters who stormed into the White House and have arrested some of them! And they are so fearless, too. Two of their members were killed and three wounded in their action against the rioters in Florida. They must be fearless men, indeed even the possibility of being killed does not faze them when in the line of duty!
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This could be good news or bad news. Reports yesterday said that the Philippine government is purchasing the Astrazeneca vaccine for our people. However, the amount, as noted in the same report, is for a very limited number of doses. Who will be the lucky ones to benefit from it? Will our top officials and their families be given first priority, or will we have to draw lots by province or city, to be a recipient? Since our news sources are limited nowadays, we in the provinces will probably not know until the supply has been exhausted.
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The other day I went to the hospital – I’m not naming names – for my regular check up and was startled at the number of people, patients as well as companions or caregivers, milling around the entrance waiting to be “checked” by some personnel who waved their instruments at you before allowing you into the “pila” or line. I noted, though, that they were not too strict with the social distancing dictum, maybe because they were in the hospital grounds already? But the floor of the building where the doctors are located was rather bare, I supposed some of those checked at the entrance had not been admitted?
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By the way, I must have missed the reports on the findings of the team from the World Health Organization, or WHO, on the results of their visit to the area in China where the Coronavirus had originally came. I recall that earlier attempts to check on Wuhan had been discouraged by the Chinese government. So why was the W.H.O. team allowed this time? Has it already been disinfected? Just asking, like so many people I know are doing.*
