UCLA Liwanag at Dilim 2010 (Benevolence)

Mabuhay!!! -Charlene Lopez

Higit sa isang bakasyon ang paglalakbay sa Pilipinas. Maibababad ang sarili sa iba’t-ibang kulturang Pilipino, na ang impluwensiya ay produkto ng higit pa sa apat na raang taon ng kolonisasyon ng mga dayuhang Kastila, Amerikano, at  Hapon.

Kakaiba ang Pilipinas sa mga kapit-bahay nito sa rehiyong ikinababahagian nito, ang rehiyong Timong-Silangang Asya. Iba’t-ibang relihiyon at mga kulturang kumakatawan sa katangian ng mga mamamayan ng bansa ang makikita dito. Bilang isang Pilipino-Amerikano, masaya ako na bahagi ako ng bayang Pilipinas, isang bansang tiyak na walang katulad!

Kung dadalawin ang Pilipinas para magbakasyon, sulitin na at dalawin ang iba’t-ibang probinsyang Pilipino. Tulad ko, nakita ko ang iba’t-ibang makukulay at nakakatuwang kulturang Pilipino na talaga namang aking ipinagmamalaki. Kaya halina sa Pilipinas nang matuklasan natin ang ganda ng sariling atin! Mabuhay ang Pilipino, mabuhay ang Pilipinas!

Klima: Charlene Lopez
Kahit anong bahagi ng taon, masarap bumisita sa Pilipinas! Kung init at araw ang hanap mo, Marso hangang Mayo ang pinakamasarap na panahon na bumisita. Kung ulan at kulimlim naman ang iyong gusto, Hunyo hangang Nobyembre naman ang panahon ng bagyo. Samantalang Desyembre hangang Pebrero ang pinakamagandang panahon sa Pilipinas, dahil saktong-sakto lang ang panahon, medyo mainit pero ang sarap naman ng hangin.

Para makita ang kasalukuyang panahon, bisitahin ang Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical at Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA)
website: http://www.pagasa.dost.gov.ph or call PAGASA 24-hour hotline (632)4338526.

Links found by Charlene and Kathleen

Visa at Currency:

Para sa higit na impormasyon sa pagkuha ng Visa at pera ng Pilipinas para sa iyong paglalakbay sa bansa, bisitahin ang website na ito: http://www.tourism.gov.ph/SitePages/customs.aspx

Ang website ng Philippine Airlines, na may higit sa 50 taong serbisyo:

http://www.philippineairlines.com/home/home.jsp

Gusto mong matuto ng Filipino?  Pumunta sa website na ito:

http://www.bansa.org/dictionaries/tgl

Cebu:- Kathleen

Ang Cebu ay kapwa makasaysayan at maganda. Nasa Visayas, ang Cebu ay napapaligiran ng 167 maliliit na isla, kasama na ang Mactan, Bantayan, Malapascua, Olango, at Camotes Islands. Binubuo ng mga limestone na talampas at mga kapatagan na may baybayin, may mga lumiligid na burol at mga matatarik na bundok sa buong Cebu.  May mga bundok dito na tumataas ng mga 1000 metro.
Bago nasakop ng mga Kastila ang Pilipinas, pinasiyahan ang Cebu ni Datu Lapu-Lapu at nagpasampalatya yung isla sa Islam sa ilalim ng katapatan ni Sultan Kiram. Gayun pa man, kasama ng mga Kastila, nag-convert ang Cebu at lahat ng Pilipinas sa Katoliko. Sa katunayan, ang Cebu ay unang probinsiya sa Pilipinas na pinuntahan ni Ferdinand Magellan. At saka, ang Cebu ay ang lugar kung saan nasawi si Magellan, sa kamay ng mga tauhan ni Lapulapu sa Battle of Mactan noong Abril 27, 1521.
Ang Cebu ay napaka kumpara sa ibang mga probinsiya sa Pilipinas. Noong 2007, ibinoto ang Cebu na “Seventh Best Island Destination in the Indian Ocean-Asia Region’ sa Conde Nest Travel Magazine sa United Kingdom.

Boracay: Kathleen

Ang Boracay ay isang napakaganda at masayang-masayang lugar na kailangan ninyong bisitahin. Ito ay nasa timog ng Maynila at may maraming magandang dagat doon. Interesante na hindi natuklasan ang Boracay ng mga turista hanggang sa 1970s, at naging sikat ito sa mga backpackers noong 1980s. Ngayon  ang Boracay ay ibinotong “World’s Number One Tropical Beach” sa TV Quick noong 1996.

Maraming puwedeng magawa sa araw, halimbawa, mga aktibidad na pantubig:  mag- snorkel, scuba-diving, wind-surfing, at iba pa. Puwede kayong mag-island hopping at pagkatapos ay magpamasahe para ma-relax. Nakakatuwa rin kasi may mga kastilyong buhanging malapit sa dagat, at gumagawa ang mga tao ng mga bagong kastilyo araw-araw. Sa gabi, may marami pang puwedeng magawa. May mga restoran, bars, at night clubs. Puwede kayong kumanta at sumayaw buong gabi.

by Kathleen Cruz

Dr. Andres de Luna Interview:

1) Where were you born and where did you grow up?

I was actually born in Georgia in Macon. I actually grew up until I was 10 years old in a place that is quite unpopulated. We had one traffic light. Macon, itself, is actually the 2^nd largest town in Georgia, but we lived about 30 miles from it. The town itself is called Gray. The whole size of the town was about 2,000 people.  If you actually do the Google Earth thing where you can look up your house, my house actually doesn’t show up.

Why is that? It’s because there’s nobody earth. It doesn’t show up. I can tell you that at the time that I grew up, in a 50-mile radius, there was about 50 Filipino American couples in all surrounding towns. I think half of us knew each other because when you see another Filipino person, we think “Wow! You’re a rarity!”  So we invited the to join the Filipino American Association, that’s how my parents knew everybody.

Were they mostly 1^st generation or 2^nd generation? Most were 1^st, I would say. My parents came over to the Philippines right after the martial law was inducted in 1973 and I think a lot of people came over around the same time. Regarding the population, if you think about, it’s still not that many. Out of a population of a 50-mile radius, which is probably around 100 or 200,000 people, 1 out of 2,000 are Filipino. It’s a pretty low number. That’s also why my parents didn’t bother to teach me Tagalog because they said, “You’re never going to use it”. Actually, until I moved to California, I didn’t really know the difference between a Filipino person and a Chinese person. So when I moved to California, it was pretty much a culture shock because I moved to Diamond Bar and there were Filipinos and Asians everywhere.

So you didn’t understand Tagalog growing up? No, and still unfortunately don’t know too much of it at all. I did do reading outside while I was at UCLA for a while, so I did pick up the Tagalog books and really tried to learn it while I was there. But then I found myself, at the end of 2^nd year I didn’t really use it that much. So it’s pretty much gone. Which is why I was also interested in doing the Filipino translation because I found that my best way of learning a language is just to practice it. My Spanish is actually getting better now, and its only because I use it on a daily basis. And it’s only when I use it in the hospital. I’m starting to really interview in Spanish now, so I’m hoping the same thing can happen with Tagalog.

2) Where he did his undergraduate/medical school?

The first 2 years I went to Berkeley. But I missed LA, my friends, and family and ultimately decided to transfer. Eventually went to UCLA for 3 years, so I took my time there. Then I went to UCLA for medical school.

3) Any specialty?

I actually thought I would be in LA for my life and didn’t think I would be moving very much. I would’ve planned to stay in LA, but I met a girl and when she got into UCSF for residency, I ended up moving up there as well. So I went to Stanford for Internal Medicine.

4) What is it like being a Filipino doctor in America? Did you feel like you had any difficulties being Filipino?

No…I didn’t. I don’t think so. I think being interested and understanding in different cultures and learning about them, not just Filipino culture, is helpful in interacting with patients. I think that having some knowledge about the Filipino culture when I interact with Filipino patients. But also learning about other cultures is really helpful.  But there haven’t been any real challenges in being a Filipino doctor.

5) Let’s talk about the general Filipino population. High risk factors for Filipinos? Explain?

I can say that in general it’s not studied as much that it could be. Much of the funding goes to studying those that are mostly Caucasian population and the African American population. And now, Latino is starting to catch on. But there aren’t enough good studies that can inform us for sure. SO all I can say is what I tend to see. And it isn’t formally studied enough.  And you’ll see diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, coronary artery disease, adrenal disease, and all the other things are all complications of diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol and smoking, depending on who is coming over. Those are all things that are prevalent in the population. I think there is also quite a bit of mental disorders, although they are quite underestimated in Asian cultures in general because Asians tend to basically deny that they exist.  There’s PTSD…just a lot of mental disorders that are under diagnosed or under reported.

6) Any struggles you have observed for Filipinos with the health care system here?

The biggest one is going to be language barriers by far, and that’s a constant struggle.  It’s a two-edge sword that many Filipinos speak some degree of English, and some of them quite well. What makes it tough is that, if you don’t have a translator for Tagalog, it makes it easy to misunderstand, since there are a lot of double negatives in Tagalog. For example, if you ask a question that you need a yes or no answer to, the biggest thing that I’ve seen that s a problem for Filipino patients and doctors who don’t speak Tagalog (like me), its hard to nail down if they mean “yes” or “no”. Sometimes, because of the way the people respond and you’re not aware of it, you make completely wrong decisions of their diagnosis and medications because you thought the person said no and the person said yes.

7) Advice? Tips for Filipino communities?

That’s a tough one because for me, the way tat I practice medicine, I never really tell people what to do. I tell people the consequences of their actions from a health point of view, and leave it up to them to decide whether they want to follow it or not because people have a lot of things in their lives and make their own decisions. And I can tell people, well the biggest thing you can do for your health is to stop smoking, but I’m not telling you to do that because it’s up to you. It’s your responsibility to yourself. I can tell you based on studies how much likely you are to have cancer, but ultimately, it’s up to you.

The things I tend to see are lifestyles with food and everything. On one hand, food is very important to any culture. Food is very central. So its hard to say, don’t eat this or don’t eat that because although a lot of Filipino food tend to be high in carbohydrates or high in fat and salt, it’s just a lot of high fat and salty food. On the other hand, from a cultural point of view, it’s like “what do you mean don’t eat the food that I eat?” But it is contributing, no doubt, to the level of diabetes that we see. If you cooked things 50 years ago in the Philippines, a lot of people didn’t have access to the food that they regularly eat now in America because it was just too expensive to have, like meat, you know? So in the Philippines, they didn’t have this much problem as they are now. But of course now that everything is getting cheaper, nowadays diabetes and hypertension is getting quite high over there.  Diets changed in general, regardless if you’re in the US or in the Philippines. Id its possible, I would say, perhaps eating less of this food and eating more of the vegetables and getting more physical activity. But this is the same advice really to anybody, in general just eating better and exercise more.  Sometimes that all I can say, because people have different ways of how they choose to manage their lives.

I don’t want to generalize, and it’s not my style to say, “You should do this or you should do that” because it is a very paternalistic style. I really like patients to take responsibility in their own health because they’re the only ones that can really change it at the end of the day.