Allow me to share the winning speech of Gian Dapul, a humble student from Philippine Science High School who won the English Speaking Union’s International Public Speaking Competition held in London last Friday.
I was moved by his piece. I could imagine his manner of delivery, and his victory simply boiled down to his passion, which is to do his best to make a difference by finding solutions to some of the problems of this society.
If the local media has not promoted this since their eyes are still with Charise Pempengco and Erik Spoelstra, then allow me to show to the visitors of my humble blog how proud I am of this fellow.
(Update as of 11:02 PM, 05/13/08: I found a video of Gian's speech)
Copy of the speech courtesy of Benj, who is fortunate enough to have met the person who could even be better than Alexander Fleming. Congratulations, Gian Dapul. FISH MUCUS AND FOOT FUNGUS by Gian Dapul
When I was in 6th grade, I hated Mathematics. You would have, too, if you had my teacher. He would drop huge workbooks on our tables and croak, “Thirty problems, fifty minutes.” A lot of these problems seemed unsolvable, so we complained: “Sir, there are no answers to these!” But then he’d reply, “To every question there is an answer, to every problem there is a solution.”
Although I’m only sixteen years old and an incoming 4th year high school student, I know that my country has more problems than any Mathematics book. Strangely enough, the answers to some of our problems are fish mucus and foot fungus. These seemingly improbable items are products of what we call scientific research.
Research turns our guesses into real knowledge, serving as the sifting pan of our hypotheses. It challenges what we assume, because, as they say, if you only learn from what you ASS-UME, you make an “ass” out of”u” and “me”.
In the early 1800s, someone warned that the streets of London would be filled with horse manure due to the uncontrolled use of horse-drawn carriages. Of course, that never happened. Combustion engines,products of research and invention, replaced horses, and the manure piled up in Parliament instead.
While on the subject, few people know that the most expensive coffee in the world is taken from the droppings of the Asian Palm Civet found in the Philippines and Indonesia. The small mammal excretes the coffee berries it eats, and forest trackers recycle the fruity feces to create what is known as Kopi Luwak in Indonesia or Kape Alamid in our country. Research has led to a synthetic process that simulates the droppings’ exotic flavor and quality.
So, who’s had coffee with their breakfast? Well, soon nobody will have had coffee and breakfast if the looming global food crisis worsens.Are you all feeling fine? Well, nobody might be fine for long if some new disease creeps up on us.
Health can be enhanced and life can be extended. The nudibranch, a beautiful, soft-bodied creature unfairly called a “sea slug” — a favorite among underwater photographers for its marvelous colors and shapes — has actually been used in tumor research. Samples of fish mucus have also displayed certain antibacterial properties.
And as the Home Shopping Network would say, “Wait! There’s more.”
Certain types of infectious fungi that coat some of your toes here form beneficial relationships that support plant growth. The International Rice Research Institute based in the Philippines continues to develop ways to improve rice growth and help alleviate the current food crisis.
New challenges are coming, and they will always confront us. What we need is an army of scientific researchers that will help find the solutions in advance. I want to be part of that army that would cross the new frontiers first.
If only we could make science fairs and contests as popular as the thriving “Pop Idol” franchise. Although I’m not sure if Simon Cowell’s sardonic comments will sit well with my peers. But we need the same hard-hitting passion in research and invention.
To conduct research is to be innovative; avant-garde. Researchers are like artists with test tubes and lab gowns instead of paintbrushes and smocks. When I graduate from the Philippine Science High School next year, I want to begin my “masterpiece” and apply for a university degree in Biochemistry.
But sometimes, I am discouraged by those who say that a researcher from a Third-World nation is like a Jesuit adhering to a vow of poverty, or worse, like a Benedictine monk observing the vow of chastity. It is indeed a challenge, but it’s also another frontier to cross, for me and many young people like me.
We Filipinos are well known for their dedication to service, in foreign homes, hospitals and hotels. In the hotel, I found three Filipinos working there. I want to be one of the pioneers that will make the Philippines known for its excellence in scientific research,as part of the driving force that will expand our horizons towards tomorrow. And I intend as a 1to have a lot of fun while doing it.
Going back to my math teacher, I eventually realized that, well, he was right. As he said, “To every question there is an answer, to every problem there is a solution.” We just have to go looking for the right ones. Who knows? Maybe one day we’ll be answering the questions that haven’t been asked yet.
I had the opportunity to be on the sidelines of the race track where Speed Racer grew and had a life with (naks, haha). Last night, I was able to watch Speed Racer at Powerplant Cinema 2. Being one of the frequent viewers of Speed Racer (the old anime) before, I thought I should not miss this. I used to watch this cartoon during my elementary and early high school days at Cartoon Network.
Well, it turned out to be a wonderful ride. Before going inside the movie house, I kinda expected it to be a "pure cotton candy" movie, so I just wanted to know if this will be a good transformation of the told cartoon.
It was one of the coolest movie in this genre in recent years. Darn, the editing, sequencing, it was awesome. It was exhilarating. The visual effects are a given, what can you expect from the same team behind the Matrix?
Some people, however, do not seem to appreciate the film. I guess that will be acceptable if you have seen the cartoon before, but if not, then don't give it a bad review since you know nothing about the source material. Honestly, I was glued to my seat the whole time, it made me become a bigger fan of racing myself, or even better, it felt as if my chairs were moving. Haha. Some were questioning about it being flashy. I guess that's what made it a "modern-day" adaptation of the film. To me, it was just fine. The film did what it exactly had to do, which is to entertain and give justice to the cartoon. It seems every time a Wachowski brothers movie comes out the reviewers don't get it. The aim of this film was not made for the purpose of giving some biting social commentary. It's Speed Racer for crying out loud.
The best part of the movie is the Casa Cristo 5000 race, when Speed, Racer X and Taejo teamed up to win the race in an effort to make a difference in the world of racing that is filled with politics.
However, it is not Speed Racer that is the coolest character in the film, even if the characters behind Speed, Trixie, and Pops, were really look alikes of the cartoon characters. For me, the coolest character was Racer X, who turned out to be Speed's brother, Rex Racer. In the TV series, Rex Racer revealed his identity with a punch in the stomach. In the movie, however, Rex Racer had a plastic surgery in order to change his identity. When Racer X showed himself to Speed due to the latter's doubt, a seemingly different person was revealed. After the 91st grand prix, Racer X mentioned that if the choice of not telling his family about his identity was a mistake, it will be a mistake he'll have to live with. While this portion in the film made the difference against the old anime, I also felt that it's the most striking part of the movie.
The lines were hilarious too, and the fight scenes were crazy, especially on the scene when some nasty bad guys tried to ambush Speed's team, only to be ruined by Spritle, Speed's naughty and funny younger brother. Haha. But the best and most striking line there was that of Racer X: "Racing will never change. What matters is whether we allow racing to change us".
I hope that in this genre, movie makers will keep on producing movies like this. :-)
Finally, NBC aired the first installment of "Deal or No Deal Around the World". The US version of Deal or No Deal went to the Philippines, Estonia, and South Africa. In this special edition, all elements of the local versions of the game in the countries visited were used, except that the game was played using American money and by American contestants. Kris Aquino joined US host Howie Mandel as co-host. This special episode, the first stop of the US series' World Tour, was aired on the NBC on May 5, 2008.
I was able to watch the game this morning through some clips in Youtube, although the first part where Kris Aquino was introduced was missing. A pexer (flipto) uploaded a more complete version in google video, and I am still about to see it. Nonetheless, allow me to tell you, Howie Mandel was an excellent host. I know for a fact that the Philippine format is fun, but the US tour made their Filipino-inspired game even more exciting. Haha.
In the first part of the two-hour episode, some trivia about Kris Aquino were mentioned, like the fact that she was the daughter of former Senator Ninoy Aquino and former President Cory Aquino. The two-hour episode featured two American contestants. The first contestant was Mike Levy, a black football player, while the second was Patrick Hook, a married white guy who is taking a Master's degree.
What I loved about the game are the features and video clips about the Philippines, featuring Howie Mendel's visit to various tourist spots like Luneta, Quiapo, and SM Supermarket. It was even funnier when Howie made a feature about our airport security. Even while the game is being played, there were captions that cite some trivia about the local format of the game, and about the country. It was also nice to see Howie and the American contestants enjoy the hospitality of the Filipinos. But what really made the Americans enjoy are some twists in the local version, like the dance entrance of the briefcase girls (26K), the very funny Banker, and the "party mode" of the studio whenever the low amounts were opened. The twists were even made better when Mike Levy was given with some sort wig (I think that's an Ivatan head accessory), and when Patrick Hook was given a dare where he had to eat "Balut" or an egg with chicken embryo for $10,000.
They also featured a "two-case" game in Quiapo, where a certain seller guy had to choose between a Php1 case and Php4000 case. It turned out that the guy had the peso case.
Both contestants won a decent amount (remember, we are talking of US dollars here), but they both made a bad deal. In the first game, the case held by the football player contained $750,000, and he won $200,000+. The second contestant won I think less than $100,000, but his case contained a bigger amount.
In the second game, Patrick Hook picked case number 26 in one of the later rounds. Thinking that Patrick's red hair will not run out of luck, he asked Kris what "love" is in Tagalog, and the conversation went something like this:
Contestant: "How do you say Love?"Kris Aquino: "Mahal"Contestant: "number 26! Mahal! Thanks my love"Kris Aquino: "Mahal has two meanings, 'Love' and 'Expensive', sorry"
It turned out that case 26 contained the million bucks.
All in all, it was one cool episode. It was also noticeable in the episode that Kris Aquino didn't talk that much. Haha. Well, she can't help but make faces at times, but still, she did a great job being a co-host, but hands down to Howie Mandel for being a very good game show host. I also saw some sites of gameshow enthusiasts in the US, giving remarks that our format was more fun than that of the US. Damn, how I wish that Howie was the host during my game. :p
There were some news that ABS-CBN will air this special episode in two weeks. I hope this will really happen. For now, you can enjoy the google and youtube videoswhile they last. You can also see some clips at the NBC video site.
As I write this blog entry, my other firefox tab is "buffering" a video of "The Rise of Darkrai", the 10th movie of the longest running anime in the history of television.
Last Tuesday, Pokemon Advanced (Season 6) officially started on Cartoon Network Philippines. On the other hand, Cartoon Network USA finally had its initial telecast of Pokemon DP Battle Dimension (Season 11). Isn't that cool? How I wish that we have that in the Philippines, but I'll probably have to wait 2 or 3 years more before I could even see Season 10 in the boob tube.
Anyway, here's the intro of the 11th Season of Pokemon.
Yesterday, we had our company team building at Las Haciendas Resort, Pugadlawin Camp. With this year's theme dubbed as "MIB @ War", all associates were grouped and pitted against each other through different tasks that tested everyone's strength, mental alertness, and teamwork.
In the morning, we had four main activities. In the first activity, each group was tasked to collect as many balls as possible and at the same time, collect and assemble three hola-hoops, the colors of which should be the same as that of the team's name (we were yellow team by the way), with all members except the instructor blindfolded. The task in the second activity was to cross the other side of the "crocodile pit" without falling into the pit (be it the members or the team, or the materials used for the task) using only two pieces of wood, a long stick, and two cases of bottled drinks. In the third activity, all groups competed in a relay/race where five members were supposed to cross and go back to the base by stepping into the two long wood with five ropes per wood (which allows the members to lift/carry the wood). In the last morning activity, five pairs of each team are supposed to work together (one being the mentor and the other being the mentee for each pair), where the mentee is tasked to walk or crawl through a course without crossing the line and touching the land mines while blindfolded, while the mentor is the only one allowed to instruct the mentee.
In the afternoon, we were given some sort of optional tasks, although these happened to be the more exciting ones. In the first part, we played in the "slide for life", more commonly known as the zip line where one has to reach/slide to the other end of the rope while on a harness, while some of my officemates took part in the wall climbing. After that, we joined the paintball game, the task of which is to eliminate opponents by hitting them with paint filled, breakable, gelatin paintballs using an M-16 like paintball market. Our group won in the first round, but we lost in the second round. Except for the hit that I got from my left leg, it was really one heck of an experience.
After that, we had a blast by sliding at the very long mud slide. It was really funny on my part because I was scared at first, but then when almost all of my closest officemates joined, I thought I should not be left behind.
I actually feel drained as I write this entry. Nonetheless, we all had fun. It was actually my first time to play the paintball game, cross a zip line on harness, and slide at the mudslide.
You can check the photos from my cam here. More pics to come from my officemates.
Watch our slide for life and wall climbing experience: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
