Last weekend, my family and my in-laws went to a beach resort in Morong, Bataan.
This is the life.
I enjoyed the sand, sea, and swim.
I enjoyed the scenery and serenity. The sun and the sunset.
I was able to catch up with my sleep and socials.
I shook off the stress and strain of everyday work.
I wish I could do this 363 days a year.
Unfortunately...
Back to reality. Back to work.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Is it really hot?
People nowadays keep complaining about how hot it is - the weather, that is. Most blame it to "climate change", whatever that is.
But just how hot is "hot"?
Let's look at some statistics. The temperature range these days is about 33 to 36deg C in various locations in the Philippines, except for Baguio. During the last ten years it was more or less the same.
Historically, the hottest day in the Philippines happened almost one hundred years ago, when the temperature reached 40deg C in Aparri, Cagayan. Now there was no such thing as climate change during that time.
So how come we hear nothing but complains about how hot it is? It's hot news at the TV primetime news, where the newsreaders try their best to make some sense of what PAGASA is monitoring. But I think that all they make is a fuss about nothing.
I have a feeling that "feeling hot" is not really on how high the reading in the thermometer is, but on a person's capacity to respond to an increase in temperature. We have read stories of temperatures reaching 41deg C in the center court of Roland Garros stadium during the French Open, but does it affect the quality of play of the tennis players? Absolutely not. In fact, they seem to play even better.
During my high school days (that was during the 1970's), I worked weekends in the ricefields - planting rice, plowing the fields, building dikes and irrigation canals, harvesting rice, threshing it by foot, or carrying sacks of palay on my shoulders from the middle of the fields to the roadside. Temperatures can rise as much as 35deg C in the middle of the fields, and if you are planting rice, the heat combined with humidity (from water evaporating in the fields) makes you feel as if you are in a sauna bath - without its comforts. But hey, that was normal. If you won't work, you'll go hungry.
So what I am saying is that I think today's generation has just grown too accustomed to the comforts of modern-day living that their bodies can no longer tolerate climates that are normal to our country. And I think the main culpit is our penchant for airconditioning - it seems that we just can't get away with it.
Example, instead of riding in jeepneys, the preferred means of transport is now an airconditioned FX or bus. Shopping malls are airconditioned, and people are flocking to it instead of the open-air parks. Offices are airconditioned too, and chances are, if you are an employer without an airconditioned office, you don't have any employees.
The sad thing about this is that some Filipinos think that we are in a temperate country and not in the tropics. Or is it nowadays a change in our way of living? Or is it that not having to sweat is the in-thing? Today, the obsession is to have fair skin and less-than-black hair. Just look at the boom in the salon or parlor business and you will know what I mean. The trend today is Glutathione - in soap, capsules, creams, etc. And don't forget astringents and facial wash, which carry outlandish claims of a fairer skin after a few days of continued use.
To sum it up, Filipinos nowadays don't want to feel hot. Period.
Two weeks ago on what was said to be the hottest day of the year, when temperatures soared to about 37deg C, I took a walk from our office to a warehouse. It was a 400 meter walk under the scorching sun. And my companions literally wilted from the heat.
And what did I think of it? I just smiled. Nothing compared to what I endured in the ricefields 35 years ago.
But just how hot is "hot"?
Let's look at some statistics. The temperature range these days is about 33 to 36deg C in various locations in the Philippines, except for Baguio. During the last ten years it was more or less the same.
Historically, the hottest day in the Philippines happened almost one hundred years ago, when the temperature reached 40deg C in Aparri, Cagayan. Now there was no such thing as climate change during that time.
So how come we hear nothing but complains about how hot it is? It's hot news at the TV primetime news, where the newsreaders try their best to make some sense of what PAGASA is monitoring. But I think that all they make is a fuss about nothing.
I have a feeling that "feeling hot" is not really on how high the reading in the thermometer is, but on a person's capacity to respond to an increase in temperature. We have read stories of temperatures reaching 41deg C in the center court of Roland Garros stadium during the French Open, but does it affect the quality of play of the tennis players? Absolutely not. In fact, they seem to play even better.
During my high school days (that was during the 1970's), I worked weekends in the ricefields - planting rice, plowing the fields, building dikes and irrigation canals, harvesting rice, threshing it by foot, or carrying sacks of palay on my shoulders from the middle of the fields to the roadside. Temperatures can rise as much as 35deg C in the middle of the fields, and if you are planting rice, the heat combined with humidity (from water evaporating in the fields) makes you feel as if you are in a sauna bath - without its comforts. But hey, that was normal. If you won't work, you'll go hungry.
So what I am saying is that I think today's generation has just grown too accustomed to the comforts of modern-day living that their bodies can no longer tolerate climates that are normal to our country. And I think the main culpit is our penchant for airconditioning - it seems that we just can't get away with it.
Example, instead of riding in jeepneys, the preferred means of transport is now an airconditioned FX or bus. Shopping malls are airconditioned, and people are flocking to it instead of the open-air parks. Offices are airconditioned too, and chances are, if you are an employer without an airconditioned office, you don't have any employees.
The sad thing about this is that some Filipinos think that we are in a temperate country and not in the tropics. Or is it nowadays a change in our way of living? Or is it that not having to sweat is the in-thing? Today, the obsession is to have fair skin and less-than-black hair. Just look at the boom in the salon or parlor business and you will know what I mean. The trend today is Glutathione - in soap, capsules, creams, etc. And don't forget astringents and facial wash, which carry outlandish claims of a fairer skin after a few days of continued use.
To sum it up, Filipinos nowadays don't want to feel hot. Period.
Two weeks ago on what was said to be the hottest day of the year, when temperatures soared to about 37deg C, I took a walk from our office to a warehouse. It was a 400 meter walk under the scorching sun. And my companions literally wilted from the heat.
And what did I think of it? I just smiled. Nothing compared to what I endured in the ricefields 35 years ago.
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