The Freudian Slip Of A Bacolodnon

While in Helsinki, we decided to get a quick tour of the famous Suomenlinna island. It is an island fortress of the coast of Finland. It is currently a UNESCO World Heritage Site. One takes a short ferry ride to Suomenlinna from Helsinki. The place is very historical and they still managed to preserve some of the very old structures on the island. It was also a very windy day when we went there. Upon stepping on the island, it felt like we were traveling through time. Like it? Share it. Get the Share on Facebook widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox ! Not seeing a widget? ( More info )Like it.

     While In Finland, the guys and I planned to celebrate Philippine Independence Day weekend in Helsinki only to find out that June 12 is also Helsinki Day. And the Finns in Helsinki have a 'peculiar' way of celebrating Helsinki Day. They do it dancing the Samba. We felt disoriented at first. Here we were in a Scandinavian country but the sounds and colors felt more like we were in Brazil.     This is part four of my video-journal of my first trip to Europe together with 3 other Filipino doctors taking Global Health at the University of Tampere. Like it? Share it. Get the Share on Facebook widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox ! Not seeing a widget? ( More info )Like it.

     After another week of studying, we were able to find another free weekend to spend in Helsinki. We took the train from Tampere to Helsinki for the first time. A classmate of ours from the course offered his flat for the night where we could stay for free. After finding our way to his flat and getting some quick rest, we then ventured out into the streets of Helsinki to see the sights.      We visited Helsinki on the 12th of June which is not only Philippine Independence Day but also Helsinki Day. We knew while we were on the streets something big was brewing somewhere in the heart of Helsinki. We went around to find out. Like it? Share it. Get the Share on Facebook widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox ! Not seeing a widget? ( More info )Like it.

     So, after a few days of studying and learning about other cultures through the introductory sessions of our Global Health Course, we finally had a free weekend. We decided to explore the backyard of Tampere, again letting the road lead us to wherever. We even found a nice garden where we could just sit down and simply sit still. Tampere is beautiful. I can live there and grow old.     This part features also our visit to a Finnish Red Cross facility and a bus ride back to our flat. Like it? Share it. Get the Share on Facebook widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox ! Not seeing a widget? ( More info )Like it.

When I visited Helsinki, I had the great opportunity to visit a sea fortress called Suomenlinna. Suomenlinna is a maritime fortress located off the coast of Helsinki. It is also a garrison town and a base for archipelago navy. The construction of the fortress began in 1748. In 1991, the fortress was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List as a unique monument of military architecture. There is a ferry in Kauppatori that would take visitors to the island. You won't miss the port since it is also where the Helsinki seat of government is located and an area where tourists can buy souvenirs and even fresh sea foods and other fruits. The ferry departs from the eastern side of Kauppatori, opposite the President’s Castle. At Suomenlinna the ferry departs from the main pier on Iso Mustasaari island. The ferry is part of the city transport network and all HSL tickets are accepted. You need to buy your ferry ticket before boarding. Tickets can be bought from ticket machines or the Ma...

As our way of saying thank you to our fellow participants and organizers of the 7th Global Health Course held in Tampere, Finland, we made this video inspired by Orange and Lemons' popular song, "Pinoy Ako" which became the theme song of the popular TV reality show Pinoy Big Brother. We will never forget our Europe experience, thanks to the people who gave us this opportunity to learn and study with our new found friends. (Must have facebook account to access video)

While the Global health course was going on, the world was constantly watching the events in South Africa. The World Cup fever was on the rise and it was all the more made apparent since among the participants in the GHC were Chileans whose national team was actually competing against other countries from around the world. Watching the Chileans react to every action on the football field whenever Team Chile was playing is reminiscent of Filipinos watching Manny Pacquiao's boxing match. The World Cup is symbolic of internationally unity and since the GHC participants seemed to have created almost subliminally a microcosm of the international community, the boys decided to play football as well. Football is not exactly a Filipino sport although if given the chance we can excel in Football, more than we think about Basketball. Still, we wanted to show as well our sport prowess in Soccer, or the lack of it. Still, it was a fun moment. We found this football field in an elderly home nea...

Despite Finland being one of the most expensive countries in the world, participants of the 7th Global Health Course, especially the Filipinos, will never forget the gastronomic experience they have. Of course, one of the things we immediately noticed is their love for coffee and "pulla". It was common for a GHC participant to buy some cheap stuff from the nearest grocer and cook breakfast or dinner. This we did, and more. We discovered a place called Rax which actually is a Pizza Buffet place. For 9.50 euros, you can eat unlimited pizza, chicken wings, salad, sausages, meatballs and drinks. If we were very hungry, Rax was a saving grace, even when we went to our first visit to Helsinki. But what is food without company? What made them so delicious was the fact that they are shared with new found friends. The conversations over breakfast, lunch, dinner and even coffee breaks were actually priceless, worth than the food itself. I won't forget the first group dinner of a...

What is so good about this Global Health Course is that it has allowed me to interact with people from different cultures. All participants - Finns, Nepalese, Chileans, Filipinos and Tanzanians - are unique from each other, both in their personalities and their perspectives of the world and their own respective societies. However, while the differences can be obvious, there are similarities and commonalities which may not be as prominent as the variety but nonetheless real. It is important therefore that some linkages must be made amongst the participants which can be very helpful in the now and future in many aspects of our individualities. It is important that linkages must be made in order for us to ensure that we in our own respective ways put into practice the principles of equity and justice and equality in the field of public health. In the last remaining days of our lectures, the GHC7 participants decided to spent more time for CHILLAXing (combination of chilling and relaxing)...

What an inspirational day. Talk about a wake up call. The lecture of writer Michael Meegan, author of the books All Will Be Well and Changing The World Step By Step, was what I needed, both as a public health physician and as an individual. He talked about the actors in Global health and he basically described how these huge international aid agencies would funnel their donations to supposedly help developing countries improve their health status. It is true when he said that most of these international aid agencies do so only to benefit themselves and not necessarily benefit the recipients. When he showed the "global stage" with all these key actors interlinking with each other for global health, he bluntly pointed out a glaring mistake in this global scene, a missing actor, one participant lacking in the drama of global health: the community, the supposed recipients of these aid funds. It is so unfortunate that these big donors confine themselves only within their own bu...

I am letting the pictures speak for themselves here. But it was truly an unexpected pleasant surprise for us when we got to Helsinki last Saturday. We were actually looking for Filipino communities where we could celebrate the Philippine Independence Day in Helsinki. But what we found was the entire Helsinki dancing to the tune of samba in skimpy clothes one very cold Saturday afternoon.

It was a long day for all of us and it was expected that the topics on non-communicable diseases would have been a livelier one. It was actually on some parts of it. I personally preferred the topic on Global Tobacco Control being a personal advocate against smoking. While we did end on time, it was definitely a draining day. By the afternoon, everyone was almost too tired to even think. The topic on Mental health for example, while personally relevant, was almost too dragging, with lengthy introductions and emphasis on the clinical aspect on the common mental illnesses affecting the world. I would have wanted the discussion to focus on how the nations are collectively or individually addressing mental health issues and perhaps share best practices or failures in the approach to mental health. I definitely admired the Chilean health system with regards to mental health. According to the Chilean doctors, mental health is being address at the primary level. Each common mental illness ...

Today's was theme was basically Child Health and when we talk about child health, we cannot help but talk also about immunization and prenatal care and postpartum care and under-five-clinic programs geared towards taking care of the health of children. Children after all belong to the risk groups. I liked today's discussions considering that we had more time to interact with other participants. During the first round of discussions, the class was divided into four groups and each group was given a role to play. One group pretended to be the Ministry of Health (Department of Health), the other the Local Government Unit, the other was the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the last group was the Doctors without borders. We were given a community-in-focus and the objective was to make recommendations on how to intervene in order to reduce child mortality. Our group was the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It was a very lively discussion but I was frankly distracted by the ...

The topic during the fifth day at the 7th Global health course in Tampere, Finland focused mainly on the problem of malnutrition, specifically undernutrition which is common among low and middle income countries. During the lecture on nutrition, the topic was presented basically with an introduction to malnutrition and the different clinical types of this illness and its epidemiology: basically the What, Who, Where, When, How, Why and So What of Undernutrition. Among the many causes identified for malnutrition is, other than the biological conditions such as illnesses and the like, the non-medical conditions such as the various social determinants of health mentioned in the previous week. I found it true when the lecturer summed up his topic on undernutrition emphasizing that the cause of this problem is fundamentally political. The social pathogenesis of undernutrition is basically the inability of food source to come into the environment, from which there is also inability of foo...

It is day 5 of the 7th Global Health Course in Tampere, Finland and the topic for the day was Health Systems. We listened to lectures on health care financing, comparing the three types of financing and how they differ from each other. The thing is there is really no perfect system and no hard fast rule on which system each country must adapt. Each system has its own pros and cons and basically it depends on the culture and social acceptability. The lecture was further emphasized when we watched the movie Sicko. I have personally seen it many times and it is interesting to hear comments from non-Americans, especially the Finns who are basically Europeans and are using relatively the same type of financing scheme with the other European countries, regarding the film and basically the health care financing system in America. After the film we had a lecture on Counterfeit medicines and its global threat. The lecturer was from a huge pharmaceutical company and while he was lecturing, I ...

The first Saturday of June is a free day for GHC participants and so we Pinoys decided to take a walking tour of the city of Tampere. We left our flat at around 10 am and went immediately to Pisala. Why Pisala? When we were going to Tampere during our first day in Finland, we met a friendly Finnish girl in the bus who advised us to visit Pisala because we would love the place. So we got ourselves a map of Tampere, planned our routes and decided to go to Pisala first because it is the farthest from Lapinkaari where we are currently staying. By the time we reached Pisala, we were trying to find a place where we could view the beautiful lake in the area. Another friendly Finnish lady who was a resident of the place and was jogging noticed four seemingly lost Filipinos in the middle of the road holding maps with names we could hardly pronounce. She brought us to this small park overlooking the beautiful lake by the South side of Tampere and it was indeed beautiful. After taking pictures...