Homecourt advantage - JAYWALKER by Art A. Borjal

The NBA championship series begins today in Los Angeles, Southern California. There will surely be a jampacked crowd in LA to cheer on the home team, the LA Lakers. This is what is called the "homecourt advantage" in the NBA. Just imagine a basketball arena, filled with people to the rafters, with everyone lustily cheering for the home team and jeering the visiting team – and you will realize what a "homecourt advantage" can do to buoy the morale of the home team.

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The "homecourt advantage" is all about pride and joy over one’s own team. Apply it to a country or nation, and it will mean pride and joy over one’s own homeland. Almost everywhere in the world, the people’s sense of patriotism or nationalism is usually overwhelming. And it is such love of country that usually unites the people to quest for bigger, higher things.

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Insofar as Filipinos are concerned, what is sad and pathetic is that there seems to be no "homecourt advantage." Seldom do we see Pinoy’s cheering with all their might for their place of birth. What we see instead are jeering, griping, fault-finding, hating, rumor-mongering, fighting and all those negative traits that divide us as a nation.

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Right now, we hear no deafening roar from the crowd, to cheer on the Philippine team. There is no excitement, no buoyant spirit, that can bring Pinoys to their feet. And ironically, this is happening in our own homecourt, right here in the Philippines where we should have a "homecourt advantage." What clearer proof is there of our lack of nationalism, our absence of pride over our very own Motherland.

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There is something noteworthy, though, over the "homecourt advantage" in the NBA games. There, the players and coaches play a big, major role in bringing the crowd to their feet. Let the players play a lackluster game, and they will be taunted and jeered by their own fans in their own homecourt. But once the players show spunk and heart, the noise from the crowd will be deafening.

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All this means that the leaders of our own country have an important role to play in instilling pride and nationalism among our people. These leaders must be perceived to be really fighting hard for the Philippine Team. Let them be listless, indifferent, negligent leaders, and they will be jeered and taunted.

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There is much to be desired in the quality of investigative reporting. Take a look at that mystical William Castillo, the designated "mediator" in the current conflict involving the Abu Sayyaf. Hardly any newspaper or broadcast outfit has gone out of its way to give a detailed background of the man.

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Who is William Castillo? Why was he chosen by the government to be its mediator? What qualifications does he possess that influenced the Macapagal-Arroyo administration to name him as its mediator? Up to now, many have been kept in the dark on who this fellow is.

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No media entity has also churned out figures on the casualty list of the Abu Sayyaf. From news reports, it appears that only government soldiers, policemen and civilians have been killed or gotten hurt in the war against the Abu Sayyaf. With all the bullets fired in the clashes between the armed forces and the terrorist group, it is hard to believe that the Abu Sayyaf has suffered no casualties at all.

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June is National Kidney Month, as decreed by Presidential Proclamation 184. Tasked to lead the celebration is the National Kidney & Transplant Institute, headed by Dr. Enrique Ona, the NKTI executive director and the country’s foremost kidney transplant surgeon. The festivities will run for 30 days, under the theme of "Kidneys Ay Pangalagaan, Sila’y Ating Kayamanan."

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At the NKTI, free medical, surgical and laboratory services are being offered for indigent patients. According to Dr. Ona, there will also be one free kidney transplant every week. Other highlights of the National Kidney Month are fora, discussions, lectures and other activities aimed at increasing public awareness of the kidney disease.

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The partners of the NKTI in celebrating National Kidney Month as the Department of Health, Philippine Information Agency, Renal Disease Control Program, Philippine Urology Association, Philippine Society of Nephrology, Transplantation Society of the Philippines, and various pharmaceutical companies. The NKTI requests all sectors to join in the celebration of National Kidney Month.

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Last April 19, Virginia Arquita-Recana, an employee of the Product Development and Design Center of the Philippines, an agency of the Department of Trade and Industry, was run over by a wayward bus of the Vergara Bus Line at Roxas Boulevard, just in front of Traders Hotel and the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Her left leg was so badly battered it had to be eventually amputated at the Manila Doctors Hospital.

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Up to now, Ms. Recana is still confined in the hospital at United Nations Avenue, Manila – after eight surgical operations. According to the doctors, she has to undergo one more surgery and continued skin grafting. Eventually, steel braces have to be implanted into her arms and foot.

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Ms. Recana now has an outstanding bill of P600,000 with the Manila Doctors Hospital. Being a mere government employee, she has no way at all of paying that amount. And what is giving her mental torture is the knowledge that her medical treatment has yet to be completed.

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Ms. Recana has sent an appeal for Good Samaritans to please lend her a helping hand. She is confined at Room 414B of Manila Doctors Hospital. For particulars about Ms. Recana’s case, her co-employees at the DTI – Remy Valenzuela, Elsie Lucero and Susan Abrera – may be contacted at telephone numbers 832-3650 and 832-1112. Assistance may also be coursed through the Good Samaritan Foundation at telephone numbers 716-1399 and 716-1499, c/o Alexander Dinoy.

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Dr. Conrad G. Javier, a Fil-Am medical practitioner in Cleveland, Ohio, says that most Filipinos are blessed by their ability to laugh heartily and spontaneously. He notes that in the US, there are Pinoys who would start laughing even before starting a sentence. Pinoys, too, laugh a lot when talking in groups, a carry-over from their habits in the Philippines.

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According to Dr. Javier, a research paper presented at the recent American College of Cardiology Scientific Session showed that most patients with heart conditions were 50 percent less likely than their healthy counterparts to laugh over common funny situations.

"There may be effective, practical ways for people to lessen their discomfort or hostility to improve their humor response and increase the amount of laughter in their lives," said Dr. Michael Miller of the Maryland Medical Center. He also indicated the need to incorporate laughter into people’s daily activities, just as is done with other "cardioprotective activities."

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Dr. Javier explains the rationale behind this hypothesis. He says that laughter protects the heart by reducing mental and physical stress associated with the impairment of the endothelium, the inner lining of the heart’s blood vessels. So, don’t easily get mad or angry. Instead, get funny and laugh a lot, to the point of being silly. "It is cardioprotective," said Dr. Javier.

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