There's really no place like home

I came across an interesting piece last week from an international newspaper that was reprinted in a local broadsheet entitled ‘Immigrating to US can shorten your lives and those of your children.’ And while that may sound a bit harsh, it also rings very true as well. I know several of my contemporaries who left, especially at the height of the Marcos dictatorship, thinking that there was no hope for the Philippines. I felt then (as many of our countrymen still do) that living the American dream was the answer to their hopes and aspirations as well as their children’s. Many believed, and still do, that moving to USA can help overcome their problems. The US is known to many immigrants as the land of milk and honey. I felt that way for a long time too, but I did notice that America tends to breed many bad habits.

One thing I noticed they have in the States is plentiful and easily accessible food. While this may sound good, it is not necessarily always a good thing. Everything should still be done in moderation and too much of a good thing can easily turn bad. This can be seen by the high rate of obesity in the United States. Burgers as big as plates and refillable sodas have made waistlines triple in the past decade as well as increase incidence of diabetes, high blood pressure, and cholestrol leading to heart disease, risk of stroke, and so much more.

Plus, the work mentality in the US leaves much to be desired as well. People work all the time. While I am not one to knock the hard working, it can also become too much and take over someone’s life. Too much work leads to more bad habits like smoking, too much caffeine, and of course too much stress. This also does not lead to anything good.

In the end, the lesson learned here is that too much of anything — good or bad — can not end well. Moderation is the key to living a healthy and longer life. Don’t always assume the grass is greener on the other side until you have had a chance to see it for yourself. More often than not, you’ll find that you already had it great right where you started.

*** The President recently signed into a law, RA 10574, allowing foreigners to own up to 60 percent of voting stocks in rural banks. This is a laudible move and eclipses the previous ownership issue to a majority by Filipinos under the 60-40 rule that gave Filipinos the ruling share in owning lands and running companies in the country.

While some people are prone to worry that this is giving up too much control to foreigners in the country, I think this new move by the government will help foster development in the rural areas where it is badly needed. The new law will open the gates for foreign investors to come in and spur the development of agricultural lands where mostly rural banks are located. It will also hasten the access of rural banks to foreign capital which, up until this point, was only limited to 40 percent. Thus foreigners had no hand in managing and controlling countryside banks.

We have to remember the Philippines is still basically an agricultural country although industrialization is slowly creeping in, taking our lands for real estate development mainly due to a growing population. With this new provision, rural banks can become more sustainable and can, in turn, help provide continuous development to the countryside. Something that I feel is sorely overdue.

*** Another interesting piece of news I came across is the continued faster approval of newer and innovative drugs by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US. This gives hope to the gravely ill as new targeted medicines are being approved quicker and can be routed quicker as well. Last year alone, the FDA approved 39 novel medicines, a high and healthy number, and the pace has only continued in 2013.

While still maintaining strict safety regulations, the FDA recognizes the need for these innovative drugs and is more open to doing what it can to safely get these into the market and to the patients as soon as possible. They even have a new program to accelerate the approval of life-saving medicines that are considered “breakthrough” studies, thus opening the door to quicker approval for medicines that have compelling clinical data. This ushers in a more open door policy of easy communication between the FDA and the pharmaceutical industry and works to the bonus of the patients who could truly benefit from these medications and therapies being approved.

I, for one, am happy with this news knowing that new targeted medications won’t take years and years to approve. As long as the clinical data is strong, there is the chance the therapies will be available to the public sooner rather than later. What we can look forward to this 2013 is a new therapy from Roche Holding AG which is a new drug directly aimed at breast cancer cells while Johnson & Johnson has come up with a new class of diabetes drugs.

With the mortality rate of many diseases continuing to go up, its good to know that science and doctors are working just as hard to find healthy and sustainable ways to combat deadly diseases.