I can guarantee you that when tourism was the main industry in Baguio, no one was poor or starving. Now that it’s diploma mill city, masses are unemployed and only school owners are rich, and Baguio has been suffering from the “jologism of the carinderias.”

It has been my assertion that garbage non-collection is deliberately timed for tourist season and to think Baguio is more populous when the 30,000-50,000 college students are here from out of town. Don’t tell me it’s JUST the tourists who bring the AH1N1 and besides, I did quote in the article that there are only 14 cases spanning the WHOLE Cordillera region, which is massive.

The rainy season always brings flu with it, we simply love to panic and make it a big deal. Because this disease is CURABLE. I would tend to agree with the Baguio oldtimer who once told me (cannot name him) “You know how it is… small town, small minds”

Too bad your school did not plan and assign you homework BEFORE classes were suspended. Other more progressive schools have websites where students can log on for assignments, too.

And I agree with your woes that this unplanned vacation will just put a strain on the students when classes resume.

Hiya Resty,

Then we can panic further and the DOH can ask for a bigger budget which it is doing now. What was the figure I heard, another 17 million or is this amount trivial?

Guys,

This whole thing would not be such a problem if folks would not allow themselves to be cooped up in such close quarters like overpopulated schools, crowded dormitories, tiny homes, would it? The point is, while we enjoy breathing everyone else’s carbon dioxide up close and personal, we also get their germs.

Anyways; I lieu of what is happening in Baguio, I was wondering why the city officials did not quarantine the whole Benguet. Since, basing from news about the AH1N1, most people who are infected with AH1N1 are lowlanders who came from abroad and when they had the time to go to Benguet, it also traveled with them. (Correct me if I’m wrong with this assumption and I am NOT implying that lowlanders are ’sakitin’). Reminds of one commercial in the radio saying: “Kung malakas ang Turismo, maraming trabaho!” makes me think how people failed to look at the disadvantages of Tourism like garbage (as depicted by the “Baguio garbage crisis”), contagious diseases (Like meninggo and the all popular AH1N1) and population (as seen here in Baguio in which, most people here are not really from Baguio).

That many!!! Wow, big business huh? And that number, I suppose does not include the academic and administrative staff, or the auxiliary services (canteens, supply shops, etc.).

Wouldn’t it be nice if SLU actually had a plant-a-tree program in school? Like removing some cement and having each student leave a tree behind so something of them remains within the complex for future generations to enjoy?

Hi JohnRae,

Good luck with your magazine (but honestly, I really cannot write when I am assigned to write) and I can maybe hook you up with some really terrific feature writers in Baguio City instead.