Broca’s Brain

"They were apes only yesterday. Give them time. Once an ape--always an ape. No, it will be different...Come back here in an age or so and you shall see..." -- THE GODS, DISCUSSING THE EARTH, IN THE MOTION PICTURE VERSION OF H.G. WELLS' 'The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1936)'

By Alex P. Vidal

IF we think we are a gift to mankind because we possess extra-ordinary geniuses, would we allow our brains to be stored in formalin to retard spoilage and displayed in museum after we die?

Many of us today probably possess brains that are qualified to be preserved for purposes of research and benefit of science. 

Like Broca's brain.

In his book, Broca's Brain, reflections on the romance of science, the late astrophysicist Carl Sagan discussed the exploration of the universe; that is, it is about science. 

Sagan analyzed diverse topics--from a crystal of salt to the structure of the cosmos, myth and legend, birth and death, robots and climates, the exploration of the planets, the nature of intelligence, the search for life beyond the Earth.

"But, as I hope will emerge, these topics are connected because the world is connected, and also human beings perceive the world through similar sense organs and brains and experiences that may not reflect the external realities with absolute fidelity," explained Sagan. 

In all of our four-billion-year history of life in our planet, in all of our four-million-year history of the human family, Sagan said, "there is only one generation privileged to live through that unique transitional moment: that generation is ours."

MUSEUM OF MAN 

During his visit at Musee de l'Homme or Museum of Man in Paris in the 70's, Sagan saw a container from the shelf and examined it closely. The label read P. Broca. "In my hands was Broca's brain," quipped Sagan.

P. Broca was Paul Broca, a surgeon, a neurologist and an anthropologist, a major figure in the development of both medicine and anthropology in the mid-19th century.

Sagan said, Broca performed distinguished work on cancer pathology and the treatment of aneurysms, and made a landmark contribution to understanding the origin of aphasia--an impairment of the ability to articulate ideas.

Sagan described Broca as "a brilliant and compassionate man" who was concerned with medical care for the poor. 

"Under cover of darkness, at the risk of his own life, he successfully smuggled out of Paris in a horse-drawn cart 73 million francs, stuffed into carpetbags and hidden under potatoes, the treasury of the Assistance Publique which--he believed, at any rate--he was saving from pillage. He was the founder of modern brain surgery. He studied infant mortality. Toward the end of his career he was created a senator," Sagan disclosed.

Broca founded a society of "freethinkers" in 1848. Almost along among French servants of the time, narrated Sagan, "he was sympathetic to Charles Darwin's idea of evolution by natural selection."

GRATITUDE

T.H. Huxley, "Darwin's Bulldog," remarked that the mere mention of Broca's name filled him with a sense of gratitude, and Broca was quoted as saying, "I would rather be a transformed ape than a degenerate son of Adam." For these and other views he was publicly denounced for "materialism" and, like Socrates, for corrupting the young.

Broca died in 1880, perhaps of the very sort of aneurysm that he had studied so brilliantly, disclosed Sagan. 

At the moment of his death he was working on a comprehensive study of brain anatomy. He had established the first professional societies, schools of research, and scientific journals of modern anthropology in France. 

His laboratory specimens became incorporated into what for many years was called the Musee Broca. Later it merged to become a part of the Musee de l'Homme.

"It was Broca himself, whose brain I was cradling, who had established the macabre collection I had been contemplating," recalled Sagan. "He had studied embryos and apes, and people of all races, measuring like mad in an effort to understand the nature of human being. And despite the present appearance of the collection and my suspicions, he was not, at least by the standards of his time, more of a jingoist or a racist than most, and certainly not that cold, uncaring, dispassionate scientist, heedless of the human consequences of what he does. Broca very much cared."

Treñas may be ready to become president

“A noble leader answers not to the trumpet calls of self promotion, but to the hushed whispers of necessity.” 

—Mollie Mart

By Alex P. Vidal

THE true test of a good leader is shown by how he handles a big crisis, how he leads his people, how he absorbs their pain, how he finds a solution to shield them from imminent danger, and how far can he go to lift them from despondency.  

In the ongoing struggle of the Ilonggos in Iloilo City against SARS-CoV-2 or novel COVID-19, Mayor Geronimo “Jerry” Treñas has, so far, proven his leadership. 

From day one until it became apparent that the coronavirus problem would blossom into a grotesque bedlam, Treñas was in the front seat steering the wheel and marshaling the city hall’s forces and might to ensure that the residents of Iloilo City wouldn’t be neglected and forsaken.

And when he felt that the national government, in spite of the much-ballyhooed P275 billion emergency funds in the 2020 General Appropriations Act to be used to deal with the calamity, appeared to be dilly-dallying its assistance to the Ilonggos, he lit the candle instead of cursing the darkness.

Treñas appears to be more effective, credible, reliable and trusted compared to the national leadership in many aspects.

If he were the one handling the crisis on a national level, things would probably be different. 

There would be less politicking, less muckraking, less red tape, and people wouldn’t be complaining of discrimination in the distribution of goods and screaming unprintable at the national government.

With his impressive performance in handling the difficult situation,  Treñas can be ready to become our next president.

-o0o-

Let’s review what he has done. 

Most recently, the city mayor tapped three pandesal companies, the Uygongco Flour Mill, Carlos Uy Corporation, and Angelina Bakeshop, to produce the popular bread so no one would go hungry while the city is under an enhanced community quarantine.

He hailed the three home-grown companies for their “sense of bayanihan.” 

The city promised to deliver around 43,000 pieces of “Ilonggo pandesal” to the residents of Iloilo City daily.

Treñas had earlier imposed a preventive enhanced community quarantine, established a community kitchens around the city to feed the constituents of each barangay, and made a plea for mass testing in Iloilo now being backed with financial support from rich local traders.   

Without waiting for help from the national government, Treñas established Iloilo City College as a temporary dorm for health care workers and other health workers helping curb the spread of COVID-19. He made sure that shuttle services were made available to the Ilonggo frontliners to transport them to their work places. 

Treñas also earned praises from various sectors when he helped amend the existing “anti-discrimination ordinance” to include a provision that forbids businesses from ostracizing individuals due to their jobs with the help of the city council led by Vice Mayor Jeffrey Ganzon.

-o0o-

On March 20, Treñas imposed an enhanced community quarantine in Iloilo City through Executive Order 55-2020 as a preventive measure against the spread of the virus that has killed more than a million people around the world.

While there were chaos and confusion in other provinces and cities around the country, Treñas made these other accomplishments:

—collaboration with Iloilo Gov. Arthur “Toto” Defensor Jr. in calling on Cebu Pacific Airlines to suspend its direct flights from the Iloilo International Airport to Hong Kong, and vice versa, when the pandemic was killing more people in Wuhan and fast spreading China.

—tapping the scientists and medical professionals from the University of the Philippines Visayas alumni community to establish a local test center at the West Visayas Medical Center (WVMC) in Mandurriao district accredited by the Department of Health (DoH) which

Allotted 5,000 test kits together with The Research Institute for Tropical Medicine.

—receiving P15 million worth of donations in kind, from sacks of rice to canned goods and other food packs, all of which have been funneled to the city’s community kitchens and barangays for distribution. 

He may be doing more to help the Ilonggos even if the national government has extended the lockdown until April 30.  

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

Did God ‘punish’ Elmhurst?

“Every blessing ignored becomes a curse.”

—Paulo Coelho

By Alex P. Vidal

“DO you know why there were so many New Yorkers killed recently by coronavirus in Elmhurst?”

Thus was the opening remark made by Robert Aguirre, a 58-year-old devotee of Saint Sebastian Roman Catholic Church, a Roman Catholic parish church located at Woodside, Queens, New York City, when he called me up April 4 evening.

“In the last novena I attended a week before the lockdown, the priest had warned and lamented that Elmhurst has the most number of abortion clinics in New York City,” narrated Aguirre, a former Kodak assistant manager who came to the Big Apple from California in 1997.   

“When Mayor (Bill) de Blasio and Gov. (Andrew) Cuomo legalized abortion in New York City seven years ago, those who clapped their hands in support of the legalization were women from Elmhurst.”

ROBERT AGUIRRE

Aguirre said he wouldn’t anymore elaborate if Elmhurst, which became the epicenter of novel COVID-19 cases in New York, “was being punished or not.”

The people are intelligent and they understand what the priest was trying to convey.

Quoting the priest he didn’t identify, Aguirre considers Elmhurst as “notorious” in terms of abortions cases. 

There have been so many instances where the church led the holding of prayer rallies outside the abortion clinics mostly in Elmhurst.

-o0o-

“When I learned that abortion in New York City had been legalized, I immediately called tita Loida (Nicolas-Lewis) and she was so outraged saying what’s happening was already a work of the devil.”  

Three years before the Supreme Court decided the Roe vs Wade, abortion was legalized in the state of New York in 1970.

Aguirre could be referring to the Reproductive Health Act, a New York statute which was enacted on January 22, 2019 that expanded abortion rights and eliminated several restrictions on abortion in the state. The law received national media attention.

Considered a crime in most other states, abortion became a crime in New York with major exceptions. 

Still regulated in the criminal code, it is reportedly a crime in New York if an abortion is performed after a woman is 24 weeks pregnant, unless the mother’s life is in immediate jeopardy. 

She would have to go elsewhere to have an abortion even though the

the baby in her womb would not be able to live outside of it.

-o0o-

There had been attempts from politicians for nearly a decade to pass a law called the Reproductive Health Act, which would remove abortion from New York’s criminal code and codify the protections of Roe v. Wade, which affirms a woman’s right to an abortion, with limits, in state law. 

The R.H.A. had been approved multiple times by the Democrat-controlled state assembly, but it had never passed the state senate, which was controlled by Republicans.

In 1970, when New York first legalized abortion, it was one of only four states where the practice was legal. New York’s law was the most liberal of the four, as it had no residency requirement. 

It was learned that roughly three hundred and fifty thousand out-of-state abortion patients came to New York between July of 1970 and January of 1973.

In the first two years after the state law passed, sixty per cent of women who had abortions in New York came from out of state, it was learned further.

-o0o-

Dr. Ben McVane, an emergency medicine doctor at Elmhurst Hospital Center, said New York City’s public hospital system serves more than a million New Yorkers each year, regardless of their ability to pay. 

“Beyond the undocumented and uninsured, Elmhurst Hospital serves other vulnerable populations neglected by the private medical system: prisoners, the homeless, the drug-addicted and the mentally ill, McVane said. “Public hospitals are where the police bring those too mentally ill and violent for the shelter system, where desperate families bring demented older relatives whom they can no longer properly care for.”

He admitted that the Elmhurst neighborhood has been called the “epicenter of the epicenter” of coronavirus infections in the United States. 

McVane said: “While our hospital staff and the broader medical community scramble to bolster our resources and respond to the pandemic, we should pause to consider why it has so heavily hit Elmhurst, and Queens at large.”

The people living around Elmhurst Hospital, he said, are both vulnerable and neglected: largely immigrants, poor, uninsured and dependent on a public hospital system that is already overstretched and underfunded. Elmhurst, Jackson Heights and Corona are the neighborhoods with the highest percentage of foreign-born residents in New York City, coming from seemingly every corner of the world.

“Over the past seven years I have developed a deep affection for Elmhurst and its surrounding neighborhoods. It pains me to watch this community decimated by Covid-19,” disclosed the doctor.

McVane said Queens represents what the world imagines New York City to be, a cultural melting pot where grit and ambition can still get you ahead. Walking to work I pass women selling tamales from grocery carts, the smell of strong Colombian coffee, the sounds of bachata and bhangra music emanating from storefronts.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

Coronavirus kills Fil-Am basketball star

“Thousands and thousands are dying due to coronavirus and yet when this thing is over the humanity will declare a victory! What victory? Fools! There is no victory for the dead people! And when it comes to the living people, everyone should have a deep sadness in their soul, not a brag of victory!” 

―Mehmet Murat ildan

By Alex P. Vidal

A POPULAR basketball player in the Fil-Am Basketball League in Queens could be the first casualty of the novel COVID-19 in the Filipino community in the borough of Queens in New York City.

Robert Aguirre, a former team manager, described the victim only as “Jeffrey.”

He was one of the most outstanding in their team that won the back-to-back title in 2006 and 2007, Aguirre told this writer in an exclusive talk April 4.

Aguirre said he could not yet reveal Jeffrey’s real identity without the approval of the cager’s family.

“Once Jeffrey’s name is revealed, the family members are afraid that authorities will subject all of them to a coronavirus test and if this will spread in the community, they will be avoided and even discriminated. Bal-an mo man ang mentality sang iban nga mga Pinoy,” Aguirre, who hails from Victorias City, Negros Occidental, explained.

Aguirre said Jeffrey was one the original cagers who joined the team in their series of games played in other states and in Canada in 2007.

He added that Jeffrey had passed the league’s strict scrutiny of legitimate Fil-Am players during the recruitment stage.

Their team was financially backed by the owner of the Johnny’s Air, Aguirre said.

The basketball player was between 40 to 55 years old when he died about two weeks before New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo imposed a “stay at home” or lockdown order, Aguirre said.

-o0o-

As of the cases of other Filipinos who reportedly died of coronavirus, Aguirre, popular in the Roosevelt Avenue, said he was “never informed” because even the  Philippine Consulate on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan could not give the correct details.

“How can they give us the correct information when the Consulate had been closed even before the lockdown order,” Aguirre bewailed.

Aside from Jeffrey, four other Fil-Ams reportedly died of COVID-19 in New York City and New Jersey. No names were available as of this writing.

He surmised that Jeffrey was never given a normal funeral rites.

“I have been a health worker for 18 years here in New York and I know that once somebody dies and the death is related to a communicable disease like the coronavirus, the dead body is immediately wrapped and cremated,” Aguirre added.

The former basketball manager said he learned that other coronavirus victims “never had a chance to talk or say goodbye to their loved ones” because they weren’t brought to the morgue of any hospital as what normally happened.

“There’s no formal ceremony unlike what we do to our dead in the Philippines as a Christian country,” Aguirre said.

With more than 8,000 death, confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United States, meanwhile, surpassed 300,000 on April 4.

The updated total came as the country’s top infectious disease expert, Anthony S. Fauci, reiterated that the risk of a coronavirus resurgence is real.

President Trump, on the other hand, said that although he can’t commit to having fans back in stadiums at a specific date, he pushed for sports to return as soon as possible.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

How can I ‘stay at home’ if I will be homeless?

“Was I always going to be here? No I was not. I was going to be homeless at one time, a taxi driver, truck driver, or any kind of job that would get me a crust of bread. You never know what's going to happen.”

—Morgan Freeman

By Alex P. Vidal

ANOTHER 30 days, huh.

President Trump has ordered us to prolong our “social distancing” until end of April.

This means we will extend our “stay at home” sacrifice in compliance with the universal guidelines and call for cooperation to help halt the spread of coronavirus and save more lives.

This means no work for another 30 days.

No work for ordinary “isang kahig, isang tuka” (one strike, one meal) workers like me means no livelihood. 

No livelihood means no income.

No income in the United States means no grocery and no cash to pay our staggering bills, including payment for our most precious and important “hideout” during the Armageddon: apartment.

Due to the severity of the situation, “stay at home” has gained currency as a dyed-in-the-wool slogan and tossed as the benchmark to assuage our fears, confusion and outrage as the coronavirus decimates a large portion of our population at a mind-blowing pace these past weeks.

-o0o-

After April 30, what if the virus refuses to throw in the sponge and authorities will be forced to make a perpetual social distancing order this time to save all the inhabitants in the planet?

Whoa.

How can we “stay at home” now if we have no more homes? If we lose our homes after our landlords/landladies have kicked us out for non-payment of arrears?   

People normally think those living in America, or workers in the ”Land of of Milk and Honey” siphon moolah in the trees, thus they can be exempted from a veritable global economic meltdown as a result of any harrowing pandemic. 

Nothing could be further from the truth.

COVID-19 has drastically changed our lives—rich or poor.

There’s nobody to blame, of course, but the wicked coronavirus why people all over the globe now cringe in disbelief and confusion, why there’s a sudden adrenalin rush as the world breaches the one million mark of infected cases and grapples to understand the difference between existentialism and romanticism now that our mortality is in the emergency room.

This development came as President Trump dangled last week the possibility of reopening the U.S. economy by Easter. 

Now he has changed his mind. At a White House Rose Garden briefing, Trump extended the current guidelines on social distancing until April 30, keeping the United States in line with measures taken by other nations gripped by the coronavirus pandemic to keep their populations at home. 

-o0o-

The United States has the highest number of coronavirus cases worldwide at 239, 630 (as of April 2), according to Johns Hopkins University.

How high will the death toll be? A senior member of Trump’s coronavirus task force, Anthony Fauci, said the outbreak could cause 100,000 to 200,000 deaths in the United States alone before qualifying his estimate, “I just don’t think that we really need to make a projection, when it’s such a moving target that you can so easily be wrong and mislead people.”

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

How can I ‘stay at home’ if I will be homeless?

“Was I always going to be here? No I was not. I was going to be homeless at one time, a taxi driver, truck driver, or any kind of job that would get me a crust of bread. You never know what's going to happen.”

—Morgan Freeman

By Alex P. Vidal

ANOTHER 30 days, huh.

President Trump has ordered us to prolong our “social distancing” until end of April.

This means we will extend our “stay at home” sacrifice in compliance with the universal guidelines and call for cooperation to help halt the spread of coronavirus and save more lives.

This means no work for another 30 days.

No work for ordinary “isang kahig, isang tuka” (one strike, one meal) workers like me means no livelihood. 

No livelihood means no income.

No income in the United States means no grocery and no cash to pay our staggering bills, including payment for our most precious and important “hideout” during the Armageddon: apartment. 

Due to the severity of the situation, “stay at home” has gained currency as a dyed-in-the-wool slogan and tossed as the benchmark to assuage our fears, confusion and outrage as the coronavirus decimates a large portion of our population at a mind-blowing pace these past weeks.

-o0o-

After April 30, what if the virus refuses to throw in the sponge and authorities will be forced to make a perpetual social distancing order this time to save all the inhabitants in the planet?

Whoa.

How can we “stay at home” now if we have no more homes? If we lose our homes after our landlords/landladies have kicked us out for non-payment of arrears?   

People normally think those living in America, or workers in the ”Land of of Milk and Honey” siphon moolah in the trees, thus they can be exempted from a veritable global economic meltdown as a result of any harrowing pandemic. 

Nothing could be further from the truth.

COVID-19 has drastically changed our lives—rich or poor.

There’s nobody to blame, of course, but the wicked coronavirus why people all over the globe now cringe in disbelief and confusion, why there’s a sudden adrenalin rush as the world breaches the one million mark of infected cases and grapples to understand the difference between existentialism and romanticism now that our mortality is in the emergency room.

This development came as President Trump dangled last week the possibility of reopening the U.S. economy by Easter. 

Now he has changed his mind. At a White House Rose Garden briefing, Trump extended the current guidelines on social distancing until April 30, keeping the United States in line with measures taken by other nations gripped by the coronavirus pandemic to keep their populations at home. 

-o0o-

The United States has the highest number of coronavirus cases worldwide at 239, 630 (as of April 2), according to Johns Hopkins University.

How high will the death toll be? A senior member of Trump’s coronavirus task force, Anthony Fauci, said the outbreak could cause 100,000 to 200,000 deaths in the United States alone before qualifying his estimate, “I just don’t think that we really need to make a projection, when it’s such a moving target that you can so easily be wrong and mislead people.”

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

Death of doc in Aguirre twins operation mourned

“Irrespective of age, we mourn for those loved and lost. Mourning is one of the deepest expressions of pure love.”

—Russell M. Nelson

By Alex P. Vidal

THE Aguirre craniopagus conjoined twins—Clarence and Carl—of Silay, Negros Occidental wouldn’t have been separated if not for famed Dr. James T. Goodrich, a Bronx-based neurosurgeon who has died after being diagnosed with coronavirus.

The twins, now 18 years old, were accompanied by their mother, Arlene, when they left the Philippines in 2003.

After the successful operation, Clarence and Carl were brought to the Blythedale Children’s Hospital in Valhalla, New York for their post-operation rehabilitation.

They now live in a donated house in Westchester County’s town of Scarsdale, 25 miles away from the borough of Manhattan.

Craniopagus is conjoined twins fused in the cranium. There are 10 to 20 babies in one million in the United States with a case of craniopagus, it learned.

-o0o-

Goodrich, 73, best remembered for performing a 17-hour operation of the Aguirre twins together with 16 other doctors at the Montefiore Medical Center in Bronx, New York City in August 2004, succumbed March 30 after suffering complications due to COVID-19.

New Yorkers mourned Goodrich’s death, who was described as a “Renaissance doctor” by his colleagues from the Rockland Country Board of Health.

He joined other celebrities and famous Americans in the list of coronavirus-related casualties. Others were: playwright Terrence McNally, actor Mark Blum, chef Floyd Cardoz, “Star Wars” star Andrew Jack, actor Joe Diffie, musician Allan Merril, and singer Adam Schlesinger.

The success of Goodrich’s operation of the Aguirre twins became a worldwide sensation in 2004 and it competed with big events in that year in the Philippines.

-o0o-

These events were: the 2004 Athens Olympics on August 13-29 where the Philippines suffered a dismal 0-0-0 medal drought; the violent onslaught of typhoons Unding, Violeta, Winnie, and Yoyong from Nov. 14-Dec. 4 where 1,060 Filipinos died; and the Indian Ocean tsunami on December 26 where 227,898 people were killed.

Goodrich also hogged the limelight when he operated for 27 hours another craniopagus conjoined twins, 13 months old Anias and Jason McDonald, in 2016 where he was assisted by 40 doctors in the same Bronx hospital.

Death rose to 4,500 in New York State with more than 200,000 cases. Of the 911 Americans who died Tuesday, 391 were from New York City, which has 83,712 cases and 1,942 deaths.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)