after seeing the viral posts on social media about our governor and a doctor having a misunderstanding on tu-ob as a covid-19 therapy, and netizens participating in the squabble, i felt the urge to write about it.
criticizing someone for believing in tu-ob is like criticizing the millions of filipinos like my mother who pray and go to church. there is no scientific evidence that tu-ob will help with covid-19, but just like prayer and faith in God, it might help and there is no harm if done appropriately.
tu-ob is like the mangagaw tea that my mom let me drink when i had dengue. i drank it so my mom will feel less worried. and of course just like any tea, i think mangagaw has nutritional benefits. faith can boost our immune system. but unfortunately, if we don't understand what is faith, it can lead to conflicts. religious wars have killed hundreds of millions of people. i wrote a very long dissertation about faith 9 years ago for my imaginary followers. search "ian's knowledge bombs" on the web and click "why-we-call-it-faith" in the table of contents.
i'm like a cockroach with no purpose in society, so i hate to see a doctor and the governor having a spat because both of them has done a lot to serve society. they are both good people who share a common objective. the governor is a lawyer and i can never be a doctor or a lawyer because my IQ is just not good enough. i'm not an expert on anything but i enjoy writing for my 666 million imaginary followers. i've been writing about conflict resolution for 20 years so i thought i should share my "quack" or "pseudo" expertise on this topic (e.g. click "family-conflict-resolution" in the table of contents of my blog).
it's true that many people recovered from covid-19 after doing tu-ob, but millions of people also recovered even if they did not do tu-ob. it's possible for 10 covid-19 positives to drink their urine and recover. you can't say that drinking your urine can help you recover from covid-19. the question should be, how much will it improve the survival rate? this can only be answered through a very long, complicated, and super expensive process called clinical trials. but it's also scientifically proven that steam therapies such as humidifiers help relieve nasal congestion and helps asthmatics breath better. no one knows if it will kill the virus or not. as long as we emphasize washing hands, wearing masks and social distancing, there is no harm in encouraging people to do tu-ob. at the very least, faith can boost our immune system (placebo effect). and as you may have heard a thousand times, LAUGHTER is the best medicine so i'm injecting some humor in this article.
tu-ob is like placing a free bet in the casino. if someone gives you $100 to play in a casino, will you do it? the answer is it depends. if you have nothing else to do and you are not a billionaire, of course you should go to the casino. but if you earn $500 a day, maybe it's not worth your time. this is not uncommon. i used to earn $500 a day working as a software engineer in silicon valley. similarly, if you believe in tu-ob and have nothing else to do especially we are in lockdown, you should do it. if you are very young and healthy maybe it's not worth your time. if you don't have faith in tu-ob or you have stronger faith in other covid-19 therapies, you should do those other therapies and immune boosting regiments. prayer can boost our immune system but i'm sure it won't boost my mom's immune system if she prays to Allah in a muslim mosque because she is a catholic. but it should be ok for a leader to encourage prayer even if there is no scientific evidence of a God. a leader should also welcome and encourage opinions and criticism.
a strong society is where people can disagree and argue without taking things personally. one of the biggest obstacles for the philippines to someday become like taiwan, south korea, singapore or germany is our strong pakisama culture. ironically, the conflict between the governor and the doctor is a symptom of our pakisama culture. i wrote a thesis about this when i took my phd in OIU (Oxford Imaginary University). search "pakisama" in the table of contents of my blog to learn more. everything should be in moderation so i have to warn you that pakisama is a double edged sword. zero pakisama could also result in a very chaotic society like syria. but pakisama culture helped cebu remain peaceful and united during the political unrest of the marcos era because the power elites of cebu were members of cebu country club and families belonging to rival political camps would take group selfies and promised to help each other in case any of them ever becomes a political prisoner. they would then post it on facebook and tag each other so marcos will be afraid to order the arrest because it might alienate his powerful loyalists in the region. there was no facebook or internet during the marcos era so this proves you should never believe anything i say. hehehe (i'm making myself laugh to boost my immune system).
also nobody is perfect and even the greatest humans in history have room for improvement and criticism. even an uneducated fisherman can be as wise as a doctor and a lawyer. my dad is a very smart and honorable person yet he smokes even if he knows it can cause cancer. since humans existed, i've been teaching you to control your impulses with reason. after taking you from hunting and gathering to the height of the roman empire, i stepped back and gave you free will, to see how you do on your own. you gave me the dark ages for 5 centuries. and so finally i decided i should come back in. i thought that maybe i just needed to do a better job teaching you how to ride a bike before taking the training wheels off again. so i gave you the renaissance, enlightenment and scientific revolution. for 6 hundred years i taught you to control your impulses with reason. then in 1910 i gave you free will again. within 50 years you brought me world war 1, the depression, fascism, the holocaust, and capped it off by bringing the entire planet to the brink of destruction in the cuban missile crisis. at that point i decided to step back in again before you do something that even i couldn't fix. so here i am yapping and ranting in facebook. mankind will be united overnight if everyone reads my blog (search "ian's knowledge bombs" on the web. ian is the irish version of my original name which is john. i was the one who baptized jesus. over the centuries my name became too mainstream so i decided to switch to a cooler version. during quiboloy's baptism i was confined in a mental hosptial so another member of the council took over the responsibility of baptizing quiboloy. this explains why although quiboloy was able to stop the earthquake he wasn't able to stop this pandemic).
the next article i will write will be entitled "unorthodox perspectives on the anti-terror law and the arrest of UP Cebu protesters" so stay tuned for more juicy stuff. most people have a hard time tolerating my opinions but maybe the arrest of the protesters is just a symptom of our culture where we easily get angry at other people's opinions and PERSPECTIVES instead of welcoming it, encouraging it, debating it or having a cordial discourse. freedom is not free. it is earned through sacrifice. our grandparents had to rush the german pillboxes in normandy and face the bullets and bombs of the japanese imperial army. all we have to do is make an effort to understand and learn from people whose brains are wired differently from ours. maybe start having regular public symposiums or town hall meetings where you invite people from all political spectrums and economic classes such as jeepney drivers and promote a cordial and respectful discourse. so if you are annoyed at me for firehosing my phony philosophizing and self interested crusade in your face by polluting this facebook group, think of what our grandparents had to go through in WWII and keep in mind that freedom of the press and freedom to protest resides in the same territory as welcoming and encouraging all kinds of opinions and perspectives.
(for more of my knowledge bombs, click the "ian's knowledge bombs" banner at the top of this article and choose any article in the table of contents that piques your interest)
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