Glasses

There are some among us whose problems with their vision become apparent very early in their lives. Fortunately, they are but a small percentage of the population. Nevertheless, those whose conditions were diagnosed and who had the means had glasses fashioned so that they could go about their lives normally.

Most of those who wear glasses early in their lives have really bad problems with their vision, otherwise these would not been diagnosed. Nature helps correct vision problems in childhood, and those who had problems but did not wear glasses would outgrow the complication, benefiting from the body’s correction of the vision problem.

However, many who start wearing glasses early in their lives would continue to wear these throughout their lives, as glasses were never designed to correct the underlying cause of the vision problem, but merely to correct the refractive error in our eyes. In fact, there are many who say that glasses are harmful to the eyes. Once one begins wearing glasses, one becomes prone to straining the eyes to overcompensate when the objects being viewed are nearer or farther than the distance that the glasses were fitted for.

There is contention that it would be wiser not to wear glasses at all, and the eyes would naturally turn toward normalcy.

The reason why more and more of us need glasses in these times is because while working, we need to look at things closely for extended periods of time, thus eventually causing our eyeballs to somehow physically deform according to the focus needed in the extended viewing.

Thus professions that need reading or looking at computer monitors for extended periods tend to need glasses after a time.

The suggestion for people in such jobs or vocations is for them to somehow break the pattern by stopping every once in a while and focus on farther objects, so that the eyes retain their flexibility.

Unfortunately for most of us, that option is not available, specially if we are engrossed in what we are doing. Therefore many would need glasses.

The use of glasses is certainly helpful, for then we could read easier. However, they remain harmful, for beyond or closer than the reading distance that glasses were fitted for, our eyes are forced to compensate for the discrepancy. And the longer we wear glasses in the same close work conditions, the more the eyes would be exposed to an abnormal situation, reinforcing the initial problem.

In modern and post-modern times, glasses and other vision correction items like contact lenses became common. What is however disregarded is that there are no studies that have established that glasses are not harmful. This is because glasses were being used way before the modern and post-modern practice of requiring products to be tested for their safety before these were made available to the public. So we continue to wear glasses, even though we could say with some certainty that these are more harmful than beneficial.

Vision problems in earlier more simpler times, or in simpler societies, are mostly associated with the aging process. Eyesight problems occur mostly when people get old. Yet not all old people would develop eyesight problems in these societies.

Sadly for most of humanity, we have forsaken that simplicity, and so more and more of us would wear corrective lenses. And once we begin doing so, would inflict progressive myopia upon our unlucky eyes.

I am no doctor, but I now write about glasses and vision problems. It is because I misplaced my glasses (perhaps another sign of aging), and am typing this while looking at a blurred computer screen. I leave it to my spelling and grammar checker to correct whatever errors I commit, beyond the usual convoluted nonsense that I normally churn out.

If errors survive after editing, I beg understanding from the reader.

 

For the nth time, peeved over fuel prices

The Philippines is continually in a fuel crisis.

The recent social and political disturbances in Northern Africa and around the Arabian Gulf has only made things worse. The situation has deteriorated not because there is a shortage of supply, or an increase in demand, as “economists” would sure to allude to. Prices have skyrocketed to its present levels because oil, from the producing countries to the distributors, say that petroleum prices should increase because of the troubles in Libya and the Gulf. Prices have risen because speculators in oil trading and in the global stock markets, like to take advantage of the troubles and make humongous profits. By feeding the illusion that indeed prices have to rise on account of the social and political troubles in Africa and the Gulf, the price of their stock would likewise rise.

When the stock prices plateau or peak, these speculators would divest themselves of these. After the troubles simmer down, stock prices would also fall to their more natural level, where the same speculators would buy them back, and hope for another crisis in a major oil-producing region to resume the cycle. As things go, because of the speculation, it is expected that fuel prices will continue rising, irrespective of supply and demand issues.

Come to think of it, oil trading is one of the few industries where profits are assured. When fuel prices do rise, whether artificially or for real, petroleum companies would simply pass on the increase to the consumers. For countries that subsidize petroleum products, government takes care of some of the cost. In any case, the oil companies do not lose. It has long been the suspicion of many that price adjustments in petroleum products have always been done to ensure bigger profits for these companies.

But the Philippine government, like most other governments in this environmentally-devastated planet, is hostage to the oil and energy industry. Our government is rather inutile dealing with the astuteness of oligarchic petroleum companies, whether it be during the time when the industry was regulated, or after it was de-regulated.

Government is ever afraid that a stand-off with the oil companies would result in a fuel and energy shortage.

The effects of a fuel shortage would be catastrophic to the economy, and before it happens, government will give in and allow the petroleum companies to have their way. In the Philippines, the industry is dominated by three companies, Petron, Shell andCaltex.

Fuel prices do have to be reduced, if consumer groups are to be believed, as petroleum products are overpriced by as much as P8 per liter. This claim is totally believable, since the big three in the Philippine fuel scene, Petron, Shell and Caltex, are perennially included in the top earners in the country. Where else do these earnings come from but from their sales of overpriced fuel?

True, being businesses, oil companies are expected to profit, but what these three are earning is just too much.

Since the industry has been deregulated, prices are supposedly dictated by market forces, but we have not seen any competition at all between the three. Rather, what we have seen is cooperation, a cartel, where they raise prices together. Pundits believe that they do it too early and too often. They even roll back prices at the same time. The same pundits say these rollbacks are again too little too late.

Some form of regulation is needed, since the effect of fuel prices is far ranging, reaching out to every other industry and enterprise. If needed, the oil deregulation law should be revised to ensure more reasonable fuel pricing. It seems too much to hope that Congress shall enact laws that will mitigate the people’s suffering, at least on the issue of fuel prices.

The penchant of the oil companies to maximize profits may be seen in the difference in pump prices in Baguio and La Union or Manila. Prices in Baguio are higher by as much as P10 than Manila. Logically, this is explained by the cost of transporting the product, that cost being passed on to consumers as the price difference. However, if we look at other franchises, it boggles the mind that oil companies charge us for product transport when others do not. Cocacola products, for instance, costs the same here and Manila wholesale, despite the reality that the products are also transported. Jollibee sells all its products all over the country at the same prices, even if these are also transported. Wholesale prices for many other products are mostly the same nationwide.

But fuel prices are different. The consumer has to pay more for the transport of fuel from the oil depots. The farther, the more expensive. Where is the logic in that? It simply means that at the disadvantage of Baguio consumers, the oil companies are earning as much as P10 additional for every liter. If that price difference is the cost of transportation, it boggles the mind that it costs that much to transport a liter from Poro Point to Baguio.

If only on this point government will act so that pump prices will be the same nationwide, it will be an incalculable reprieve for our crisis-ridden people.

 

 

Toothless

“May all your teeth fall out – except one, so you can have a toothache.” So goes a Jewish curse.

There is no doubt that there are people in this world who do not like me, and there is no doubt that they may have wished me misery one time or other. Perhaps one of them did curse me about my teeth.

My teeth are falling out.

Teeth falling out have long been associated with aging. In earlier times, members of our species whose teeth fall out were abandoned, for they could no longer eat. Our nomadic ancestors did not have second thoughts about this. The toothless aged may linger along, but eventually they shall be left behind as their strength fail.

With dogs and other animals, the falling out of the teeth is also considered one of the last signs of old age, the portent of the final doom of death.

Prior to developments in nutrition and health and dental care, people’s teeth fell out quite normally, some earlier than others. Tooth decay arising from hygienic shortcomings is arguably the foremost reason why teeth fall out.

It is not uncommon to see many of our old folks, then and now, specially those who did not have the means and opportunity for dental care and advice, with most of their teeth already lost, and the remaining ones discolored and already rotting. Those who eventually had the means and the courage to go to the dentist after they have lost their chompers may now be sporting dentures now, lucky them.

Efren “Bata” Reyes, billiards’ “the Magician,” is one of these. In fact, whenever he is playing competitively, he removes his dentures, believing that he is luckier without them. And he is now the richer for losing his teeth. Ironically, his poverty in his younger years was the reason he could not afford a dentist, and thus lost his teeth. The question that should be asked is: would Reyes be as successful a billiards player if he did not lose his teeth?

Most of my teeth were intact until I was in my thirties, a testament that indeed I took proper care of them, brushing my teeth in sufficient frequency. However, dentists did not have the privilege of peering into my mouth, and so nobody noticed that my teeth grew bizarrely, with two or three crowding each other out, so that it was truly impossible to clean the spaces in between.

Nowadays, it is perfectly possible to correct the peculiarity, what with braces and all, never mind that they cost a fortune. Even if a dentist would have seen the unusual formation of the teeth in my mouth and suggested braces, it would have been folly, for I certainly did not have the means for it.

And so when the uncleaned spaces between my teeth became the comfortable home of innumerable bacteria, the acid they secreted ate away at my teeth, eventually causing their decay. When they did, it was not unusual for me to have toothaches in several teeth all at once.

As things go, we rue toothaches and curse the suffering in so far as we feel it. When the ache goes away, we pass off the experience as a mere reminder of aging. And so visits to the dentist are forgotten.

After the decay set in, some of my teeth fell out. Others were merely chipped, with the roots still embedded in the gums, but the crown already joining its mates in the tooth afterlife.

I was not overly troubled even then, believing that my person is not diminished with my lack of teeth. I have not been overly concerned with appearances before, and having no teeth certainly did not make me any uglier than I already was.

Yet in fact lacking teeth did pose many problems for me. When I meet people for the first time, they tend to disregard me immediately when they notice that my gums are bare save for some surviving bits of calcium. Whatever I say after that initial shock is somehow not regarded as seriously as those coming from a mouth with a complete set of chewers. This was in itself a catastrophe for me, for I tend to believe that my ideas are as good as the next one’s. Even if I did articulate an idea with considered eloquence, the effect was somehow diminished because they know that the person speaking lacked teeth.

Also, when I talk to people, they often awkwardly glance away, refusing to look me in the eye (and thus gaze into my mouth). For many years now, I have been talking to people who would rather look at the ceiling, the floor, or the other  more interesting surroundings.

I was convinced to see a lady dentist partly because of these. She was good, and after looking at my mouth and the discerning the mysteries it contained, she informed me that more of my teeth will have to go so that dentures could be fashioned to fit. I agreed, and we scheduled the days when my teeth will join their friends in tooth heaven.

The first extraction went along just well, and I was beginning to have dreams of myself smiling in full.

However, when I went back to the dentist to have the second tooth extracted, she was not able to extract it at all. No matter what she did, she was unable to dislodge it, like it was somehow welded to my jawbone. She kept trying for more than an hour, eventually applying more anesthesia as needed.

Other patients were told to leave and come back the next day, as she tried and tried in vain to remove the stubborn tooth. Her husband, who got tired of waiting for her as they previously agreed, eventually came to her clinic and was conscripted to hold my head still as the dentist tried moving the tooth this way and that to loosen it.

After so long, the tooth broke, with its roots still solidly attached to whatever anatomy it was attached to. The dentist finally accepted defeat, and told me that I will have to come back another day so she could finish the job.

I was in anesthesia heaven when I went home, but as soon as the drug wore off, I felt like somebody methodically pummeled my jaw. Despite the many medications the dentist gave me, I felt like my face was swollen for days.

I never went back to a dentist again. The chipped tooth may already have fallen off naturally. Other teeth also fell off, some of which did with my assistance.

And so I continue to talk with people who try to avoid looking at me, or to people who do not believe me because I lack teeth.

So why do I write about teeth now? It is because I have toothaches in two of them.

Perhaps after the aches subside, I shall exorcise my dental demons and see a dentist. Perhaps.