The post-pandemic museum in the Philippine context

@#In response to the global crisis brought about by the coronavirus pandemic, the Philippine government declared a countrywide State of Calamity, apart from imposing quarantines of different stringency across regions. As workplaces have been mandated to implement alternative arrangements, these major changes in turn have caused disruptions in, and called for adjustments to, business operations, with museums being among the affected. As museums are venues that store physical collections that call for physical presence and even the tactile involvement of audiences and visitors, their operations will have to be inevitably transformed post-pandemic, as are their visitors, whose mental health are likely to have been affected by the pandemic and resulting quarantine. Using the lens of crisis management, this paper analyzed the museums’ response to the changes brought about by the spread of disease and the resulting imposition of quarantine. Through a review of the responses of several Manila-based museums to the crisis, the paper assessed the readiness of the museums in creating appropriate and effective measures to manage decreased foot traffic and economic impact, among others. The paper asserts that various tactics were used as reactions, instead of proactive steps, to mitigate the effects of the pandemic to museums. The analyses are juxtaposed with degrowth initiatives, which may potentially address the economic issues arising from the pandemic. These initiatives may be of help in resolving the issue of collections management and curatorship, with a focus on the quality, rather than the quantity, of the museum’s collection and profits. Through postmodern and new museology theory, shifts from physical to virtual and other alternative modes of art experience are discussed as possible and effective solutions to this crisis. Overall, the paper aims to propose a revised model of operation that may be useful to museology in particular, and mental and planetary health in general.

You Only Live Once: Present and future orientations in the time of COVID-19 as related to economics

@#In this paper, we relate the concepts of “You Only Live Once,” delayed gratification, theories of persuasion as used in communication, and economics. We illustrate behavioral changes across generations and seek to explain these changes using a combined framework of communication, psychology, and economics. These concepts are then juxtaposed with the present COVID-19 crisis in terms of both health and economic implications. To provide a human face to the discussion, we describe our experiences as consumers, savers, and investors; demonstrating the application of these concepts to our own microeconomies. Philosophically speaking, a decision to do something in the present and a decision to defer something for the future are both acts of faith. We propose the use of theories of persuasion to demonstrate the risk in an overreliance on present orientation. We suggest diversification, not only in investment outlets, but also in temporal orientation, i.e., while people can and should enjoy the present, they should not do so by ignoring the future.

The post-pandemic museum in the Philippine context

@#In response to the global crisis brought about by the coronavirus pandemic, the Philippine government declared a countrywide State of Calamity, apart from imposing quarantines of different stringency across regions. As workplaces have been mandated to implement alternative arrangements, these major changes in turn have caused disruptions in, and called for adjustments to, business operations, with museums being among the affected. As museums are venues that store physical collections that call for physical presence and even the tactile involvement of audiences and visitors, their operations will have to be inevitably transformed postpandemic, as are their visitors, whose mental health is likely to have been affected by the pandemic and resulting quarantine. Using the lens of crisis management, this paper analyzed the museum sector's response to the changes brought about by the spread of disease and the resulting imposition of quarantine. Through a review of the responses of several Manila-based museums to the crisis, the paper assessed the readiness of the museums in creating appropriate and effective measures to manage decreased foot traffic and economic impact, among others. The paper asserts that various tactics were used as reactions, instead of proactive steps, to mitigate the effects of the pandemic to museums. The analyses are juxtaposed with degrowth initiatives, which may potentially address the economic issues arising from the pandemic. These initiatives may be of help in resolving the issue of collections management and curatorship, with a focus on the quality, rather than the quantity, of the museum's collection and profits. Through postmodern and new museology theory, shifts from physical to virtual and other alternative modes of art experience are discussed as possible and effective solutions to this crisis. Overall, the paper aims to propose a revised model of operation that may be useful to museology in particular, and mental and planetary health in general.

You Only Live Once: Present and future orientations in the time of COVID-19 as related to economics

@#In this paper, we relate the concepts of “You Only Live Once,” delayed gratification, theories of persuasion as used in communication, and economics. We illustrate behavioral changes across generations and seek to explain these changes using a combined framework of communication, psychology, and economics. These concepts are then juxtaposed with the present COVID-19 crisis in terms of both health and economic implications. To provide a human face to the discussion, we describe our experiences as consumers, savers, and investors, thus demonstrating the application of these concepts to our own microeconomies. Philosophically peaking, a decision to do something in the present and a decision to defer something for the future are both acts of faith. We propose the use of theories of persuasion to demonstrate the risk in an overreliance on present orientation. We suggest diversification, not only in investment outlets, but also in temporal orientation, i.e., while people can and should enjoy the present, they should not do so by ignoring the future.

Surface judgments, profound questions: A homosexual male's Phlebotomy experience

Background and Objectives@#Two of the authors, one heterosexual and one homosexual, both voluntarily donated blood to a well-known health institution in the Philippines. As they were filling out the paperwork, one of the authors' attention was called by one of the questions in the form: “Nakipagtalik ka na ba sa iyong kauri?,” which can be literally translated as “Have you had sex with your own kind?”. This erroneously phrased question was the sole question interrogated and problematized in the study.@*Methodology@#Reviews of Standpoint Theory and the methodology associated with it and, in effect, used in the study, formed part of the critique, divided into individual narrations and interpretations by each author. A third co-author, a hematologist, lent her insight on the logistics and issues of phlebotomy. Institutional ethnography was brought to bear on the narratives@*Results and Conclusion@#This three-author collaboration is presented as a claim that an interdisciplinary approach may open new vistas to a phenomenon that has long existed but been ignored. Reviews of Standpoint Theory and curriculum planning for health professionals are recommended.