“New UP President Alfredo E. Pascual embodies leadership that UP Manila welcomes like a fresh wind of change in a critical time of our history. His battlecry for a great university translates from our slogan of UP as a research university that is globally competitive as much as it is nationally relevant.”
RALLY TO U.P. AND COUNTRY
New UP President Alfredo E. Pascual embodies leadership that UP Manila welcomes like a fresh wind of change in a critical time of our history. His battlecry for a great university translates from our slogan of UP as a research university that is globally competitive as much as it is nationally relevant.
The primacy of research in the academe comes from the need to advance the frontiers of knowledge so as to improve the quality of life of the seven billion human beings on planet earth today. The need to quickly improve the common lot of people in a global society cannot be ignored. While the rich enjoy their overflowing bounty, the poor majority still suffer silently in misery and hunger. We agree with the rest of right-thinking humankind that science and technology must be the engine of growth and hope for social amelioration. More research into the health, economic, and socio-political realms must result in a better life for all. While the surfeit of the developed countries is wasted in the evils of world dominion, the underdeveloped nations passively await their freedom from want in a progressively dark existence without subsistence. Such views on current world problems cannot help UP Manila, the Health Sciences Center in focusing on the sad plight of ninety million Filipinos today.
Advances in human knowledge have now come up with prediction of the ability of computers to expand and even surpass human knowledge. Information and computer technologies can potentially and geometrically evolve so that in less than half a century computer power will exceed human reasoning and logic. Past examples of such previously unheard of feats include computers beating the world chess champion in a game of logic, imagination, and inspiration.
Together with the rest of humanity, the Filipino eagerly awaits the promise of technology and science to deliver us from our socio-politico economic rut. How to eliminate avoidable diseases with unpleasant and unwanted outcomes remains a distant mirage in the horizon. UP has to answer to the Filipino let alone the world. If he remains unlettered and hungry with unmet basic needs, we at UP and its alumni must respond and care for them.
We must carry the vision and mission of UP to their logical ends – an improved human condition of the Filipino. Healthy competition in the world arena must not be feared. We can do no less than being our best. By God, we must prevail. No other choice remains now for UP and the Filipino for it will bring out the best in us. We must stop looking at ourselves as the sick man of Asia. UP, including the Health Sciences Center, must rally to the flag and country to become again a leader in the Far East. Let us not forget what Rizal and our other great heroes died for – a proud nation with a heritage of boldness and sacrifice.
