#gian dapul

This is the speech which my cousin Gikoy....Gian (hmmm, takes a lot for me to get used to calling him that) gave at the European Speaking Union International Public Speaking Competition.  Indeed little Gikoy...ehem, Gian has grown up to be an incredible teenager.  Like my cousin Heda, Gian's elder sister, said, it seems that we adults can also learn a lot from our cousin who's a generation younger than us.

Gian "Gikoy" Dapul with Uncle Santi

I'll never forget that photo that showed Gikoy fitting his tiny little frame (I believe he was one or two years old then) into the travel bag that my sister brought into their house.  Now he's even taller than Uncle Santi, his dad.  Man, we are getting old.  Hahaha.  Anyway, here's the speech that wowed London and the rest of the world...

FISH MUCUS AND FOOT FUNGUS

by Gian Dapul

Champion of the ESU International Public Speaking Contest 2008

When I was in 6th grade, I hated Mathematics. You would have, too, ifyou had my teacher. He would drop huge workbooks on our tables and croak, "Thirty problems, fifty minutes." A lot of these problems seemed unsolvable, so we complained: "Sir, there are no answers to these!" But then he'd reply, "To every question there is an answer, toevery problem there is a solution." Although I'm only sixteen years old and an incoming 4th year highschool student, I know that my country has more problems than anyMathematics book. Strangely enough, the answers to some of our problems are fish mucus and foot fungus. These seemingly improbable items are products of what we call scientific research.

Research turns our guesses into real knowledge, serving as the sifting pan of our hypotheses. It challenges what we assume, because, as they say, if you only learn from what you ASS-UME, you make an "ass" out of"u" and "me".

In the early 1800s, someone warned that the streets of London would befilled with horse manure due to the uncontrolled use of horse-drawncarriages. Of course, that never happened. Combustion engines,products of research and invention, replaced horses, and the manure piled up in Parliament instead.

While on the subject, few people know that the most expensive coffee in the world is taken from the droppings of the Asian Palm Civet foundin the Philippines and Indonesia. The small mammal excretes the coffeeberries it eats, and forest trackers recycle the fruity feces to create what is known as Kopi Luwak in Indonesia or Kape Alamid in our country. Research has led to a synthetic process that simulates the droppings' exotic flavor and quality.

So, who's had coffee with their breakfast? Well, soon nobody will havehad coffee and breakfast if the looming global food crisis worsens.Are you all feeling fine? Well, nobody might be fine for long if somenew disease creeps up on us.

Health can be enhanced and life can be extended. The nudibranch, abeautiful, soft-bodied creature unfairly called a "sea slug" — a favorite among underwater photographers for its marvelous colors andshapes — has actually been used in tumor research. Samples of fish mucus have also displayed certain antibacterial properties.

And as the Home Shopping Network would say, "Wait! There's more."

Certain types of infectious fungi that coat some of your toes hereform beneficial relationships that support plant growth. TheInternational Rice Research Institute based in the Philippines continues to develop ways to improve rice growth and help alleviatethe current food crisis.

New challenges are coming, and they will always confront us. What weneed is an army of scientific researchers that will help find thesolutions in advance. I want to be part of that army that would crossthe new frontiers first.

If only we could make science fairs and contests as popular as thethriving "Pop Idol" franchise. Although I'm not sure if Simon Cowell's sardonic comments will sit well with my peers. But we need the same hard-hitting passion in research and invention.

To conduct research is to be innovative; avant-garde. Researchers arelike artists with test tubes and lab gowns instead of paintbrushes and smocks. When I graduate from the Philippine Science High School next year, I want to begin my "masterpiece" and apply for a university degree in Biochemistry.

But sometimes, I am discouraged by those who say that a researcherfrom a Third-World nation is like a Jesuit adhering to a vow ofpoverty, or worse, like a Benedictine monk observing the vow of chastity. It is indeed a challenge, but it's also another frontier tocross, for me and many young people like me.

We Filipinos are well known for their dedication to service, inforeign homes, hospitals and hotels. In the hotel, I found three Filipinos working there. I want to be one of the pioneers that will make the Philippines known for its excellence in scientific research,as part of the driving force that will expand our horizons towards tomorrow. And I intend as a 1 to have a lot of fun while doing it.