Crisis in Cebu

Yesterday, on the Drudge Report, in red and on top of the page it says : 100,000 may have died in Myanmar (Burma) cyclone.
While a Cebu paper carried the headline : A TEAM from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Computer Crimes Division will be in Cebu today in a mission to identify who uploaded on Youtube.com. the video depicting the removal of a body spray canister from a patient’s rectum.
Notice the difference of the two headlines on what matters to some people?
I've heard of kids swallowing all kinds of stuff. But an adult with a canister up his rectum? Why? and who stuck it up there?
A month or so ago, this same paper reported about this Jan-jan, the guy from Cebu whose boyfriend (yes, boyfriend) stuck a perfume canister up his anus. When I read it, I didn't think it was funny. Constipation is not funny. At least, I don't think it is. So can you imagine a canister stuck up there? I don't care how small.
So Jan-jan went to the city hospital to have it removed. And it was removed. Not just removed but "happily removed." The medical team who did the procedure were clapping and laughing.
And what's a happy gathering without someone capturing the moment. The moment was frozen in time and was even uploaded on YouTube. (YouTube always gets you in trouble, like getting everyone addicted to Arnel Pineda). So the legal saga began when Jan-jan found out that his arse was up on Youtube. He sued the hospital for 6million Pesos! Also, there were talks of possible revocation of the teams licenses - for jeering. No, jeering is ok, just so you don't do it on Youtube.
I went to this hospital four years ago with my Australian friend because she runs a charitable foundation that helps this hospital. While there, I saw 2 cats lethargically walking and casually licking on dead bodies in one room then leisurely walk over to another room to visit the maternity patients. A 3rd cat too tired to walk but with moon eyes, was coiled and relaxing on the lower level of the medicine cart while a nurse in crisply ironed white uniform smilingly pushed it around. She must be a fresh graduate. I asked my friend, "Is this ok with the doctors here?" She looked at me funny. "With the few and overworked doctors we have, do you think 3 malnourished cats would bother them?"
As I was reading Jan-jan's story, I thought, maybe one of these "few" doctors did the procedure. But the newspaper said that there were as many as 14 medical personnel in the OR. Did these corrupt government officials hire more doctors since I was last there? I doubt it.
Because I only read bits and pieces of the whole story, I don't really know the whole truth. But here's my perspective on this news bit. Here in America, we have stores everywhere selling sex toys. I even passed by one the other day. The building looked like a church were it not for the sign that says it was not. So we can assume that there are people who "really" use these toys, or that nice building wouldn't be standing there. Anyone who has kids or has been around kids knows that anything could happen to any toy. It could malfunction or you could have a malfunctioning playmate. Imagine US taxpayer's ire and horror if Dallas Morning News carried the headline that the FBI are on the hunt for the techie who uploaded the video of some malfunctioning sex toy.

Please don't get me wrong. I understand that doctors should be held to the highest degree of accountability and that patients are due the utmost respect regardless of their ability to pay or lack thereof. Jan-jan should not be put through the public humiliation (he was already humiliated in private... and in private parts). But to go to an extreme measure of bringing in the NBI to Cebu? With the current rice crisis? Who pays for their food, hotel and transportation not to mention the bar tabs? I could just hear their drunken conversation discussing the days progress: "So, you got any leads as to who uploaded the video on YouTube?" "Naah, but I got the canister. I think I will post it on eBay."
You understand my frustration here? Mark Twain is right : If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed. If you read the newspaper you are misinformed.