By: Lynne Brasileño

It has been almost three years since I last saw four of my closest friends. We’ve known each other from childhood – we grew up in the same town and attended the same science high school. Two of them are biochemists, one is a chemist, and the fourth is a molecular biologist and biotechnologist.

We all studied and worked after graduation for the same state university. Two were researchers and the other three of us were teachers. During our get-togethers, we would all talk about how much we wanted to help out in the development of the country, and how much we wanted to contribute to mentoring the next generation and to making the country a better and safer place to live in.

 

We all persevered, and still do, yet the path has not been easy. Due to the lack of funding and scholarships for science and technology in the Philippines, all my friends decided to immigrate to countries such as the United States and Japan for graduate and post-graduate studies. Due to financial difficulties and lack of opportunities in their respective fields, they all decided to leave – hopefully just for a while.

The country is one of the most vulnerable to climate change. We are constantly at risk of disasters and bombarded with challenges in public health and food security, so we need all the help we can get. Yet how will we manage given the continuing brain drain? How will we cope with climate change? These were all the questions that I had in mind. We do not lack human resources; we simply do not maximize what we have or give up our fellow citizens for lack of better options.

If you are wondering why I stayed or whether I was left behind, the answer is simple – I belong to a different field. Perhaps in my experience, the field of design and construction in the country is booming due to the effects of urbanization and industrialization. I wasn’t left behind; I stayed because I felt I had to. Therefore I am still teaching in the same university which they all left but will hopefully all come back to. I do not fully expect them though to fully uphold their promises; we all have families to take care of.

So today I find myself celebrating Earth Day with 350.org through the “March for Science”, with science being the same thing that allowed me to meet my lifetime friends as well as the thing that took them away. I am a social scientist, but I march for my loved ones and all the others separated from their loved ones due to lack of opportunities here. I march for science not only because I miss my friends; deep inside I hope that when our government stands up for science, no one needs to leave home to be a scientist anymore.