THERE WAS a time in the past when only the government could afford to put up large-scale databases, because at that time, it would require too much money to build it. To cut a long story short, that was during the time when the only way to build a database was to put up a large data center complete with big servers with huge storage capacities.
That is no longer the case now, because there is now an alternative to host these databases instead in the internet cloud where there the unlimited number of servers that could be used, with an equally unlimited number of storage spaces. Because of the low costs of cloud computing, it is also possible now to have an unlimited number of backup sites and disaster recovery sites.
Fast forward to today, it is now possible for any private company or non-government organization (NGO) to put up large-scale databases, either for profit or for non-profit purposes. In the case of for profit purposes, the private companies would need to raise revenues to keep their business going. In the case of non-profit purposes however, NGOs could always rely on donations just in case they could not raise enough revenues to keep their operations going.
I mentioned these options because I now believe that the only solution to the problem of sustaining databases for prosperity could be solved by enabling NGOs to own and operate these, instead of the government doing it.
For my part, I would be willing to lead the initiatives to put up privately owned databases that could survive generations, for purposes of posterity and national patrimony. Among these could be a database of the Filipino genome.
As of now, we do not have a database of Filipino DNA and because of that; we really do not know where our genetic stock has come from. Other than that, it is also difficult to establish citizenship, considering that we are determining citizenship by blood and not by place of birth.
DNA fingerprinting is not the only use of a DNA database. It also has numerous medical applications. For instance, we would already know what diseases we are prone to have, based on our DNA and those of our ancestors.
We would also know what preparations we need to have for our children and grandchildren, in order to protect them from probable sicknesses.
And by the way, DNA is not only for people, because we also need a DNA database of our native flora and fauna for purposes of food security and environmental protection, among other purposes. This might be gargantuan tasks, but we have to do it./PN
