The Living Christmas Tree

The living Christmas Tree is the living Cross of Christ.  It gives food, water, shelter, energy, the basic provisions of life.  Above all, it is a great expression of love this Christmas Season.
 Dr Abe V Rotor 
Living with Nature School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan.sa Himpapawid (School on Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 KHz AM 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday

Don't cut trees for Christmas, don't!
 
Plant trees instead and build beautiful memories with the family as the trees grow Christmas after Christmas.  In the process they become living Christmas Trees the year round, and year in and out. For Christmas is not just for one occasion where a tree top is decorated and thrown away after. Millions of trees are sacrificed every Christmas this way.  .

Pine treetops for sale

This contributes to loss of vegetation, which in turn results in soil erosion and siltation, flooding and largely to global warming.

Loss of trees decreases oxygen in the air, since trees absorb carbon dioxide and give off oxygen.  They are the earth's primary lungs.  And they contribute to favorable micro climates in their domain. They catch the rain and store it as groundwater and spring.  They feed the streams and rivers and keep the ponds and lakes full, and the estuaries in good condition.

Just a single tree, we may say, does not mean anything - and it's Christmas.anyway and it comes once in a year   With millions, nay billions, celebrating Christmas, collective loss is unimaginable.

Tree planting  to save Mother Earth.

What can we do to have an instant living Christmas tree? You don't have to go far if there is a tree in your backyard on along the sidewalk.    

• You can have a potted tree seedling by the window with simple decor.  No lights.  Just some ribbon and colored cutouts.
• If the tree is large, decorate sparingly with a dozen lights, preferably LED.  Don't forget the traditional parol on its top, lighthouse effect of sort.
• If there's a tree house, the ambiance of Christmas should be focused there.  The tree itself may be sparingly decorated. 
• Shrubs and small trees are not exacting to decors.  Just don't over decorate.
• Plant a tree this Christmas can be made as a community campaign.  Decide the place of tree planting: a park, along the highway, on a watershed.  Celebrate Christmas on this occasion. Don't forget to take care of the trees thereafter.  
• Plant trees that are adapted in the area.  Conifers (pines) are temperate; get tropical species (e.g., narra)

Artificial Christmas trees (photo) are most convenient to have, but consider the cost and effect to health and environment. Recycled waste materials draws out artistic talent. This is fine, it reduces waste - or at least give a "second life", beauteous at that of materials otherwise thrown away. 

The most meaningful Christmas is one that addresses our time and effort in solving problems concerning the environment. The living Christmas Tree is the living Cross of Christ: it gives food, water, shelter, energy, the basic provisions of life, above all it is a great expression of love this Christmas Season. . 

Acknowledgement: Internet Photos

Riddles, riddles - join the wit and fun

Riddles, riddles - join the wit and fun  

What flower is white in the morning and pink in the afternoon?

Dr Abe V Rotor 

Living with Nature School on Blog

What flower is white in the morning and pink in the afternoon? From riddle and humor enthusiast and a good friend of the author, Dr Anselmo S Cabigan, former director, National Food Authority; and retired professor, St Paul University QC.  Photo taken at Angels' Hills Tagaytay

1. What is the brightest day of the week?
Sun-day

2. Who was the world's greatest thief?
Atlas, because he held up the whole world. (photo, Internet)

  3. What key plays tricks with anyone?
A monkey.

4. What makes men mean?
The letter A.

5. What is the widest rope in the world?
Europe.

6. What flares up when struck on the head?
A match.

7. What stands on one leg and has its heart in its head?
A cabbage.

8. What tune does everyone like?
Fortune.

9. What can you say, and merely by doing so, break?
Silence.

10. What did the judge say to the dentist?

Do you swear to pull the tooth, the whole tooth, and nothing but the tooth?
 
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Here is simple guide when answering riddles. You may fail to answer correctly, but don't fall into a trap. Because all of a sudden what is being asked in not a riddle - but plain fact, a common knowledge, or basic principle. Here is an example: Someone asked a college graduate in the midst of a riddle exchange session, "How is oxygen produced continuously outside the laboratory?" A long pause - then silence - the session broke into guesses. Answer: photosynthesis.
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11. What, put in front of pies, makes them dangerous?
The letter S. 

12. What did the bride think when she arrived at the church?
Aisle, Altar, Hymn (I'll alter him.)

 13. What animal disturbs you in bed at night?
A night-mare.

 14. What is the difference between a dressmaker and a nurse?
One cuts dresses, while the other dresses cuts.

 15. Why is the letter A like a flower?
Because the B follows it. 

16. What runs around the house that never moves an inch?
A fence.

 17. When did Adam and Eve stop playing games?
When they had lost their pair o' dice (paradise)

18. What carries hundreds of needles but never sews?
A porcupine. (photo, Internet)

19. Which dog will you find in a ring?
A boxer.
  
20. What is waste of time.
Telling a hair-raising story to a bald-headed man.

 21. What did the flour say to the water?
We'll be kneaded to make the dough. 

22. What part of a ship is strict?
The stern part. 

23. What time is it when the clock strikes thirteen?
It's time to repair it.

 24. What do you call father corn? Pop corn. Mother corn? Mais. Teacher corn? Mae(i)stra.

25. What is worse than seeing a worm in an apple?
Seeing only one-half of the worm. ~Answer to photo riddle: Balibago

Balibago (Hibiscus tiliaceus Linn), Family Malvaceae. Its flowers open pure white in the morning gradually turning into pink towards the end of the day, indeed a manifestation of God's mysterious ways.

ADD ON TO THIS LIST. HAVE A READY COMPILATION OF RIDDLES AND JOKES, AND BE A LIFE OF THE GROUP.

Compiled by AVRotor. Reference: The Armada Book of Jokes and Riddles; acknowledgment, Dr Anselmo S Cabigan, and Angels' Hills, Tagaytay.

Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People’s School-on-the-Air): 10th Year (2006 - 2015 Phase II) A Quest for Functional Literacy

Lessons in Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid are posted on avrotor.blogspot.com (Living with Nature), and simultaneously broadcast and read by the audience worldwide. Living with Nature won the best Blog for Nature and Environment (Bloggys 2015 Philippine Awards 2015)
 Ka Abe (right) and Ka Melly (2nd from left) with technical staff: Engr. Susan Ayson and Mr Rolly Bumatayo. Not in the photo is Mr Orly Lopez and DZRB Manager Allan Allanigue.

Features of PBH:

1. The program’s thrust is functional literary which augments formal learning and general knowledge, and enriches personal and community experience.

2. PBH deals with issues consistent with the attainment of Philippine development objectives and preservation of Filipino values.

3. The program upholds norms and rules in attaining progress, peace and unity, and development of self-respect and dignity. It aims to tap the inner source of strength, and core of community cooperation.

4. PBH creates environmental awareness, teaching ways to maintain environmental balance to all sectors of society, particularly among the masses.

5. The program uses a medium of instruction in Filipino and English (Taglish) and a level of comprehension that cuts through the audience profile – school children, farmers, workers, housewives, out-of-school youth, and professionals alike.

6. PBH follows the format of easy and light lecture-discussion, and an ambiance that encourages direct audience participation. The program covers onsite lessons, interviews, and special events.

7. Reviews are conducted regularly through self-administered tests. Participants send their comments and suggestions to Radyo ng Bayan through the Internet [avrotor.blogspot.com], e-mail, letters and other means.

8. The program pursues continuing research on current issues, and felt needs of listeners, tapping the expertise and resources of experts from various organizations and institutions.

9. PBH lessons are kept on file with PBS-DZRB. Copies in CD may be available at cost upon request to re-echo lessons for schools, organizations and similar purposes.

10. Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid is managed by PBS-DZRB, in cooperation with experts and volunteers from different disciplines. It has a tie up with outreach programs of schools, such as UST Graduate School, University of Perpetual Help, St. Paul University System. It works closely with government agencies (e.g. DOST, DA, SSS, LBP), and NGOs such as Agricultural Rural Development Foundation, and Spirulina Philippines. ~

Ecological Plague

Eco-Plague 
Dr Abe V Rotor 
Living with Nature School on Blog

Creeping Plague, painting in acrylic, AVR 2002

"There was once a town in the heart of America where all life seemed to live in harmony with its surroundings…Then a strange blight crept over the area and everything began to change …Mysterious maladies swept the flocks of chickens, the cattle and chicken sickened and died …There was a strange stillness… The Few birds seen anywhere were moribund, they trembled violently and could not fly. It is a spring without voices." - Rachel Carson, Silent Spring

Mourn not, every one is mourning,
And no one comes to your care;
Creeps the devil wind screaming
And falls silent the day after.

Lo! the land is blooming once again,
The sea calm, the birds singing;
Grows back the forest, the hills green,
Sans man, once all knowing. ~

Building Sandcastle

Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan.sa Himpapawid (School on Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 KHz AM 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday

Building sand castle, Morong Bataan

Building Sandcastle*

Building sandcastle, building life:

in sorrow, joy;
in despair, hope;
in weakness, strength;
in failure, success;
in pride, humility;
in chaos, order;
in lust, moderation;
in tempest, calm;
in war, peace;
in trial, resolve;
in cruelty, kindness
in doubt, faith;
in vagary, firmness
in hardship, patience;in evil, goodness;

Building sandcastle, building life. ~

*15 foundations of a good life. Make this article into a prayer for our growing children.

Are you living an austere life? A self-evaluation 25 items

Austerity is practiced where there is not much money, so that money is spent only on things that are necessary​.  It is a condition of ​living without ​unnecessary things; a ​practice, ​habit, or ​experience of living with limited resources.  Austerity is a necessary economic tool of survival - and recovery - during difficult times, often as a policy of government.  On the other hand, austerity is regarded as a virtue in the light of freeing oneself from the clutches of ostentatious and luxurious living.  

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan.sa Himpapawid (School on Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 KHz AM 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday

Austere living keeps families closer, bonding them into a clan, a collective way to enjoy life with the least amenities, devoid of ostentacious show of wealth.
Answer Yes to items you are presently practicing and/or those which you agree with.

1. You would rather buy things in bulk (paint, cooking oil, rice), or by the dozens (eggs, softdrinks) for ready supply at home, particularly these days when prices are increasing and supply is unpredictable.

2. You keep these tools and materials which you personally use now and then in various handiwork such as house repairs and gardening: a pair of pliers, hammer, set of screw driver, nails and screws, GI wires, electrical tester, and the like.

3. You would rather have your laundry and ironing once a week rather than daily or every other day, scheduling it usually on a weekend, thus saving precious water and electricity, and getting more helping hands from the family.

4. As a general policy of any state, the government should pursue a self sufficiency program in food, particularly staple (rice and corn) as the best way to insure food security, even if there is adequate supply in the world market.

5. In economics, austerity is when a national government reduces its spending in order to pay back creditors. Austerity is usually required when a government’s fiscal deficit spending is felt to be unsustainable. Austerity must cut down spending on development projects (countryside development funds from pork barrel), welfare and other social programs (subsidies and charitable expenditures).

7. The best way to save money is to set aside immediately a part of your salary, say 20 percent, and budget strictly the 80 percent. This is more effective than setting 20 percent after having budgeted and spent 80 percent of your salary.

8. You participate in the informal economy just like the farmer’s wife who goes to market to sell farm products and comes back with various household supplies. This is contemporary barter system. This is entrepreneurship on the grassroots.

9. Food supplementation reduces our dependence on conventional food, discovery of new food sources like seaweeds, wild food plants, as well as the discovery of new ways to prepare food comes at the heels of austere living. Hamburger from banana flower (puso), roasted rice for coffee or roasted corn, papait vegetable, sea cucumber, kuhol, the many uses of gabi, substitution of wheat flour with rice flour. Substitution of staple food with root crops (camote, cassava) to save on precious rice.

10. Postharvest losses reduces our supply, in fact to one-half, that by saving even only 10 percent of what is wasted, would be sufficient to fill up our annual deficit in rice and corn. Austerity is reducing our waste on all levels – production, post production, food preparation.

11. Austerity is the most practical weapon to fight obesity. It means avoidance of junk food, moderation in eating, and consumption of natural food. It is also favorable to health. Less kidney trouble, liver ailment, cardiac problem, high blood pressure. It means less hospital cases, cancer, ulcers, less alcohol consumption, etc. Austerity means natural beauty, good fit, good stride, and happy disposition.

12. There are more and more good schools in the provinces and chartered cities. We would rather send our children in these schools for practical reasons.

13. Grains would rather be used directly as food and lessen the amount of using them in producing animal protein by feeding the grains to poultry and animals. By doing this we maximize the value of food and make them available to ordinary people.

14. Israel as an emerging new state adopted an austerity program lasting for 10 years (1949-1959). When USSR collapsed, Cuba adopted an austerity policy (1991 onwards) to be able to survive as an “orphaned socialist” state. Austerity is aimed at attaining self-reliance at a time of crisis.

15. Private banks or institutions like IMP may require a country pursues an austerity policy if it wants to re-finance loans that are about to come due. The government may be asked to stop issuing subsidies or to otherwise reduce public spending. We call this as “IMF conditionalities.”

16. People’s power – the cry of the first EDSA Revolution – fizzled out because the newly acquired empowerment was not used put to proper use as evidenced by unsuccessful cooperative movement, agrarian reform which turned out to be confrontational between right of property and right of tillage, rampant and blatant graft and corruption in the government, declined productivity in agriculture and industry, spread of poverty.

17. Family planning refers to limiting the number as well as proper spacing of your children. If there is a sin of commission or omission, there is also a sin of neglect – and if that neglect is within the knowledge of the sinner, and the consequence is the ruin of the lives of those under his care as parent, atonement is almost unthinkable.

18. It is easier to meet our needs than our wants to most people although to many, affluence is pursue even before needs are met.

19. Youth today are torn between choices of white collar jobs and blue collar jobs. They are lured to easy education – diploma mill, and on the modern method of leaning on the computer which actually does not offer an “end course” that makes one a professional like a doctor, lawyer, agriculturist, and the like. Austerity calls for a re-definition of courses that are functional in nature and p[practical in application, and relevant to the changing times.

20. Limits to growth come like a moving vehicle suddenly running out of fuel, its tires worn-out and flat, engine conking out, while the road is getting rougher, narrower and steeper. Austerity is applying the brakes before all of these happen. It is anticipating the limits to growth, before it turns against you.

People for manpower turning overpopulation, unemployment
Industrial growth turning out pollution
Agriculture causing erosion, siltation; invading wildlife
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Austerity brings awareness, it gives us time to plan out, to review our goals.
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21. HiTech is expensive and it is the consumer who ultimately pays it. It is to the people the users of Hi Tech charge its cost. Austerity calls for a moderation in technology. Austerity and innovative technology are compatible. Innotech is people’s technology.

22. Modeling of successful projects such as coops (farmers multipurpose cops), agro-eco center (Cabiokid), Kabsaka (Sta. Barbara, Iloilo), mangrove farming, seaweed farming, Irrigators’ association, Dr. Parra of Iloilo – these must ride on Filipino trait of gaya-gaya. Gaya-gaya put to good use. Peer teaching and learning is effective among the masses, and should be complementary with formal education. Austerity opens a gateway to look into models we can adopt under our local conditions.

23. “Necessity is the mother of invention," so “crisis is the sphinx of survival.” (Story of the Sphinx.) What is it that walks on all fours in the morning, two at noon and three in the evening?”) Crisis is Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest. It rewards the strong, eliminates the weak, humbles the proud, deepens the soul, and elevates the spirit. - of those who can make it.” Crisis is the time to test man’s soul.” Soul is the ultimate of man’s capacity to survive. (Thesis of Victor Frankl – A Search for Meaning)

24. You practice the 8Rs in Waste Management: Reduce, Recycle, Refurbish, Renovate, Restore, Reserve, Revere (and Rotor – Rotate). These 8Rs are vital tools in living an austere life.

25. The more closely related supply and demand cycle in a given community, the more self-reliant the community is. This means that in that community, people produce what they consume; consumption motivates production and vice versa. This according to Dr. Anselmo Cabigan is a basic tenet of austerity, because the self-reliant community becomes less dependent on external factors and the vagaries of the larger environment.

When does Austerity come in? Wartime, recession and depression (US), epidemic, high inflation, queuing for food, disaster, embargo (N Korea), new settlements, pooor harvest, political turmoil, religious conflict, El Niño, cyclone (Burma), earthquake (China)~ ~ ~

All questions are answered with Yes. You may use these items as your ready guide and reference for the home, school, and community outreach program.

Colors of Global Warming

Colors of Global Warming 

"Take down from their pedestal the masterpieces of old;

let them be touched by others, too, to tread on a path untold." 

- avr

Paintings and Verse by Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature School on Blog

Global Warming

Coral Reef dying

Mutation

Bushfire

Global Warming

Coral Reef dyingMutation

Bushfire

The Four Horsemen of Apocalypse

Da Vinci, Amorsolo,

your art's too pure to be true,

faithful to a school, and lo!

Your clouded sky is blue.

 

Take down from their pedestal

the masterpieces of old;

let them be touched by others, too,

to tread on a path untold.

Turner, Dali and Van Gogh -

on their art glows a red sun,

and Picasso's paintings show

man's fateful end in his hand.

Make way for the bold and young,

To paint the Armageddon,

before the rainbow and sun

are no more and forever gone. ~

Paaralang Bayan.sa Himpapawid (School on Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio

738 KHz AM 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday