Wildlife Friendly

Dr Abe V Rotor

Author's wife Cecille and daughter Anna at Safari World, Bangkok, Thailand c. 2010

They come not just for food but company;

love birds by their name a great story;

would humans too, care more than need,

but need for care, love and dignity?    

Author's son Leo poses with a Philippine eagle and barn owl at Avilon Zoo, 
Montalban, Rizal c 2010

Owl and eagle in one abode, and in between, man;

Wonder if Nature made it this way in man's desire;

Whence banished, other creatures followed him,

If so, I believe man took Paradise in his exile.   

Anna with a baby orangutan at Safari World, Bangkok, Thailand c 2010

How many genes apart are we from the primates?

Ask Crick and Watson the pioneers of the DNA;

Edward Wilson in this theory of socio-biology,

Didn't Aesop favor the lowly over his risen brother?

Genes after all unite the whole world together.  

Author and daughter Anna with a giraffe at Safari World, Bangkok, Thailand

Giraffe - what a queer name, queerer are your looks;

though looking dumb, children say you're cute;

you rule the savannah by your towering height, 

save your voice, for you're completely mute. 

Anna by a baby elephant at Safari World, Bangkok, Thailand

You're a baby even if I can't carry you like a doll?
If you are big now, how big will you be?
Remain a baby then while your mother is in the wild
to us humans you're a cute little baby. 

Author's son Marlo with a bato-bato (wild pegion), Tikob Lake, Quezon C.1990

You can not be free if man is your master,
even if he feeds you and shelters you, 
for you belong to a a flock and the sky.
Be a friend then to a young heart,
fill it with joy and link 
your world with his own.

Rice Terraces Mural at the Grains Museum

Of the Eight Wonders of the Ancient World, only the Banaue Rice Terraces and the Pyramids of Egypt exist today. 

Mural by Dr Abe V Rotor 

Ifugao Rice Terraces wall mural (10ft x 11ft) in acrylic at the Grains Museum of the
National Food Authority, NFA Regional Office Building, Cabanatuan City, AVRotor 2017

Artist Dr AV Rotor poses with museum curator Ms Josephine C Bacungan (3rd and 4th), and members of the Rotor family: Leo Carlo, Ms Cecille Rotor, Dr Charisse and Marlo Rotor.

  

 
Details: Top, clockwise: native huts and mandala (haystacks), precipice typical in the Cordillera region, destruction of the watershed atop the rice terraces by logging and burning; garden like scene on the terraces, a wildlife sanctuary.

The Banaue Rice Terraces - among five clusters of rice terraces in Ifugao in the Cordillera Region, made it to become the 7th or 8th Wonder of the Ancient World.  Today only the Banaue Rice Terraces and the Pyramids of Egypt have survived. 

To Filipinos it is a monument of pride as a race, a living proof of indigenous ingenuity, and a legacy of pre-Hispanic culture. Which leads scholars to re-define  civilization and to put it in proper perspective, other than what the Western World thinks. 

The terraces are a stairway to heaven, piercing through the cloud, taller than the pyramids, the Tower of Babel, the Eiffel Tower - tallest of all man- made structures - built by bare hands with the crudest tools as early as three or two thousand years ago.  

A collective masterpiece of tribes working in cooperation and peace, a  prototype nation where people were governed by common aspirations, beliefs, language, customs, isolated from the outside world like the Aztecs and Mayans. 

Agro-ecology - a modern term to describe harmony of agriculture and ecology -farming and environment - was born incognito and thrived for centuries, until modern man arrived, studied the "secrets of the rice terraces" and proclaimed himself the  discoverer. 

What does he know about the Hudhud, the narrative chants and dance and worship at planting time, harvest time, and other rituals? Would this mean anything to increased production, return of investment, research and development?  

Believe in cloud seeding the natural way, when clouds collect atop the rice terraces, and condense into rain, gathered at the forest watershed, then slowly released terrace after terrace irrigating the rice plant crop, in precise amount and timetable. 

Wonder how the rice varieties of the terraces were developed - varieties jibed with the habagat and amihan, and social life. It was a grave error in introducing 90-day varieties to have two harvests in a year instead of only one, which needed high input and mechanization.    

Modernizing agriculture on the rice terraces by introducing chemical fertilizers, chemical pesticides, use of tractors and other machines, changed the indigenous cycle of the rice plant, so with the socio-economic and cultural lives of the people.

Floating vegetable culture (heap of organic soil) on the terraces, a version of Mexico's floating garden, and India's Sorjan, is no longer feasible with modern agriculture.  So with fish culture, the source of food and protein of the inhabitants. The whole food chain and web has been disturbed.

Where is the new generation to take over the old folks, now in their past fifties or sixties - or older?  Many terraces are no longer managed the way they were for centuries. They are facing deterioration that may end up to irreversible decline. Erosion, siltation, landslide, gully formation at work need serious and immediate attention.  

The "native ambiance" is giving way to posh hotels, modern homes, well paved road networks, various establishments which cater to tourists.  Lately a 7-storey parking building has sparked controversy; local officials and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts were appalled. 

Banaue Rice Terraces, the tallest and the steepest cluster of terraces in the whole world was granted World Heritage Site status by UNESCO in 1995, the first of its kind, but in 2001 it was placed under the List of World Heritage in Danger because of its deteriorating state. 

Fortunately it was removed from the list of sites in danger in 2012, but the story does not end there. With globalization taking away the young generation away from the terraces, climate change bringing in unexpected consequences, commercialization of changing the face the area, intrusion of destructive technology, this 8th world of the world may yet meet the sad fate of the other wonders of the ancient world.  ~

Humanities: Dying Waterfall

Dr Abe V Rotor

Dying Waterfall in acrylic, AVR

He is old now

and the cataract is but a spring.

He touches the spring.

Where have all the waters gone?

Yes, he sighs with relief,

his gaze takes him far away;

And there the last drops

of his waterfall meet the sea;

And the sea roars in gladness,

roars a thousand cheers. ~

Energy from Plants

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog

 Stick plant (Euphorbia tirucali).  Extract is 
processed into diesel fuel and oil, UST

 

 Hanga, ripe berries burn bright yellow, 

DENR Loakan, Baguio.

Green charcoal from talahib (Saccharum spontaneum)

Plant residues and farm wastes, as firewood substitute

  (eg rice hull, coconut coir and sawdust), generation  

of biogas and composting into organic 

fertilizer.  Landscape supplies, QC

Firewood - conventional fuel and still the most popular 

fuel for the kitchen in the world. Firewood farming is 

gaining popularity. Food cooked with firewood retains 

a natural taste and aroma. 

 Bitaog or palomaria (Calophylum inophylum).  Seeds contain 

oil for lubrication and fuel. UST Botanical Garden

Let's control the fruit fly: cosmopolitan pest of fruits and vegetables

Dr Abe V Rotor

Fruit fly (Dacus dorsalis (Family Tephritidae, Order Diptera) on banana and mabolo.  
Note the nature of damage, and size of the mature insect.  

Old folks used to tell us kids in our time that the first rain in summer brings in the dangaw (Ilk) or fruit fly rendering native fruits, like duhat, macopa and guava, unfit to eat.  True enough the first bite reveals tiny punctures, and when fully ripe. tunnels with tiny maggots squirming and catapulting to our disgust. We would throw away the whole fruit, and spit what we had hastily eaten. 

But in those days the fruit fly had few hosts, until new varieties were developed and introduced. These became readily vulnerable, triggering the buildup and spread of the pest.  New frontiers were opened, more kinds of crops cultivted, more varied agricultural practices developed breaking away from the natural cycle of the environment. Today the fruit fly has become a cosmopolitan pest of orchard, garden and field crops.    

What a havoc the fruit fly can create on a mango tree laden with fruits.  Or macopa in season. Guava. Caimito and the like. Orchards and plantations are ruined by this pest, a direct relative of the housefly. 

And that's just part of  a larger ruin. Trellises of ampalaya, squash, cucumber, and fields of  pepper, tomato, eggplant, and other vegetables virtually go to waste. 

Unless heavy doses of insecticide are applied  - poison that coats whole fruits to repel the gravid female from laying eggs, poison to cover whole fields so that no place is left to harbor the pest for a second round of attack.  And poison that can penetrate the ensconced maggots before it could do further damage. This is the most potent pesticide ever formulated.  It is systemic poison because it circulated through the plant sap, like blood, and any insect that attacks from the inside or outside is certain to die. 

It is a fact that poisons in food, air and many items cause cancer.  Pesticides are culprits to many cases of cancer.  So with kidney and liver problems, fatal or lifelong liability. Pesticides being mainly nerve poisons affect the brain and the senses, and therefore behavior and quality of life in general.  

We relate the issue of pest to global warming which has disturbed our climatic pattern and modified geography. Rainfall has become erratic,  Seasons unsuspectingly come early or late.  Sometimes there is summer. Force majeure is more often and severe. Thus the need of new agricultural strategies.  

Now we have greenhouses of tomato, melon, bell pepper, but  greenhouse products are more expensive than those produced on open fields. Geneticists came up with Genetically Modified crops - like FlavrSavr tomato.Genetically modified organisms or GMOs are dangerous to health and human development, particularly among children. That is why GMOs are branded Frankenfoods (from Frankenstein, the man-made monster in Mary Shelley's novel of the same title.) 

The fruit fly is not merely a pest.  It is a element that has sown destruction to agriculture, and therefore to the economy. It is changing the way we live. Let's control it before it does more harm.        

Let's control the fruit fly (not to be mistaken for the Drosphilla melanogaster), that has evolved into  several species under the genera Bactrocera, Dacus and Ceratitis.  They have become major pest worldwide of orchards, farms and garden, on avocado, banana, citrus, cacao, coffee, cucumber, guava, papaya, pepper, eggplant, tomato, melon, cucumber, and a host of other plants - not to mention the most important host, the mango.   

Let's control the fruit fly by cutting off its life cycle, before it lays eggs on fruits  - young and ripe -  that ultimately causes them to fall or rot on the tree; and in its feeding introduces bacteria and fungi that exacerbate damage to the tree and plantation, not to mention the harmful effect it has to humans. That by keeping strict sanitation, collecting damaged fruits as possible breeding material, and eliminating alternate hosts to bridge the next season, its population can be kept on a safe level. 

Let's control the fruit fly by bagging the fruits early  with paper bag, cut newspaper, and other suitable materials, before the gravid female oviposits on the fruits, popular a practice on mango, nangka, cucumber, ampalaya, and other crops that are convenient to protect in this laborious means. Bagging also protects fruits from other pest, injury, excessive sunlight, and reduces blemishes and deformities.     

Let's control the fruit fly by prudent use of chemical pesticide, applying it only as a last resort after all safer means are exhausted, and applying only at a threshold level determined collectively by growers in the area. Overuse of chemicals have spawned mutants in the pest population leading to increased resistance among survivors which they pass on to the next generation. Thus higher dosage or more potent chemicals are required in succeeding seasons.   

Let's control the fruit fly through cooperative farming, following specific schedules of planting, cultivation, and harvesting, among other cultural practices, like crop diversification, use of resistant varieties, roughing affected plants and residues and burning them.  Quarantine control is easier to implement, so with other government rules, and specifications of products for the local and foreign markets. 

Let's control the fruit fly to bring down the price of fruits and vegetables at affordable level, assure quality products and reduce crop loss, increase income of producers and processors, and reduce dependence on imported fruits and vegetables. And encourage backyard self-sufficiency, promote proper nutrition and good health.   

Let's control fruit flies with the same resolve in suppressing global scourges of crops (tungro of rice, blight of cereals, borers of corn),  and livestock (foot-and-mouth disease, mad cow disease), epidemics affecting human populations (HIV-AIDS, Ebola, Avian Flu), through personal initiative and or in support to national and international organizations. And through research and extension, through the academe and R & D institutions.~ 

 Cucurbit fruit fly (Dacus cucurbitae), representation of  a typical fruit fly (Dacus sp); baiting fruit flies with diluted vinegar in plastic bottle with punched holes to let attracted fruit flies to enter and get trapped), bagging of green mango fruits. Acknowledgment: Internet www infonet-biovision.org

Tunnel Windows to Heaven

Dr Abe V Rotor

Daybreak, I ask what lies beyond the wall, and a whisper
came through, what goes in there.

And the view
I see is the same though,
yet a vine across the window
is calling, hello!

Walls, walls, walls, I complain.
Windows, windows the sun and wind in refrain.

One window is blocked
with the machine of a clock
that had long stopped.
Tic-tac-tic-tac-tic-tac


Here's one bright morning, ah, but another game,
yet a holy name I hear to learn to say, Amen.


I see heaven through a keyhole,
and myself whole;
I wish to reach it, but the key isn't mine
And neither time.

Acknowledgment: Santa Monica church; Rev Msgr Benjamin Advincula
Episcopal Vicar for the Clergy, Archdiocese of Capiz,
and Parish Priest of Santa Monica

"Dirty ice cream" - the tastiest ice cream in the world

Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature School on Blog

Mang Tomas' ice cream is patronized by the UST community.     

Dirty ice cream - but why the clamor, the demand?
Capitalism's war on tradition, triumph of the brand.  

Maligned in misnomer, yet lives in one's childhood;
what's in a name for the tastiest ice cream in the world?

Home made it started, then rode on a fancy push cart,
Indigenous and personalized, brand of Filipino art. 

It is a link of tradition and modern, the old and young;
though endangered for now, it has a promise beyond?   

Foreign ingredients and technology, why not our own?
from farm to home, all native from ice cream to cone.

Dirty ice cream – to redeem its name by no one but us,
take it from the old, innovation, and Mang Tomas. ~