Wednesday, May 6, 2026

Answers to Self-Administered Test (50 Items): Food Security is Green Revolution at the Grassroots

 Self-Administered Test:

Food Security is Green Revolution at the Grassroots

Dr Abe V Rotor 
Answers to Self-Administered Test in Green Revolution
True or False (Analyze answers, discuss in class or with a group,)

Ordinary people like us can secure for ourselves and family enough food and proper nutrition. This is food security in action. It is food security that gives us real peace of mind. The biological basis does not need farther explanation. It is the key to unity and harmony with the living world.

A Green Revolution Beauty (Internet Photo)

1. Green Revolution is a term that refers to the development of agriculture, tracing it from the time man settled down to raise animals and plants up to the present in which genetically modified organisms (GMO) of plants and animals are being produced. T

2. Green revolution does not encompass agro-processing such as the making of brewed coffee beans, patis and bagoong, wine and vinegar, milk, cheese and ham, and the like – because these are beyond the farmer’s capability - financially and technologically. F 

3. Green revolution must fit well into the demands of the market, which means that the raising of crops and animal and all attendant activities must conform to such “market directed” principle. F

4. We are still nomadic like our primitive ancestors were, in the sense that we still derive much of our food and other needs from the sea, hills and forests. Furthermore, we travel far and wide from our homes and families in search of our basic economic needs – food, clothing, shelter and energy. This neo-nomadic syndrome has been spurred by our modern way of living influenced by overpopulation, industrialization, science and technology. T

5. Growing affluence and increasing level of living standard takes us farther and farther away from the basic concept of green revolution, whereby ideally a family lives under one roof guaranteed by the bounty of the land the members cultivate, and historically built within framework of culture and tradition. T

6. Based on the previous question, growing affluence and standard of living is the reason why modern China cannot prevent its thousands – nay millions – of young citizens to move out of the confines of a once socialistic system in search of the Good Life that they very much deserve. F

7. The least sprayed vegetables – that is, vegetables that do not necessarily require the application of pesticides – are those that grow wild. Thus the ruling is, the more native a vegetable is, the more resistant it is to pest. T

8. Green Revolution started as a movement in the Philippines way back in the fifties with the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement during the time of President Ramon Magsaysay, with the youth at the helm, led by 4-H Clubs, Rural Improvement Clubs (RIC), Boys Scouts and Girls Scouts, public and elementary schoolchildren, and barrio folks. T

9. The crowning glory of Philippine Green Revolution was the attainment of self-sufficiency in food and other agricultural products following a food crisis in the early seventies under President Ferdinand Marcos. Through Masagana-99, Maisan 77, and many barangay food production programs, the country even surpassed sufficiency level and became a net exporter of rice and other food commodities. T

10. When you introduce a new plant in your garden – a plant that has not been tried before – you are sure it is virtually free of pests, firstly because it did not bring with it the pests from its origin, and second, the local pests would take time to develop the taste for it. F 

11. The longest stage or phase of Green Revolution was the expansion of horizons during the colonial period whereby land was forcibly taken and consolidated into estates and haciendas by the colonists. One such case is our own haciendas, a number of them are still existing and operating like the family hacienda – Luisita  – which was singularly exempted from land reform. F

Latest Green Revolution - Go Natural,  Organic Farming

12. The corporate world swallowed up small businesses including small farms in the US, Europe and in fact all over the world, such that the capitalist robbed the entrepreneur of his resources, technology, market, and worst, his potentials and therefore his future. (Economies of scale – is this the nemesis of small business?) T

13. Today’s fast emerging technologies continue to favor the capitalist thus making him grow even bigger (examples: McDonalds, San Miguel, Robina, Nestle’ and Jollibee conglomerate). This is what social scientists call Neo-colonialism, a kind of agriculture reminiscent of the colonial times. (Or is the trend today the opposite - the dinosaur syndrome is killing the beast.) T

14. The most nutritious of all vegetables in terms of protein are those belonging to the legume family. In fact a number of legumes have higher protein content than meat. T 

15. If we rank from highest to lowest in protein content these vegetables should be listed as follows: soybean, segidillas or calamismis (pallang), mungo, tomato, malunggay. F

Practical hydroponics on the village level using local and recycled materials

16. It is better to specialize on certain crops in your garden for practical management. If leafy vegetables, plant pechay, lettuce, mustard, alugbati, talinum, and you need the same kind of soil, topography, amount of water, tools, planting schedule and season, and market. F

17. Mang Tonio is a simple farmer. He plants rice in his small paddy once a year because this is what other farms are doing, and it is traditional in the area. They say don’t break away sa naka-ugalihan. If you agree with Mang Tonio answer true.

18. It is possible that a one-hectare farm can produce as much as a four-hectare farm does, even without additional amounts of inputs like fertilizer, pesticide and water. F 

19. The idea of cottage agro-industry is to make use of inferior quality products that bring more profit or value-added advantage. Examples: immature and broken peanut into butter, overripe banana and tomato for catsup, fruit fly infested guava and mango for puree; typhoon damaged sugarcane into vinegar, bansot piglet into lechon, unsold fish and shrimps into bagoong and patis, and the like. F

20. Samaka is a movement, acronym of Samahan ng Masaganang Kakanin – the united effort of a group to have more plentiful food for their families. It is the precursor of successful food production programs later led by PACD (Presidential Arm in Community Development), RCPCC (Rice and Corn Production Coordinating Program) later to become National Food and Agriculture Council (NFAC) which implemented Masagana 99, Maisan 77, Manukan Barangay, Bakahang Barangay, Wheat Production, Soybean Production, and other production programs then under President Marcos. Unfortunately these were downplayed after the Edsa Revolution. T

21. Botanically speaking, the parts of these plants we eat are classified as follows: cassava tuber is a root, so with kamote, peanut is a fruit, potato tuber is a stem, onion bulb is a leaf. T

22. When buying papaya, the more yellow the fruit appears, the more mature it had been picked from the tree. Avoid buying papaya that appears dominantly green and yellow or orange only at the ridges. F

23. There are five kinds of vegetables according to the parts of the plant (botanical classification). The following are classified under at least two kinds: squash or kalabasa, ampalaya, malunggay, sinkamas, short sitao or paayap. T 


24. The production capacity of genetically modified crops of corn, potato, and soybean – the most common GMO food we are taking every day - has increased even without increasing the supply of nutrients in the soil. GMOs are the world’s ultimate recourse to feed an ever increasing population now approaching the 6.5 billion mark. F 

School gardening 

25. Our soil and climate are favorable to many crops. Let us plant our rice fields and corn fields after harvest season with the following crops so that we will not import them and spend precious dollars, and that, it is the Filipino farmer and not the foreign farmer whom we patronize and subsidize. Potato (potato fries), Soybean (soybean oil, TVP, tokwa, toyo, taho), White beans (pork and beans), wheat (pandesal, cake, noodles). F

26. The role of Green Revolution generates in supplying food for a fast growing population is foremost even at the expense of clearing forest, leveling hillsides, reclaiming swamps – and even farming the sea. F

27. Talinum is a small tree that is why it is so easy to grow, and will last for a long time, season after season and you have vegetables throughout the year. Alugbati is tree like malunggay. In fact they usually grow together in some forgotten corner, along dikes and fences, around open well, and does not need care at all practically speaking. Alugbati is best as salad, cooked with mungo, beef stew, sinigang, bulanglang. F

28. Agro-ecology will always clash – there is no compromise. Either you are an ecologist or you are an economist. Take eco-tourism, eco-village, etc.) F

29. All these plants are propagated by cutting. All you need to do is cut-and-plant a branch or stem – malunggay, kakawate or madre de cacao, katuray, ipil-ipil, cassava, sugarcane, talinum, alugbati, kamias. F

30. Homesite for the Golden Years (HGY) has the features of a integrated garden, enterprise, agro-industry, eco-sanctuary. The key is to supply this Patch of Eden (A Slice of Paradise) with all the amenities of modern living for senior citizens. T

31. The area required for a Homesite for the Golden Years is greatly variable and flexible; it can be as small as 100 square meters to 10 hectares in area. This allows evolution of, as many models as one could think of. F

32. The numerous hanging round fruits (tubers) on the stem of ube (Dioscorea alata) are the ones we plant, especially on large scale. F

33. Acclimatization means helping introduced plants and animals get adapted to their new environment. There are those that succeed but can’t reproduce; while others become better of that their counterparts they left behind. T

34. Based on the previous question, there are plants that have not been fully acclimatized even after many years so that extreme attention is given to them like Crucifers – cauliflower, cabbage, wonbok, celery, lettuce, broccoli. T

35. Bagging with ordinary paper and/or plastic bags and sacks is necessary to protect from the dreaded fruit fly the fruits of guava, mango, jackfruit, ampalaya, durian, orange, avocado, mangosteen, guyabano and atis. F

36. Green thumb is a gift of naturalism. Only those who have this genetic gift are chosen caretakers of God’s Garden of Eden. Others have the equivalent gift in taking care of aquariums, house pets, children’s nursery. F
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ASEAN commitment to regional food security, food aid from the UN or US may simply ease the impact of food shortage or inequity in its distribution, but they are but palliative measures.
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37. We have our local pansit: sotanghon comes from rice while bihon comes mungo. We import noodles, miki and lomi made from wheat, while macaroni and spaghetti are made from semolina wheat or pasta. T

38. Value-added, a term in manufacturing gave rise to a new taxation E-VAT. To cope up with the added burden on the part of both entrepreneur and consumer, why not process your product and get instead the benefit of the new law? Example. Don’t just sell your palay harvest, have it milled sold as rice, make flour out of it, make puto and bihon, and others. T

39. Based on the same question above, to get the benefits of VAT, market your own produce; be an entrepreneur, a middleman/trader and of course, a producer. T

40. Start by planting the seeds of the following crops if you go wish into immediate commercial production – because the seeds of these plants are plentiful, you have no problem of supply: chico, guava, orange, mango, rambutan, lanzones, avocado, tiesa, atis, guayabano – as well as others that produce plenty of seeds. That’s how nature intended it to be. F

41. Seeds always turn out genetically true to type. Big mango fruits come from seeds of big mango fruits, big guava means big guava, sweet pomelo – sweet pomelo, seedless atis – seedless atis, red pakwan – red pakwan. F

42. Just follow the direction of the sun when you plant by rows and plots – north to south, so that there is less overshadowing of plants. In this case you may increase your harvest by as much as 10 percent. F

43. Extend the shelf life of fruits such as mango, avocado, atis, guayabano, nangka, by rubbing salt at the end of the stem, the base of the fruit. F

44. Momordica charantia is the scientific name of ampalaya. Why spend for commercial food supplement in bottle, syrup, tablets, pills or dry herbal preparations as advertised - Momordica or Charantia, or Ampalaya Plus? (Write true for each recipe, if correct)

45 to 49. These are simple recipes. Write true for each recipe, if you agree.

  • All you need is buy a bundle of fresh ampalaya tops made into salad and dipped with bagoong and vinegar.   It’s good for the whole family.
  • Add ampalaya leaves to mungo and dried fish or sautéed pork.
  • Pinakbet anyone? Native or wild ampalaya is cut in half or quarter without severing the cut.
  • Ampalaya at delatang sardinas.
Typical Bahay Kubo * 

50. Ordinary people like us can secure for ourselves and family enough food and proper nutrition. This is food security in action. It is food security that gives us real peace of mind. The biological basis does not need farther explanation. It is the key to unity and harmony in the living world. Queuing for rice defeats the image of a strong economy. High prices of food do not give a good reflection either. How about ASEA, UN, WHO? ASEAN commitment to regional food security, food aid from the UN or US may simply ease the impact of food shortage or inequity in its distribution, but they are but palliative measures. And having a dreamer Joseph in public food depot is not reliable either. It is green revolution at the grassroots that assures us of not only food but other necessities of life – and self employment. It is that piece of Paradise that has long been lost that resurrect in some corner of your home. Paradise is not lost, if you create one. Do you agree?
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       *Bahay Kubo
         My Nipa Hut

Bahay-kubo, kahit munti
Ang halaman doon ay sari-sari
Singkamas at talong
Sigarilyas at mani
Sitaw, bataw, patani
Kundol, patola, upo't kalabasa
At tsaka mayro'n pang
Labanos, mustasa
Sibuyas, kamatis, bawang at luya
Sa paligid-ligid ay puno ng linga.

Sing this folk song in school, gatherings, or in private moments, with the typical Filipino ambiance.  Sing it with a group and with accompaniment on the guitar, piano and violin.

Acknowledgement: Internet Photos
Lesson DZRB Green Revolution Test
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid 
(AVR and Melly Tenorio) August 27, 2007

Lola Basyang and Homer - Folk Story tellers

 Lola Basyang and Homer - Folk Story tellers

Dr Abe V Rotor

“If a man does away with his traditional way of living and throws away his good customs, he had better first make certain that he has something of value to replace them.”                                                   - Robert Ruark, Something of Value (Old Basuto Proverb)
           

Like Lola Basyang relating folklore to children, we imagine a campfire, around it our ancestors exchanged knowledge and recounted experiences, with spices of imagination and superstition. It was a prototype open university. Throughout the ages and countless generations a wealth of native knowledge and folk wisdom accumulated but not much of it has survived.

Top TV hosts and artists Ms Lisa Macuja and Luz Fernandez (Lola Basyang) perform on screen and stage Severino Reyes' Obra Maestra -  Mga Kuwento ni Lola Basyang. 

Homer’s epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, were created in this way, and so with Aesop’s fables, with both having survived after two or three thousand years, and found immortality in books today. And would we look farther than the timelessness of Christ lessons in parables? The Sermon on the Mount, The Prodigal Son, the Sower, The Good Samaritan.  These and many more, continue to live in the home, school, pulpit as it had persisted in the catacombs in the beginnings of Christianity. Because Homer, Aesop, Christ and other early authors did not write, it is through oral history, in spite of its limitations and informal nature that these masterpieces were preserved and transcended to us - thanks to our ancestors, and to tradition itself.

On the part of science, we inherited valuable knowledge such as the Pythagorean Theorem (all philosophies are resolved into the relations of numbers), the Law of Buoyancy from Archimedes, the Ptolemaic concept of the universe (although it was later corrected with the Copernican model), Natural Philosophy of Aristotle (Natural History), not to mention the Hippocratic Oath, the ethics that guide those in the practice of medicine which our modern doctors adhere to this day.

Tradition and Heritage

Just as the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans – and even the remote and lesser ancient civilizations like the Aztecs and the Mayas had their own cultural heritage, so have we in our humble ways. Panday Pira attests to early warfare technology, the Code of Kalantiao, an early codification of law and order, the Herbolario, who to the present is looked upon with authority as the village doctor. And of course, we should not fail to mention the greatest manifestation of our architectural genius and grandiose aesthetic sense – the Banawe Rice Terraces.

On the lighter side, who of us don’t know Lam-ang, our own epic hero, the counterpart of England’s Beowulf? Juan Tamad, the counterpart of Rip Van Winkle? Who would not identify himself with Achilles or Venus? Ivanhoe, Robin Hood, Lapu-Lapu, Angalo – how could boys be more happy and become real men without these and other legendary characters? And we ask the same to girls becoming women without Cinderella and Maria Makiling? On my part, like other boys in my time, boyhood could not have been spent in any better way without the science fictions of Jules Vernes – Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Eighty Days Around the World – and the adventures of Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. It is the universality of human thoughts and values that is the key to the timelessness of tradition – indeed the classical test of true masterpieces.

And would we say the least about children stories? We can only wonder with awe at the determination of the Grimm Brothers roaming the villages of Europe soon after the Dark Ages began to end, and the light of learning began to dawn again, the two scholars retrieving the fragments and remnants of stories surviving the darkest period of history of mankind. And what do we know? These stories, together with the stories from the 1001 Arabian Nights, have kept the flame of human hope and joy alive in cradles, around the hearth, on the bedside – even as the world was uncertain and unkind.

We ask ourselves, if it is only truth that can withstand the test of time. Or if it is only events that really happened constitute history. And if there were any tinge that these stories were based on the culture of a people in their own time, would we not find them, we who live on the other side of the globe and in another time, find them strange?

Retrieving Traditional Knowledge

Our great thrust today is to explore and retrieve traditional knowledge from records of the past, archeology, and testimonies of old folks. It is indeed an enormous task not only what but how we can gather the fragments of knowledge, distinguish facts from myths, reality from imagination, and draw out the threads of wisdom and weave them into a fabric we call science. Today with modern science and technology, we create virtual reality scenarios on the screen and in dioramas, reliving the past and deliver them right in the living room and in the school.

Rediscovering indigenous knowledge and folk wisdom enlarges and enhances our history and tradition. Even beliefs and practices, which we may not be able to explain scientifically, can be potential materials for research. And if in our judgment they fail to meet such test, still they are valuable to us because they are part of our culture and they contribute immensely to the quaintness of living.

Return to Nature or Exodus to the City

There is a beautiful novel Swiss Family Robinson written by Johann Wyss nearly two centuries ago. It is about a family stranded in an unknown island somewhere near New Guinea and during the many years they lived in the island, they learned to adapt to a life entirely disconnected from society and devoid of the amenities of modern living. When finally they were rescued, the family chose to stay in the island – except one son who wanted to study, promising that he would return to the island.

There are stories of similar plot such as Robinson Crusoe, a classic novel by Daniel Defoe, and recently, Castaway, a modern version of a lone survivor shown on the screen. We can only imagine what we could have done if we were the survivors ourselves.

Severino Reyes wrote Mga Kuwento ni Lola Basyang.  He wrote his first story for children at age 75. A graduate of UST, he founded in 1945 the Tagalog weekly magazine Liwayway (still in circulation), a publication of Manila Bulletin and counterpart of Bannawag (the Dawn), the most important Ilocano magazine.  Reyes' works have been widely circulated through komiks, books, movies, stage plays, radio and TV, and continue to the present on multimedia. His works are as immortal as the children's stories compiled by the Grimm Brothers, 1001 Arabian Nights, Hans Anderson's stories, and children's stories of Oscar Wilde.       

But to many of us, particularly the young generation, such stories seem to have lost their appeal, more so of their relevance. It is as if we have outlived tradition in such a manner that anything which is not modern does not apply any longer. What aggravates it is that as we move in to cities we lose our home base and leave behind much of our native culture. There is in fact an exodus to live in cities, whether in ones own country or abroad, and the lure is so great nearly half of the world’s population is now living in urban centers. Ironically the present population explosion is not being absorbed by the rural areas but by cities, bloating them into megapolises where millions of people as precariously ensconced. And now globalization is bringing us all to one village linked in cyberspace and shrunk in distance by modern transportation. We have indeed entered the age of global homogenization and worldwide acculturation.

What is “The Good Life” Really?

Maybe it is good to look back and compare ourselves with our ancestors from the viewpoint of how life is well lived. Were our ancestors a happier lot? Did they have more time for themselves and their family, and more things to share with their community? Did they live healthier lives? Were they endowed - more than we are - with the good life brought about by the bounty and beauty of nature?

These questions bring us to analyze ten major concerns about living. In the midst of socio-cultural and economic transformation from traditional to modern to globalization - an experience that is sweeping all over the world today - these concerns serve as parameters to know how well we are living with life. As the reader goes over the various topics in this book he can’t help but relate them with his own knowledge and experiences, and in fact they way he lives. This is essentially the purpose of this paper.

• Simple lifestyle
• Environment-friendly
• Peace of mind
• Functional literacy
• Good health and longer active life
• Family and community commitment
• Self-managed time
• Self-employment
• Cooperation (bayanihan) and unity
• Sustainable development

The following are some traditional practices and beliefs I have been able to gather and put into writing since the idea was conceived late last year. Primarily these are ethnic or indigenous, and certainly there are commonalities with those in other countries, particularly in Asia, albeit of their local versions and adaptations.  It leads us to appreciate with wonder the vast richness of cultures shared between and among peoples and countries even in very early times. Ironically modern times have overshadowed tradition, and many of these beliefs and practices have been either lost or forgotten, and even those that have survived are facing endangerment and the possibility of extinction. It is a rare opportunity and privilege to gather and analyze traditional beliefs and practices.

It is to the old folks that we owe much gratitude and respect because they are our living link with the past. They are the Homer of Iliad and Odyssey of our times, so to speak. They are the Disciples of Christ’s parables, the Fabulists of Aesop. They are the likes of a certain Ilocano farmer by the name of Juan Magana who recited Biag ni Lam-ang from memory, Mang Vicente Cruz, an herbolario of Bolinao Pangasinan, whom I interviewed about the effectiveness of herbal medicine. It is to people who, in spite of genetic engineering, would still prefer the taste of native chicken and upland rice varieties.

During the past century when so much of traditional wisdom and ethno-science were still flourishing in the lives and memories especially of Philippine traditional cultural communities, the country's colonial education attempted systematically - and greatly succeeded - in discouraging as well as obliterating Filipino traditional wisdom and folk knowledge. School textbooks and classroom instruction called all of them "superstition" to be zealously expunged from the minds of all "educated" citizens. I have witnessed this from my years as a pupil in the public schools (it was not better in religious schools because indigenous traditions were regarded as ‘works of the devil’) and later as professional cultural historian and student of folkloristics.”

Florentino H. Hornedo, Ph.D.

Professor of Philosophy, University of Santo Tomas;
Commissioner, UNESCO

--------------------------------
NOTE: "Lola Basyang" is the pen name of Severino Reyes, founder and editor of the Tagalog magazine Liwayway. From 1925, Reyes wrote a series of stories for children under the title Mga Kuwento ni Lola Basyang (The Stories of Grandmother Basyang). The original magazine stories have been adapted for comics (komiks), television, the cinema, and published in book form. Severino Reyes was 75 years of age when he wrote the first Lola Basyang story "Ang Plautin ni Periking", which was about a kindhearted kid who had a magical flute and flying carpet. Reyes, also known as Don Binoy, adopted the persona of a woman he knew as Lola Basyang, an elderly woman fond of telling stories to her grandchildren. (Wikipedia)

MOTHER is the sweetest word in any language. In Celebration of Mother's Day May 10, 2026

 In Celebration of Mother's Day May 10, 2026


MOTHER is the sweetest word in any language.

Dr Abe V Rotor

Part 1 - "My mom is a never-ending song in my heart."
Part 2 - "A boy's best friend is his mother."
Part 3 - A mother and her child - no greater love to find.
Part 4 - Green Madonna and Child
Part 5 - Mother Nature Crucified
Part 6 - 10 Famous People Whose Career Was Inspired by Mom

           Part 1 - "My mom is a never-ending song in my heart."

Author's spouse, Cecille, and their daughter, Anna Christina, on the latter's graduation day at Ateneo de Manila University with an MS degree in Information Technology, 2010 


Mother is perhaps the most popular subject in all fields of endeavor and in all walks of life.

It is one of the most powerful words, specially when used in personification, analogy, simile and other figures of speech. It is used to describe both animate and inanimate objects, often putting "life" in an inanimate thing.

Mother pertains to origin and everything has an origin - innate and immanent, and from the time of conception, be it biological, idea or thought. The meaning of mother is readily absorbed in the human mind without undue restraint it is closest to love itself.

Of the definitions of a Mother I have chosen these quotations from famous men and women whose success is undoubtedly traced to the greatest queen and ultimate image of Mother Earth.

But how little do we know the vast goodness, beauty and magnificence of a Mother! Lo, to us who only see them through a keyhole, and not have the key to unlock the door.

The sweetest sounds to mortals given
are heard in Mother, Home, and Heaven. ~William Goldsmith Brown (author)

I love my mother as the trees love water and sunshine - she helps me grow, prosper, and reach great heights. ~Adabella Radici (author)

A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts. ~Washington Irving (author)

I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life. - Abraham Lincoln (US President)

Some mothers are kissing mothers and some are scolding mothers, but it is love just the same, and most mothers kiss and scold together. ~Pearl S. Buck (author)

The real religion of the world comes from women much more than from men - from mothers most of all, who carry the key of our souls in their bosoms. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes (philosopher, historian and author)

The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness. ~Honoré de Balzac (philosopher)

My mom is a never ending song in my heart of comfort, happiness, and being. I may sometimes forget the words but I always remember the tune. ~ Graycie Harmon

When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child. ~Sophia Loren, Women and Beauty (actress)

Happy Mother's Day!

Mother's Day for the year 2023 is celebrated/ observed on Sunday, May 14th. Mother's Day is observed the second Sunday in May. It is a time to honor mothers, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers for their contribution to family and society. Since it is not a federal holiday, businesses may be open or closed as any other Sunday.

Part 2 - "A boy's best friend is his mother."

There has never been, nor will there ever be, anything quite so special as the love between the mother and a son. (Unknown)

                                                         Markus 3, and his mom.

                           Mother - the sweetest sound:
mommy, mama, mom, nanay, inay;
there's mother in all languages,
her breath, whisper the same thing,
her face, smile, all her images.

Mother Earth, motherland,
universal, living and non-living,
mother's forever, in everything;
when in comfort, when lost,
there's always a mother calling.

Great men, a mother behind,
angel on earth or hereafter,
mother, first word in the cradle,
mother, last word on the dying bed,
first and last rays of the candle.

A Song for Mama, Ave Maria,
on her birthday, on Mothers' Day;
to Ceres, mother of good harvest,
with Gaia, goddess of the earth,
Rhea, mother of all goddesses.

Mother, guardian and teacher,
to her own, orphans, abandoned,
faith is but one, so with love,
old and young, any brethren
are seen as mothers Above.
                                   - avrotor 


Markus, on his 3rd birthday, with his mom. During the first 3 years of life, a child’s brain develops at an astonishing rate. By age 3, the brain has reached 80% of its adult size. Developmental experiences determine the organizational and functional status of the mature brain. It is therefore critical during this time to focus on quality care taking and building a strong and healthy attachment, particularly with the mother or guardian who takes care of the child as a biological mother does.

A boy's best friend is his mother.

- Joseph Stefano (Screenwriter, Black Orchid, and Hitchcock's Psycho)

Sons are the anchors of a mother's life. - Sophocles (Ancient Greek writer-dramatist,
Oedipus the King)

A man loves his sweetheart the most, his wife the best, but his mother the longest. - Irish Proverb

Happy is the son whose faith in his mother remains unchallenged. - Louisa May Alcott (author of The Little Women)

There is an endearing tenderness in the love of a mother to a son that transcends all other affections of the heart. - Washington Irving (author, Rip Van Winkle, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow)

Mothers are inscrutable beings to their sons, always. - A.E. Coppard (author, The Collected Tales)

A good son will never allow sorrow to befall her mother...and act as if he is an only child that cares...protects when no one dares...serves with his life in return...and most of all finds a wife that will love his mother too. - Helen Rebibis Ramos (Philippine author, Bluemoon of Memories)

If a man has been his mother's undisputed darling he retains throughout life the triumphant feeling, the confidence in success, which not seldom brings actual success along with it. - Sigmund Freud (Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis)

To a mother, a son is never a fully grown man; and a son is never a fully grown man until he understands and accepts this about his mother. Unknown ~

Part 3 - A mother and her child 
- no greater love to find. 
     Dr Abe V Rotor


   
              "Tenderness has no measure - it is immeasurable;
it's ultimate expression of a mother and her child,
a universal symbol that stands most adorable 
unquestionably no greater love to find. " AVR 

                      Acknowledgment: old painting at Delgado Medical Center QC. 
                                                       Kudos to the artist.
  

Part 4 - Green Madonna and Child

"Our Holy Lady and Child, please help us
       save our dying Mother Earth."

Dr Abe V Rotor
Relief painting of Madonna and Child in acrylic AVR 2015 
  
Faceless, shrouded with smog, seated on a volcano,
    this Madonna and Child of my imagination
moved my fingers, and touched my heart and soul.
    Forgive me for my irreverent interpretation.

I am a humble artist seeking meaning of art to life,
    a new consciousness, a re-birth,
to bring prayer to action, our Lady and Holy Child
    in saving our dying Mother Earth.~

Part 5 -   Nature Crucified 

"Above me rises a dead tree..."

Dr Abe V Rotor

Lady devotee Angie Tobias turns her attention to Mother Nature in the 
midst of today's massive destruction of the environment symbolized 
by this driftwood artwork made by the author for Lent 2024.

When the sky is gray and red in sorrow,
the fields bare and dry all around,  
the sun beats hard on ev'ry levee and furrow;
I wonder where I am and bound.

No shade to find comfort even for a while, 
save a tree standing on a hill,
where some birds briefly rest and again fly,
leaving me empty at the scene.   

I look up and wonder, "Is this Golgotha?"
No sound, no breeze, but eerie
like I were in the heart of the Sahara;
above me rises a dead tree. ~

Part 6 - Ten Famous People Whose Career Was Inspired by Mom

"My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother." - George Washington 

Dr Abe V Rotor 

1. Of all the persons who had the greatest influence on Jose Rizal’s development as a person was his mother Teodora Alonso. It was she who opened his eyes and heart to the world around him—with all its soul and poetry, as well as its bigotry and injustice. Throughout his brief life, Rizal proved to be his mother’s son, a chip off the old block, as he constantly strove to keep faith the lessons she taught him.

2. "My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute all my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her.” – George Washington

3. “My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me; and I felt I had something to live for, someone I must not disappoint.” – Thomas Alva Edison

4."All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel Mother.” – Abraham Lincoln 

Nancy Hanks Lincoln and son, 
US President Abe Lincoln 

5. “A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials, heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine, desert us when troubles thicken around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.” – Washington Irving 

6. “My mother said to me, ‘If you become a soldier you’ll be a general; if you become a monk you’ll end up as the pope.’ Instead, I became a painter and wound up as Picasso.”—Pablo Picasso 

Maria Picasso  y Lopez

7. “It seems to me that my mother was the most splendid woman I ever knew… I have met a lot of people knocking around the world since, but I have never met a more thoroughly refined woman than my mother. If I have amounted to anything, it will be due to her.”—Charles Chaplin

    8.  "My mother was an angel upon earth. She was a minister of blessing to all human beings within her sphere of action. Her heart was the abode of heavenly purity… She was the real personification of female virtue, of piety, of charity, of ever active and never intermitting benevolence." US President John Quincy Adams. 

    9. As India’s first female Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi (1917—1984) She also entrusted a sense of duty in her two sons, Rajiv and Sanjay Gandhi, who both grew up to become politicians; Rajiv became Prime Minister of India after his mother was assassinated in 1984.


    10. Hoelun, famous as the mother of Genghis Khan, she survived getting kidnapped, widowhood, and being an outcast, to becoming the mother and advisor to one of the largest empires the world has ever known (as well as being one of the few people who could yell at Genghis and get away with it)

    Acknowledgement: Internet