Poem for 2012: Silence of the Pond

Painting and Poem by Abe V Rotor

Silence of the Pond, AVR Circa 1989

Here true silence lies,
not eerie, not deafening,
for silence is communion
of self and surrounding.

Here true silence lies:
leaves quiver in the breeze,
ripples gently rise and fade,
buzz the honey bees.

Here true silence lies,
in the rhythm of the sky,
the rainbow a huge harp,
music all that sing or cry.

Here true silence lies:
the sound of the pond,
not in its depth or breadth;
the trees by their bond.

Here true silence lies,
beyond the audible,
in magic waves in the air,
and the perceptible.

Here true silence lies,
giving in is acceptance,
the root of humility,
courage in any instance.

Here true silence lies,
when the heart longs, yet sings;
thoughts not to reason but flies
from the confines of living.

Here true silence lies,
sweet memories an art
in the silence of a pond,
throbbing in the heart. ~

My Last Farewell - Jose Rizal’s Valedictory Poem

Execution by musketry of Dr Jose P Rizal, Philippine National Hero, on December 30, 1896, at Bagumbayan, now Rizal Park ( Luneta), Manila .

By Nick Joaquin
Translated from the Spanish

Notes on Rizal’s Farewell Poem

A few days before his execution, Rizal wrote this touching poem in Spanish. He wrote it with no trembling hands; no erasures. The hero wrote on a commercial blue-lined paper measuring 9.5 cm wide and 15.5 cm long. The poem is untitled, undated and unsigned. Rizal hid it inside an alcohol stove he was using. In the afternoon of December 29, 1896, Rizal gave this alcohol stove as a gift to his younger sister Trinidad and whispered: “There is something inside.”

After the hero’s execution, Josephine Bracken got hold of the poem and brought it with her to Hong Kong. She sold it to an American who brought it to the US. In 1908, the US War Department informed the Philippine Gov. Gen. James Smith who instructed the Philippine Government to buy it back. The poem has been translated into practically all major languages of the world, and in many dialects.

Land that I love: farewell: O land the sun loves:
Pearl of the sea of the Orient: Eden lost to your brood!
Gaily go I to present you this hapless hopeless life;
Were it more brilliant: had it more freshness, more bloom:
Still for you would I give it: would give it for your good!

In barricades embattled, fighting in delirium,
Others give you their lives without doubts, without gloom.
The site nought matters: cypress, laurel or lily:
Gibbet or open field: combat or cruel martyrdom
Are equal if demanded by country and home.

I am to die when I see the heavens go vivid,
announcing the day at last behind the dead night.
If you need color – color to stain that dawn with,
Let spill my blood: scatter it in good hour:
And drench in its gold one beam of the newborn light.

My dream when a lad, when scarcely adolescent:
My dreams when a young man, now with vigor inflamed:
Were to behold you one day: Jewel of eastern waters:
Griefless the dusky eyes: lofty the upright brow:
Unclouded, unfurrowed, unblemished and unashamed!

Enchantment of my life: my ardent avid obsession:
To your health! Cries the soul, so soon to take the last leap:
To your health! O lovely: how lovely: to fall that you may rise!
To perish that you may live! To die beneath your skies!
And upon your enchanted ground the eternities to sleep!

Should you find some day somewhere on my gravemound, fluttering
Among tall grasses, a flower of simple fame:
Caress it with your lips and you kiss my soul:
I shall feel on my face across the cold tombstone:
Of your tenderness, the breath; of your breath, the flame.

Suffer the moon to keep watch, tranquil and suave, over me:
Suffer the dawn its flying lights to release:
Suffer the wind to lament in murmurous and grave manner:
And should a bird drift down and alight on my cross,
Suffer the bird to intone its canticle of peace.

Suffer the rains to dissolve in the fiery sunlight
And purified reascending heavenward bear my cause:
Suffer a friend to grieve I perished so soon:
And on fine evenings, when prays in my memory,
Pray also – O my land! – that in God I repose.

Pray for all who have fallen befriended by not fate:
For all who braved the bearing of torments all bearing past:
To our poor mothers piteously breathing in bitterness:
For widows and orphans: for those in tortured captivity
And yourself: pray to behold your redemption at last.

And when in dark night shrouded obscurely the graveyard lies
And only, only the dead keep vigil the night through:
Keep holy the place: keep holy the mystery.
Strains, perhaps, you will hear – of zither, or of psalter:
It is I – O land I love! – it is I, singing to you!

And when my grave is wholly unremembered
And unlocated (no cross upon it, no stone there plain):
Let the site be wracked by the plow and cracked by the spade
And let my ashes, before they vanish to nothing,
As dust be formed a part of your carpet again.

Nothing then will it matter to place me in oblivion!
Across your air, your space, your valleys shall pass my wraith!
A pure chord, strong and resonant, shall I be in your ears:
Fragrance, light and color: whispers, lyric and sigh:
Constantly repeating the essence of my faith!

Land that I idolized: prime sorrow among my sorrows:
Beloved Filipinas, hear me the farewell word:
I bequeath you everything – my family, my affections:
I go where no slaves are – nor butchers: nor oppressors:
Where faith cannot kill: where God’s the sovereign lord!

Farewell, my parents, my brothers – fragments of my soul:
Friends of old and playmates in childhood’s vanished house:
Offer thanks that I rest from the restless day!
Farewell, sweet foreigner – my darling, my delight!
Creatures I love, farewell! To die is to repose. ~

Acknowledgment: Rizal and Josephine, by Gene Cabrera, courtesy of Philip Cabrera.

Giant Seaweed Emerging

Giant Seaweed Emerging 

Dr Abe V Rotor

Giant Seaweed  in acrylic by A V Rotor

Deep in the sea, creatures unknown emerge,

 algae enormously large, larger than their kin,

reach out for the sun, evolving in the process

from variants-to-species heretofore unseen.  

Among the giant seaweeds are kelp* in cold seas, and Sargassum in the tropics.  We do not know how many evolving variants and types are there, and to what extent have they reached the species level of classification.  It is a good study for marine biologists, especially on the field of global warming, its effect on marine environment. 

*Kelps are large brown algae seaweeds that make up the order Laminariales. There are about 30 different genera. Despite its appearance, kelp is not a plant - it is a heterokont, a completely unrelated group of organisms. Sargassum is a genus of brown macroalgae in the order Fucales. Numerous species are distributed throughout the temperate and tropical oceans of the world, where they generally inhabit shallow water and coral reefs, and the genus is widely known for its planktonic species. Wikipedia

Christmas Season is a Season of Homecoming: Home, Sweet Home

Dr Abe Rotor and Mss Melly Tenorio
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air)
DZRB 738 KHzAM Band
8 to 9 evening class Monday to Friday

This article is dedicated to the Filipino balikbayan and all returnees from work and domicile all over the world. Christmas Season is a Season of Homecoming.

Home, Sweet Home, painting by AV Rotor

By Abe V Rotor

In the movie, The King and I, Anna the English teacher sang Home Sweet Home, an endearing song when thousands of Europeans left home in search of a new one at the other side of the globe. They became pioneers in the New World, which was to become the United States of America. Others found the Orient, and for Teacher Anna, it was a special arrangement for her to serve the King of Siam (Thailand) as tutor to his children.

To us Filipinos, the song stirs the heart as well. Thousands leave their native land, their homes and families in search for opportunities as Overseas Filipino Workers, and migrants, many of them never to return, except on brief sojourn in the country of their birth.

I found a complete musical piece arranged for the violin and piano in an old wooden chest (baol) containing personal belongings of my late mother. I was told by my father that it was her favorite piano piece. I can only guess why. Many homes were destroyed and families separated during the second world war. Ours was one of them.

Today, Home, Sweet Home, is our family's treasured musical composition. My daughter Anna would accompany me on the piano as I played the violin. There were occasions we played together in school programs, carrying the message that there is no place like home. My wife Cecille and our younger son Leo Carlo have their share on a weekend, playing related compositions like The Last Rose of Summer, Life Let's Cherish, The Harp that Once through Tara's Hall. They make a wholesome package of what a happy home is.

On one occasion this current year President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was guest of the UST Graduate School, honoring her father, the late President Diosdado Macapagal as former member of the faculty and alumnus of the university. As Anna and I were playing the musical piece during the cocktail, President Gloria momentarily left the group and came near us playing. I nodded to acknowledge her. So did Anna. She was smiling at us while intently listening, particularly to the theme part of the four-variation version of Henry Farmer. Indeed it was a great honor on our part.

Not to be home for Christmas for one reason or another must be a lonely, if not painful, experience. I take this opportunity to thank again our ardent listener, and may she realize what many of us simply take for granted - to be in ones Home, Sweet Home.

Home Sweet Home
By John Howard Payne
Music by Henry Rowley Bishop (1786-1855)
(Arranged for the violin and piano by Henry Farmer)

‘Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home;
A charm from the sky seems to hallow us there,
Which seek through the world, is ne’er met with elsewhere.
Home, Home, sweet, sweet Home!

An exile from home, splendor dazzles in vain;
O, give me my lowly thatched cottage again!
The birds singingly gaily, that came to my call –
Give me them – and the peace of mind, dearer than all.
Home, Home sweet, sweet Home.
There’s no place like Home! There’s no place like Home!

One of the lessons I discussed on the school-on-air program - Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid - is about home and family. It was one of the liveliest lessons. There were as many callers as there were definitions of a home. Here is a short list.

1. Home is a roof for everyone, residents and guests.
2. Home is a wall with large windows that let the sun and the breeze in.
3. Home is where fish in the aquarium sparkle in the morning’s sun.
4. Home is a baby smiling, of children playing.
5. Home is a faithful husband and wife.
6. Home is a “place for everything and everything in its place,” but not always.
7. Home is dad and mom waiting for us from school.
8. Home is a workshop for hobbies and inventions.
9. Home is where our dog lies on the doormat waiting for its master.
10. Home is a litter of puppies and kittens.
11. Home is a rooster crowing, nature’s alarm clock.
12. Home is a house lizard’s crispy announcement of a guest coming.
13. Home is a frog croaking in the rain.
14. Home is a safari of wildlife – from insects to migratory birds.
15. Home is a warm embrace of a cat.
16. Home is a cup of coffee, a sip of wine, a newspaper.
17. Home is a warm bath, a cold shower, a bath tub.
18. Home is National Geographic, Time Magazine, Daily Inquirer.
19. Home is ripe tomato, succulent radish, dangling stringbeans,
20. Home is a brooding mother hen in her nest.
21. Home is fresh eggs everyday.
22. Home is the sound of birds and crickets.
23. Home is the sweet smell of flowers, falling leaves, swaying branches in the wind.
24. Home is the sweet smell of the earth after the first rain in May.
25. Home is a singing cicada in the tree.
26. Home is a swarming of gamugamo in the evening.
27. Home is a sala too small for so many friends.
28. Home is a cabinet of books, a study table, a computer.
29. Home is Beethoven, Mozart, Abelardo, Santiago.
30. Home is Charlotte Church, Josh Groban, Sharon Cuneta.
31. Home is Amorsolo. Picasso, Van Gogh.
32. Home is potpourri of appetizing recipes, of the proverbial grandmother apple pie.
33. Home is pinakbet, lechon, karekare, suman, bibingka.
34. Home is a garden of roses, a grass lawn to lie on.
35. Home is an herbarium of plants, a gene bank.
36. Home is home for biodiversity, a living museum.
37. Home is doing repair that has no end.
38. Home is disposing old newspapers, bottles, metal scraps, used clothes.
39. Home is a midnight candle before an exam.
40. Home is a shoulder, a pillow, to cry on.
41. Home is Noche Buena.
42. Home is fireworks on New Year.
43. Home is general cleaning on weekends.
44. Home is a soft bed that soothes tired nerves and muscles.
45. Home is a fire place, a hearth, which takes the cold out of the body and spirit.
46. Home is a Prodigal Son returning, Good Samaritan.
47. Home is a round table where thanksgiving prayer is said.
48. Home is laughter and music, prose and poetry.
49. Home is forgiving, rejoicing, celebrating.
50. Home is angelus and rosary hour.

A grandmother takes care of her grandchildren while their
parents work in Manila or abroad. Iba, Zambales

To sum it all, Home is Home Sweet Home.

What makes an island happy?

What makes an island happy?

Dr Abe V Rotor

“How I wish that somewhere there existed an island for those who are wise and of good will.” – Albert Einstein

15 Verses to Live by this Christmas Season

Abe V Rotor

15 Little Stars Glowing, photo by AVR 2007

1. God's Message

Be it at Acadie or Walden Pond,
On the battleground of Basilan,
Pyramid of the Sun or Mount Saint Paul
God's message is one and same to all.

2. Friendship

Friendship shared multiplies,
Like happiness and joy do,
Whereupon brotherhood lies,
All defying mathematical law.

3. Grace

If grace builds on nature,
Then grace should abound to all;
Yet only he who is pure
Takes the gift, and not the fool.

4. Giants and Dwarfs

In life we are at one time giants, at another dwarfs,
Giving essence to character more than fairy tale;
But even in fairy tale, we gain essence in character.

5. Evil

Evil is evil, so with its mirror,
Even in disguise of the finest;
Goodness build goodness,
Tapping love in store.

6. Independence

Independence, you may wonder,
Is least understood while standing;
'Til you're on your knees groping
And feel a hand on your shoulder.

7. Anger

Clenched fists soften under a blue sky,
Like high waves, after tempest, die.

8. Convenience

Convenience is like wings gliding on the wind's will;
It is also not taking off until the wind is still.

9. Dream

When reality dies it may become a dream,
And dream is rality again foreseen.

10. Echo

On some mountain top one's echo is clear and loud;
In the market place it dies with the crowd.

11. Gem

Unless cut and polished, a stone is stone,
Like a gene lying deep, unknown, alone.

12. Crisis

The greatest crisis ambitious men and women face
Is loss of privacy trying to win a nameless game.

13. Kindness

Kindness, however small
Is never wasted at all.

14. Tradition

The past may leave remnants to the future ,
New to the young while dying bit bu bit.

15. My Life to Give

If a little in me dies if only someone must live,
Here then Lord, here is my whole life to give.

How many hair whorls or pools (puyo) do you have?

How many hair whorls or pools (puyo) do you have? 

Do you believe that gay men are more likely than straight men to have a counterclockwise whorl? How about having two opposing hair whorls?

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature School on Blog

Hair whorl or pool (puyo) on the forehead or having more than one is a sign of stubbornness,

Normally there is only one puyo or alipuspos (Ilk) located on the crown or top of the head - the tonsure area – around it the hair spreads out uniformly over the head like a whirlpool. 

When it is located at the front or anywhere else, the hair tends to become disorderly, and often untidy, more so if there are two or more hair pools contradicting one another. With this condition the hair becomes difficult to tame, especially the type that is coarse and firm, thus affecting good grooming if it is not properly given attention. It is this unique condition that gives us the impression of stubbornness on the one wearing it. Imagine if the puyo rises to resemble a horn stub.  One rising at the center of the forehead reminds us of the mythical unicorn; if it's a pair - any joke about it could be cruel to the wearer.  

It reminds me of the owl which has ears which sometimes appear as horns made of feather tufts, and chickens and birds having inverted feathers. Breeders take advantage of hair pools in developing unique breeds of dogs, cats and fowls. Hair pools also serve as official marker in identifying and registering cattle.

Thanks to today’s cosmetic science, the puyo can be tucked in conveniently and do away with the false impression that goes with it.~

NOTE: Puyo is often called cowlick to describe the hair of a new born calf licked by its mother. By the way the horn of the rhino is made of cemented hairs probably arising from a whorl.  

Acknowledgement: Twists and Turns, Wikipedia, Internet; Living with Folk Wisdom, AVR, UST Publishing House, Manila

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Lesson on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio 738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday

18 Unusual Historical Events That Happened During Christmas

18 Unusual Historical Events That Happened During Christmas

Researched by Dr Abe V Rotor

Apollo 8 Reaches the Moon’s Orbit (Internet Photo)

1. Christmas Day, 1990, The Internet Gets Its First Test Run
2. Washington Crosses the Delaware River in 1776
3. WWI Christmas Truce Soccer Games
4. USSR Invades Afghanistan in 1979
5. Isaac Newton Was Born on Christmas Day
6. Charlie Chaplin Passes Away
7. Apollo 8 Reaches the Moon’s Orbit (Internet PHOTO)
8. Mikhail Gorbachev Resigns as Soviet President
9. The Song ‘Silent Night’ Is First Performed in Public
10. President Andrew Johnson Pardons All Confederate Soldiers
11. Charlemagne Crowned Holy Roman Emperor, year 800.
12. William the Conqueror Crowned King of England, 1066
13. World War I Soldiers Hold Christmas Truce 1914
14. Andrew Johnson Pardons All Confederate Soldiers, 1868
15. Hirohito Becomes Emperor of Japan, 1926
16. President Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu of Romania Executed, 1989 
17. Ford Model T Unveiled, 1913
18. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, former presidents of the US, Die, 1826

What strange thing happened on Christmas Eve?
On Christmas Eve 1914, in the dank, muddy trenches on the Western Front of the first world war, a remarkable thing happened. It came to be called the Christmas Truce. And it remains one of the most storied and strangest moments of the Great War—or of any war in history. (Internet)

References" JM Braude, Speaker's Encyclopedia of Humor; Prochnow HY and HV Prochnow Jr, Jokes, Quotes and One-liners for Public Speakers; Wikipedia; Internet

Christmas is at the corner

Christmas is at the corner

Dr Abe V Rotor

Blue lights, color symbol of Ateneo de Manila University

Classical and colorful University of Santo Tomas, Manila

Ibon Adarna lantern, UST

Firework, perfect symetry

Snowman in the tropic

Christmas Offering 2011: Into Your Light

Poem by Dr Sel S Cabigan, Painting by Dr Abe V Rotor

Light in the Woods, AVR 1995

Today - in postmodern times - we may not be so keen in tracing the birth of Christ, re-enacting it with deep faith and reverence. The explosion of knowledge sweeping the world today has thinned out our focus on this great event, and to a large extent beclouded the historical, more so the spiritual, perspective of the Bible. To many of us, we are just too preoccupied with material things, of power and social status, we celebrate Christmas as a season of merriment and celebration peripheral to the real occasion - the coming of the Messiah.

"Into your light," was written some years ago by my friend and co-professor of a private school, which he recited during a faculty seminar. The poem became an eyeopener to many of us in the group. On my part, I painted an imaginary scenery. It is a simple painting though. But to Sel and I, the painting and the poem became the symbol of our teaching career, and memorabilia when we finally bid goodbye to teaching.

This is our simple offering this Christmas season to all our former students and co-teachers, to the millions of listeners of DZRB and viewers of this Blog. A Merry Christmas to all!

Into Your Light

And I, who affected delving into human brain,
Looking for ways that mimic how the human mind might think;
Confronted by a maze of multitudes of labyrinth
Stood in awe at what I saw: beyond imagining.

So I took hold of one little wand,
Lighter to make of learning tasks;
Hoping that this will lead to where
Your truth will piece my clouded sight.

Lead me to where I should lead them,
The little ones to my care you'll send;
That they may solve this awesome maze
And burst out bright into Your Light. ~

We offer this article as a prayer to the many victims of calamities, specially in the recent tragedy in Mindanao and Visayas. It is also a simple expression of our faith and gratitude to those who have touched the lives of our less fortunate brothers and sisters. ~

A Simple Guide in Picking and Buying Fruits

Abe V. Rotor

The best part of papaya (Carica papaya) is the lower half; it is more fleshy, sweeter and deeper in color. In the case of pineapple (Ananas comosus), it is the opposite – the part next to the stem is superior. In bananas (Musa spp), the upper fruits in the bunch are bigger, sweeter and the first to ripen. For sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) varieties for chewing – get the internodes close to the base; they are sweeter than those toward the top.

· Lansones (Lansium domesticum) – Extra large fruits have big seeds, and are not in any way sweeter than the rest in the bunch. Choose the medium size, quite elongated, and bright yellow in color. Presence of black ants has nothing to do with sweetness.

· Cucumber (Cucumis sativus) – Choose the size for pickling or about. As the fruit matures it loses its firm cartilaginous consistency and the seeds have already matured. Harvest okra, cowpea, patola, batao and string beans when still succulent, otherwise they become fibrous.

· Squash (Cucurbita maxima) – Mature fruit is tough to the fingernail and does not exude sap. Mature and seasoned squash has glutinous (malagkit) consistency. It is best in making duydoy (pasty recipe with sauteed pork and and ampalaya leaves.

. Upo (Lagenaria leucantha) - Newly harvested and young upo is succulent, and it yields easily to the fingernail test. Seeds are removed if the fruit is already mature.

. Patola - It is best when the fruit break readity. In this way you can also check if the seeds have already formed. Ribbed patola is our native variety (Luffa acutangula), while the round (Luffa cylindrica) was introduced.

· Ampalaya (Momordica charantia) – Break the tip of the stem and look for the yellowish to orange coloration at the center. Red means the fruit is over mature.

· Watermelon (Citrulus vulgaris) – Stripes are distinct and widespread. The cut stem should be green. Tap the fruit with the forefinger. If the sound is deep and dull, the fruit is ripe. Better still, ask the seller to make a triangular cut through the fruit. Newly harvested fruits have green peduncle (stem attached to the fruit). This applies to all fruits.

· Caimito (Chrysophylum cainito) - Fruits becomes shiny when it is about to ripen. This is also true in avocado (Persea Americana) and tiessa (Locuma nervosa). You can't force immature fruits to ripen; they'll just shrivel or rot.

· Chico (Achras sapota) – Lightly scrape the skin of the fruit with your fingernail. If underneath is green it is not yet ready for harvesting. This is also a guide in buying unripe chico.

· Sugar apple or atis (Anona squamosa) – Fruit well expanded, canals are distinct, color turns pale green.

· Coconut (mature) (Cocos nucifera) - Shake. A splashy sound indicates a healthy mature nut. Avoid nuts with developing buds. The bigger the bud, the bigger is the enlarged cotyledon and the thinner the meat becomes. The quality and size of the meat deteriorate as the nut germinates.

. Coconut (buko) - Cut the husk and examine the shell. If the shell is hard the nut is no longer suitable for buko salad. Too soft shell means the nut is still mara-uhog; it has no meat yet. Experts can determine the stage of the buko by just tapping the nut.

. Guava (Psidium guajava) - Get those which don't easily yield to pressure. Be guided by its sweet smell when riped. Guapple exudes little of this characteristic odor. Watch out for minute prick holes; the are signs of insect attack, likely the fruit fly (Dacus dorsalis). Get a sample, to check the damage or if there are maggots. Fruit flies also attack macopa, ampalaya, cucumber, mango, and the like. Freckles usually accompany fungus attack although it may be superficial.

. Nangka (Artocarpus integra) - The real test is the characteristic nangka smell, and the fruit yields readily to pressure. When tapped, the sound is dull and deep. Prior to this, at full maturity, the fruit turns from green to yellow, and expands to a point of cracking, the "nails" becoming broad and farther pushed apart. These signs are poorly manifested in inferior fruits.

. Granadilla (Punica granatum) - When ripe the fruit is bright yellow to orange, and it develops wide cracks (that's how it got its other name, granada), exposing pinkish fleshy seeds.

. Juvenile fruits of sampaloc or tamarind (Tamarindus indica), green mango (Mangifera indica), kamias (Averrhoa balimbi) are eaten raw with bagoong (bagoong alamang).

. Sinkamas (Pachyrizus erosus) - Get the newly harvested and young ones. It is easy to detect, by the green stem and freshness of the newly dug yam.

. Pineapple or piña (Ananas comosus) - Get the newly harvested ones, and ripened them at home. Look for any sign of damage; damaged fruits deteriorate fast. Eyes must be well set apart, uniform and bright. There are fancy shapes that may serve curiosity and aesthetic taste.

. Oranges, naranhita, dalandan, suha (Citrus spp) . Taste test is the best. Generally, oranges with indented bottom are sweet, although this is not always the case.

Buying fruits is an art. And the list of do's and don't is open ended. There's always something to learn about getting the fruits of your choice, and the best there is available. The best teacher is first hand experience. ~

Life and the Traffic Light

Life and the Traffic Light
Dr Abe V Rotor


Time is likened to the traffic light;
It signals you to go or to stop;
It comes in cycles like in a flight;
Not a wink, and rest is but a gap -
Warning nil when your time is up. ~

“We don’t own the planet Earth; we belong to it.

“We don’t own the planet Earth; we belong to it. 

Dr Abe V Rotor

Shrinking Nature, loss of wildlife, overcrowding - consequences of overpopulation.

“We don’t own the planet Earth, we belong to it. And we must share it with our wildlife.”. – Steve Irwin

Sub-culture on garbage dumps

I suspect that a huge amount of the anxiety and suffering that we see around can be closely traced to our wanton misuse of our resources. Just look at any garbage dump and see what is wasted. In a sense, we've wasted our souls. — Jay Parini

Armageddon - growing threat of nuclear weapons - and now, nuclear accidents.

“Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount.” ― Omar N. Bradley

Street children are a common breed all over the world.

The presence of even a single poor child on the street means a million defeats for mankind.  - Mehmet Murat Jldan

"The world is sitting on a volcano," should not be taken literally with all the calamities taking place. Is this part of the Mayan prophesy of doom?

 People never believe in volcanoes until the lava actually overtakes them.

George Santayana

              If your heart is a volcano, how shall you expect flowers to bloom? - Khalil Gibran ~

The Æsop for Children: Mercury & the Woodman

The Æsop for Children
Mercury & the Woodman

Honesty is the best policy.

A poor Woodman was cutting down a tree near the edge of a deep pool in the forest. It was late in the day and the Woodman was tired. He had been working since sunrise and his strokes were not so sure as they had been early that morning. Thus it happened that the axe slipped and flew out of his hands into the pool.

The Woodman was in despair. The axe was all he possessed with which to make a living, and he had not money enough to buy a new one. As he stood wringing his hands and weeping, the god Mercury suddenly appeared and asked what the trouble was. The Woodman told what had happened, and straightway the kind Mercury dived into the pool. When he came up again he held a wonderful golden axe.

"Is this your axe?" Mercury asked the Woodman.

"No," answered the honest Woodman, "that is not my axe."

Mercury laid the golden axe on the bank and sprang back into the pool. This time he brought up an axe of silver, but the Woodman declared again that his axe was just an ordinary one with a wooden handle.

Mercury dived down for the third time, and when he came up again he had the very axe that had been lost.

The poor Woodman was very glad that his axe had been found and could not thank the kind god enough. Mercury was greatly pleased with the Woodman's honesty.

"I admire your honesty," he said, "and as a reward you may have all three axes, the gold and the silver as well as your own."

The happy Woodman returned to his home with his treasures, and soon the story of his good fortune was known to everybody in the village. Now there were several Woodmen in the village who believed that they could easily win the same good fortune. They hurried out into the woods, one here, one there, and hiding their axes in the bushes, pretended they had lost them. Then they wept and wailed and called on Mercury to help them.

And indeed, Mercury did appear, first to this one, then to that. To each one he showed an axe of gold, and each one eagerly claimed it to be the one he had lost. But Mercury did not give them the golden axe. Oh no! Instead he gave them each a hard whack over the head with it and sent them home. And when they returned next day to look for their own axes, they were nowhere to be found. ~

Acknowledgement: The Internet

Release your thoughts and feelings through writing

Abe V Rotor

Writing on the ground with stick – it’s blackboard of sort, and more.

Puerto Sunken Pier, San Ildefonso, Ilocos Sur

Without map and you are in the field, the best thing you can do is get a stick and draw on the ground.

That’s how village folks plan out irrigation schedules, show the location of a remote sitio (purok), design a makeshift hut – or simply to while away time in thoughts and ideas.

Christ did write on the ground, and on one occasion made two curves facing each other to look like fish - one end its tail, the other its head. It is the simplest yet most symbolic drawing I’ve ever seen. Before he uttered these famous words, “He who has no sin, casts the first stone,” He wrote something on the ground which we can only assume to be a mark of supreme meditation.

Writing hones the senses into deeper thinking and analysis, catalyzes understanding and comprehension, and keeps memory longer. Scientists say that we learn but a measly one-fourth of the lesson by just listening to it alone, but with the use of pen and paper, learning can be enhanced twice, if not thrice.

“Put it in writing,” goes a saying. Yes, even only on the ground as our old folks have always done.

By the way, who has not experienced “writing love letters on the sand?” Listen to balladeer, Pat Boone, sing the song of the same title, and you know what I mean.

Or write your problems where the sea rises and ebbs, and watch how the waves erase them away. This is therapeutic, try it. ~

On Writing

1. To Rizal:
Someone may try to silence your writing,
and also your freedom;
the lamp flickers its last rays at dawn
to seal your martyrdom.

2. To Aesop:
Ah! Animals talk louder than men,
though in bahs and bleat;
yet by moral and sanity, speak
not the language on the street.

3. To Hemingway:
You seemed as brave as the old man
in your great masterpiece;
the soldier, the hunter, the dreamer -
yet wanting a life of peace.

4. To Darwin:
You did not give up to your critics,
who only prayed and preached;
Around the world you witnessed,
Change by random and fit.

5. To Lola Basiang
You touched a million-and-one lives,
around campfires in their prime;
like Grimm and Anderson and Homer,
storytellers of all time.~

DDT is Harmful to Health and Environment

       DDT is Harmful to Health and Environment

Researched by Dr Abe V Rotor

   

Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, commonly known as DDT (Formula: C14H9Cl5), is a colorless, tasteless, and almost odorless crystalline chemical compound, an organochloride. Originally developed as an insecticide, it became infamous for its environmental impacts. DDT was first synthesized in 1874 by the Austrian chemist Othmar Zeidler.  Exposure to DDT did not end when the chemical was banned in the United States almost 40 years ago. The chemical does not easily break down and is known by scientists to accumulate in the tissues of animals. In recent years, the Food and Drug Administration has found DDT residues in food samples.

EFFECTS OF DDT ON ENVIRONMENT AND HUMAN HEALTH

Thieu Thi Thuy Faculty of Social Sciences, Hong Duc University, Thanh Hoa Province, Vietnam. Email: truclinhduong@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

The study aims to discuss the source of DDT in the environment and critical review impacts of this insecticide in the environment and human health. Current monitoring and pollution prevention strategy for DDT also be assessed in a certain extent of the article. The methodology is based on review of literature and information from journals, published documents and the Internet. The study found that DDT has great deal of negative impacts on the environment and human health. Moreover, although DDT was not popular used in recent time, it still impacts on environment and human health due to long residual efficacy and accumulation through food chain. This was disseminated widely to warn population because there are still lots of countries manufacture and use DDT for many purposes, especially developing countries.

Key words: DDT, environment, human health, impact.

Lives of Great Men and Women – Selected Models for Today’s Youth

Abe V Rotor and Melly C Tenorio
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air)
738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening, Monday to Friday

Young Charles Darwin after his historic voyage on the
Beagle as naturalist. He was to become the father of
the theory of evolution named after him - Darwinism.

It is said, that indeed everyone is great in his or her own way, if greatness is measured by ones ultimate capacity to do good, and goodness means being of service to others and of contributing something, even only a drop in the bucket, so to speak, towards betterment of mankind, and of making this world a better place to live in. Nay, but how so few come to the knowledge of others for the good they have done. They are like the unknown soldier. They are like what Thomas said in his famous poem “Elegy on the Country Churchyard.”

“Full many a gem of purest ray serene
The deep unfathomed caves the ocean bear;
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And wastes their sweetness in the desert air.”

The poem makes us think though, that if we do not make use of that which can make us great, then we are like the obscure gem under the sea and the blooming flower in the desert.

Amongst us stand rare and distinct men and women who have excelled, more than most of us have ever done. Their contributions are of outstanding significance that has invariably affected us, our way of living, our thinking and even our perception of the future. And indeed if we have to look back without them we would doubt if ever we would be in the present state we are in. What would the world be without them?

Undoubtedly too, greatness is mirrored not only on the norms of how most of us live and would like to live, but on how these rare breed of men and women perceived ideas beyond their time in the way of the pioneer, in space and in time that few would dare to travel by, which in the words of Robert Frost goes like this –

“I will be telling you this with a sigh,
Ages and ages hence where two roads meet in a wood.
And I, I took the road less traveled by.
And that is what made the difference.”

How many people dare to take the road less traveled? How many of us found true freedom while treading on it? How many of us have dared to take the road of truth? The lonely road, the road barely a path? And to beat it in order to make one? Is it a choice? Is it fate? And fate we associate with gift – or luck we often refer to as serendipity?

Our world goes around and around, fortunate that there are people whose ideas were born ahead of their time? From these ideas bloomed into many ideas that found expression in a multitude of ways that feed of rationality as being and society. It is to these people to whom we dedicate this lesson in Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid. In so doing we may lay down an alternative path and present models of living particularly to the youth of today.

We have chosen for this purpose the following great men and women from various nations (We will be featuring separately great Filipinos in future lessons, though a number of them will be associated with the names of these international figures.)

1. Charles Darwin – Interpreter of the pattern of life, founder of theory of evolution
2. Louis Pasteur – Father of immunology, science in the service of man
3. Florence Nightingale – Founder of the nursing profession
4. Mother Teresa of Calcutta – The living saint.
5. Joan of Arc – The saint who freed France
6. Albert Schweitzer – Road of “the life of service”
7. Abraham Lincoln – Champion in the emancipation of slavery
8. Jose Rizal – The pride of the Malay race
9. Francis of Assisi – Father of Ecology, the “upside down” Saint
10. Robert Baden-Powell – Chief scout of the world
11. Leonardo da Vinci – The man of many minds
12. Pablo Picasso – Painter of an epoch
13. Anna Pavlova – Prima Ballarina
14. Ludwig van Beethoven Stormy genius of music
15. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Prodigy whose genius is therapy
16. Galileo – Greatest of early scientist
17. Carolus Linnaeus – Introduced systematic classification of living things
18. Juan Luna – His Spolarium inspired a people to gain freedom
19. Fernando Amorsolo – Master of romantic-classical painting
20. Thomas Alva Edison – Man of practical knowledge
21. Wilbur and Orville Wright – Conquerors of the Air
22. Charles Dickens – Life of the imagination
23. Gregor Mendel – Founder of the laws of heredity
24. Ramon Magsaysay – Champion of the masses
25. Christopher Columbus – Discoverer of a new world
26. Alexander the Great – Conqueror of Kings
27. Socrates – Man of Character
28. John F Kennedy – Charismatic American leader.
29. William Shakespeare – Greatest dramatist
30. Mao Tze Tung – Steered The Sleeping Giant China to become a modern nation
31. Ho Chi Minh - Vietnamese national hero
32. Pierre and Marie Curie - Discoverers of Radium
33. Herr Daimler and Herr Benz - Inventors of the horseless carriage
34. Thomas Alba Edison - the man of practical genius, inventor of the incandescent lamp
35. George Bernard Shaw - the Irish Shakespeare
36. David Livingstone - Christian explorer in Africa
37. Sir Walter Raleigh - The last Elizabethan
38. Socrates - Father of Philosophy, the man of character
39. Franklin Delano Roosevelt - The People's President
40. Mohandas K Gandhi - Man of peace, man of the last millennium

Characters that accompany greatness
1. Genetic propensity, genius, talented
2. Meeting challenge in early life
3. Endurance of pain and various trials
4. Persistence, often stubbornness,
5. Resoluteness
6. dedication
7. Inquisitiveness
8. enthusiasm
9. Pioneering
10. Humility
11. Sacrifice
12. selflessness
13. Courageous,
14. Steel character
15. Competitiveness, often against oneself
16. Accuracy
17. Perfectionism
18. Strong character
19. Grateful
20. Admired, vice versa

The other “side of midnight” in the lives of many great men and women may be characterized by the following:

1. Short-lived
2. Unhappy
3. Loner
4. Turbulent
5. Sickly/with infirmity
6. Misunderstood
7. Outcast
8. Maligned
9. Non-conformist
10. Poor, and the like.

Challenge to the radio audience of Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (School-on-Air)

1. Tell something about the legendary character - The Boy who Save Holland
2. “Serve the greatest good for the greatest number of people.” Is this parameter a good measure of how great a deed we have done?
3. Greatness can be demonstrated by certain leaders in our local community. What are the qualities of these leaders?

x x x

Self-Administered Test on Lives of Great Men and Women

Abe V. Rotor and Melly C Tenorio
DZRB 738 AM Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid
(People's School-on-Air)
Monday to Friday, 8 to 9 Evening Class

1. Admiral Horatius Nelson protected England by ruling the seas while Napoleon Bonaparte ruled the land – two titans who knew their games.

2. “If I were given three days to see,” Helen Keller said that on the first day she would feast her eyes on God’s creation, near and far.

3. Rembrandt, the greatest Dutch painter painted his masterpiece “Night watch” a huge mural; it can be compared with our own Juan Luna who painted “Spolarium.”

4. Vincent Van Gogh is a founder of impressionism, a revolution in art which started in France in the later part of the 18th century.

5. So realistic are Van Gogh’s paintings that sunflower is sunflower, and starry, starry night is starry, almost real to the senses.

Vincent van Gogh, self-portrait

6. Two saints who lived with the people – at the grassroots are Joan of Arc and Francis of Assisi. They are people’s saints.

7. Francis of Assisi is the father of ecology. Ecologists today have apparently missed St. Francis brand of an ecologist – reverence for life. Before anything else, revere life.

8. Julius Caesar was so proud he compared himself with Alexander the Great that at the age 30, he said that there is no empire left which he had not conquered.

9. Alexander the Great, two thousand years ago conceived the idea of a United Nations, and a European Union, both of which are today the greatest institutions ever built by man.

10. Princess Diana’s greatest legacy to humanity is a life she led – so personal, so touching, so concerned for the commoner – nay the unfortunate, that ultimately provided a “mirror on the wall” for the aristocracy, humiliating and humbling.

11. Mother Teresa was never undaunted, never wavered from her commitment for the poorest among the poor; never losing hope, never doubted her fellowmen.

12. “The Lady of the Lamp” is referred to no other than the Madam Curie, because the radium she was handling emitted tremendous radiation.

13. Philosophy – both ancient and modern – can be traced ultimately to Socrates, be it Platonian, or Aristotelian, the philosophies of Emmanuel Kant, Marx, Thoreau.

14. There are great men who became famous for their prophesies - Nostrodamus and Malthus. One saw tomorrow, the other the four horsemen of Apocalypse.

15. Mozart and Beethoven had extreme temperaments, so with their music. Mozart is therapeutic, Beethoven’s forceful and majestic.

16. Charles Dickens was one of the greatest storytellers of all times, he wrote Les Miserables and War and Peace, the world acclaimed best novels.

17. Albert Schweitzer and David Livingstone were both explorers and Christian missionaries in the South America the end of the 19th century.

18. If Americans have Abraham Lincoln, Filipinos has Ramon Magsaysay.

19. If Austrians had Amadeus Mozart, we Filipinos have Felipe de Leon.

20. If England has a Florence Nightingale, we have Fe del Mundo,

21. If US has a Luther Burbank, the plant Wizard, we have also Nemesio Mendiola, the man who made kenaf spineless.

22. Louis Pasteur was medical doctor, so Charles Darwin. Both however, did not practice their profession.

23. Perhaps the greatest inventor of the 19th century with the greatest number of patented inventions was Thomas Alva Edison. His most difficult invention was the incandescent lamp – he experimented on hundreds of materials in search of the bulb’s filament.

24. One man fought a nation, and save a nation, abhorring violence His only weapon: peaceful protest and civil disobedience in asceticism that swept the land, people revering him as father and almost god. His name is Gandhi.

25. Little do we know of the unknown great man, like the Unknown Soldier, yet he represents countless people whose deeds are also those of great men and women we revere today.

Author's Note: In Thomas Gray’s Elegy on a Country Churchyard, “Full many a gem of purest ray serene at the bottom of the ocean, full many a many flower that bloom in the desert… this unknown great man did not die in vain, in the same way we should regard ourselves because we – all of us has the capacity to be great. Bringing up our children to become good citizens, being a Samaritan on a lonely road, embracing a returning Prodigal Son, “plugging a hole in the dike like the boy who saved Holland from being engulfed by the sea,” or living life the best way we can that make other live the same – these and countless deeds make us great, and if in that little way we fall short of it, then each and everyone of us putting each small deeds together, make the greatest ever deed, for the greatest thing human can do is collective goodness – the key to true unity and harmony.