Adda Kadi Pay Bambanti? (Are there still scarecrows?)

 

Scarecrow in the rice field  (Siquijor) from Travelpod, thanks

The scarecrow is found in many parts of the world in different versions according to culture of the place. It has one universal design though - a T-frame dressed like a human.

Abe V Rotor

Bannawag

Okeyka, Apong!

Dagiti Tawid a Sirib ken Adal

The Scarecrow is an art in the countryside.

Maysa nga arte ti away ti bambanti. Nakamattider iti tengnga ti kataltalonan a mangbutbuteng kadagiti billit babaen dagiti nakadeppa nga imana ken ti datdatlag a rupana a nalingdan iti payabyab. Bantayanna dagiti nakadawan a pagay tapno awan ti agkaan a billit-tuleng (Lonchura malacca jagori ken L. m. formosana) wenno maya iti Tagalog.

Adda dagiti billit-tuleng iti agarup sibubukel nga Asia ken iti Pasipiko. Ad-adda a dawa ti pagay ti pagbiagda, ken bukbukel dagiti ruot. Makadanonda pay kadagiti mandala wenno sarusar a pagtuktokan iti irik. Maris-daga wenno kayumanggi dagitoy a billit ken nagsinan-trianggulo ti sippitda nga umisu unay iti panagsippit ken panagukisda iti bukbukel wenno dawa. Sangapangen no agdissoda iti kapagayan.

Isu nga adda dagitoy bambanti nga agbantay. Iramanda pay nga abogen dagiti billit-tsina, ken dadduma pay a billit nga agkaan iti dawa. Nareppet a garami a nangsinan-T daytoy bambanti. Sa mabaduan iti daan a kamiseta wenno bado nga atiddog ti mangngasna ken payabyab. Daytay aglanglanga a kasla mannalon tapno kabuteng dagiti billit.

Adda ketdi parikutna daytoy. Kas iti nasursuruan nga aso ni Pavlov (ti prinsipio ti nakondision a pannakasursuro), maamiris met dagiti billit-tuleng a saan met gayam a pudpudno a mannalon dagitoy bambanti. Ket sakbay a maammuan ni mannalon daytoy, nagum-uman dagiti billit-tuleng kadagiti dandanin maani a pagayna. Amangan ta adda pay dagiti agbatay a billit-tuleng iti mismo nga abaga wenno ulo ti bambanti.

Kadagitoy a tiempo, matmatayen nga arte ti bambanti. Kas sukatna, mangibanteng dagiti mannalon iti tali iti kapagayan a pakaisab-itan dagiti namamaris a plastik bag. Adda met dagiti mangibanteng iti “tali” ti daan a cassette tape wenno video tape— no agangin, aguni dagitoy a mangabog kadagiti billit. Adda payen dagiti agusar iti ‘pellet gun’.

Naminsan, nakakitakami iti maymaysa a bambanti iti tengnga ti kataltalonan. Idi maasitganmi, naduktalanmi a maysa gayam a manekin ken nabaduan a kunam la no adda iti maysa a mall. Nalagipmi la ket ngarud ti ubing a nakaduktal iti estatua ni Venus de Milo iti maysa a pasto iti Gresia.

Iti sabali pay a gundaway, nakakitakami kadagiti lobo (balloon) ken styropore balls a nakabitin kadagiti pinagayan a namarkaan kadagiti rupa da Jollibee, Power Puff Girls, Batman, Popeye, Mr. Bean, ken sumagmamano a karakter iti pelikula ken cartoon. Ket nadlawmi nga awan a pulos ti billit iti aglawlaw!

Idi nadakamatmi iti maysa a gayyemi a maysa nga entomologist, nga epektibo daytoy baro a bersion ti bambanti, kinunana nga aglinglingaling: “Mabalin nga awanen dagiti billit.”

Nalagipmi la ket ngaruden ti Silent Spring, ti premiado a libro ni Rachel Carson. Dagiti billit iti dayta a panagrurusing (spring), natayda gapu iti pannakasamalda iti pestisidio.—O

Love that scarecrow (banbanti Ilk.). It is folk art on the farm. In the middle of the field it feigns scary to birds, what with those outstretched arms and that mysterious face hidden beneath a wide brim hat. There it stands tall amid maturing grains, keeping finches or maya birds (Lonchura Malacca jagori and L. m. formosana) at bay. Finches are widely distributed in Asia and the Pacific feeding on rice grains, and alternately on weed seeds, but now and then they also steal from the haystack (mandala) and poultry houses. They are recognized for their chestnut colored compact bodies, and sturdy triangular beak designed for grain picking and husking. The scarecrow also guards against the house sparrow, mayan costa (billit China Ilk.), including the lovable turtle dove or bato-bato (Streptopelia bitorquata dursummieri), all grain feeders.

A scarecrow is usually made of rice hay shaped like a human body wrapped around a T-frame. It is simply dressed up with old shirt and hat. The idea is to make it look like the farmer that the birds fear. There is one problem though. Birds, like the experimental dog of Pavlov (principle of conditional learning), soon discover the hoax and before the farmer knows it a whole flock of maya is feasting on his ready-to-harvest ricefield. It is not uncommon to see maya birds bantering around – and even roasting on the scarecrow itself!

Today the scarecrow is an endangered art. In its place farmers hang plastic bags, or tie old cassette and video tape along dikes and across the fields. These create rustling or hissing sound as the wind blows, scaring the birds. Others use firecrackers and pellet guns.

At one time I saw a lone scarecrow in the middle of a field. On examining it closely, I found out that it was made of a mannequin dressed the way the fashion world does. It reminded me of the boy who discovered the statue of Venus de Milo in a remote pasture in Greece. On another occasion I saw balloons and styropore balls hanging in poultry and piggery houses, bearing the faces of Jollibee, Power Puff Girls, Batman, Popeye, Mr. Bean and a host of movie and cartoon characters. Interestingly I noticed that the birds were nowhere to be found.

When I told my friend, an entomologist, that these new versions of the scarecrow seem to be effective, he wryly replied, “Maybe there are no more birds left.” Suddenly I remembered Silent Spring, a prize winning book by Rachel Carson. The birds that herald spring had died of pesticide poisoning.

Our dear followers and readers: Please write something about the scarecrow and let's help preserve this endangered art. (AVR)

 Acknowledgment:  Bannawag, Manila Bulletin. 

Environment: Food Security is Green Revolution at the Grassroots. Self-Administered Test (True or False, 50 Items)

 

Painting in oil by AVRotor

 

 

 Can you identify these vegetables? Recall the song Bahay Kubo (My Nipa Hut), and list down the plants mentioned.


Abe V Rotor
DZRB Green Revolution Test
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid
738 KHz DZRB, 8 to 9 evening class
Monday to Friday

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.

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 technically.

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.

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 forest. 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.

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.

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 inhabitants to move out of the confines of a once socialistic confine in search of the Good Life that they very much deserve.

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.

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.

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. Through M-99, Maisan 77, and many barangay food production programs, the country even surpassed suffiency level and became a net exporter of rice and other food commodities.

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.

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 still are still existing and operating like President Cory’s family hacienda – Luisita – which was singularly exempted from land reform.

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?)

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.)

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.

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.

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 tradition in the area. They say don’t break away sa naka-ugalihan. If you agree with Mang Tonio answer true, if not false.

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.

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.

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 all these were virtually erased after the Edsa Revolution.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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

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.


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.)

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.

30. Homesite for the Golden Years (HGY) which we launched on PBH last February 14 this year 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 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.

46. Or add ampalaya leaves to mungo and dried fish or sautéed pork.

47. Pinakbet anyone? Native or wild ampalaya cut in half or quarter without severing the cut.

48. Ampalaya and egg, scrambled.

49. Roasted young ampalaya fruit, cut crosswise and served with bagoong.

50. Ordinary people like anyone of 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 ASEAN, 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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Assignment
 
1. Let’s make a Lazy Man’s Garden at Home. What are plants considered literally tanim ng tamad, a syndrome many Filipinos fall into, a little bit of every thing (tingi-tingi), ningas kogon, makakalimutin, kulang sa tiyaga, and mapabaya’: papaya, malunggay, siling katuray, ube, patola, kondol, upon, alugbati, talinum, patani, batao, segidillas, kumpitis.

2. Ano-ano ang mga halaman na nakakain na hindi itinatanim. (What edible plants simply grow spontaneously)

--------------------------

Answers: These items are True: 1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 18, 20, 21, 23, 30, 33, 34, 37, 38, 39, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50; all other items are False.

Environment: Culture and Sustainability: Guiding our children to the Good Life in a changing environment (20 scenarios)

Paper presented by Dr Abe V Rotor, UST

 

Dr Rotor receives certificate of appreciation as Plenary Speaker, from Dr.Teresa R Perez, president of  Philippine Society for Educational Research and Evaluaion during the 20th annual conference of PSERE at JB Lacson Foundation Maritime University. Arevalo,  Iloilo.

1. Our children’s development depends largely on interrelated factors and stages:

              1. genetic (inherited)

              2. fetal (in the womb)

              3. childhood (environment & training)

              4. lifestyle (influence of society)

Like a house these are the 4 posts –pillars of our children’s personality and well-being.

 

2. Our children are likely to affected by "Your head is in the cloud" syndrome. - Inundated by more information than they can possibly hold in their heads, they’re increasingly handing off the job of remembering to search engines and smart phones.

 Never mind memorizing the multiplication table, or Mendeleev's Periodic Table of Elements. Spelling  of a word, its homonym, antonym? Check it out on  the computer. Assignment? Search, download, print, submit - just don't forget to place your name. Psychologists proposed a new term - transactive memory, a prelude to blending natural and artificial intelligence.

3. Our children are becoming more and more transient in domicile where work may  require, and for personal reasons, and when given the choice and opportunity in a global perspective.

“Citizen of the world” is a person without a specific country.  He is rootless, baseless, transient. Compared,  humans since creation live together under a specific culture.

4. Our children face more frequent, and deeper, forms of stress. People with higher levels of education and in higher status occupations and higher income are experiencing higher levels of stressors. 

¨

Success can make life harder if you are driven, work-devoted that high status persons tend to be. Mental and physical health benefits associated with greater affluence fade away. It is harder to cope with stress when you have reached the top of your career.    

  

5. Our children face – more than we do today - the consequences of  loss of privacy and secrecy.  “There is no place you can remain with comfortable anonymity.”

Wikileak unveiled classified information about the Iraq and Afghanistan war.  DNA test proves real parental lineage. Bank secrecy laws and safeguards are changing.  Citizens claim their right to access to hidden financial transactions.

¨

6. Our children will face deprivation of natural beauty and bounty with the unabated  shrinking wildlife, conversion of farms and pastures into settlements, and destruction of natural habitats and ecosystems. The challenge to restore nature will be placed in their care.  

  “Canned Nature” (delata) – pseudo Nature Centers.  Gubat sa Siyudad, Fantasyland, Ocean Park, Disneyland, Eco Village, zoos, botanical gardens. 

7. Our children are at the frontline and center of people’s revolution spreading worldwide. 

Arab Spring is sweeping North Africa and the Middle East, so with the escalating unrest questioning the present world order. All over US the young are angry at the inability of government and capitalism to narrow down economic inequity. Occupy Wall Street! is the battle cry.  Syria is sitting on  social volcano.  Greece, Italy, Spain, once world powers in their own time are undergoing a similar revolution.  


8. Our children will be part of devolution of power, decentralization of authority, and will be part of a new breed of more dedicated leaders.

Children hold the key to change. It’s the Little Prince that changed and saved the pilot in an ill-fated plane crash in Sahara.

9. Our children face acculturation and inter racial marriages.  Mélange of races is on the rise – Eurasian, Afro-American, Afro-Asian,  etc. – a homogenization process that reduces as a consequence, the diversity and vigor, of gene pools. 

The benefits – economic,  cultural and scientific - may not hold in the long run. Homogenization leads to narrowing down of the gene pool, and may threaten races and ultimately the species.  

10. Our children may find themselves in a new norm of living alone. Solitary living is spreading all over the world, the biggest social change that has been long undermined. 

Living solo is highest in Sweden (47%), followed by Britain (37%), Japan, Italy, US, Canada, Russia, South Africa, Kenya, and Brazil (10%). Living alone may help people pursue modern values - individual freedom, and self realization – but detrimental to health and happiness, and in the long run, to the  community and nation. It could lead to more, and deeper, gender problems mainly on homosexuality.

11. Our children may find themselves among the increasing rank of the Nones - people who have no religious affiliation, rejecting organized religion as being rigid and dogmatic -  hoping to eventually find the right religious home.

It is a kind of freedom to feel more devoted to God, of moving away from the problems of the church, and money-making religions. However, this could lead to deeper consequences since such loss may include loss of faith in other institutions. 

12. Recycling the Suburbs. Environmentalists will celebrate the demise of sprawling suburbs, which left nations addicted to cars. Infrastructures will be converted in favor of "green", town centers, public libraries, museums, sports centers, parks.

More and more countries are imposing regulation to green the cities, from sidewalks to rooftops. Hanging Gardens of Babylon, anyone? If this was one of the wonders of the ancient world, why certainly we can make a replicate - perhaps a bigger one - given all our modern technology and enormous available capital.

13. Our children face the age of singularity  whereby human and artificial intelligence are integrated.  Robotics robs human of his rights and freedom – new realm of curtailment and suppression. (2045 – The Year Man Becomes Immortal – Time Magazine). This is falsehood!

14. Our children will continue looking for the missing links of science, history, religion, astronomy etc., among them the source of life itself and its link with the physical world.

Linking of disciplines, narrowing down the gaps of specializations, is vital in the making of a new culture. 

15. Our children will witness in their time the beginning of a post-capitalism order, environmental revolution, rise of growth centers and shift in economic dominance and order, more green technologies, and space exploration.

Success of China, Singapore, Malaysia, Germany, Vietnam, has opened other post-capitalism models. 


16. Our children, as they grow old,  will be living in an aging society, and learn to age gracefully themselves.  They will find , and become part of the Aging Niche.

Longevity is increasing all over the world: the average age of a Japanese is 78 years,  the American 75 or 76 years. We are quite close to China with at least 70 years.¨Niche communities are where people as they advance in age opt to grow old alongside others who share a specific interest.

  

17. Our children will carry on a lifestyle "Handprints, not Footprints“. They will carry on this way of caring the Earth which we started.

They will reduce the impact of living against the environment - less CO2, less CFC, less non-biodegradables and other synthetics, less pesticides, etc. On the other side of the equation would be the number of trees they plant, their savings on electricity and water. Lesser pollutants, if not arresting pollution itself - and the like. Our children will clean the land, water and air we the generation before littered.  They will heal the earth we defaced, damaged. 

18. Our children will fit into any society where racism and apartheid had once divided people because of the  color of their skin and region of origin.

Today colored athletes dominate many sports, many are great leaders of states and movements. Kopi Annan, an African, served the UN for many years, Kenyan Wangari planted millions of trees.  Both are Nobel Prize recipients. President Obama of the US, and the living hero of South Africa, Nelson Mandela are the world’s most popular leaders today. Man is created equal beneath their skin, and in fact, by circumstance, the colored races have proved superiority over the non-colored: in schools, scientific discoveries, business, technology - name it and you have a colored standing out.

19. Our children will realize and enjoy the benefits that  jobs are assets. A sampling of fast-growing occupations - Actuaries, financial analyst, computer programmer, fitness trainer, biophysicists, translators, manicurists, marriage counselors, radiologists.

Need a design for your product? Give it to an IT graduate with a background in design. Need a kind of product or service not found in the mall or supermarket, search the Internet. Entrepreneurs have taken over much of the functions of big business. 

20. Finally, postmodernism may do more harm than good for our children in a runaway technology and culture. They cannot and will not be able to keep with the pace and direction of change.   

This is not true. “I am the master of my fate, I’s the captain of my soul.”  And this is what we  want our children to become – but only when they are CHILDREN OF NATURE. ~

Humanities and Naturalism: The Eyes of Nature

Humanities and Naturalism: The Eyes of NaturPainting and Poem by Abe V Rotor 

 Eyes in the Forest, acrylic painting on canvas (60" x 44"), by AVR, May 2012

Details: Young adventurers in full gear prepare to penetrate the forest; emergent tree rises to a hundred feet surpassing the canopy layer. A nest is perched on the top, with a mother hawk attending to her young.

 

A pair of deer, a coiled boa, and many more hidden and camouflaged. Trees are real giants of the living world. This Dipterocarp is tallest tree in the Tropical Rain Forest. 

The Eyes of Nature

Many eyes are looking at me here with Nature;

By day and night, beneath and atop a tree.

They're scary, they're mean, they're sleepy, 

And how do I look to them seeing me?

Wink and they wink, close and they do, too.

Quick the flashlight, and they disappear;

Can eyes exist alone, like stars in the sky?

I wonder if these eyes are like stars to cheer.  

Yes, the fireflies have lamps that flicker,

The moth and butterfly have wing spots

Like monstrous eyes to stave off predator,

And cave dwellers glow in rows and knots. 

The fish in the stream is silver in the moonlight,

As bubbles rise to the surface and sparkle,

The owl rarely blinks, no creature dare around,

Its infrared vision indeed a marvel.

Raindrops falling make a thousand eyes
Life they bring to the rainbow, borrowing
its colors glow, and sparkle as they drop,
reborn with the light of the river flowing. 

Mushrooms are phosphorescent, they glow,

while others absorb light for future use;

Ah, boast the snake, I can freeze you to fall,

An eagle swoops, there's no excuse.

Petals attract a pollinator in the night

Crickets shine when won by a song,

Seeds pop out to meet the rising sun,

And the sun shines happily all along. 
 

Eyes, eyes, eyes, - for us to see the world, 

And all eyes the world is bound;

In our sleep, in the deep forest and ocean,

Eyes make the world go round. ~ 

Ephemerida

Abe V Rotor

Floating lotus and frangipani flowers, an offering.

Beautiful? Yes you are!
Clothed with the colors of the sun;
For now you’re a flower shining,
Shining and dying.

True beauty’s so brief and shy,
And elusive to behold,
Gaining all eyes of the world,
Yet alone to be awed.

Sparkling dewdrops cling and rise
To bring down a passing cloud;
Beauty can’t wait, like the seed.
Waking to nature’s bid.

Friendship earned but in a glance,
Like butterflies on a tree
Resting on a long journey,
To where they are free. ~

Scenic Rural Iloilo from the Air

Photos and Poem by Abe V Rotor
 

































Biggest spotlight - the sun - reveals a typical farming community, the fields
 basking with the golden color of grain  and color of the earth after harvest.  
 

  Geometric parcels of farmland in parallel formation apparently 

   show diversified farming and system of crop rotation.

 

It's the peak of summer, and the rains have not arrived.  Green patches are fields irrigated from shallow wells.

 

Residential houses huddle on one side of a creek (left); farms 

undergo fallowing, a resting period in summer.

 

Misty air  looms over the dry landscape - a prelude to monsoon

 

This fringe of land appears to have a sub-climate of its own influenced by the surrounding sea, while the rest of the island undergoes the normal dry season. 

  The uplands were once covered with forests and grasslands, 

now converted into agriculture and settlements. 

A wisp of smoke greets the lazy morning air from among 

the trees  that line a creek appearing like a miniature forest. 

A unique symmetry created by a natural waterway crowded with trees that form a natural windbreak and  sanctuary of surrounding organisms specially in summer. 

Take me for a moment away from you, Mother Earth,

higher than the highest mountain, the tallest building,

that I may view life whole and solid and unabridged

in a perspective beyond details, and without stirring:

I see clouds shrouding you from the sun and blue sky,

in cumulus like giant mushroom on the horizon, rising,

and released into nimbus, becoming heavy, falling as rain

in the accompaniment of wind, thunder and lightning.

I see rivers swell and lakes fill to the brim in monsoon,

flooding fields and pasture, spilling through the valley,

meandering, roaring over waterfalls and boulders,

resting in swamps and estuaries, then flowing to sea.  

  

I see farmers in the field, women and children, too,

and work animals pulling the plow and the harrow;

I hear singing and laughter and joyous conversation,

barking of dogs, cackling  of fowls trailing the furrow.

I see harvesters gather the golden grains by hand;

drying shocks in the sun, and building  haystacks;

I see flocks of pigeon and native chicken gleaning,

women and children, the sun setting on their backs  

I see the fields scorched, a smoke here and there - 

bush fire! when the grass dries up bursts into flame

spreading all over, burning anything on its path - 

what a waste! but it is nature's work and game. 

I see poor harvest, good harvest, where and why,
crops early or late, and fields never planted at all;
I see farming a way of life, farming as a business,
and farm life in all seasons, happiness is its goal.

I see children flying kites of various makes and colors,

beside them grownups cheering, coaching, flying

their own kites too, oh, they have not forgotten

the art of their childhood, so do I, reminiscing.

I see children playing patintero, trompo and sipa,

games of old folks when they too, were children;

games of beetles and spiders as gladiators;

palo de sebo and pabitin can not be forgotten.   

I see tourists, I see balikbayan, I see old and young;

familiar and unfamiliar faces, sweet, shy, and bold;

I see children going to school, housewives to market,

people of all walks of life, always on the move. 
 

I see the hills and mountains, to me they're the same,

but where have the forests gone, the pasture?

I see the rivers, the lakes and ponds old as they are,

I have always loved all of these as I love nature.  

I have seen enough, let me return, Mother Earth,
to my home, sweet home, on the farm, to my family;
and tell them of what I've seen in my short sojourn, 
down below I saw my friends, my neighbors, and me. ~