Fright - Bond of Loving

Fright - Bond of Loving
Dr Abe V Rotor
Photo Courtesy of Miss Marian A Bassig

Kitten comes out of its hiding frightened.  It missed its master 

who had just arrived wet from the floods that hit Metro Manila 

for days.   

Strange this feeling, fright, 
that spares no one:
the wild, tame, the rational,
in danger seen, unseen, 

More strange this feeling
beyond self alone;
for loved one in danger,
real or in the mind. 

Strangest still at realizing,
the other unknowing
of shared fright,
the bond of loving. ~      

UST AB Assignment: Capturing Human Emotion in Photographs

Dr Abe V Rotor
Professor

Here are examples  of human emotion to guide you in your assignment. 

Describe each. What skill should a photographer develop to capture emotion? What does the term feelin' mean?

  Attach your answer to your printed assignment - your best shot of Human Emotion.

Submission on Friday.  AVR

Go for Fresh, Natural, and Locally Produced Food

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

Theme: Live a healthy and long life with fresh, natural food produced in your locality

Saluyot and squash flower are a favorite of Ilocanos,
cooked as diningding (bulanglang Tag), rich in vitamins,
minerals and digestible fiber, free from pesticide residue.

Sinigang na samaral (malaga Ilk) with green pepper,
shallot (multiplier onion) and red ripe tomato.

Arusip or Caulerpa served as is, fresh from the sea,
excellent salad and side dish, with or without tomato,
onion and a dash of salt.

Kalabasang ukoy (squash, shrimp, egg and flour)
home recipe for breakfast and snack

Tupig wrapped with banana leaves (coconut meat anf milk,
glutinous rice and red sugar) cooked on charcoal

Caliente - ox hide softened under low fire, heavily spiced
with onion and pepper. Drinkers' delight (pulotan)

Get fresh, natural, and locally grown food. Lessen your dependence on fast food, processed and preserved food - they are not good to your health and they are generally expensive. The general rule is that, the longer and the more processed a food is, the less nutritious it is, and the more of health-related problems we encounter.

But you have to develop a keen sense - natural sense - in knowing what is fresh, what is safe, what is locally grown and not imported, and the ingredients a food may contain in terms of nutritional value, additives and possible harmful substances. And you must aim at geting your money's worth.

A. Always go for natural food

The rule of thumb is that, it is always preferred to eat foods grown under natural conditions than those grown with the use of chemicals. These are criteria to know if a food is natural.

• It must be fresh, or freshly packed

• It must be free from pests and diseases

• There are no harmful chemicals and artificial additives, including antibiotics residues.

• Food must not be tainted with radiation

• Natural food excludes the so-called junk food.

• It has been processed by natural means such as blast freezing, sun drying and the like.

• Packaging materials are safe to human health, animals and the environment.

• It meets standard organoloeptic test (taste test) and nutritional value requirements.

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Don't take "magic sugar" (aspartame, nutrasweet, saccharine, zero softdrinks, diet cake, diet drinks). Powdered fruit juices generally contain natural and magic sugar (mostly aspartame). Read the label properly and be guided. Don't use MonoSodium Glutamate (MSG) or Vetsin, and other pseudonyms, in your cooking. When ordering food in a restaurant, specify not to use MSG. Don't eat in restaurants you aren't sure the food you are eating is spiced with MSG. Read more about the harmful effects of these two artificial food additives - Aspartame and MSG. Reference: Internet.
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B. Get the best from your favorite fruits

1. Be keen with the appearance, smell, feel – and even sound – of the fruit before harvesting or buying it. There’s no substitute to taste test.though. Develop your skills on these fruits: mango, musk melon, soursop or guyabano and its relative, sugar apple or atis. Also try on caimito, chico, siniguelas, and such rare fruit as sapote.

2. To ripen green fruits, rub table salt on the cut stem (peduncle). Salt does not only facilitate ripening, it also protects the fruit from fungi and bacteria that cause it to rot. You can use the rice box-dispenser to ripen chico, caimito, avocado, tomato, and the like. Wrap the fruits loosely with two or three layers of newspaper before placing them inside the box. As the fruits ripen they exude ethylene gas that hastens ripening.

3. Bigger fruits are always generally preferred. Not always. Native chico is sweeter and more aromatic than the ponderosa chico. Big lanzones have large seeds. Bicol or Formosa pineapple, although not juicier, is sweeter than the Hawaiian variety. Of course we always pick up the biggest mango, nangka, caimito, watermelon, cantaloupe, atis, guyabano, and the like.

4. There are vegetables that are eaten as fruit or prepared into juice. Examples are carrot, tomato, green corn, and sweet green pea. Asparagus juice, anyone? Try a variety of ways in serving your favorite fruits. nangka ice cream, fruit cocktail in pineapple boat, avocado cake, guava wine. Enjoy the abundance of your favorite fruits, consult the fruit season calendar.

C. Do the processing yourself. Can you make Vrgin Coconut Oil (VCO) at home?

The price of this “miracle cure” has soared and there is now a proliferation of commercial brands of virgin coconut oil in the market. The old folks have been doing this for a long time. One such person is Mrs. Gloria Reyes of Candelaria (Quezon) who makes virgin coconut oil. This is the step-by-step process she follows.

1. Get twenty (20) husked, healthy, and mature nuts. They should not show any sign of spoilage or germination. Shake each nut and listen to the distinct sound of its water splashing. If you can hear it, discard the particular nut.

2. Split each nut with a bolo, gathering the water in the process. Discard any nut at the slightest sign of defect, such as those with cracked shell and oily water, discolored meat, presence of a developing endosperm (para). Rely on a keen sense of smell.

3. With the use of an electric-driven grating machine, grate the only the white part of the meat. Do not include the dark outer layer of the meat.

4. Squeeze the grated meat using muslin cloth or linen to separate the milk (gata) from the meal (sapal). Gather the milk in wide-mouth bottles (liter or gallon size).

5. Cover the jars with dry linen and keep them undisturbed for 3 to 5 hours in a dry, dark and cool corner.

6. Carefully remove the floating froth, then harvest the layer of oil and place it in a new glass jar. Discard the water at the bottom. It may be used as feed ingredient for chicken and animals.

7. Repeat the operation three to four times, until the oil obtained is crystal clear. Now this is the final product – home made virgin coconut oil.

Virgin coconut oil is a product of cold process of oil extraction, as compared with the traditional method of using heat. In the latter coconut milk is brought to boiling, evaporating the water content in the process, and obtaining a crusty by-product called latik. The products of both processes have many uses, from ointment and lubrication to cooking and food additive. There is one difference though, virgin coconut oil is richer with vitamins and enzymes - which are otherwise minimized or lost in the traditional method.

D. Rice is substitute, and a better one, to wheat flour.

Of all alternative flour products to substitute wheat flour, it is rice flour that is acclaimed to be the best for the following reasons:

• Rice has many indigenous uses from suman to bihon (local noodle), aside from its being a staple food of Filipinos and most Asians.

• In making leavened products, rice can be compared with wheat, with today’s leavening agents and techniques.

• Rice is more digestible than wheat. Gluten in wheat is hard to digest and can cause a degenerative disease which is common to Americans and Europeans.

• Rice is affordable and available everywhere, principally on the farm and in households.
Other alternative flour substitutes are those from native crops which are made into various preparations - corn starch (maja), ube (halaya), gabi (binagol), and tugui’ (ginatan), cassava (cassava cake and sago).

. Lastly, the local rice industry is the mainstay of our agriculture. Patronizing it is the greatest incentive to production and it saves the country of precious dollar that would otherwise be spent on imported wheat. ~

Tree of War and Peace

Dr Abe V Rotor

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam 

If for any reason this tree has grown high,
Higher than any building, higher than the eye;
It was war, it was once a flag pole;
It was war that makes a proud soul.

If for any reason this tree is now bare and shrunk,
Their tops pruned, red flags once nailed on its trunk;
It is peacetime, two scores after the battle cry;
It is peacetime, and people just pass by.

x x x

Photography: Beauties in a Garden

Dr Abe V Rotor
Reference in Photography on Natural Beauty
Living with Nature - School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday

Hawaiian touch with white frangipani

Framed with orchids

Morning with the crotons

Atop a guava tree

A heavy veil of Mussaenda

Giant Grass, Giant Men

Dr Abe V Rotor

Giant Bamboo - the biggest grass in the world, 

Museum of Natural History, Mt Makiling, Laguna

Kin of the cereals, the pasture grass,

the bamboo stands king of 'em all,

living all through the seasons green,

while its kind surrenders to the fall.

Mystic are its ways, proud it stands, 

whisp'ring stories spooky and tall, 

music to growing up children 

into brave men, seasoned and full. 

The world wouldn't be the same without,

men build churches, high rise and all,

their craft and art in their living huts

make the finest behind their wall. ~   

The Beauty of the Beast

Beating hot summer, Agoo, La Union

Carabao herd, San Marcelino, Zambales

Detail of mural, Life on the Farm

Dell H. Grecia*
Women’s Journal
Backyard Ventures

Don’t underestimate the lowly carabao. In this country where modernization remains a distant dream, the carabao is still nature’s most efficient farm machine.

How much do we really know about the water buffalo or carabao?

The carabao is nature’s most efficient farm machine, capable of providing food, articles of trade and services. It requires little maintenance and depreciates very slowly. It also adds aesthetic value to the rural landscape.

Three factors are responsible for our renewed interest in the water buffalo. These are: 1) the worsening oil crisis; 2) the growing ecological concern; 3) the increasing demand for natural food.

Undoubtedly, the carabao is not only a beast of burden, but also a beast of hope in the Third World.

What about Mindoro’s tamaraw?

The tamaraw, or Anoa Mindorensis, is a related species as it belongs to the same family. Other off-lineages are the Anao depressionis of Sulawesi, Indonesia, and the seros or Capricornis sumatraensis of Sumatra.

There are only around 100 million heads of water buffaloes in existence today in 38 countries, mainly in the Asian region with India and China accounting to seventy percent of the population. We have around two million heads in the Philippines, 99.5 percent is raised in the backyard, according to the Philippine Carabao Research and Training Center. 

But just how important is the buffalo as a draft animal? Until recently 50 percent of the total available agricultural power in Asia is supplied by animals - most of which are water buffaloes.

Beef vs. Carabeef

The carabeef of a two-year-old animal is even better in chemical and nutritional value than beef. As for the taste, carabeef, provided they came from animals of the same age and raised on the same feeds, have similar qualities, including tenderness, flavor juiciness and general taste.

I also learned that the apparent aversion to carabeef is caused by the fact that nearly all carabaos slaughtered for meat are tired animals, which have fibrous meat with low nutritional value.

Better Than Dairy Cattle

Buffaloes have a longer lactation period, and produce a greater percentage of milk (over 2,700 kg per lactation) with higher fat content. In addition, they also have a much longer productive life. However, buffaloes have longer dry and gestation periods. They tend to be older at first calving, and have no longer calving intervals. These, among other factors, cause raisers to prefer dairy cattle to buffaloes.

Richer Than Dairy Cow’s Milk

Buffalo milk is richer in all major nutrients, which is important in creaming. Philippine carabao’s milk contains 9.65 percent fat (4.5 percent higher than Jersey’s cow’s milk), 5.26 percent protein, 4.24 percent total solids, 0.083 percent chloride, 0.216 percent calcium, and 0.177 percent phosphorous. Philippine carabaos also produce a higher fat and total solid content than any other domesticated buffaloes.

Our local soft white cheese is made from carabao’s milk. Local cheese is made in many parts of the world where buffaloes and cattle are raised. Laguna and Batangas are the country’s leading white cheese makers.

There are two cheese- making methods: one is the traditional method, which produces inferior cheese with low quality: the other is the improved method, which was developed by the University of the Philippines Los  Banos (UPLB). With the latter, both yield and keeping quality have been improved. One study even showed that the quality of white cheese produced through the UPLB method is comparable to that of European cheese.

More Notes on the Carabao

India exports millions of dollars worth of buffalo hide yearly. Next to jute and cotton, buffalo hide is the third largest industry in Pakistan. The U.S., UK, Yugoslavia, Italy and Australia are the major markets for buffalo hide, which is used in all types of heavy leather manufacturing- from belts to upholstery, and recently, even fashion articles.

Filipinos, on the other hand, love chicharon, a delicacy made from carabao hide, and kare-kare, which also contains buffalo skin.

Buffalo hair is also made into industry brushes and paintbrushes used by artists.

Promotes Ecological Balance

Raising water buffaloes likewise helps in maintaining ecological balance. For one, the mud in which they wallow serves as the habitat of useful organisms like edible snails, frogs, mudfish and shrimps. When the monsoon rains come, the population of these organisms increase, to the delight of farmers who depend on them for food.

Secondly, buffaloes also serve as agents-biological machines- that recycle farm waste and residues.

The excreta of the buffaloes are a good organic fertilizer containing 18.5 percent nitrogen, 43.7 percent phosphoric acid, and 9.6 percent potash. It is a good source of fuel, either as dried dung or for generating biogas.

Thirdly, it can be mixed with clay as a building material or as plaster for the ground where palay is threshed. When mixed with clay, it is excellent for sealing jars and other earthen containers.

When I was in Pakistan to attend a convention, along with half a dozen other Filipino agricultural journalists, I observed that houses in the countryside were made of a mixture of animal dung and clay.

Raising the Beast

Buffaloes, like cattle, can be raised in the ranch. In fact, there are now carabao ranches in the Philippines housing around 500 heads.

Buffaloes can also be raised by small farmers principally for meat and milk. An individual farmer can raise 10  fattening steers as year by planting good forage in an irrigated area and can make as much money from these as a successful rice farmer does. Raising carabaos is the perfect companion industry for rice farming, as water power, meat, milk, and organic fertilizer.

Anecdote

The sight of the carabaos reminds me of my farming days, back when I was studying at the Central Luzon Agricultural School (now Central Luzon State University) in Munoz, nueva ecija. And then, during the Japanese time, my father and I tilled our two-hectare farm in Balabag, Pavia, Iloilo.

When I was in agricultural vocational school, my group mates and I were lent a male crossbred buffalo (native bred with India Buffalo) to use in farming. (Second-and third-year students were required to complete a two-year rice farming activity, so we had to devote half a day to our farm work and the rest of the day to studying.) The buffalo assigned to us was docile and industrious- it could work rain or shine. We also saw to it that he was fed well, and we let him wallow in the mud.

After the two-year farming period, we found that parting from the animal was difficult, as we had learned to love him, and we felt that he, too, loved us back.

As for our harvest, the school bought them all, and the money was immediately deposited in our student bank to withdrawn once we graduated, so we had money for capital or for college education.

In our Iloilo farm, our male carabao was also a hardworking one. He was adept at plowing, especially in making straight rows, and in intertillaging, when plants-especially corn-needed tillaging.

One day, I was riding on the back of our carabao on my way to our farm. While crossing the lake, the animal got scared of something and suddenly stopped, tossing me, head first, into the muddy part of the lake. I could have drowned if it were it not for Ising, a cousin who happened to pass by.

My anger at the animal was short lived, though. I forgave him, and enjoyed many more journeys with it.~ ~

Acknowledgment: In memory of the late Dell H Grecia, long time friend of the author; Living with Nature in Our Times, 2006 UST Publishing House

Ode to the Stone Carabaos of Marikina River

Dr Abe V Rotor 
Photo Credit Miss Yna Paulene Arellano

These photos speak of us -

Homo sapiens, faber, ludens, spiritus;

We who think, make, play, pray,

to, for whom, this offer be -     

PSERE: Reflections on Guimaras Island

Dr Abe V Rotor

 Guimaras in my palm

To see the world in a grain of sand,

      And a heaven in a wild flower;

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand ,

      And eternity in an hour.

- William Blake (Auguries of Innocence)

Where birds and fish meet, sky and river;

when the world is at peace and not a stir;

when the heart throbs not of fear and pain,

but tenderness of a flower grown by rain.

Living on the ledge is a curious thing,

From one world to another world; 

Where freedom is honor and pride,

And finding but the edge of a sword,
That rules the Great Divide.

Would you like to live behind bars of saplings and bushes?

where the pond creates a thousand images, 

where deep down breathes life, life of the pond and the trees,

where thoughts live or die as you wish?

    

It looks like a monster facing the sea,

all clothed in verdant green;

it holds back the wind, wave and tide,

the evil spirit unseen. 

How long will I wait and greet you a pleasant day?

But the shy creature is fast asleep in its burrow;

It can't understand your language, only that of the sea,

And kind notes and gestures more than humans know.  

A nursery of mangrove starts to wean

the young plants early for the open sea;

when man by contrast would not dare

but spoils his child from being free.    

And the sapling walks alone into the open,

on stakes anchored in the mud;

hello, it greets the world, and many guests,

to its shadow, confident and proud.

What is a swamp with its unkind, unpleasant name,

this forgotten domain between land and sea,

where monsters lurk, where death reigns, and life

is but an accident, where time is an enemy?

Swamp of sadness, swamp of despair, where 

legends and tales are on the dark side;

yet the riches of the world from the ancient sun

here grew, the fossils coming out alive.   

Pristine by the mirror of the sky,

the trees aligned on the shore;

the air in the stillness of peace,

the water emerald and pure.    

Thoughts run faster than vision, often reaching no destination;

While a boatload of souls patiently waits at sea with the wind 

To take them to where they are bound in work or pleasure;

Having also thoughts of their own, but aimed at their mission.   

Kugtong - giant lapulapu - feared in the bottom of the sea,

its kingdom secured by its fierce look and size;

who would believe Captain Nemo of Jules Verne's book?

Oh, unless you've seen it with your own eyes.

Bridges tell us of war and peace,

bridge across a river or waterfall; 

pontoon bridge in the battlefield - 

memories the longest bridge of all.

Either the rock is rising or sinking, I can only surmise,

A cave on the outside, a cavern deep down below;

Wish I were a witness, or that I might be -

To the creation of a world, its transformation, too,

But I would lose the essence of awe. I wish I won't be.    

  

To each his or her reflection, yet collectively the same and one:

the beauty of nature in a piece of rock floating,

Guimaras - a corner of Eden saved from Sodom and the Flood,  

where man is led back to his happy beginning.    

This post is dedicated to the participants to the 20th Annual Conference of the Philippine Society for Educational Research and Evaluation, May 10 and 11, 2012. I was given the  honor and privilege to be one of them in the group. Acknowledgment: J B Lacson Foundation Maritime University, Arevalo Iloilo City, host of the Conference,  This article is dedicated to the JBLF Marine Sanctuary, Nueva Valencia, Guimras Island.

PSERE: Country Road in Guimaras

Dr Abe V Rotor

Take me to the country far, far away from the city, 

where sound is music, nature's canvas the landscape,

where mountains, meadows and the sea are green;

where there are no walls, roofs, and bars to escape.

Take me to the county, far, far away from the crowd,

where I'm not just a part, where I am myself again;

where there is no high rise, where the cottage reigns,

where home is nature as I open the window pane. 

Take me to the country, far, far away from forgetting,

the cheerful child in me many, many years back;

flying kites at harvest time, fishing in the summer,

where school is far, yet learning is not what I lack.

Take me to the country, far, far away from the town,

where cars can't follow, where affluence has no place;

where commerce is simple, where wealth is not gold,

where living is not a show, where every meal a grace.

Take me to the country, far, far away from the race,

where I can compete best with myself, not with others;

where I can learn more the ways of nature, not of men;

where civilization begins once more at its borders. ~ 

         

 

Old asphalt road exudes the ambiance of a typical countryside.

  

 

Road expansion gives way to the growing number of vehicles.   

Slow pace of life is still evident; road arch welcomes the visitor to Nueva Valencia, site of an ecological park.

 

Changing landscape:  mansion and nipa hut attest to a growing socio-economic disparity.