A simple Test on Simple Living

Towards the Culture of Naturalism

The more closely related supply and demand  cycle is in a given 

community, the more self reliant that community is. Is this true?

Dr Abe V Rotor 

 Living with Nature - School on Blog

 

Range poultry is not dependent on antibiotics and formulated feeds (T or F) 

 Firewood and charcoal are environment friendly compared to LPG and electricity (T or F)

Part A  “Odd-man out”  Pick out the unrelated word.

1.         Asceticism, simplicity, materialism, austerity (simple living)

2.         Tolstoy, Schweitzer, Gandhi, Hemingway (Disciples of simple living)

3.         Darwin, Rousseau, Marx, Thoreau (Philosophers of simplicity in living)

4.         Pinakbet, karekare, bagnet, bulanglang (vegetable recipe)

5.         Bangos, tilapia, dalagang bukid, hito (one is not freshwater fish)

6.         Gabi, kamote, cassava, katuray (root crops)

7.         Kalabasa, malunggay,  pipino, ampalaya (Family of Cucurbits)

8.         Lato, nori, lumot, sea cucumber  (edible sea weeds)

9.         Kamatis, luya, sibuyas, paminta (sinigang recipe)

10.      Luya,  tanglad, pandan mabango, gabi (food spices, additive)

Part B - True or False

1.    Although asceticism generally promotes living simply and refraining from luxury and indulgence, not all proponents of simple living are ascetics. 

     

2.    Home gardening could be the layman’s answer to food shortage worldwide.

3.    Global Warming is a culprit to projected food shortage because of the erratic behavior of our climate, worsened by increasing frequency and intensity of force majeure.

4.    Chemical pesticides and fertilizers have improved productivity of farmlands as well as enhanced sustainable production.

5.    Farmers and their families live on edible wild life species of freshwater fish, crustaceans, mollusk and amphibians.

6.    Decrease in food production is also a result of increasing price of fuel, so that when price of food goes up, increase in fuel follows.

7.    For this matter (referring to the previous statement), the world’s population can safely increase further without fear of shortage in food and other needs.  It is only a matter of improving technology and direct it to this purpose.

8.    Vitamins and minerals are concentrated in the vegetable, not in its rind or skin. Thus you have to peel kalabasa, pipino, talong, patola and the like.

9.    The sea is nearly 4 km deep, and up to 12 km at its deepest – which means that fishing has barely scratched the surface of the sea, thus there is no felt danger of depletion of resources.

10. GM rice or golden rice contains yellow pigment of daffodils which is rich in Vit A.   Vit A may be needed by the body but an overdose of it may be deleterious to health such as allergy. This is the first case of “biopharming” – implanting drugs and medicine in food plants to act as food and medicine at the same time. 

11. What economists insist that the road to good life is a economic development, and any country that remains underdeveloped will never have a taste of it.

12. There is limit to growth; it cannot be a perfect progression.  Somehow the curve becomes an inverted C – which means that the factors of growths become the antithesis of growth itself.

13. Buy only reliable brands of tools, and if your budget allows, invest in lifetime tools such as Rigid, Stanley, Makita, Black and Decker, Bosch, Coleman, Crossman, Dremel, Sandvik, El Toro, to name a few. Be sure these are not imitations. 

14. Home for the Golden Years must be kept as simple as possible, orderly, clean and healthy, removing things that may cause accidents

15. Austerity brings awareness, it gives us time to plan out, to review our goals.

16. Hi-tech is expensive and it is the consumer who ultimately pays it.  It is to the people the users of Hi Tech charge its cost.  Austerity calls for a moderation in technology.  Austerity and innovative technology are compatible.  Innotech is people’s technology.

17.  Modeling of successful projects such as coops (farmers multipurpose cops), agro-eco center (Cabiokid), Kabsaka (Sta. Barbara, Iloilo), mangrove farming, seaweed farming, Irrigators’ association, Dr. Parra of Iloilo – these must ride on Filipino trait of gaya-gaya.  Gaya-gaya put to good use.  Peer teaching and learning is effective among the masses, and should be complementary with formal education. Austerity opens a gateway to look into models we can adopt under our local conditions.

18. “Necessity is the mother of invention, so “crisis is the sphinx of survival.” (Story of the Sphinx.)  What is it that walks on all fours in the morning, two at noon and three in the evening?”)  Crisis is Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest.  It rewards the strong, eliminates the weak, humbles the proud, deepens the soul, and elevates the spirit. -  of those who can make it.”  Crisis is the time to test man’s soul.” Soul is the ultimate of man’s capacity to survive. (Thesis of Victor Frankl – A Search for Meaning)

19. You practice the 7Rs in Waste Management: Reduce, Recycle, Refurbish, Renovate, Restore, Reserve, Revere (and Rotor – Rotate).  These 7Rs are vital tool in living an austere life.

20. The more closely related supply and demand  cycle in a given community, the more self-reliant the community is.  This means that in that community, people produce what they consume; consumption motivates production and vice versa.  This according to Dr. Anselmo Cabigan is a basic tenet of austerity, because the self-reliant community becomes less dependent on external factors and the vagaries of the larger environment.

NOTE: Answers will be posted in a week's time

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TRIVIA:  What is Epicureanism 

Epicurus
(341 BC - 270 BC)

"We begin every act of choice and avoidance from pleasure, and it is to pleasure that we return using our experience of pleasure as the criterion of every good thing."

Based on the teachings of the Athens-based philosopher Epicurus flourished from about the fourth century BC to the third century AD. Epicureanism upheld the untroubled life as the paradigm of happiness, made possible by carefully considered choices. Specifically, Epicurus pointed out that troubles entailed by maintaining an extravagant lifestyle tend to outweigh the pleasure of partaking in it. He therefore concluded that what is necessary for happiness, bodily comfort, and life itself should be maintained at minimal cost, while all things beyond what is necessary for these should either be tempered by moderation or completely avoided.