Angora Bunny, a Family Pet

Angora Bunny, a Family Pet

Dr Abe V Rotor 

 

 Fluppy Bunny, a family pet, QC

She is Fluffy for her cottony fur,

Silk to the touch, easy to comb;

She's always around, never gets far,

Even when you're not at home.

Angora rabbit coat - a question of ethics (Internet) 

Art Lessons from Mackie, 6 - Colors and Composition (In celebration of UN Children's Month, November 2018)

Art Lessons from Mackie, 6 - Colors and Composition  (In celebration of UN Children's Month, November 2018)

Art can be learned not only from the masters, 

but from budding artists as well.

Dr Abe V Rotor 

 A pony-fish with rainbow colors,

prancing and swimming; 

Green for the field, blue for the sea,

bright as the sun shining.

                                                                                                                                             

A pink unicorn, tame and lovely;

seven headbands make her a lady, 

from fantasy to virtual reality,

for a fine children's story. 

Where does composition begin?

It begins with inquiring look,

agape in surprise, frozen in place, 

to imagine a nearby spook. 

A pony-bee or butterfly pony

all dressed up for a party; 

wonder if she's princess or fairy;

it's a rich visual story.

                                                

A test of relationship, it seems:

one  wins, the other loses;

or, could it be master and pet,

or butterflies and roses? 

          

Twin hearts of two siblings, 

great love for one another;

not yet Cupid, save your shot;

let the child artist wonder

to  write a story of her painting,

for time to remember.  

. 

                                                                  It's choreography 

of a Shakespearean play,

in far, far fairyland, 

brought by magic wand. 

.NOTE: The author is grandfather of the child artist, Mackie R Sta. Maria, 5 years old. Medium used: colored marker and pastel on drawing paper.

Kids' World of Nature - Where childhood is forever (In celebration of UN Children's Month, November 2018)

Kids' World of Nature - 
 Where childhood is forever 
"Fleeting moments are most precious,

ephemeral yet eternal.  The child in you 

lives to the golden years of your life."

Dr Abe V Rotor 

 Catching land crabs with a bamboo trap. Palauig, Zambales 

How I love to catch gammarong (Ilk) crab 
when I was like my son Leo Carlo;
he learned the skill early from me, passed on
by old folks by the sea; Leo in turn 
shall teach others before the art is lost,
as  treasured trade and  tradition.  
   

 Building sandcastles.  Morong, Rizal 

Building sandcastles, building dreams,
on waking up are gone, but they return  
as sandcastles and dreams again 
throughout  youth, higher and bigger,
 crumbling leaving ruins of memories, 
ruins where castles once stood proud,
uniting reality and fantasy into a happy,
wonderful and fulfilled life.    

Summer fun on the beach.  San Juan, Ilocos Sur

Frolic in company with the waves and tides, 

when the sea is as blue as the sky, and wish

boyhood is forever and never dies;

or you'll always tarry in later years  if you don't;

for fleeting moments are most precious,

ephemeral yet eternal in that child in you 

who lives into the golden years of life.  

    

 Christmas for under-the-bridge children.  Pasay MM

The bells of Christmas sound louder among the poor;
the Bethlehem star shines brighter, too.  
The angels come earlier in their homes without door.
 in exchange of a simple lantern or two.  

 Instant swimming pool from busted pipe.  Sta. Mesa, MM

A swimming pool in the middle of a street,
a busted pipe blessing to a dozen kids 
in the neighborhood in frolic and laughter;
like a Riviera or Thoreau's Walden;    

it's a children's world, a corner of Eden. 

   

Mushrooms growing on a tree stump. UP Diliman QC 

Mushrooms on a stump, home of the dwarfs:

red, yellow, white, or in disguise,

each color a character, a foe or a friend,

to find where the pot of gold lies.

Nipa Hut by the river, Tagbilaran, Bohol

Frolicking - game of the vibrant and the young,

recreating a primordial social bond;

where innocence means freedom and adventure, 

In sweet abandon, here and beyond. ~

Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT): Simplest remedy for dehydration

Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT):

 Simplest remedy for dehydration 

Here is a simple formula for oral rehydration therapy (ORT): a fistful of sugar + a pinch of salt + a jug of water. This old home remedy is now recognized by the WHO and UNICEF of the United Nations (UN-WHO) which recently reported that it has saved some 40 million lives. 

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature School on Blog

Diarrhea lurks everywhere - flood water, dirty dwelling, street food, contaminated drinking water, poor hygiene, and the like.

Diarrhea claims the lives of 3 million people, with nearly 2 million of them children under five years old. Yet a simple and inexpensive treatment can prevent many of those deaths.

 

Headline: 12 dead, 214 downed by diarrhea in N. Cotabato (Philippine Daily Inquirer May 14, 2014)

Here is a simple formula for oral rehydration therapy (ORT): a fistful of sugar + a pinch of salt + a jug of water. This old home remedy is now recognized by the WHO and UNICEF of the United Nations (UN-WHO) which recently reported that it has saved some 40 million lives. This home grown remedy hopes to further demote diarrhea from its present status as the second leading cause of death among children, to an ordinary ailment that can be readily prevented or treated.

According to WHO/UNICEF, ORT should begin at home with home fluids or home-prepared sugar and salt solution at the first sign of diarrhea to prevent dehydration (loss of body fluid). Feeding should be continued at all times.

However, once the patient is dehydrated, the regimen should be switched to official preparation usually in pre-measured sachets that are ready to be mixed with water. The formula is commercially sold or supplied by local government and relief agencies like WHO and UNICEF. In 1996 alone UNICEF distributed 500 million sachets to over 60 developing nations.

Everyone experiences at certain times symptoms that may be associated with diarrhea, such as too much drinking of alcohol, intolerance to wheat protein (gluten) or lactose (milk), or chronic symptom to food poisoning. It is also associated with anemic condition, pancreatic disorder, and radiation treatment (chemotherapy)

There are even cases of drastic diarrhea among curious children who ate seeds of castor (Ricinus communis) and tubang bakud (Jatropha curcas). The beans from these plants taste like peanut of sort. Castor oil was once the most popular purgative, until it was discovered to contain ricinin, which is a poisonous substance.

Community effort to prevent the outbreak of diarrhea from unsafe water.

There are cases that need immediate medical attention, specially diarrhea associated with blood, diarrhea that continues for more than two days, diarrhea associated with general illness such as fever, weight loss, abdominal pain etc.

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

"The discovery that sodium transport and glucose transport are coupled in the small intestine so that glucose accelerates absorption of solute and water (is) potentially the most important medical advance this century." British Scientific Journal

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

  Pathology of the disease

Diarrhea in travelers needs medical attention, since they are likely to have exotic infections such as parasites. And to prevent the spread of diarrhea, health programs should include strict supervision of food and food handlers. For these and similar cases, it is best to consult healthcare professionals or go to the health center.

                                

Let's take heed of the advice of old folks and the experts.

An electron micrograph of rotavirus, the cause of nearly 40% of hospitalizations from diarrhea in children under 5 years old. (Wikipedia) 

NOTE: ORT may be traced to the prescriptions of an ancient physician Sushruta way back over 2500 years for the treatment of acute diarrhea with rice water, coconut juice and carrot soup. However, this knowledge was unknown in the Western world not even during the pandemic of cholera in Russia and Western Europe in 1829. ORT developed from this ancient and ethnic remedy, which is today the most extensive and effective control of a disease unparalleled by any other means.~

Reference: Living with Nature, Living with Folk Wisdom by AV Rotor, UST Publishing House, Manila; Time, Wikipedia Diarrhea outbreak in the Philippines

Biological Pest Control: Controlling Pest with Other Organisms

Biological Pest Control
Controlling Pest with Other Organisms

"There is no way to escape pesky creatures. Conflict arises where their populations overrun our crops, spoil or stored products, and threaten our health and welfare. We have set thresholds of co-existence. As long as they do not cross this line, I think it is all right to be living with them, to ponder at the beauty of their wings, the fire they carry, the song they make, the magnitude of numbers, or simply to marvel at the mystery of their existence." avr
Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature School on Blog

It is a common practice to remove unsightly cobwebs. But come to think of it. We are destroying natural insect traps built by spiders. Inside warehouses spiders prey on weevils and moths that destroy grains and other commodities. 

Ducks feed on golden kuhol which became a major pest of rice. They also feed on insects and weeds for which they are important as biological agents in controlling pests. 

So with mosquitoes and flies at some corners of the house. No radar system or other echolocation instruments can detect the fine web, which makes this indigenous trapping devise.

On plants stalk the preying mantis that snatches its victim with one deadly grasp. The spotted ladybug overruns a colony of aphids and has its fill, unless the red ants guarding the aphids come to the rescue. A nest of hantik up in the tree has an army by the thousands. They swarm on intruders and large preys such as caterpillars.

Under the microscope one could examine the unsuspecting Trichogramma. Mass culture and dispersal of this parasite wasp has benefited sugar and corn planters since its discovery in the fifties.

Bacillus thuringiensis or Bt, has become the most popular entomophagous bacterium against Lepidopterous pest which include rice stem borers and corn borers. Applied as inoculums, Bt can cause widespread epidemic on these pests on the field.

Practical Pest Control at Home

Here are pest control techniques you can adopt at home.

1. To control furniture weevil and moths destroying the felt and the wood of the piano, place a dozen well dried black pepper (do not crush) in the piano chamber near the pedals. Paminta is a good repellant and has a pleasant smell.

2. Coconut trees whose shoots are being destroyed by rhinoceros beetle (Oryctis rhinoceros) can be saved with ordinary sand. If the trees are low, sprinkle sand into the leaf axils. Sand contains silica that penetrates the conjunctiva, the soft part of the body where hard chitinous plates are joined.

3. Bean weevil destroying stored beans, especially mungo, can be control by mixing a little ash of rice hull (ipa’) with the same principle as in rhinoceros beetle.

4. To get rid of nematodes in the soil, incorporate chopped or ground exoskeleton (skin) of shrimps into the soil, preferably mixing it with compost. Chitinase is formed which dissolves the cover of the egg and the body of the organism. Use poultry dropping to reduce nematode population.

5. To control cucurbit fruit fly, cover the newly formed fruits of ampalaya and cucumber with paper bag. Bagging is also practiced on mango fruits. Use newspaper (1/8 of the broadsheet) or used paper, bond size. Roll the paper, two inches in diameter, insert the young fruit, fold at the top and staple. Bagged fruits are clean, smooth and light green. Export quality mangoes were individually bag on the tree.

6. To discourage goats in nibbling the trunk of trees, paint the base and trunk with manure slurry, preferably their own. To keep termites away from mud-plastered walls, use termite soil (anthill or punso).

7. Raise ducks to eat snail pest (golden kuhol) on the farm. Chicken and birds are natural insect predators.

8. An extra size mosquito net can be made into a mini greenhouse. Here you can raise vegetables without spraying. You can conduct your own experiments such as studying the life cycle of butterflies.

9. There are plants which have repellant properties. Plant them around the garden. Examples are lantana (Lantana camara), chrysanthemum, neem tree, eucalyptus, madre de cacao (Gliricida sepium), garlic, onions, and kinchai.

10. To scare birds that compete for feeds in poultry houses, recycle old balls, plastic containers, styro and the like, by painting them with two large scary eyes, imitating the “eyes” on the wings of butterflies and months. Hang them freely where birds frequent the area. To scare off birds in the field, dress up used mannequins. They are more effective than the T-scarecrow. Cassette tapes tied along the field borders produce sound that scare maya and other pests.

Insects as Food

One practical means of insect control is by gathering them to supplement nutrition. Gathering of insects for food is not only confined among primitive societies but is still one of the practical means of controlling insects. Anyone who has tasted camaro’ (sautéed mole cricket) would tell you it is no different from a crustacean. Well, insects and shrimps belong to the same phylum – Arthropoda.

Locust may destroy crops, but in a way bring food to its victims. During a swarm, locust is gathered by the sacks and sold for food and animal feeds. So with gamu-gamu (winged termites) at the onset of the rainy season, which is also the time of emergence of salagubang, another insect delicacy. Other food insects are the grubs of kapok beetle, eggs of hantik, larvae of honeybee and cheese maggots.

When is a pest a pest?

When we see an insect, instinct tells us to kill it. It should not be. A caterpillar is a plant eater, but the beautiful butterfly that emergence from it is harmless. In fact it is an efficient pollinator. Hantik ants make harvesting of fruits very inconvenient because of their bite and sting, but they guard the trees from destructive insects. Houseflies carry germs, but without them the earth would be filled with dead bodies of organisms. They are nature’s chief decomposers working hand in hand with bacteria. Termites may cause a house to fall, but without them the forest would be a litter of fallen trees.

It is natural to see leafhoppers on rice plants, aphids on corn, bugs in the soil, grasshopper on the meadow, borers on twigs, fruit flies on ripening fruits. These organisms live with us under one biosphere. And if the rule is for us to dominate them, for all we know they have been dominating the earth for millions of years, even before mankind was born.

There is no way to escape pesky creatures. Conflict arises where their populations overrun our crops, spoil or stored products, and threaten our health and welfare. We have set thresholds of co-existence. As long as they do not cross this line, I think it is all right to be living with them, to ponder at the beauty of their wings, the fire they carry, the song they make, the magnitude of numbers, or simply to marvel at the mystery of their existence.

Green pond frog and preying mantis are friends of the farmer - they are predators of 
pest attacking crops in the field.

  

Nest of hantik ants, another predator of insect pest. Burning is a practical way of getting rid of insect pest. Burning is however, generally discouraged because it deprives the farm of valuable organic matter, feeds for livestock, and materials for mulching and mushroom culture.

References: Living with Nature in Our Times,by AV Rotor, UST Publishing House, Manila; 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

Ilocano Song: Dungdunguen kanto (I will love and cherish you)

Dr Abe V Rotor

.

An Ilocano Song: Dung-dungwen Canto

Dungdunguen kanto unay unay, (I will love and cherish you always)
Indayonen kanto iti sinamay, (I will cradle you to sleep in a soft-cloth swing)
Tultuloden kanto nalumanay, (I will swing you ever so gently)
Pagamuanen inkanto mailibay. (And soon enough you will be asleep)
(*Refrain)

Mac and Anna wedding

Apaman nga inkanto makaturog (As soon as you have fallen asleep)
Iyabbongkonto ta rupam daytoy panyok. (I will cover your face with my handkerchief)
Tapno dinakanto kagaten ti lamok (So no mosquitoes would bite you)
Ken maimasmonto't maturog. (And so you would enjoy a good slumber.)

Apaman nga inkanto makariing (As soon as you awaken,)
Dagdagusen kanto a sappuyoten (I would immediately hold you)
Nga ililili kas maysa nga ubing (And dandle you like an infant)
Ta nanamem sam-it ni issem. (So you could see my sweet smile)

*Annay, pusok, annay, annay, (O, my aching heart, it aches, it aches,)
Nasaem, naut-ut la unay. (It hurts badly, it hurts to the core.)
Itdem kaniak ta pannaranay (So, please, please your nurture give)
Ta kaasiak a maidasay. (For it is pity if I would die.)

See: Dung-dungwen Canto Video on Philippine Literature Today CD
(Philippine Literature Today - Rotor AV and KK Doria, C and E Publishing 2010

The reasons I write

The reasons I write

Series of Lectures before graduate students at University of Santo Tomas, De La Salle University (D), and University of Perpetual Help (R) based on Living with Folk Wisdom.

Dr Abe V. Rotor

Published by University of Santo Tomas, launched 2008 Manila International Book Fair, SMX Mall of Asia, 220 pp. "The book is a compendium of indigenous technical knowledge complemented with modern scientific thinking. The narratives offer an exploration into the world of ethno-science covering a wide range of practical interest from climate to agriculture; medicine to food and nutrition..: (Excerpt of Foreword by Dr Lilian J Sison, dean UST Graduate School).

" For the science educator and communicator, here is a handy volume to help you reach the popular consciousness. You will find here more than ample number of examples for making connections between lived experience and scientific information." (Dr Florentino H Hornedo, UNESCO Commissioner)

My friends would exclaim and even if they don’t, I could read their eyes. “Why you are still alive!” And I would return a wide grim. And we rejoice. There are many things in this world to be happy about and rejoice. 

Eighteen years ago today I was dying in a hospital. After two major operations, I left everything to Providence. I was supposed to deliver a response being an author of a book published by UST, Light from the Old Arch. My daughter Anna stood before the audience on that occasion and gave the response on my behalf. It could not have been any better if I did. She is a brave daughter, and I believed she was guided by the Light I saw and wrote about – Light from the Old Arch. 


And so, since that day eighteen years ago, and everyday thereafter I would rise before the sun does, and write my thoughts in the creeping light of dawn. Thoughts come beautifully in the morning of a new day, which I simply call a “bonus” – a term I couldn’t define, much less understand. Every morning is a beautiful morning, and there is nothing more beautiful than it because it is a bonus of an extended life. It is an extension of a breathing, thinking and feeling soul. Above all it is a bonus of thanksgiving. 

It was only then that I began to understand who and what is a writer, but why should one write remained elusive, beyond my understanding. I have read about Scheherazade the story teller of "a thousand and one nights," I have read a part of the book Walden Pond of Henry David Thoreau who wrote it far away from society. Or the Brownings in their exchange of romantic feelings in classical poetry. How powerful are the themes of Ernest Hemingway, and I did not expect how his life was ended had I not read what Van Gogh did when he had painted everything, except death. Hellen Keller wrote in the light of darkness because she was blind. So with John Milton who wrote Paradise Lost, and later Paradise Regained when he was already blind. How could Rachel Carson had written if she didn’t see Nature like a woman being raped and trampled? 

Before I simply wrote. I looked on all sides for what every event or action there was. Until I saw a dim light coming from the window of an old house. I traced it. It was far and dim yet penetrating in the mist of time, and obscured by the passing views of change. 

But it is almost magic. It’s a miracle, if I would say so, because I am still alive today. Thought after thought, page after page, chapter after chapter I was able to write a book, and another. And another that my alma mater, and the UST Publishing House are launching with other new books. 

I write because I believe in Robert Ruark’s Something of Value .  He said

“If a man does away with his traditional way of living and throws away his good customs, he had better first make certain that he has something of value to replace them.”

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

. I write because I believe in Homer’s epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, which in the same way as Aesop’s fables, survived after two or three thousand years.


Homer and His Guide, by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825–1905), portraying Homer on Mount Ida, beset by dogs and guided by the goatherder Glaucus (as told in Pseudo-Herodotus)

· I write because I would not look farther than the timelessness of Christ lessons in parables? The Sermon on the Mount, The Prodigal Son, the Sower, The Good Samaritan - these and many more, continue to live in the home, school, pulpit as it had persisted in the catacombs in the beginnings of Christianity. 

· I write because Homer, Socrates, Aesop, Buddha, Christ and other early authors did not write. I am the lesser teacher so that I will enshrine the teachings of these great teachers. I am aware that it is through oral history, in spite of its limitations and informal nature that these masterpieces were preserved and transcended to us - thanks to our ancestors, and to tradition itself. 

· I write because I am one of those who inherited and benefit today of the valuable basic scientific knowledge such as the Pythagorean Theorem (all philosophies are resolved into the relations of numbers), the Law of Buoyancy from Archimedes, the Ptolemaic concept of the universe (although it was later corrected with the Copernican model), Natural Philosophy of Aristotle (Natural History), not to mention the Hippocratic Oath, the ethics that guide those in the practice of medicine which our modern doctors adhere to this day. 

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

. I write for adventure because I was a boy once upon a time, and the Little Prince in me refuses to grow old. On my part, like other boys in my time, boyhood could not have been spent in any better way without the science fictions of Jules Vernes – Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Eighty Days Around the World – and the adventures of Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. It is the universality of human thoughts and values that is the key to the timelessness of tradition – indeed the classical test of true masterpieces.

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

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

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

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

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

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

· I write to challenge the young generation if such stories have lost their appeal, more so of their relevance. It is as if we have outlived tradition in such a manner that anything which is not modern does not apply any longer. What aggravates it is that as we move in to cities we lose our home base and leave behind much of our native culture. 

· I write because I hope to help hold the tide of exodus of people moving into cities, whether in ones own country or abroad, and the lure is so great nearly half of the world’s population is now living in urban centers. Ironically the present population explosion is not being absorbed by the rural areas but by cities, bloating them into megapolises where millions of people as precariously ensconced. And now globalization is bringing us all to one village linked in cyberspace and shrunk in distance by modern transportation. We have indeed entered the age of global homogenization and worldwide acculturation.

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

· I write to raise these questions that analyze ten major concerns about living. In the midst of socio-cultural and economic transformation from traditional to modern to globalization - an experience that is sweeping all over the world today - these concerns serve as parameters to know how well we are living with life. 

· I write to raise the consciousness of the reader as he goes over the various topics in this book and help him relate these with his own knowledge and experiences, and they way he lives. 
· Simple lifestyle 
· Environment-friendly 
· Peace of mind 
· Functional literacy
· Good health and longer active life
· Family and community commitment 
· Self-managed time 
· Self-employment
· Cooperation (bayanihan) and unity
· Sustainable development 

· Eighteen years ago I began to gather and put into writing many things about living. Primarily these are ethnic or indigenous, and certainly there are commonalities with those in other countries, particularly in Asia, albeit of their local versions and adaptations. It leads us to appreciate with wonder the vast richness of cultures shared between and among peoples and countries even in very early times. Ironically modern times have overshadowed tradition, and many of these beliefs and practices have been either lost or forgotten, and even those that have survived are facing endangerment and the possibility of extinction. It is a rare opportunity and privilege to gather and analyze traditional beliefs and practices. 

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

I would like to read the excerpts of the writings of the critics about my new book. 

“Very common people, in very common settings, with very simple objects, now tell us how to keep in touch with nature. For instance we rejoice in the bounty of leafy vegetables growing on discarded tires, sustained with compost from a city dump. We also find relief from a burning fever through a cup of lagundi tea, or savor broiled catfish fattened at a backyard pond. Sometimes, we painfully ponder the fate of a dog headed for slaughter, or grieve at the gnarled skeleton of a dead tree, or awe in at the metamorphosis of a cicada, or immersed in the lilting laughter of children at play.”

Anselmo S. Cabigan, Ph.D.

“Cultural anthropologists affirm culture as the soul of civilization where people attain their identity, value orientation and aesthetic sense. Culture gives the people their perceptual apparatus and orientation of understanding. It is the reservoir of life-wisdom of the people. Today, the concept of integral sustainable development includes cultural progress which starts from a positive social self-definition and identity. Hence, local history and cultures provide a glimpse of the indigenous wisdom of the people that speaks of their religious worldview and deep connection with the Earth.”

Professor Ronel P. dela Cruz, Ph.D.

Professor, St. Paul University Quezon City

I thank all of you most sincerely for being part of this memorable occasion.

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