Two Perspective Views of Nature

Two Perspective Views of Nature

Dr Abe V Rotor

Fisheye View of Forest Trees in acrylic by the author 2021

I look up, there they stand tall to heaven;

their tops buried in the blue sky;  

they look down and shake hands with me

 I wish it's forever and not goodbye.   

Microscopic View of Algae in acrylic by he author 2021 

I look down, there you reach out to heaven, too;

this protolife converts light energy to matter,  

 base of a living pyramid, and I stand on top;

you're and not I,  the key to life's miracle. ~  

San Vicente town fiesta, April 27, 2021 "Ur-urayenka Anakko" (I am waiting for you, my child.)

 In celebration of San Vicente (IS) town fiesta, 

April 27, 2021 2019

 Ur-urayenka Anakko

 (I am waiting for you, my child.)

 

17^th Century Church of San Vicente Ferrer, Ilocos Sur

I am a modern day Prodigal Son. I spent fifty long years searching and searching for a place I may call my own in the whole wide world. Yes, fifty long years of my youth and in old age – twice longer the fiction character Rip van Winkle did sleep – and now I am back to the portals of my hometown, to the waiting arms of my father.

The proverbial Lamp I still hold flickers, but it is but a beacon in embers now, for it had spent its luminance in the darkness of human weakness and failures, it beamed across the ocean of ignorance and lost hope, it trailed the path of many adventures and discoveries, and it kept vigil in the night while I slept.

And what would my father say? He meets me, embraces me, and calls everyone. “Kill the fattest calf! Let us rejoice.”

San Vicente is my home. It is the bastion of my hopes and ideals. At the far end on entering the old church is written on the altar, faded by the elements of time and rough hands of devotees, Ur-urayenka Anakko – I am waiting for you my child. When the world is being ripped by conflicts or pampered with material progress, when mankind shudders at the splitting of the atom or the breaking of the code of life, when the future is viewed with high rise edifices or clouded by greenhouse gases – my town becomes more than ever relevant to the cause for which it has stood through the centuries - the sanctuary of idealism in a troubled world, home of hundreds of professionals in many fields of human endeavor.

“Kill the fattest calf,” I hear my father shout with joy. It is celebration. It is a symbol of achievement more than I deserve. But my feeling is that I am standing on behalf of my colleagues for I am but an emissary. Out there in peace and trials, in villages and metropolises, in all endeavors and walks of life, many “Vincentians” made their marks, either recognized on the stage or remembered on stone on which their names are carved. I must say, it is an honor and privilege that I am here in humility to represent them that I may convey their unending faith and trust to our beloved hometown.

The world has changed tremendously, vastly, since I passed under the town arch to meet the world some fifty years ago. I have met wise men who asked the famous question “Quo vadis?” -where are you going? I can only give a glimpse from the eye of a teacher, far for the probing mind of Alvin Toffler in “Future Shock,” or those of Naisbitt and Aburdane, renowned modern prophets. Teachers as I know, and having been trained as one, see the world as it is lived; they make careful inferences, and take a bird’s eye view cautiously. They are conveyors of knowledge, and even with modern teaching tools and communication technology, cannot even qualify as chroniclers, nay less of forecasters. I have always strived to master the art of foretelling the future, but frankly I can only see it from atop a misty mountain. How I wish too, that I can fully witness the fruits of the seed of knowledge a teacher has sown in the mind of the young.

Limited my experience may be, allow me to speak my mind about progress and developments in the fifty years I was away from home, but on the other side of midnight, so to speak.

1. The monster that Frankenstein made lurks in nuclear stockpiles, chides with scientists tinkering with life, begging to give him a name and a home.

2. Our blue planet has an ugly shade of murk and crimson – fire consuming the forests, erosion eating out the land, polar ice shrinking, flooding the shorelines.

3. One race one nation equals globalization. How we have taken over evolution in our hands. We are playing God, is Paradise Lost II in the offing?

4. The world is wired, it travels fast on two feet – communication and transportation. The world has shrunk into but a village. Homogenization is the death sentence amid a bed of roses for mankind.

5. Man-induced phenomena are too difficult to separate from those of nature. We take the latter as an excuse of our follies, a rationalization that runs counter to be rational. Only the human species has both the capability to build or destroy – and yet we love to destroy what we build.

6. The dangerous game of numbers is a favorite game, and our spaceship is getting overloaded. Man’s needs, more so man’s want, become burgeoning load of Mother Earth, now sick and aging. Will Pied Piper ever come back and take our beloved young ones away from us, as it did in Hamlyn many years ago?

7. Conscience, conscience, where is spirituality that nourishes it. Where have all the religious teachings gone? Governance – where is the family, the home? Peace and order – Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan – another Korea, another Vietnam, only in another place, in another time.

8. Janus is progress, and progress is Janus. It is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It is The Prince and the Pauper. Capitalism has happy and sad faces – the latter painted in pain and sadness on millions all over the world. It is inequity that makes the world poor; we have more than enough food, clothing, shelter, and energy for everybody. What ideology can save the world? Capitalism or socialism? – No, not Terrorism.

As I grew older I did not only learn to adjust with the realities of life as I encountered it but to grasp its meaning from the points of view of famous philosophers and writers. I studied it with the famous lines from William Blake’s famous poem, Auguries of Innocence.

To wit.

“To see the world in a grain of sand;
And a Heaven a wild flower;
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.”

                                            - William Blake, Auguries of Innocence

If ever I have ventured into becoming a “redeemer” armed with a pen, I too, have learned from Blake’s verse of the way man should view the world in all its magnanimity yet in simplicity. If ever I have set foot to reach the corners of the Earth, and failed, I am consoled by the humble representation of “a grain of sand” that speaks of universal truth and values.

And beauty? If I have not found it in a garden of roses, I dare not step on a flowering weed. And posterity and eternity? They are all ensconced in periodicity, a divine accident of existence – to say that each and every one of us is here in this world by chance – an unimaginable chance – at “a certain time and place” which I believe has a purpose in whatever and however one lives his life. But I would say that a lifetime is all it takes “to see the world” and be part of it. It is a lifetime that we realize the true meaning of beauty, experience “infinity and eternity”. Lifetime is a daily calendar of victories and defeats.

While the world goes round and around . ~ 

Health Proverbs for these Pandemic Times

Health Proverbs for these Pandemic Times

Dr Abe V Rotor

"The genius, wit, and spirit of a nation are discovered in its proverbs."

- Francis Bacon

Let's learn from beliefs of different cultures, time-honored and universal in values. These are enshrined in proverbs.

These are some common proverbs about the subject of human health, which in many ways have guided us in the family in keeping good health to both young and old members. Proverbs bridge the generations, they link wisdom and current knowledge, and exude a kind of quaintness that cautions the impact of the lessons derive from them.

Select from among these proverbs those that apply best to your situation and priorities. Write a paragraph to explain each of the proverbs you selected. Enrich our list by adding more proverbs. Indicate their origin.

1. An imaginary ailment is worse than a disease. ~Yiddish Proverb

2. A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor's book. ~Irish

3. Fresh air impoverishes the doctor. ~Danish

4. The appearance of a disease is swift as an arrow; its disappearance slow, like a thread. ~Chinese

5. When the head aches, all the body is the worse. ~English

6. He who has health has hope; and he who has hope has everything. ~Arabic

7. If you start to think about your physical or moral condition, you usually find that you are sick. ~ German

8. Man can cure disease but not fate. ~ Chinese

9. A man too busy to take care of his health is like a mechanic too busy to take care of his tools. - Spanish

10. Sickness comes on horseback but departs on foot. ~Dutch

11. He who takes medicine and neglects to diet wastes the skill of his doctors. ~Chinese

12. A healthy poor man is worth halk a rich one. ~ Chinese

13. Bitter words are medicine; sweet words bring illness. ~ Chinese

14. Much talk brings on trouble; much food brings on indigestion. ~ Chinese

15. The doctor who rides in a chair will not visit the house of the poor. ~ Chinese

16. We must turn to nature itself, to the observations of the body in health and in disease to learn the truth. ~ Hippocrates

17. Sleep is a healing balm for every ill.~ Menander

18. Health, the greatest of all we count as blessings. ~ Ariphron

19. Every human being is the author of his own health or disease. ~ Buddha

20. Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship. It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver. ~ Buddha

NOTE: Proverbs, together with fables, folktales, folksongs and riddles, are part of every spoken language. They have been handed down by word of mouth from generation to generation, until they were recorded and became a folklore treasure for posterity.

The earliest collections of proverbs can be traced as far back as ancient Egypt, about 2500 B.C. The Old Testament attributed some 900 proverbs to King Solomon of Israel (10th century B.C.).

The first person, however, to engage more systematically in the collation and classification of proverbs was the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 B.C.). According to the neo-Platonic philosopher Synesius (A.D.370-413), Aristotle considered proverbs a survival of an older wisdom: 'Proverbs are... elements of old philosophy which survived, thanks to their brevity and dexterity.'
==========
References: Light from the Old Arch - AVRotor; Chinese Proverbs; Greek and English Proverbs - P Karagiogos ~

"Obra House" - House of Paintings and More

 Obra House - House of Paintings and More 

Retirement Residence of Dr Abe V Rotor Family, San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

   

Search  the Web or Google for each video. 

1. Balitang Amianan: Tinaguriang 'Obra House', Agaw-Pansin sa GMA

2. Know your North Season 7 Episode 6 Rotor

Growing Threats of Biological Warfare

Growing Threats of Biological Warfare

Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature School on Blog

Convalescing patients of the Spanish Flu of 1920 in NY. An estimated number of 100 million people died from this mysterious virus - more than all victims of the Bubonic plague, and those killed in the two world wars combined. One out of 6 people on earth then succumbed to the disease. The epidemic suddenly ended as fast as it became an epidemic two years before.


International epidemic signs: radiation, chemical and biological

As an aftermath of the catastrophic 9/11 bombing of the Twin Towers in New York, the US Postal Service ordered gloves and masks and irradiation systems for key mail-sorting facilities in Washington, New York and New Jersey, but questions as to whether these measures to prevent anthrax from spreading via mails are effective or not remain unresolved. Does zapping letters and packages with radiation really kill anthrax spores? What is the downside to irradiation? Are the postal workers really protected from anthrax and other biological warfare germs?

- As a precaution the US government has accelerated the delivery of 40 million doses of smallpox vaccine to add to the 15.4 million doses already stored. These will be enough to inoculate every American. One drawback is the possibility of side effects of the vaccine particularly to those receiving other medical treatments such as chemotherapy.

- African killer bees (Apis mellifera scutellata) claimed to have escaped from a laboratory have interbred with the domestic species creating an equally deadly hybrid that now threatens the US after spreading throughout Brazil, Central America and Mexico. A colony is made up of some 70,000 ferocious bees with the queen bee reproducing up to 5,000 a day to maintain this enormous population.

- E. coli is a familiar intestinal parasite. Naturally occurring outbreaks of Escherischia coli typically the result of fecal contamination in anything from hamburgers to swimming pools, sicken hundreds of thousands of people each year. What really trigger the outbreak of E. coli? What caused the epidemic that hit Tokyo some years ago?

As I ponder over these scenarios I remember when I was a child seeing many people who were survivors of smallpox epidemic. The center of the epidemic was a town whose population was decimated. The mere mention of its name rings the sad memory of the early 1900s’ disaster. Lapog became virtually synonymous with the name of the dreaded disease. It was later renamed San Juan (Ilocos Sur).

My father told me that of the eight siblings in the family, only two of them survived the disease. Uncle Leo who was the oldest miraculously survived, and my dad who was the youngest was born after the epidemic had subsided.

In my mind I still can picture the faces of a dozen survivors. Pockmarks cover their faces, and may also cover their body, arms and legs, including the ears, nose, eyelids and lips which become somehow disfigured. Fingers and toes are deformed in serious cases.

But I remember how these survivors continued to live normal lives. I remember them as happy and hardworking in spite of the traumatic experiences they went through. Psychologists say there are many survivors of tragic experiences who find the new lease in life a new opportunity. Stories on how whole communities rise with these survivors uplift the spirit. I saw this miracle happen in the family and community I was brought up. Many people in many places I believe, can overcome painful experiences with this kind of spirit.

Conquest and Diseases

Christopher Columbus and his men allegedly introduced syphilis in the New World. The meeting of East and West during the era of colonization also resulted in the exchange of diseases. James Michener’s novel, Hawaii, relates how smallpox caused death and sufferings to the natives. To the novel’s principal character, the Reverend Hale, it was a manifestation of God’s wrath on the sinful and the non-converts. While this incident helped him in his mission, the end proved that the English missionary was wrong - that God is not a God of vengeance. 

Whole settlements in the New World just perished to indigenous diseases that were unknown in their countries of origin. Scientists explain that these pioneers lacked the natural immunity to the diseases, in the same manner that diseases introduced into the Old World killed many people similarly because they did not have the natural resistance. This is the basis why for many years until recently, the World Health Organization and many countries required the vaccination of travelers against certain diseases as a requirement in obtaining passports and visas.

These are of course incidents that we can dismiss as force majeure or historical events, which our faith and culture may accept. But what about in the case of war when man is pitted against man, nation against nation?

Man’s Inhumanity to Man

How different it is to think about war. Since biblical times war has always been associated with inhumanity – man’s inhumanity to man. It is the antithesis of culture, of civilization, the very institution that is supposed to eliminate this threat to society. Ironically war has plagued every civilization, and many a great civilization has been the center of human conflict like the epicenter of an earthquake. According to the historian Gibbon twelve great civilizations that include the Greek and Roman civilizations fell because of war. They never recovered again.

History is not replete of the fact that the more civilized societies have been the cause of the loss of peace, if not the whole destruction of the less civilized ones. The great Spanish conquistadores permanently destroyed the great civilizations of the Aztecs and the Mayas, in the same way that the pioneers in the West irreversibly destroyed the American Indian civilization.

Early Biological Warfare

Carthage a thriving agricultural and trading center during the times of the Roman became swamp and subsequently into desert that we know today. How did this happen? The invading Romans drew saltwater into land flooding settlements and fertile lands, thus finally putting to end the powerful enemy.

How The West Was Won, is a story of the destruction of the American Indian civilization which had been flourishing for centuries. The natives fought fiercely at the European invaders and defended their “nation” for years. But the pioneers knew exactly the key to victory over the powerful Indian tribes - to annihilate the buffaloes, millions of them that roamed the Great Plains or what is known as the prairies. Because buffaloes provided the Indians their basic needs from food to shelter, famine ensued and the great American Indian civilization was ultimately reduced into marginal settlements. Buffalo Bill is reported to have killed more than three hundred buffaloes in a single day for which he earned his popularity and “reputation.”

What if China’s threat to send one million Chinese to fight and die in Vietnam had come true? I heard of this story during the Chinese-Vietnam conflict that preceded the Vietnam war. Should such unthinkable strategy happen, the task of burying the dead alone, more so in controlling pestilence, would certainly render the enemy country defenseless and economically bankrupt. On the part of the triumphant country it shall have somehow reduced pressure on its burgeoning population and rid those believed to be misfits. Many believe that war is a purification process of a society. Definitely it is not. The Germans lost thousands of scientists in World War II. Many soldiers who died in the Vietnam War were among the finest of the youth of their time in their respective countries.

But man has not had lessons enough. And war in its most ugly form using chemicals, biological agents, nuclear and ultramodern tools, is with us and it is all over the world now. For nuclear arsenals alone, the world’s total stockpile has the capacity to kill three times the whole population of the world. The world is witness to the wars in Iraq, Bosnia and Macedonia, Uganda and Angola and Afghanistan. It is happening with the Tamil Guerillas in Sri Lanka, along the Pakistan-Indian border, the Basques guerillas, the IRA in Northern Ireland, and other parts of the world. It is happening in our home ground with the Abu Sayaf and the NDF-NPA. War has many ugly faces indeed.

War Without Borders

Something unexpected and different happened. On September 11, 2005 year the World Trade Center, a 110-storey twin-tower was erased from the skyscraper map in matters of minutes shortly after two planes commandeered by terrorists smashed into the superstructure signaling the vulnerability of our present system of capitalism. It challenged the economic powers of the world, particularly America.

The world woke up into a new age hitherto unpredicted - the age of Terrorism and the birth of a new nation without political boundary, but an invisible organizational network with its tentacles reaching global proportion.

This time intrusion into the enemy’s territory or defining the place of battle does not follow the conventional rules anymore. In fact there are no specific rules when we refer to the modus operandi of terrorists. Scenarios of war have thus changed after the September 11 attack.

This article concentrates on the tools of biological warfare. Here are some of them.

First there is anthrax, the most serious and the first to hit the headlines after the bombing of the World Trade Center. It leads a dozen of similarly devastating epidemics of biological warfare potential.

Second, there is an attempt to revive bubonic plague that killed one-third of the world’s population in the Middle Ages. It was the Japanese who experimented in the making of bubonic flea bombs intended to spread the plague in major USA cities. The project was to breed the fleas which harbor the plague bacteria in its body, then scatter these to infest rats and other animals in the target area where they in turn, multiply and transmit the pathogen to the residents. The bomb was successfully tested in China with hundreds of Chinese succumbing to the bubonic plague bacteria. Preparations were then made to attack the US. But the US had decided to drop the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The bubonic flea bombs were never used. Japan hastily removed all the evidences of its evil experiment even before its surrender to the US.

Third, the threat of influenza which killed several millions at the first part of the twentieth century in the US and many parts of the globe has caused alarm as early as the 1980s after discovering a new strain of virus, a hybrid of the chicken and human influenza viruses. Based on the ratio of victims with the population in the first epidemic, scientists are looking at the possibility that some 60 to 100 million people could die of the new influenza virus strain should it strike in our times. In spite of utmost precaution to stave off the epidemic, scientists believe that we are not yet off the hook.

Biological warfare intends to use germs with historical epidemic background. Here is an outline of the basic facts about these most important potential epidemic diseases.

Anthrax

Photomicrograph of a Gram stain of the bacterium Bacillus anthracis, 

the cause of the anthrax disease. Wikipedia

• Also known as malignant pustule, malignant edema or woodsorters’ disease
Most common in South America, Australia, Africa and Russia

• Highly infectious disease of animals, occurring especially in cattle, sheep and other ruminants, horses and mules as well.

• Transmitted to humans through contact with any part of the inside or outside of the animal carrying the infectious agent

• Caused by Bacillus anthracis whose spores which are resistant to disinfectants and heat, may remain infectious even after 15 years in soil. Grazing animals can accumulate spores contained in the droppings of infected animals

• Humans acquire the disease through cut or wound of the skin, by eating infected meat, or by breathing in the spores contained in the dust emanating from the sick animal’s hide or hair

• Skin infection characterized by severe itching and appearance of boil, usually on the arm, face and neck. The inflamed area grows into an ulcer called a malignant pustule, which eventually bursts and produced a black scab. Fever, nausea and swelling of the lymph glands are accompanying symptoms

• Internal anthrax acquired through inhalation results in acute pneumonia. When infected meat is ingested symptoms of acute gastroenteritis occur

• Anthrax is effectively treated with antibiotics. Immunization against the disease has been made possible through the use of vaccine. Effective livestock management is key to the control in the spread of the disease.

Bubonic Plague

o Known as the Black Death in the Middle Ages which ravaged Europe and Asia

o In some places as many as two-thirds of the entire population died

o So-called from the blackening spots which broke out from the skin during the course of the disease

o Characteristic symptoms are fever and swelling of the lymph nodes mainly the groin and armpit

o It is caused by the plague bacillus (Pasteurella pestis) which is transmitted from sick rats (Rattus rattus norvigicus) to humans by flea bites (Xenopsylola chopis)

Small pox

• Highly contagious, often fatal that once ravaged mankind in epidemics. Just one infected person could cause the virus to radiate from a family to a neighborhood to a city in a matter of months.

• Smallpox cannot be treated effectively once symptoms begin. 30 percent of those infected will die.

• WHO declared the eradicated of smallpox in 1980. Routine immunization for protection against the disease was stopped as early as 1971.

• First signs: chills and high fever, severe headache and backache, followed by rash which eventually covers the entire body and turns into pus-filled blisters

• The blisters in turn dry up to form scabs which very often leave pockmarks.

• The disease may be accompanied by vomiting, convulsion and diarrhea Complications include other skin infections such as boils and abscesses, ear infections, pneumonia and heart failure

• Disease is not transmitted by animals

• Disease has been eliminated through world wide vaccination programs, although a mild form still exist in Ethiopia

• The disease has been largely eliminated by extermination of rats. Antibiotics such as oxytetracycline, streptomycin and chloramphenicol are effective in its treatment

Other Potential Bio-Warfare Organisms

There are many organisms that can be used in biological warfare. A terrorist attack aimed at crops and livestock would be less dramatic but might cause more disruption in the long run.
Potato Blight – also called late blight, a worldwide serious disease of potato and tomato in cool humid countries caused by a fungus, Phyhtopthora infestans In Ireland 30 percent of the population starved to death, died of typhoid fever that followed - or emigrated during the period 1845 to 1860. Tomato blight caused by the same fungus destroyed 50 percent of the crop in Eastern US in 1946.

Rust Fungi - There are species of Puccinia affecting cereals and among them which is Puccinia graminis tritici consists of 200 such races to which wheat varieties are differentially susceptible. Although rust fungi are host specific and can only complete their life cycle in the presence of alternate host such as barberry in wheat rust, the potential for biological warfare is great to consider that cereals comprise the staple of the mankind. The narrowing down of varieties for commercial cultivation exposes greater danger of rust diseases to spread out into epidemics.

Salmonella - In 1984 a cult in Oregon set off a wave of food poisonings. Gastroenteritis caused by natural contamination and careless food handling afflicts millions and results in 5000 deaths each year. Salmonella is a large group of rod shaped bacteria that invade the gastrointestinal tract, among them typhoid and paratyphoid germs.

Antibiotics are recommended to combat Salmonella infection. A recent incident happened in Rizal when hundreds of children who ate spoiled spaghetti were hospitalized. The religious group, which sponsored the feeding program, admitted fault to the incident. A similar case also happened two years ago. The owner of seven-eleven apologized for the incident and paid the victims.

Foot-and-Mouth Disease – The disease affects hoof animals from hogs to cattle. Its natural occurrence is worldwide and we have our own season in the Philippines that is during summer. Although the pathogen is not transmitted from animals to humans, losses incurred are usually heavy with the infected animal economically worthless.

Like in the case of mad cow disease, and chicken flu that affects humans, the infected animals are destroyed to prevent infection. Quarantine and an extreme sanitation program are the best defense in curbing the spread of the disease.

Mad Cow Disease – It is called bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE that has been determined in 1996 to infect humans in the form of a new variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD). Eighty people in Britain have died of CJD and there is no data to show how many more will die because there are initial signs of acquiring the disease are not clear and that the gestation period of the virus before it reaches the brain is up to 15 years. It originated in Britain crippling the country’s giant cattle industry, then spread to the European and now it has reached Japan threatening some 4.6 million cows.

Other biological warfare agents include potato beetles, which Britain suspected the Germans for dropping small cardboards bombs filled with the beetle pest on English potato fields. In the 1980s Tamil militants threatened to target Sri Lankan tea and rubber plantations with plant pathogens.

HIV-AIDS – So far 17 million have died and at least 25 million may follow. The heart of the epidemic is at the lower quadrant of Africa. AIDS is anti-Darwinian – it is society’s fittest who die, not the frailest, thus leaving the children and old behind. But recently more and more children become victims. There are 3.7 million children who have died of AIDS and AIDS has orphaned 12 million children.

An estimated 8.8 million adults in Africa are infected with HIV/AIDS and in the seven countries in Africa 1 out of 5 is living with HIV and 3.8 millions Africans are infected every year. There are 36 million adults and children in the world living with HIV/AIDS. Bioterrorism may be eyeing at the spread of the disease in the industrialized countries through the blood donation and immunization channels, other means notwithstanding.

Ebola – It is a highly virulent disease caused by a virus that originated in Africa infecting human and primates. Much of the information about the disease is a mystery but one thing sure is that it is almost one hundred percent fatal once a person gets the virus.

Contact of any kind, and even only through inhalation, the virus can be acquired in no time. One incident showed a member of a religious congregation who had been treating ebola patients suddenly died. Ignoring warnings other members attended her funeral. One of them got the virus and died later.

African Giant Snail (Achatina fulica) – brought by the Japanese to the Philippine during WW II. Pest of garden and field crops. Damage can lead to crop loss and consequently starvation. The pest persists to this day but seldom develops into epidemic proportion. The introduced Golden Kuhol thought to provide livelihood on the farm became a major pest affecting more than 50 percent of our lowland ricefields.

Protection Guidelines

Here are guidelines to protect yourself.

1. Keep distance from possible sources of biochemical materials such as spores of the deadly anthrax. Be wary of suspicious parcels.

2. Get help from authorities to get rid of suspicious looking materials. Curiosity kills the cat.

3. Be familiar with the locations of Bomb Shelters. Such shelters are found in big cities like New York, Tokyo and Tel Aviv. We do not have one in Manila, but there are places and buildings you can find temporary shelter in case of attack.

4. Don’t loiter in centralized air-conditioned places like malls. Avoid crowds and busy streets if you can.

5. Early symptoms should be treated immediately by a doctor. Anthrax for example has flu-like symptoms.

6. Keep resistance high all the time. Good rest, balanced diet, regular exercise are key to resistance against diseases.

7. Don’t be a victim of psychological war. Terrorism thrives on it. We have yet to coin a word for biochemical phobia.

8. Like Boy Scouts, remember “Always be Prepared” – for your own protection. Equally important be prepared always to help other people.

On September 11 (9/11) many people thought Third World War had started. Well, the big wars we know started small. In our modern world an all out war is likely to employ all kinds of warfare – chemical and biological – and worst is the use of nuclear weapons. There are no defined borders and everyone is a potential victim. It will be difficult to detect the enemy and the tools of war he will use. The “morning after” exposes further destruction. Nuclear weapons have long years of half-life. It means radioactive materials will continue to kill, to make people sick. Even to this day, there are people in Japan where the atomic bombs were dropped 45 years dying due to radioactive fallout.

This is also true with bacterial spores. They have the capacity to re-infect and cause a second or third wave of epidemic. Even after the white flag is raised, still many people continue to get sick and die – physically and psychologically. In many cases it is beyond medicine to cure – or science to explain.

In early 1960s I was part of a research program at UPLB, then UP College of Agriculture, in promoting modern agriculture to farmers. Among the farm chemicals I handled were herbicides. By coincidence the US was developing a chemical called Orange Agent that I found out later was to be used in Vietnam. While this chemical can maim or cause death, its intended use is as a defoliant. By spraying the chemical trees lose their leaves, in fact their entire crown. When this happens a jungle would easily catch fire and in no time spread, flushing out the Vietcong guerillas from their hideouts.

It was my first encounter with biological warfare. ~

Living with superstition builds character (100 Popular Superstitious Beliefs) A Self-evaluation

Living with superstition builds character (100 Popular Superstitious Beliefs) - A Self-evaluation

Quaintness of Philippine Culture is Enriched by Superstition

People are generally superstitious, especially those of the older generation. We relate many events to supernatural causes. We act according to beliefs we inherited from our ancestors. Superstition may not rule our lives but it serves to sharpen our consciousness, build our character, and help preserve our culture. Mythology is important in every culture and it influences other cultures as well. Greek mythology is the leading example.

Dr Abe V Rotor

1. Forego your trip if a black cat crosses your path – it is bad luck.

2. Don’t clean the house at night, more so, if you sweep the dirt out of the door. You drive good luck away, (Lalabas ang suwerte.)

3. If you get lost in the wilderness, reverse your shirt, so that you will be able find your way back.

4. Tikbalang (Filipino version of a centaur) comes out when it is raining while the sun is out.

5. Three persons in a picture means the one at the middle will die.

6. A mole (taling) on the sole indicates the person is a wanderer (gala’).

7. A mole (taling) located along the path of tears means the person is going to be widowed.

8. Bride must never try her bridal gown before the wedding; the ceremony might not push through.

9. Don’t hang on the window; you court bad luck.

10. Itchy palm means you are going to have money.

11. Keep your fingers close together and if light seeps through between them, it means you are not frugal.

12. Singing while cooking means you are going to remain a bachelor or spinster – or marry someone much older than you.

13. A victim of maternal impression (paglilihi) loses pep (sigla) and may even get sick.

14. If a pregnant woman is in labor, never sit at the center of the stair.

15. A comet in the sky means war is coming.

16. Eat raw eggs to enhance easy delivery of your baby.

17. A pregnant mother should not eat eggplant, else her baby will have dark complexion.

18. One who cries every time she cuts onions means she does not love her father- and mother-in-law (biyanan).

19. Taking a bath immediately after ironing clothes will make you sick of leprosy.

20. If a pregnant woman eats eggs, her child will be born blind.

21. Full moon causes abnormal behavior. People who are affected by this belief are called lunatics.

22. Beware of Friday the 13th, you might meet an accident.

Kapre, a hairy black monster, lives in this old balete tree.

UPLB Mt Makiling, Laguna on the way to the Mud Spring.

There was a report that the tree bleeds with blood!

23. No two siblings should marry within the same year, otherwise their marriages will not be successful.

24. When someone gives you a footwear as a gift, be sure to pay him any amount in order to break the omen that you will be “kicked” or pushed around.

25. When the pregnant wife skips or walks over (laktawan) her husband, the husband will bear the burden of paglilihi (maternal impression).

26. If you want a person to be sad and to cry often, give him or her a handkerchief as a gift.

27. One who is about to be wed must remain at home to avoid accident.

28. Avoid having your feet pointed at the door while sleeping.

29. Prepare rice cake like suman and tikoy on New Year so that good luck will stick around.

30. When planting be sure your stomach is full, so that you will get good harvest.

31. If you accidentally break a glass or china, get a similar one and break it, otherwise bad luck will haunt you.

32. Breaking a mirror means “seven years itch.”

33. If you dream you lost a tooth, it means is bad luck. To break the omen, silently go to a tree and tell your dream so that it will be the tree that will suffer.

34. Needle bought in the afternoon is likely to rust.

35. A birthday celebrant must take extra precaution against accident, so with a new graduate.

Image of a white lady taken by a CCTV camera

36. The bride should not look behind while marching the aisle, otherwise the wedding will not be disrupted.

37. The number of steps of a stair is based on the alternate oro (gold)-plata (silver) formula. Aim for oro in the last or highest step.

38. Wearing bright clothes, especially red, on your birthday makes the day happy.

39. After the wedding the man must exit first from the church so that he will not become a henpeck husband.

40. Don’t give your loved one a necklace, otherwise your relationship will not last.

41. Don’t allow your friend to remove your ring, otherwise you will quarrel.

42. Kill a chicken for a new born baby as an offering.

43. Sweeping or cleaning the house while a dead relative is in wake will lead to the death of another member of the family.

44. Eating jackfruit during menstruation is prohibited otherwise the woman will get sick and even die.

45. When planting sitao (string bean), place a comb on your hair to induce the production of abundant long fruits.

46. Eating chicken cooked with squash will cause leprosy.

47. A woman on her menstrual period should not visit a garden or orchard otherwise the plants will become sick or die.

48. To know if it is true jade, it remains cool even if the body is warm.

49. Beware of the werewolf. Man can turn into a wolf, and vice versa.

50. Eight (8) is a lucky number; 8 is infinity. It means money will circulate.

51. Four (4) means in Chinese C or death. Every time you reach an age with the number 9 or 4, take precaution; you are prone to accident.

52. Don’t cut fingernails at night; it’s bad luck.

53. In Chinese marriage, the woman walks backward led by a relative to be delivered to the bridegroom.

54. If a child keeps spitting, it will rain.

55. If you point at the moon your will suffer a cut.

56. Babies smile at angels we don’t see.

57. Fixed marriage at birth is good luck.

58. Chinese calendar is late by two months – New Year is in February.
Chinese age starts one year at birth.

59. Palm lines may change, so with our lives.

60. Blessed palm on Easter Sunday is hang at the door for good luck.

61. First cut hair and fingernails of a baby must be kept in a book so that he will be intelligent.

62. Wearing black is symbol of mourning; to the Chinese it is wearing all white.

63. Among the Chinese, miniaturized house, car and the like, go with the departed to assure him of a happy afterlife.

64. In a Chinese temple, you offer food to the gods, and then eat it after. This is not the case in Filipino custom; just leave the food offering (atang).

65. To the Chinese, paper money goes with the dead; it will be converted into real money in afterlife.

Indeed there's really a white carabao, and it glows at night in flickering light.

66. Light candles outside of the house during All Saints Day in deference to of the souls of the dead and the unseen.

67. When you happen to encounter a funeral entourage, throw some coins in respect of the dead.

68. Don’t stand in front of a gate if you are pregnant.

69. If by mistake it’s the bride that hands over the arras to the bridegroom, expect that she will be the breadwinner.

70. Diamond studded wedding rings do not make a perfect relationship.

71. When blessing a new vehicle, sprinkler fresh blood of chicken in tires and engine to bad omen of accident.

72. Place some coins in the foundation of buildings and other structures during ground breaking ceremony to make them strong and withstand time.

73. Children are sacrificed in making bridges and other infrastructure.

74. Bury placenta with rosary and pencil so that the child will be both intelligent and God-fearing.

75. Palms with crisscross lines (rapas Ilk) means the person is cruel.

76. Palms with netted lines means the person has an unorganized life (magulong buhay).

77. Shake (pagpagin) the items such as clothes after a customer had left without buying any, to break bad luck.

78. Place money in a bed pan (arinola), so that it becomes plentiful.

79. Babies that fall from their cradle do not suffer injury, thanks to their guardian angels.

80. When you give a wallet as gift be sure you put a coin or a money bill in it so that the wallet won’t run out of money.

81. When transferring to a new house carry with you 24 oranges, salt, water, and rice.

82. Jade stones around the wrist of a baby indicate his condition. If they turn light in color the baby is not well.

83. When transferring a dead person into the house, be sure it is head first; when taking him out, it is feet first.

84.Bed must not face the door, otherwise the sleeping person will become a victim of bangongot.

85.Don’t bump the coffin while carrying it; it is bad luck.

86. Pour water at the doorway once the coffin has been taken out.

87. Wash face and hands after the dead has been laid to rest.

90. When coming from a wake have a stopover somewhere and do not directly go home, otherwise the spirit of the dead will follow you.

91. The wishbone of a chicken makes a wholesome game for two. Wish comes true to the one who gets the common stem of the Y-shape bone.

92. One can determine the sex of the baby by the poise and shape of the pregnant woman. If rotund, it’s going to be a girl; if pointed, it’s going to be a boy.

93. During labor, if the pain is bearable and continuous, it’s going to be a girl; if labor pain is intermittent and intense, it’s going to be a boy.

94. When leaving the dining table ahead, those who are still eating must rotate their plates, otherwise they will remain bachelors or spinsters. (The belief is silent on the fate of the married ones.)

95. Couple to be married the following day must not see each other the night before.

96. When Friday comes don’t talk about the supernatural, such as kapre, dwende, and the like.

97. Never buy a cat; it will not be a good mouse catcher.

98. If a cat sneezes it’s going to rain. But if it sneezes three times, everyone in the family will catch cold.

99. A cat that has its back towards the fire means a typhoon in coming.

100. Unfortunate events usually happen on full moon. ~

50 Verses of Meditation in Pandemic Times

 50 Verses of Meditation in Pandemic Times

Dr Abe V Rotor

For family or small select group reading with background music of Meditation (From the Thais), by Massenet, and other calm and relaxing music. Leader sets the ambiance and sequence of recitation in meditative mood.

Nebula, an interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen, helium and other ionized gases. 

Painting in acrylic by AV Rotor 2021

1. When the skies cry and tears fall,

The grass is greener, so with the soul.

2. The rain pelts on the faces of children

Turned heavenward. Look my brethren.

3. Walks he alone in the rain singing,

Whether the wind's cool or the sun peeping.

4. If I'm responsible for what I tame,

Would I have a choice of only the lame?

5. A gentle breeze came through a lid;

Where's the window when the wall's solid?

6. Pray, but if Thor holds back the lightning bolts,

We may not have mushroom and the jolts.

7. Hush! Suddenly the world became still;

Gone is the lark or the raven on the sill.

8. Saxon wall, each turret a guard-

Now empty, lonely is war afterward.

9. Radial symmetry starts from the center,

That balances an outside force to enter.

10. What good is a lamp at the ledge?

Wait 'til the day reaches its edge.

Black Birds Roosting in the Trees.  

Painting in acrylic by AV Rotor 2021

11. In seeing our past we find little to share,

If the past is the present we're living in.

12. In abstract art you lose reality;

How then can I paint truth and beauty?

13. Brick wall, brick roof, brick stair,

Glisten in the rain, dull in summer air.

14.What's essential can't be seen by the eye

Like the faith of Keller and Captain Bligh.

15. Similar is rainbow and moth in flight

When you see them against the light.

Trees in Convergence, acrylic painting by AV Rotor 2021 

16. From respite in summer fallow,

The fields start a season anew.

17. From green to gold the grains become

As they store the power of the sun.

18. Not all sand dunes for sure

Ends up on empty shore.

19. One little smoke tells the difference,

Like a faint pulse is life's reference.

20. It's collective memory that I'm a part

To write my life's story when I depart.

21. Lost time, lost opportunity and lost gain,

like passing wind that may not come again.

22. Who sees silver lining of clouds dark and bold

seeks not at rainbow's end a pot of gold.

23. A clenched fist softens under a blue sky

like high waves, after tempest, die.

24. When a flock of wild geese takes into the air

a leader must get ahead to break the barrier.

Lichen - a symbiotic community of algae and fungi, 

painting in acrylic by AV Rotor 2021

25. Even to a strong man, a little danger may create

the impression he's small or the problem is great.

26. In the doldrums or during sudden gusts,

the ship is much safer with a bare mast.

27. Wind, current, and keel make a perfect trio

only if they have one direction to follow.

28. You really can't tell where a sailboat goes

without keel, but to where the wind blows.

29. The sound of a yes may be deep or hollow,

and knowing it only by its own echo.

30. Walk, don't run, to see better and to know

the countryside, Mother Nature and Thou.~

31. We do not have the time, indeed an alibi

to indolence and loafing, letting time pass by.

 Nature Wooden Chandelier by AV Rotor 2021 

32. As we undervalue ourselves, so do others

undervalue us. Lo, to us all little brothers.

33. Self-doubt at the start is often necessary

to seek perfection of the trade we carry.

34. What is more mean than envy or indolence

but the two themselves riding on insolence.

35. The worst kind of persecution occurs in the mind,

that of the body we can often undermine.

36. How seldom, if at all, do we weigh our neighbors

the way we weigh ourselves with the same favors?

37. Friendship that we share to others multiplies

our compassion and love where happiness lies.

38. Evil is evil indeed - so with its mirror,

while goodness builds on goodness in store.

39. That others may learn and soon trust you,

show them you're trustworthy, kind and true.

40. Kindness and gladness, these however small

are never, never put to waste at all.

Beginning of Life in Space, acrylic. 

Painting by AV Rotor 2021

41. Beauty seen once breaks a heart,

Wait for the image to depart.

42. Being right and reasonable;

Black or white, and measurable.

43. She's coy who speaks soft and light;

Smoke first before fire ignites.

44. Every promise you can't keep

Drags you into a deeper pit.

45. To endure pain of hatred,

A leader’s wisdom is dared.

46. Make believe prosperity;

Sound of vessel when empty.

47. Take from the ant or stork,

Patience is silence at work.

48. Good wine grows mellow with age;

Good man grows into a sage.

49. He finds reason for living

Who sees a new beginning.

50. Beauty builds upon beauty,

Ad infinitum to eternity. ~