Observing LINGGO NG WIKA in a Play School - Dawn of Consciousness of National Identity

Observing LINGGO NG WIKA in a Play School - Dawn of Consciousness of National Identity 

(The Philippines used to hold a week-long celebration, from August 13 to 19, every year, until President Ramos declared it should be month-long starting 1997)

Love of national language must be instilled in early age. National language is the foundation of cultural values and identity of a country and its people.

College and university professors in Filipino are up in arms against the memorandum of the Commission on Higher Education/CHED Memorandum Order (CMO) No. 20, Series of 2013. This memorandum aims to remove Filipino as a subject to be taught in college by 2016 as part of the new General Education Curriculum (GEC).

“Removing Filipino as a subject in the new GEC is not just a local issue; it is a moral issue that goes against the integrity of our race.” – Prof. Patrocinio Villafuerte, professor and writer. (From "Removing Filipino as a subject in college: A betrayal in the name of business?" By Ina A R Silverio)
 
Dr Abe V Rotor

Growing up with the national language guided by parents and teachers. 

Kill the language and kill the culture;

Kill the culture and kill the people; 

kill the people and kill the country;

kill their history and their memory; 

Ad infinitum to global doom.

                                                                   - AV Rotor

                   

Mother at home (Mommy Anna) and mother in school (Teacher Joy) for young Mackie. .
Growing up in a beautiful Philippines in actual drawing experience.

Linggo ng wika is linked with other celebrations such as Nutrition Week, Health week, United Nation week. (Young Mackie's school work.)  

 
Hands-on learning with classmate and parents block building (left), and food preparation with mommy.  Learning our national language requires such attention 
and guidance.  

Poems by Dr Jose Rizal on the importance of language

TO MY FELLOW CHILDREN (Sa Aking Mga Kababata, 1869)

Whenever people of a country truly love
The language which by heav'n they were taught to use
That country also surely liberty pursue
As does the bird which soars to freer space above.

An Open Letter to School Principals, Teachers, and Parents

For language is the final judge and referee
Upon the people in the land where it holds sway;
In truth our human race resembles in this way
The other living beings born in liberty.

Whoever knows not how to love his native tongue
Is worse than any best or evil smelling fish.
To make our language richer ought to be our wish
The same as any mother loves to feed her young.

Tagalog and the Latin language are the same
And English and Castilian and the angels' tongue;
And God, whose watchful care o'er all is flung,
Has given us His blessing in the speech we claim,

Our mother tongue, like all the highest that we know
Had alphabet and letters of its very own;
But these were lost -- by furious waves were overthrown
Like bancas in the stormy sea, long years ago.

The famous poem was a nationalistic undertaking to promote the usage of Tagalog language by the Filipino people. The poem “To My Fellow Children” was believed to be the national hero’s first written Tagalog poem at the age of eight.

"This morning I met silence" and other poems

Selected Verses from "USTogether"

A Thomasian Faculty Anthology

 

"While power leads man toward arrogance, 

poetry reminds him of his limitations." 

- John F Kennedy as cited by the late Dean Ophelia A Dimalanta PhD, UST Arts and Letters in the book's Foreword, ("USTogether" A Thomasian Faculty Anthology by 

Professor Erlita D Mendoza, March 1998). 

Paintings by Dr Abe V Rotor

This morning I met silence

Armando F. de Jesus, PhD 

Dean UST Arts and Letters

In the dark mists

this morning I met silence.

What soothing voice!

This morning

silence has sounds,

darkness has light.

To hear sounds, one must be

steeped in silence.

To see light, one must be

enveloped in darkness.

I saw light in darkness.

I heard sound greet me

from silence.

                                       

Morning by a Nymphaea Pond in acrylic by AVR

In mornings like this,

silence stills the noise I hear within.

Darkness tempers

the blinding light of my knowing.

In mornings like this

there is calm.

I have peace.

        A View of the Valley

Mountain Stream in acrylic AVR

The valley's still, the fog is thick and gray,

Many a dream is born and gone astray.

A beacon beaming once, now ringed with light,

Where once a moth has died in a spirited flight.

It keeps eternal whisperings as the wind passes by,

Bringing sweet memories and new promises,

Where a beacon beams though now ringed with light,
Where another moth dies in another flight.

                             Abercio V. Rotor, Graduate School

Washerwoman

Today, I'll wash

The robe of emptiness

Until it is sun-bleached white

Scrubbing blotches of splitting

Afterthoughts, pain rubs hard

Against the lesions of wrinkled

.Ashen hands hurting repeatedly

Upon each stroke of reminiscence.

It's half done now,

But  the suds still billow

Into cumulus froth, bubbles hide

All residue of misery

I wring tightly this orphan feeling

Till every longing drips their last.

I’ll hang my heart to dry

Sheet clean in the long line

Of forgetting and forgiving.

•                    Ferdinand M. Lopez, Arts and Letters

Scavengers

(Manggahan Dumpsite.Quezon City)

Many years ago

You had another name,

Gleaners, and work was also game.

Now it's all work

And the art of the vulture,

And those with fangs and ugly mane.

But if none is waste and waste is useful

Would your breed thrive just the same?

              Abercio V. Rotor, Graduate School

 Quiet

The morning failed

to keep its promise of rain.

The sun shone

across the silent

sober place.

And standing idly

in this half-reflected

gleam,

I felt a nameless,

unfamiliar cheer:

A pleasure secret

and austere.

      Nancy N. Tabirara, Arts and Letters

Fishing after rain in acrylic AVR

Paskong 'El Nino

(Ang bawa't pasko ay paskong el nino

sapagka't ang dahilan, buod, at puno't dulo

ng ating pagdiriwang ay ang pagsilang ng sanggol na mesiyas:

EI Nino Hesus )

Nawa'y gawin ka niyang mapagbigay

Tulad ng Ulan,

Dugtong-dugtong kung pumatak

Bagama't minsa'y ambong-Iuha lamang.

Nawa'y gawin ka niyang malaya

Tulad ng Ilog,

Walang patid kung dumaloy

Bagama't minsa'y usad-estero lamang.

Nawa'y gawin ka niyang mapagmahal

Tulad ng Dagat,

Walang maliw ang debosyon sa dalampasigan

Bagama't minsa'y lambing-alon lamang.

Nawa'y gawin ka niyang mapaglikha

Tulad ng Lupa,

Bawa't patak ng ulan, daloy ng ilog, alan ng dagat

Ay nagiging salita sa kanyang sinapupunan

Isinisilang sa daigdig

Bilang bulaklak at luntiang kariktan.

                          Rolando V. dela Rosa,OP

Kaingin

There is loneliness

In gazing at mountains

where many trees die.

The hills glisten red, then blue.

The rains will bring

tears of mud.

(But until then .. )

Where have all the flowers gone?

The avalanche of fires

will overcome wanton caterpillars,

there is no place for butterflies

this time.

Flowers, trees

sigh -

they wither,

they sputter,

and then lie

in homage to the sky.

Smoldering,

crackled splinters

of lives once spent.

Requiem to a Fallen Log in oil by AVR

The winds cease their whispers

as dying embers are laid to rest

at passing of the day.

In requiem,

finally.

          Rodel E. Aligan, OP

Be Thou the Stewards

Harvestime in acrylic AVR

In the beginning

The earth was bare

And Chaos ruled.

And then a gentle gaze,

The tender voice of Love

Brought forth the rolling hills,

The shady woods,

The lambent murmuring seas,
The placid lakes,

The gleaming galaxies,

The glowing dawn and soothing twilight .

Man and woman .

Then flowers bloomed!

And the voice of Love

In solemn admonition rang,

"Be thou the Stewards of these gifts."

In the silence of our hearts

We hear this truth.

As guardian of these bounties

We must preserve,

Conserve the affluence of nature,

Tranquility of woods and forests,

Protect the lakes and seas.

And then we can indeed rejoice

And say, ''I've done my share!"

Elena P. Polo, Science ~

Books - the Greatest Treasure of Mankind. (In celebration of National Book Lovers Day, August 9, 2021)

Back to Books Movement

Books - the Greatest Treasure of Mankind
(In celebration of National Book Lovers Day, August 9, 2021)

COVID-19 Home Project - Organize your Home Library.
Dr Abe V Rotor



Author inspects piles of books ready for shipment to the Living with Nature Center at San Vicente, Ilocos Sur,

Books, once the privilege of a few in pre-printing machine era, each page painstakingly handwritten, each book a well-kept treasure.

Books, the authority, the final say, unquestioned, un-refuted, else any one rising contrary faces punishment, including death or damnation.

Books, the diary, the ledger, the document of conquest and discovery, of battles fought, often in favor of the writer and party.

Books, the novels that carry the greatest stories of all times are called classics, for which they are regarded timeless for their universal values.

Books, the epics of Homer, stories of the Grimm Brothers distilled from oral literature passed through generations to the present.

Books, written ahead of their time - Galileo's astronomy, Darwin's evolution, Martin Luther's Protestantism ignited dis-pleasured of the Church.

Books, bedtime stories, baby's introduction to the world, legends and fantasies that take young ones to the land of make believe.

Books, the record of ultimate scholarship, are the epitome of the greatest minds in thesis and dissertation, theories and principles.

Books, the precursor of the Internet, the framework of the i-Pod, Tablet, Galaxy, and other gadgets that man becomes a walking encyclopedia.

Books, the progeny of the earliest forms of writing like the cuneiform, hieroglyphics, caves drawings, etchings, scrolls of the Dead Sea.

Books, that gave the idea and structure of the Wonders of the Ancient World, and the significance and belief for which they were built.

Books, that grew with knowledge, brought new schools and movements in arts and philosophy, in unending search for truth.

Books, the most widely read, the Bible; the shortest, Albert Einstein’s e=mc2, and book-to-cinema versions of Spielberg, Lucas, Cecile de Mills et al.

Books, the greatest treasure of mankind, its collective attributes as humanity, the very stimulus of man's rationality to rise above other creatures - and himself.

Books, that brought about man's disobedience to his creator, playing god, and questioning if god made man, or that man made god.

Books that enlighten man to care for the environment, guide the young and future generations to a better future, and lead man to save his own species from extinction.
-----------------
Author's Note: Herein below is one of the lists of top 100 books of the world. There is no standard for comparison, only preferences by different sources. However, there are books that consistently appear in many lists.

100 Most Influential Books Ever Written
by Martin Seymour-Smith

Note: This list is in chronological order. I received via e-mails from people who complain that there are too many religious books in the list. We you cannot deny that religion has been influential in human history. I'm sure that's what Seymour-Smith had in mind.

1. The I Ching
2. The Old Testament
3. The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer
4. The Upanishads
5. The Way and Its Power, Lao-tzu
6. The Avesta
7. Analects, Confucius
8. History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides
9. Works, Hippocrates
10. Works, Aristotle
11. History, Herodotus
12. The Republic, Plato
13. Elements, Euclid
14. The Dhammapada
15. Aeneid, Virgil
16. On the Nature of Reality, Lucretius
17. Allegorical Expositions of the Holy Laws, Philo of Alexandria
18. The New Testament
19. Lives, Plutarch
20. Annals, from the Death of the Divine Augustus, Cornelius Tacitus
21. The Gospel of Truth
22. Meditations, Marcus Aurelius
23. Outlines of Pyrrhonism, Sextus Empiricus
24. Enneads, Plotinus
25. Confessions, Augustine of Hippo
26. The Koran
27. Guide for the Perplexed, Moses Maimonides
28. The Kabbalah
29. Summa Theologicae, Thomas Aquinas
30. The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri
31. In Praise of Folly, Desiderius Erasmus
32. The Prince, Niccolò Machiavelli
33. On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, Martin Luther
34. Gargantua and Pantagruel, François Rabelais
35. Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin
36. On the Revolution of the Celestial Orbs, Nicolaus Copernicus
37. Essays, Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
38. Don Quixote, Parts I and II, Miguel de Cervantes
39. The Harmony of the World, Johannes Kepler
40. Novum Organum, Francis Bacon
41. The First Folio [Works], William Shakespeare
42. Dialogue Concerning Two New Chief World Systems, Galileo Galilei
43. Discourse on Method, René Descartes
44. Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes
45. Works, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
46. Pensées, Blaise Pascal
47. Ethics, Baruch de Spinoza
48. Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan
49. Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, Isaac Newton
50. Essay Concerning Human Understanding, John Locke
51. The Principles of Human Knowledge, George Berkeley
52. The New Science, Giambattista Vico
53. A Treatise of Human Nature, David Hume
54. The Encyclopedia, Denis Diderot, ed
55. A Dictionary of the English Language, Samuel Johnson
56. Candide, François-Marie de Voltaire
57. Common Sense, Thomas Paine
58. An Enquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith
59. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon
60. Critique of Pure Reason, Immanuel Kant
61. Confessions, Jean-Jacques Rousseau
62. Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke
63. Vindication of the Rights of Women, Mary Wollstonecraft
64. An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, William Godwin
65. An Essay on the Principle of Population, Thomas Robert Malthus
66. Phenomenology of Spirit, George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
67. The World as Will and Idea, Arthur Schopenhauer
68. Course in the Positivist Philosophy, Auguste Comte
69. On War, Carl Marie von Clausewitz
70. Either/Or, Søren Kierkegaard
71. The Manifesto of the Communist Party, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
72. "Civil Disobedience," Henry David Thoreau
73. The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, Charles Darwin
74. On Liberty, John Stuart Mill
75. First Principles, Herbert Spencer
76. "Experiments with Plant Hybrids," Gregor Mendel
77. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
78. Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, James Clerk Maxwell
79. Thus Spake Zarathustra, Friedrich Nietzsche
80. The Interpretation of Dreams, Sigmund Freud
81. Pragmatism, William James
82. Relativity, Albert Einstein
83. The Mind and Society, Vilfredo Pareto
84. Psychological Types, Carl Gustav Jung
85. I and Thou, Martin Buber
86. The Trial, Franz Kafka
87. The Logic of Scientific Discovery, Karl Popper
88. The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, John Maynard Keynes
89. Being and Nothingness, Jean-Paul Sartre
90. The Road to Serfdom, Friedrich von Hayek
91. The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir
92. Cybernetics, Norbert Wiener
93. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
94. Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff
95. Philosophical Investigations, Ludwig Wittgenstein
96. Syntactic Structures, Noam Chomsky
97. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, T. S. Kuhn
98. The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan
99. Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung [The Little Red Book], Mao Zedong
100. Beyond Freedom and Dignity, B. F. Skinner

Source: Seymour-Smith, Martin. 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written. Secaucus, N.J.: Citadel Press, 1998. © 1998 Martin Seymour-Smith. From the Internet

The Dying Butterfly

The Dying Butterfly

Painting and Poem by Dr Abe V Rotor


Dying Butterfly in Acrylic (28" x 18") 2011

Don't die - oh butterfly!
Rage, rage before the night,
at the trees bare in spring,
and the birds out of sight.

Don’t die - oh, butterfly!
Rage, rage to your last breathe;
and never let the fallen leaves
your bed and your wreath.

Don’t die – oh, butterfly!
Rage, rage at a garden robbed
of your beauty and duty
and your love of God.~

The Fine Edge of Awareness

The Lighter Side of Human Nature

The Fine Edge of Awareness

Dr Abe V Rotor

Consciousness is biological and instinct, then the fine edge of awareness follows, and the young is introduced into the world of grownups. What lies ahead is a long journey through which life is lived, distinctly yet collectively, linking generations, and intertwined as one beautiful tapestry of humanity.
 
Taking time out on a holiday or vacation invigorates the body, tempers the mind and heart, nourishes the soul. Bonding keeps the family closely knit, yet it opens opportunities to grow with the community and the institutions.    

Nature and nurture are like horse-and-carriage in child development.  They are the  greatest teachers that make the difference as children become adults.

  

 

A bangkal tree serves as extension of a nearby church where the faithful participate in the holy mass.  

Awareness is like the light of dawn, emerging from the darkness of night, and little by little opens the curtain for the day's drama, revealing the characters who are none other but us. 

Awareness comes early and ends with the last breath, a womb-to-tomb phenomenon of life, taking no exception, unless by circumstance consciousness takes the wrong turn.

Awareness to a child is innocence imbibing the stimuli that the five senses perceive, whether these be desirable or not, for which reason the role of guardians is most vital.

Awareness builds knowledge, hones sensitivity and creates a sense of awe and wonder at creation, in order to know more about the world, and to accept those that cannot be explained. 

Awareness builds love in its countless expressions, from self to neighbor, family to community, ultimately to humanity and God - love that brings peace and unity in the world. 

Awareness is building lines of communication of understanding among people, and among creatures, the environment, the universe, through the power of the mind and sincerity of intention. 

Awareness is knowing the limits of man in his pursuit of happiness, power and glory, through his technology, more so in recognizing the impact - good or evil - of his pursuits.

Awareness is keeping the environment clean and orderly, preserving its pristine and balance state, by following the laws and rules of nature in whatever human activity.

Awareness is giving and share equitably, for "having too much means others have so little", greed the greatest sin, the root cause of war, the biggest denial to fellowmen and to God.          

Awareness is lending a hand unconditionally, taking the road less trodden and being a  Samaritan in one's own way, reaching out for the hungry, thirsty, naked, imprisoned, and lonely. ~