Milton's Query

Milton's Query*

If Paradise was lost because of man's disobedience, was it regained in his absence?

Dr Abe V Rotor

Birds in the Trees in acrylic by the author.

Milton's Query

If Paradise was lost because of man's disobedience,

was it regained in his absence?

Spring on the meadow in acrylic by the author

Spring on the meadow

Mist into dewdrops like beads of pearl,

cling on grass before the sun is up,

else vanish in the air and lost forever,

come and drink with my little cup.

Edge of a Crater

"Who joins me in Jules Verne's novel,

Journey to the Center of the Earth,

and travel down the burning navel,

far from the comfort of the hearth?"

Cascade

Too full to contain a downpour in May,

but burst with fury;

ends a long, hot summer in a day

and lives in a story.

Lahar Flow in acrylic and lahar rock by the author

Lahar Flow

Fiery breathe of the angry earth

far from the comfort by the hearth,

wait 'til it settles down with time

to become tame and sublime.

*John Milton was an English poet and intellectual. His 1667 epic poem Paradise Lost, written in blank verse and including over ten chapters, was written in a time of immense religious flux and political upheaval. He later wrote, after losing his sight. Paradise Regained as sequel to Paradise Lost.

Humanities weaves a beautiful tapestry of humanity

  Humanities weaves a beautiful  tapestry of humanity

Humanities
- is a beautiful tapestry of humanity
- brings out the sense of awe and wonder
- builds on the framework of truth and values
- brings out the human spirit
- brings tranquility in crisis
- is guardian of movements and schools
- aims at goodness and peace
- is keeper and pioneer of the arts
- faces challenge of the cyber age
- is the keeper of the network of humanity

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature School on Blog

 Humanities Today Co-authored with Dr Kristine Molina-Doria, the book, in summary, makes Humanities, a basic 3-unit subject in college, interesting and attractive to students. The book is distinct from conventional textbooks by being experiential in approach - meaning, on-site, hands-on, and encompassing of the various schools of art - old, new and postmodern.  

Learning is further enhanced by viewing an accompanying compact disc (CD), and by having easy access to a wide range of references principally from the authors' works on Facebook and Blog. [avrotor.blogspot.com] It is a publication of C&E, one of the country's biggest publishers and distributors of books. Launched in February this year it is now adapted by several colleges and universities.

“Son, what do you remember as the happiest moment in your life?” asked a dying old man at his deathbed.

“When we went fishing, dad, and caught fireflies on our way back to camp.”

The old man smiled his last. It was a parting sealed by sweet memory of father-child relationship.

Humanities brings out the sense of awe and wonder

Humanities brings out the sense of awe and wonder, specially to the young, of the things around , of life processes and cycles, the passing of seasons and ages. It makes one aware of even the minute existence of things, the transformation of the ordinary into something beautiful.

Wonder the summer night, camping by a lake, home outside of home,
no roof but the sky, no walls, no gate, stars and fireflies mingle as one;
Wonder the breeze blow and weave through the trees, comb the grass,
carry into the sky kites of many colors and make greeting the rainbow;


“The sense of wonder is indestructible, that it would last throughout life, an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantment of later years.” Says Rachel Carson, author of an all-time favorite novel, Silent Spring. It is true, the sense of wonder prepares the young to face and conquer the world.

Humanities builds on the framework of truth and values

Even with few words the mind is set to explore, giving way to imagination beyond mere reason. Brevity is the framework of the mind, the heart and spirit in the Lord’s Prayer and the Gettysburg Address of America’s most loved leader, Abraham Lincoln. It is also a path to humility in greatness, a union of the classical and the contemporary.


If the story of the Creation can be told in 400 words, if the Ten Commandments contain 297 words, if Lincoln’s immortal Gettysburg Address was only 266 words, if an entire concept of freedom was set in the Declaration of Independence in about 1,300 words – it is up to some of us to use fewer words, and thus save the time energy, vitality, and nerves of those who must read or listen. (Jerome P Fleishman)

Humanities brings out the human spirit

Guernica, a plaza mural made by the greatest modern painter Pablo Picasso, ignited popular revolt against the Nazi regime. On the huge mural were embedded hidden images that conveyed principles of truth and freedom.

Spolarium by Juan Luna  

Similarly, in an earlier era, our own hero Juan Luna painted Spolarium, (centerpiece of the National Museum), a mural depicting the Filipinos under Spanish rule suffering like the gladiators during the Roman times, a visual message for the people to realize their plight. Later Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere, one of the greatest books ever written in the category of War and Peace by Tolstoy, and Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, extolled the coming of a new world order – post-colonialism and the birth of new nations.

Humanities brings tranquility in crisis

It may be strange to know that Winston Churchill, the great English hero of WWII, still found time to paint by the bank of the Thames. Arts bring tranquility in times of crisis, and elevate the senses on a higher vantage plane of vision. Putting down his brush and easel, he would then return to the battlefield with greater revolve to save Great Britain from the ravaging war. And to a greater surprise, what was it that Churchill painted? Peace.

It was the other way around five hundred years earlier when the great Michelangelo who single handedly painted the huge ceiling of the Sistine Chapel would descend from the scaffoldings, exchanged his paint brush with sword and fought side-by-side his benefactor the Pope, and when victory was apparent would climb back to finish his masterpiece. The result: the biggest composite mural that brought God, the angels and saints, down to earth., making the Sistine a microcosm of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Humanities is guardian of movements and schools
From the paintings of early man in the Lascaux caves in France, to the surrealism of Salvador Dali, humanities has kept faithful to the evolution of human creativity expressed in various aspects of human life, pouring out from palaces and cathedrals to the villages and streets. For arts no longer belong to selected societies and cultures. Impressionism took over Romanticism and translated Realism for the grassroots, subsequently bypassing standards of perception, and permeating into the unconscious seeking expression and catharsis. 

                            On-the-spot-painting contest, UST 

Expressionism founded by Vincent Van Gogh opened a wider door to abstractionism that subsequently spilled into post-modernism.

“What’s abstract? a young art enthusiast
once asked, dutifully I answered:
“When you look through the window of a car
running so fast that views are blurred.”

                 Native flower bouquet, Mt Makiling, Laguna  

“What’s expressionism?” an elder one asked;
“When the car stops, or just about,
yet still running inside, seeking, searching
for the spring of life to pour out.”

“And what is impressionism?” a third asked,
and I said: It’s sitting on a fence -
On one side Amorsolo, the other Ocampo,
It’s the spirit of art past and hence. ~

Humanities aims at goodness and peace

Propagandism and license are perhaps the greatest enemy of Humanities. The world plunged into two global wars, followed by half a centurty of cold war - the polarization into opposite ideologies that froze mankind at the brink of Armageddon, awakening Humanities to a new dimension - the search for peace.

"Peace starts with our children." AVR 

And as in the Renaissance, Humanities centered on rebirth and renewal of man’s faith in his destiny. Peace reigned the longest in contemporary times in spite of local conflicts. And for a century or so Humanities blossomed into wide popularity and acclaim, and rich diversity today, dominating media, commerce, industry and in practically all aspects of life, which often venture on the boundaries of humanities itself, among them pornography, religious extrememism, aculturation, among others.

Museum of Natural History, UPLB

Humanities is keeper and pioneer of the arts

Humanities gave the world the finest of human achievements and continues to do so - timeless classics from novel to cinema, painting to photography, colonial design to high rise structuyres, stage play to TV and Internet show. Man’s glory is akin to humanities - Venus de Milo, Taj Mahal, Borobodor, Eiffel Tower, Hallelujah, Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story, The Little Prince. to name a few.

Jeepney, Filipino art 

Humanities discovered superstars like Elvis Priestley and Michael Jackson, and our own local sensations, Leah Salonga 

Humanities faces challenge of the cyber age

But arts has also plunged into a deep and unknown global pool bringing across the world cultures heretofore unknown and appreciated, and riding on postmodernism into the chartless world of cyberspace. Which leads us to a puzzle, Quo vadis, Humanus?

Humanities is the keeper of the network of humanity

We are the World – the song that united the world by the compassion it created for the dying is perhaps the greatest humanitarian movement in recent times, originally USA to Africa in the eighties, and was repeated during the Haiti disaster twenty years later. Translated by different races, beliefs, ideologies into a common call, it brought consciousness to the whole world, that humanity is a network, a closely knit fabric beautifully expressed in the lyrics of the song -

There comes a time

When we heed a certain call,

When the world must come together as one.

There are people dying

And it’s time to lend a hand to life,

The greatest gift of all

[Chorus]

We are the world

We are the children

We are the ones who make a brighter day

So let’s start giving

There’s a choice we’re making

We’re saving our own lives

It’s true we’ll make a better day

Just you and me .

It is a most fitting tribute to mankind through this song, that no man is an island, that when somebody dies, a part inside each of us also dies, and for every man’s victory, we too, feel triumphant. Humanity is a beautiful tapestry, and Humanities is Arachne on the loom.~.

“Humanities holds the greatest treasure of mankind.“ - AVR

In summary, Humanities

- is a beautiful tapetry of humanity
- brings out the sense of awe and wonder
- builds on the framework of truth and values
- brings out the human spirit
- brings tranquility in crisis
- is guardian of movements and schools
- aims at goodness and peace
- is keeper and pioneer of the arts
- faces challenge of the cyber age
- is the keeper of the network of humanity

Lesson on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid 738 DZRB AM Band with Ms Melly C Tenorio 8 to 9 evening class Monday to Friday

Tragedy of the Commons: The case of the shrinking and disappearing "dilis" (anchovies) and "espada" fish.

Lesson on TATAKalikasan, Ateneo de Manila University

87.9 FM Radyo Katipunan, every Thursday) 11 to 12 a.m.

Tragedy of the Commons: 

The case of the shrinking and disappearing "dilis" (anchovies) and "espada" fish.

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature School on Blog

 

Dilis or anchovies is considered "poor man's food" in the rank of galunggong, pork and beans, and pandesal .  This prolific marine fish, once the main source of fishmeal for animal and poultry feeds, has spiraled beyond the  means of ordinary people. 

Espada (bulong-unas Ilk) is another marine fish that is fished in its juvenile stage, similarly with many other species that are over harvested, usually with close-knit fishnets - and without let-up in the absence of strict regulations.   

Tragedy of the Commons*

Tragedy of the commons, a term scholarly phrased,

     means simply shrinking resources

in the midst of open competition to all in the name 

     of freedom with whatever process

of acquisition in social Darwinism falsely applied;

     at the end, the winner neither the best

nor the vanquished, the passive nor meek, but all -

     victims swept by the current of unrest 

where the old Malthus' ghost once more roam,

     where lost the essence of progress,

and Toffler's ecospasm of economics and ecology 

    clash and fall from their lofty crest. ~   

    
* The tragedy of the commons is an economics theory by Garrett Hardin, according to which individuals, acting independently and rationally according to each one's self-interest, behave contrary to the whole group's long-term best interests by depleting some common resource. The concept is often cited in connection with sustainable development, meshing economic growth and environmental protection, as well as in the debate over global warming. "Commons" can include the atmosphere, oceans, rivers, fish stocks, national parks, the office refrigerator, and any other shared resource. The tragedy of the commons has particular relevance in analyzing behavior in the fields of economics, evolutionary psychology, anthropology, game theory, politics, taxation, and sociology. Some also see the "tragedy" as an example of emergent behavior, the outcome of individual interactions in a complex system. (Wikipedia)

* Lesson on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio 738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday ~

Ode to Nature Re-Visited

Ode to Nature Re-Visited 

Dr Abe V Rotor

Nature Re-visited in acrylic by the author (27"x 39") 2023 

That was a long, long time ago when my first ancestors were banished from a beautiful heaven on earth, called Paradise, and since then they roamed the earth to all its corners, over the seas, up the mountains, across deserts, down the plains and valleys, onto the tundra and forest, and around the equator; 

It's the world my brothers and sisters and I, inherited through countless generations, in a world of adventure and discovery, of knowledge and experience, of triumph and defeat, transience and endurance, leading to homogeneity and diversity of cultures, grouped and divided into civilizations past and present;

I have tried to capture in scenarios of reason and imagination, philosophy and theology, science and the humanities, building on the faculties my ancestors acquired from the Tree of Knowledge, liberating them from innate innocence, armed with formative conscience to know good from evil, reality from fantasy;   

I have tried the best I can to be obedient to your laws, devout follower of your tenets and principles, grateful to your bounty, admirer to your aesthetic beauty, humble to your great mystery, respecting the boundary of the unknown, human strength and frailty, and the omnipotence of the Creator manifested in His absolute power of Primera Causa; 

 

I dare visit the birthplace of my primeval ancestors after the Fall, though left alone, yours is a scene of regeneration, of rebirth, a landscape of contemporary renaissance, where you have demonstrated the principle of homeostasis, a kind of dynamic balance, denominator of sustainability in our own language today; 

It is full of life the second time around I may say, alive in the air, water and land, creatures thought to be forever gone returning, building nests and family, trees heritage of many generations, now abode of new and continuing life, and the changing of seasons, imagined in Vivaldi's composition as lovely, magical transition;

And I, I am reborn into the innocence of a pristine world, fishing, hiking,

dreaming, hoping that someday more children of yours - Children of Nature -  re-visit you, in a homecoming like the biblical prodigal son, re-joining his family in a setting imagined in John Milton's Paradise Regained;    

Oh, Nature Re-visited, if only I could live longer in my golden years to paint more of your beautiful sceneries, if only I can bring back your happiest, unspoiled state, rebuild your ruins, build new landscapes, that I may share with your other children, I would gladly do so, albeit my inadequacies to accomplish such noble task. ~

  

Two parts Nature Re-visited  painting by AVRotor 2023

Nature-Man Balance is the key to good health and environment

Lesson on TATAKalikasan, Ateneo de Manila University

 87.9 FM Radyo Katipunan, Every Thursday, 11 to 12 a.m.

Nature-Man Balance is the key to good health and environment

(Original title: We are destroying the Earth - our only ship in space)

Dr Abe V Rotor

A view of the Earth from the moon (NASA)

1. Changing Environment, influenced by man, breeds a variety of ailments and diseases. Nature-Man Balance, the key to good health is being threatened.

2. What and Where is the so-called Good Life? The Good Life is shifting with the transformation of agricultural to industrial economy.

3. The Good Life is synonymous to Affluence. People want goods and services beyond what they actually need. Want leads to luxury - to waste.

4. The world’s population is about 8 billion. Another billion will be added in less than 10 years. Runaway population is the mother of human miseries

A View of Marikina Valley, 

a dying ecosystem

5. The proliferation of cities, growth of cities to metropolises and megapolises, each with 10 to 20 million people ensconced in cramped condition. Cities breed Marginal communities

“People, people everywhere, but not a kindred to keep," in condominiums, malls, schools, churches, parks, sharing common lifestyles and socio-economic conditions. They are predisposed to common health problems and vulnerabilities from brownouts to food and fuel shortage, force majeure notwithstanding.

Millions of trees and palms are sacrificed every Palm Sunday. Potential loss in coconut alone is immeasurably high, affecting farmers and the industry.

6. Loss of Natural Environment – loss of productivity, loss of farmlands, and wildlife. Destruction of ecosystems - lakes, rivers, forests, coral reefs, grasslands, etc. Destruction of ecosystems is irreversible.

Philippine deer at the brink of extinction, a reflection in a fountain, UST Manila

7. Species are threatened, many are now extinct, narrowing down the range of biodiversity. Human health depends largely on a complex interrelationship of the living world. No place on earth is safe from human abuse. Coral Reef – bastion of terrestrial and marine life, is now in distress.

8. Wildlife shares with our homes, backyards and farms, transmitting deadly diseases like SARS, HIV-AIDS, Mad-Cow, FMD, Ebola, and Bird Flu which can now infect humans, allergies notwithstanding.

9. “Good Life” cradles and nurses obesity and other overweight conditions. Millions of people around the world are obese, wih 34% of Americans in the US obese.

10. Global warming stirs climatic disturbance, changes the face of the earth.

11. Globalization packages the major aspects of human activity – trade, commerce, industry, agriculture, the arts, education, science and technology, politics, religion and the like.

12. . Mélange of races - pooling of genes through inter-racial and inter-cultural marriages produces various mixed lines or “mestizos” - Eurasian, Afro-Asian, Afro-American, Amerasian, and the like. Native genes provide resistance to diseases, adverse conditions of the environment. But will this advantage hold on even as the native gene pools are thinned out?

13. Modern medicine is responsible in reducing mortality and increasing longevity. It has also preserved genetically linked abnormalities; it cradles senility related ailments. It made possible the exchange of organs and tissues through transplantation, and soon tissue cloning. It has changed Evolution that is supposed to cull out the unfit and misfits. Man has Darwinism in his hands.

14. The first scientific breakthrough is the splitting of the atom that led to the development of the atomic bomb as the most potent tool of war as evidenced by its destruction at Nagasaki and Hiroshima, and the nuclear reactor which still holds the promise of providing incessant energy to mankind. The second scientific breakthrough – Microchip led to the development of the Internet which “shrunk the world into a village.”

16. The third breakthrough in science, Genetic Engineering, changed our concept of life - and life forms. It has enabled man to tinker with life itself. Revolutionary industries Examples: In vitro fertilization, surrogate motherhood, Human Genome Project (HGP or gene mapping), multiple childbirth, post-menopausal childbirth, DNA mapping, etc. Birth of the prototype human robot – pampered, he lives a very dependent life.

17. Genetic Engineering gave rise to Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) and Gene Therapy. It has also primed Biological Warfare into a more terrifying threat to mankind and the environment. On the other hand Gene Therapy aims at preventing gene-link diseases even before they are expressed; it has actuallty revolutionized medicine. More and more countries are banning GMO crops and animals through legislative measures and conservation programs, including protection against “biopiracy”

No to Genetically Modified Organisms Campaign all over the world

18. Today’s Green Revolution opened up non-conventional frontiers of production – mariculture, desalination, desert farming, swamp reclamation, aerophonics (rooftop farming), hydroponics, urban farming, organic farming, Green Revolution adapts genetic engineering to produce GMOs and Frankenfoods. We may not be aware, but many of us are eating
genetically modified food (GMF or Frankenfood) everyday – meat, milk, chicken, corn, potato and soya products, and the like mainly from the US. Many food additives and adjuncts are harmful, from salitre in longganiza to pesticide residue in fruits and vegetables, aspartame in fruit juice to MSG in noodles, formalin in fish to dioxin in plastics, bromate in bread to sulfite in sugar, antibiotic residue in meat to radiation in milk.

• Hydroponics or soiless culture makes farming feasible in cramped quarters, and it increases effective area of farming.
. Aeroponics or Multi-storey farming Vertical Farming Farming in the city on high rise buildings
• Post Harvest Technology. is critical to Food Production. PHT bridges production and consumption, farm and market, thus the proliferation of processed goods, supermarket, fast food chains, food irradiation, ready-to-eat packs, etc.

19. Exploration into the depth of the sea and expanse of the Solar System - and beyond. We probe the hadal depth of the ocean. We build cities in space - the Skylab. Soon we will live outside of the confines of our planet earth. Now we aim at conquering another planet, another Solar System to assure continuity of mankind after the demise of the earth.

Global warming causes rise of sea level, and flooding of low lying shorelines and islands, detail of a wall mural painted by the author. 

20. Regional and International Cooperation is key to global cooperation: EU, ASEAN, APEC, CGIAR, ICRISAT, WTO, WHO, UNEP, WFO, FAO, like fighting pandemic diseases

 – HIV-AIDS, SARS, Dengue, Hepatitis, Bird Flu, etc.~

REVERENCE is primordial among the 7 “Rs” in Pollution Management

Lesson on TATAKalikasan, Ateneo de Manila University

87.9 FM Radyo Katipunan, every Thursday) 11 to 12 a.m.

REVERENCE is primordial among the 7  “Rs” in Pollution Management

Reprinted as a reminder that the problem of pollution is a concern of every citizen, community  and organization. 

Dr Abe V Rotor 

 
“Thirty (30) percent of world population is producing 85 percent of global pollution. Today’s pollution is 1000 percent times higher than in 1946.”  AVR
 

The seven “Rs” in Pollution Management are: 

1. Reduce,
2. Replace,
3. Regulate,
4. Recycle,
5. Replenish,
6. Reserve, and
7. Revere

Rains and flood are bringing in our garbage back home.

"Ang basurang itinapon mo ay babalik rin sa iyo."

1. Reduce 

Pollution management should start at the very source. Thus, the key to managing pollution should be the reduction of potential waste materials. Before buying anything, the main question you ask yourself is: “Is it necessary?” Many of us are enticed by the aesthetics of goods, which merely attracts us into buying. One strategy which manufacturers and sellers employ is “over packaging.” A great part of the money we pay for a commodity goes to its packaging. 

Take for example, canned drinks. Two-third of the value of canned cola goes to the can and advertisement. It is packaging, which amounts to a large percentage of waste on one hand, and causes the depletion of the supply of raw materials, on the other. In a study in the United States, 46 percent of the recycled thrash is packaging materials. In both cases, it is Mother Nature that bears the brunt of pollution and depletion. 

  Air pollution comes mainly from vehicles, and is heavy in big cities like Metro Manila

                                                                                                                            2. Replace 

As a rule, biodegradable materials – those that disintegrate and decompose under natural conditions - are environment-friendly, on condition that they are properly disposed. As much as possible the manufacture and use of non-biodegradable materials, such as plastics and related products like nylon, styropore and rayon, must be limited. Some plastic materials may have a life span that extends up to millions of years. This means these materials will virtually remain the same – or until our sun has expanded on its way to becoming a supernova. 

“Pollution is the excrement of technology.” - avr

Lichen - biological indicator of clean air

Environmentalists in the US and Europe have launched a campaign to promote products that have the least impact on the environment. In these regions, citizens boycott establishments like fast-food outlets that use styro and plastics.

Fortunately we are currently witnessing the slow return of waxed paper and paper cups. More and more people are using natural packaging materials such as banana leaves, rice hay, seaweeds, rice hull, wood shavings. 

                        ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
“Lead, cadmium, selenium, toxic heavy metals arsenic, chloro-hydrocarbons polychlorinated diphenyls cause behavioral symptoms, and loss of appetite, among other effects. Lead is a highly potent nerve poison. Although lead exists naturally at low concentration, it is has increased to 30 times the normal level.” 
                        ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

                                                            3. Regulate 

This refers to the need of an effective governance system for waste management. This case in point is the limited capacity of Metro Manila Development Authority in handling the gargantuan task of pollution management next to impossible. 
The outstanding amount of trash generated by Metro Manila, a city with 10 million inhabitants, and the peculiar geophysical, socioeconomic, and its peculiar political setup, make the task even more formidable. 

Fishing on a silted and polluted river

All over the world, there is need for effective governance in environmental management. Time and consequence are of the essence as more and more people are dying or getting sick, and piles of garbage are building up. Five international conferences on environment have been called, the first of which was in 1972 at Stockholm, followed by similar summits in Vancouver, Rio de Janeiro and Kyoto, and lately in Mexico. All failed to establish a global body that can regulate man’s abuse on nature and therefore guarantee the health of our planet and that of future generations. 

                                                                4. Recycle. 

Recycling refers to the process of using a material again and again, either in its original state or in another form – and perhaps for a different function. 

Durable materials that can be recycled include wood, glass, metal, concrete, and the like. Bottles, for one, can be used up to three times over. Concrete is recycled in construction sites, so with steel bars. Broken furniture can be renovated, so with many home decor. Appliances are being repaired rather being disposed for new ones. The age of second hands is here. We find more and more garage sales. Ukay-ukay (UK), anyone? Kitchen refuse and farm residues are now converted into organic fertilizer. The late Filipino inventor, Abraham Tadeja was one of the pioneers in organic manufacturing at the Payatas dump site.

“Some kinds of plastics have a life of 10,000 million years – when the sun shall have engulfed the earth.” 

These days, research has discovered modern ways of recycling more complex products. Old tires, for example, are deep-frozen and pulverized, instead of being burned or melted. Broken glass and asphalt are now made into glasphalt – an excellent material for road overlay. 

Old sugar mill spews harmful and dirty

by-products , Calatagan Batangas.

At present, Germany is the world’s leader in garbage recycling. Germans have developed a technology for recycling aluminum more times than conventional recycling does. This translates into fewer demands for bauxite, the ore of aluminum.

But the downside is that the Germans have been producing more waste lately, giving the world the impression that waste recycling must be a good business, now actually an industry in Germany, instead of just a recourse in solving environmental problems.                                                                     
                                                            5. Replenish

There is a saying in ecology, there is no such thing as “free lunch.” There is always a cost of everything we get from nature.. When we cut down a tree, we “harvest” the soil nutrients that made the wood, take away its cooling effect on its surroundings, the oxygen it gives off in the air, and deprive a multitude of organisms that depend on it. Pollution should be understood on the basis of such an equation. 

“Industrialized countries spend at least 2 percent of their GNP to clean up their mess – an expense rather than investment.” 
Cutting down a tree is therefore, indirect pollution. When we destroy a tree, we contribute to the buildup of CO2 by reducing the amount of O2 generated by that tree. This ultimately contributes to global warming. 

We destroy the symbionts of the tree, such as earthworms and termites that convert waste materials into stable forms – forms that are recycled for the use of the next generation of organisms.
                                                                6. Reserve 
The US is reserving its oil while there is oil available in the world market. Japan is not cutting its forest trees. It imports logs from Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. More and more areas are declared parks and reservations before they are claimed for agriculture, industry and settlements. 

To reserve is to postpone the consumption of a resource, and when there is no intention for that purpose but keep it in its natural state, to reserve means to preserve.

Sometimes controversy rises over such logic. For example, we have not resolved the issue of total ban on logging versus selective logging. The economists say that mature trees when left unharvested deprive the country of potential gain. Ecologists say, there is more to gain ultimately from an undisturbed ecosystem. Again, this merely shows the importance of effective environmental governance, particularly where issues like this remain unresolved. Meantime forests are left unprotected, and become subject to various abuses. Before we know it this natural resource is gone. It is this attitude that is predisposing many countries to lose their chance to preserve the environment.
                                                                     

 7. Revere 

Reverence for life. This is the founding philosophy of both natural and social science, and the guiding spirit of great men and women such as Charles Darwin, Albert Schweitzer, David Livingstone, Jean Fabre, Louis Pasteur, Jane Goodall, Rachel Carson, and King Solomon, to name a few.

The sun is blocked by gases spewed from cars and factories.

These people succeeded in their mission to make this world a better place to live in, through their examples and discoveries that lead towards loving and caring the earth. 

Let us love the Earth, our only spaceship that gives us all the things we need to be alive and happy. Let’s give our share, even just to help in Nature’s housekeeping. ~

Women Empowerment (Feature: Florence Nightingale)

Women Empowerment (Feature: Florence Nightingale)

The National Women's Month Celebration every March is part of the worldwide observance of the International Women's Day (IWD). The theme “We Make Change Work for Women” was used from 2017-2022.

      Dr Abe V Rotor

Florence Nightingale attends to the sick and wounded soldiers in Scutari
Hospital in Crimea

 

Young Florence before deciding to become a nurse (she was past 30);
the icon of the nursing profession several years later

Detail of Franz Roubaud's panoramic painting The Siege of Sevastopol (1904). Battle at Balaklva (site of the actual battle, "The Charge of the Light Brigade," by Alfred Lord Tennyson)

 

Florence saw to it that the hospitals were clean and orderly.
Florence receives the wounded soldiers in the Crimean War

Who is Florence Nightingale? She is one of the most famous women of the world. She is the founder of the nursing profession.

Her first patient was a dog. And this is the story.

One day when she was a girl she happened to pass by a wounded sheep-dog on the roadside. The shepherd told her that his dog met an accident and broke a leg. The wound was so bad that the dog would have to be killed since this was the custom in those days.

Tombstone marking the grave of Florence in England

She did not delay; she made splints and bandaged the wound, and not for long the dog was running about again. The shepherd was very thankful to Florence, and when she became famous he would tell people that her first patient had been his dog, Cap.

In 1854 war broke in Crimea in the southern part of Russia. It was fought between Russia on one side and Turkey, helped by Britain and France, on the other. Florence was then 34 years old, and had convinced her rich parents to let her become a nurse.

The conditions prevailing in the Crimean War were getting worse. There were no hospitals, or if there were, they were poorly managed. There were few doctors and nurses were more of housekeepers of hospitals. It is not like the hospitals we know today. There were as many wounded soldiers dying due to lack of proper medical attention, as there were in the battlefield, a condition the British soldiers were experiencing.

On receiving this news the Minister of War in England wrote a letter to Florence requesting her to organize a team of nurses to go to Crimea, which is more than a thousand miles away, and would take weeks to reach through poor roads and rough seas.

She accepted the challenge and immediately set forth with 38 women volunteers, most were devoted nurses from religious hospitals. They braved the stormy sea, and when they were on the way, the Battle of Balaclava was being fought. This is the famous battle in British history known as The Charge of the Light Brigade.

This is how a survivor described the battle.

“Because of the mistake about what they were supposed to do, these six hundred men galloped along a valley more than a mile long, with Russian cannon shooting at them from all sides. Many of them were killed and wounded, but they never stopped until they had ridden right up to the cannon and captured them.”

The wounded soldiers from the Battle of Balaclava were among the first patients of Florence and her volunteers.

The life of nurses was very hard in those days. They attended to many household and kitchen works. There was very little time to rest. What made the condition worse was because women in those days were not equally treated with men. There was discrimination, especially by the doctors who were all males.

But Florence persevered, so with the remaining volunteers and new nurses she trained. The hospitals became very clean and orderly. She established a system of management. There were enough supplies. Gardens were cultivated to supply the hospitals with fresh fruits and vegetables. There were fewer patients dying than before and they were recovering much faster.

Florence would be holding a lamp in the middle of the night, or into the wee hours in the morning, just to check the conditions of the patients. This scene became the symbol of the modern nursing profession.

Here in our country we have many battles to be fought. But these battles are not those in Crimea many years back. The enemy is different yet the objective is the same – the welfare of the people. We need fighters against poverty, disease and hopelessness. We need fighters who give themselves unselfishly, voluntarily without fear.

 

Dr Fe del Mundo (literally, Faith in the World), A Lady Doctor to the World,

she leads many Filipino women to serve humanity, particularly the sick and destitute.

We have leaders in the Philippines in the like of Florence Nightingale. One of them is Dr. Fe del Mundo, a medical doctor who founded the hospitals for children. These hospitals are among the best managed government hospitals in the Philippines today. Because of these hospitals thousands and thousands of children have been saved. Many more patients were given proper medical attention in the last fifty years or so. Many doctors and nurses have been trained to follow the example set by Dr. Del Mundo.

People who have apparently lost hope find the lamp in the middle of the night burning bright. Florence Nightingale and Fe del Mundo are making their rounds. ~

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Note: The Crimean War (October 1853 – February 1856) was a conflict in which Russia lost to an alliance of France, Britain, the Ottoman Empire, and Sardinia. While neutral, the Austrian Empire also played a role in defeating the Russians.

References, acknowledgment: Internet, Wikipedia, Ladybird Book Series

Reflection and Meditation before a Wall Mural of Nature

  Reflection and Meditation before a Wall Mural of Nature*

“Meditation is a way for nourishing and blossoming the divinity within you.” – Amit Ray

Mural Paintings by Dr Abe V Rotor 

                                         The edge of the sea in its ebb 

Living with Nature, San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

                                       

Surrender to the world and to yourself is humility,

you cannot fight the world and yourself in trouble,

neither escape the scene, nor give in to the bell's toll;

let time heal the wounds of living away from pity. 

 

Big heart on the Wall 

Lagro Subd., QC

Symbol of a big heart these three lasses make,

framing a primate mother and child version;

wonder what primeval love means to us sapiens,

to Darwin, Freud, Browning, by comparison.  

 

Siesta by the Pond 

Lagro Subd., QC

Beat the sweltering heat of summer at midday,

cool off on the grass and a pond nearby;

dream of fishing, catching the biggest fish ever -

peace and freedom, letting the world go by.  

    

Make-believe Wall of Nature 

Lagro Subd., QC

They exist but not on the wall and post,

precious gift of nature to growing up,

believing  in creation that must exist,

and make these scenes true at all cost.

Flow Gently Sweet Afton 

Lagro Subd., QC

Flow gently sweet Afton among the green braes, 

Flow gently I'll sing thee a song of thy praise,

My Marys' asleep by the murmuring stream, 

Flow gently sweet Afton, disturb not her dream...

Excerpt from "Sweet Afton", a lyrical poem describing the Afton Water in Ayrshire, Scotland. It was written by Robert Burns in 1791 and set to music by Jonathan E. Spilman in 1837, under the title Flow gently, sweet Afton.

*Meditation practice helps us to develop concentration and calmness, so that we can break through into a deeper understanding of the nature of reality. Reflection practice gives us insight into our own thoughts. It allows us to understand how we operate and gives us insight into our strengths and weaknesses.