UNICEF* World Children's Day
"My day, my rights"
A day to promote the well-being of children and their rights
* UNICEF, originally the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, officially United Nations Children's Fund since 1953, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to children worldwide. Founded: December 11, 1946, New York, USA. Wikipedia
1.To Children, Happiness is ....20 Ways to Happiness
2. Let Us Encourage Our Children to Engage in Art in 8 parts
Happiness is taming a wildflower.
Happiness is a lot of water to play with.
Happiness is learning to paint.
Happiness is a kid with a kid (baby goat).
Happiness is anything but work.
Happiness is riding a sled.
Happiness is a program for kids.
Happiness is palo sebo.
Happiness is sailing the sea in make believe.
Happiness is guessing who is behind the mask.
Happiness is playing with the saints and angels.
Happiness is with the whole clan on a Sunday on the beach.
Happiness is doing an errand and wading on a stream.
Happiness is waking up in a camp away from home.
Happiness is braving the prehistoric animals in a museum.
Happiness is being flower girls in a wedding.
Happiness is respite in the coolness of a shade.
Happiness is playing at sea - timeless, careless and free.
Happiness is learning the first steps of a dance.
Comment:
Creating art isn’t just a fun, colorful pastime. It has a variety of unique, positive effects on preschoolers, young children, and teens that other activities don’t provide. Here are eight reasons why you should encourage kids to participate in art on a regular basis.
“When I draw I rule the world.” -Mort Walker
"Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean." - John Muir.
"Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country." - Anais Nin
"Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere" - Chinese proverb
Have you seen a tree bearing “fruits” bigger – and heavier - than its whole structure?
Guava is the tree of happy childhood. The tree bears fruits and children. Look at all the children climbing, swinging on its branches, some armed with bamboo poles, others with small stones, still others with slingshots aiming at one thing: the ripe fruits on the tree. The tree builds sweet childhood memories.
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Shot holes caused by bagworm (Cryotothelea heckmeyeri) besiege a talisay tree (Terminalia catappa), Cebu City
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Another species of bagworm (Crypthothela fuscescens Heylerts), Family Psychidae. Photos taken at Angels' Hills, Tagaytay. The larva builds a bag of dried twig of the same diameter and length and attaches on the host plant until it reaches maturity. The spent bag simply remains hanging. Lower photo shows an exposed larva purposely for study.
Kites always fascinate me, thanks to Manong Bansiong, nephew of Basang my auntie-yaya. He made the most beautiful and the biggest kite in town. Remote and small a town San Vicente is, we had the reputation in the neighboring towns for our best kites, best pieces of furniture and wooden saints.
Detail of mural by the author
La Golondrina or the swallow has slender streamlined body, and long pointed wings, which allow great maneuverability and endurance, as well as easy gliding. Her body shape allows efficient flight. Her wings have nine primary feathers each, while the tail has twelve feathers and may be deeply forked, somewhat indented. A long tail increases maneuverability, and serves as adornment.
Nesting swallow on a tree trunk
Then it came, it came all the way from the North, and La Golondrina rode on it, flew above our heads, above the trees, above the grandstand and the chapel and the tall buildings, and up into the blue sky.
Living with Nature - School on Blog
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Wood blocks puzzle, plastic machine model, assortment of typical toys reflects modern living.
7. Let's Save our Children
from the Tender Trap of Consumerism
We went shopping as a family. Carlo our youngest was keen at many things, the city kinder that he was. "Mahal ba eto, Mama?" (Is this expensive, Mama?). This became his expression, the dawn when a child begins to weigh his own pleasure and the cost of it.
On the receiving end billions of dollars are generated with kids influencing their parents, school endorsing products and services, media riding on children's show - it's a kid's world. We are pampering them too far out with our hard-earned money, and extending their dependency, when at their age in older societies, their counterpart would have found independence and accepted responsibility.
Media is largely to blame - multimedia, from billboard to Internet. Media is littered, polluting the field of information and entertainment. You can't drive through Edsa with clear head. Billboards block the sky; they roll on with buses on your route. Give your name to the Internet and you'll gain world wide popularity, because you are a potential client or customer. My son Marlo, even if he didn't smoke, received cigarette promo cards beautifully crafted when advertising of cigarette was totally banned. My daughter found herself an automatic member of clubs endorsing children's products, with special discount. There are a variety of clubs for teenagers, from fashion to magazines, and you just find their invitation in the mailbox or on their e-mail.
Our senses are held captive: sight, sound, smell, touch. It's difficult to know real from psychological hunger. Good and fancy clothing. Durable and throw away gadget. Urgent from necessary. Pretty from beautiful. Love from care.
Let us save our children from the tender trap of consumerism *
1. Lead by example
Do what you say. Easier said than done. These are adages that should be put to practice. We cannot teach frugality when our kids see us frivolous. Austerity is sacrifice. It means more savings, less waste, optimized use of resources. Austerity is a virtue.
2. Encourage critical thinking
"Advertisement is Genie from Aladdin's lamp. He is not real," says a retired corporate manager. I used to tell my kids, "Don't believe in everything you see or hear. And don't be a Guinea pig of new products in the market." Guide your children to investigate and asses before making decisions. How many times have we been misled by the art of selling. Some end up holding an empty bag - victims of unscrupulous deals.
3. Supervise with sensitivity
Sit with your child with the computer as you would watch together a TV program. Or when he was younger, would sit on your lap while you read for him. Bedtime stories make our children happy not by the story alone but our presence, our bonding, our goodnight kiss and prayer. Until they are responsible to make correct judgment, parents make the board of censors for healthy information and entertainment.
4. Say No without guilt (PHOTO Internet)
Maybe is often our answer to our kids when it comes to less serious matters, or things no one can answer. But on matters of importance we have to be firm with our children, with a yes or no answer. Don't keep them long as fence sitters otherwise they just jump by themselves into the greener side, so to speak. When we say No, it's final. But the gravity of our position should be based on strong sense of values and security. "No, don't ride a motorcycle. No, don't drive. You are too young for that." It is the condition that makes our child understand and accept our position. It removes our guilt and reinforces our being guardians.
5. Offer Alternatives
Actually this means discovering our children's talents, and developing them into hobbies. Hobbies prevent habits. "Cooking is a hobby, eating is a habit," I usually differentiate the two in this analogy. "Listening to music and playing a musical instrument, is a hobby. But listening to music alone may fall short of the definition of hobby. Hobby is progressive, it is self-challenging, it is shifting the mind to the creative part of the brain. It is learning through curiosity and imagination. And the most important of all is that, through hobby you are a maker (Homo faber), not a mere consumer. You make kites instead of buying them. Your toys are your invention, not one you buy and never understand how it works. And in your frustration end up destroying it with screwdriver.
But the best alternative is outdoor life. Consumerism thrives best with indoor children. They want to create a world in their walled domain. But the outdoor child goes out to the world, to Nature, and he finds contentment in the countless things nature provides him free - clean water and air, mountains as high rise, waterfall as fountains, pebbles as marbles, river as swimming pool, moon and stars as neon lights. And he learns to live a contented life with the least amenities.
Athenian Syndrome
Good Life reminds us of the Athenian Syndrome during the time of Socrates, the father of Philosophy, and the "conscience" of the most powerful city state during the time of "crowing glory of Greece." He found out that the citizens seemed not to know the difference between moral and immoral. And do we know it today? And here is a third element of morality - amorality. If we find it difficult to understand what morality is all about, can we know what is ethical and what is not? What is good and evil?
A child devouring a fried chicken may be an amoral act. We know that in a hungry world, a chicken has the equivalent food value of the grains it ate to attain its size, which could have been food for five hungry children for not only a single meal. When we buy our children clothes just for fashion or fancy we imagine children who have nothing decent to wear in school. When we waste water, food, electricity, and other valuable things because we simply have so much of them, the other side of the globe could have shared them.
These are basic to our children's formative years. We have to educate them well, not to be wasteful, to keep the environment clean, and in the future to raise families of their own with assurance of their welfare. We cannot entrust our children to media. We cannot trust one institution to fill in the gap of another. We cannot leave our children in the nursery or kinder school. Religious education cannot guarantee righteousness, the community of healthy integration.
Malling a new culture
"Nagmall ka na ba?" has become more of a measure of lifestyle, rather than necessity or leisure. Mall (PHOTO Internet) is a growing institution of the middle class, and with the increasing young, and senior citizens. Many mall goers were once traditional customers of Divisoria (bagsakan - wholesale), Quiapo and Baclaran (pilgrimage sites) and countless tiangge and talipapa (flea markets).
Historically, in here informal economy reigns and why not? You can make bargains (tawad, baratilyo), establish patronage (suki), join rummage (ukay ukay). Just don't be outsmarted (naisahan, nalamangan). And if you have a sari-sari (corner store) of your own, outsource here and you are comfortable with 20 to 35 percent ROI (Return of Investment). Or if you are an enterprising employee in your organization, you can be an entrepreneur as well.
That's why customers still flock these centers where tradition exudes quaintness to shopping, where the peso is more elastic, goods and services virtually unlimited. We still get from Divisoria supplies for our home industry at wholesale.
1.To Children, Happiness is ....20 Ways to Happiness
2. Let Us Encourage Our Children to Engage in Art in 8 parts
3. Love the Children - “Children are our most valuable resource.”
4. Children's Stories: A. Guava - The Tree of Happy Childhood;
B. The World of the Mysterious Bagworm (Adventure in Nature with My Children);
C. Bird Kite - La Golondrina
D. Lost on the Desert
5. Poetry A. When was the last time you built a sandcastle?
B. The Seed of Childhood
C. Bathtub - A Place of Great Discovery
6. 12 Functions of Toys
7. Let's Protect our Children from the Tender Trap of Consumerism
1. To Children, Happiness is ....
20 Ways to Happiness
"Happiness is riding a wooden sled -
spaceship to the universe."
Dr Abe V Rotor
Happiness is taming a wildflower.
Happiness is a lot of water to play with.Happiness is taking time out with the family on a weekend.
Happiness is learning to paint.
Happiness is a kid with a kid (baby goat).
Happiness is anything but work.
Happiness is riding a sled.Happiness is a program for kids.Happiness is palo sebo.Happiness is sailing the sea in make believe.
Happiness is guessing who is behind the mask.
Happiness is playing with the saints and angels.
Happiness is with the whole clan on a Sunday on the beach.
Happiness is doing an errand and wading on a stream.
Happiness is waking up in a camp away from home.Happiness is braving the prehistoric animals in a museum.
Happiness is being flower girls in a wedding.Happiness is respite in the coolness of a shade.
Happiness is playing at sea - timeless, careless and free.
Happiness is learning the first steps of a dance.Happiness is graduation time.
Comment:
When I read this article, I was touched because children can be happy on simple things but those simple things are important in life. Happiness with children can be fulfilled because they are contented and they don't aim high to be happy .... Children are sometimes better models than adults because they can fulfill their happiness with simple things, while adults seek for more. Chiara Alyssa Cochico
2.1 - Let Us Encourage Our Children to Engage in Art
“I started painting as a hobby when I was little. I didn’t know I had any talent. I believe talent is just a pursued interest. Anybody can do what I do.” – Bob RossPart 1 - Benefits of Art for ChildrenPart 2 - Respite in DrawingPart 3 - Take time out to be close to Mother Nature(Original title: Children Painting under the Trees)Part 4 - Ode to the Kite in the Sky
Dr Abe V Rotor
Engaging children in art fosters creativity, emotional expression, and cognitive development, allowing them to explore their inner world and connect with the world around them. Art provides a unique language for self-expression and can help children develop essential life skills. Internet
A. Benefits of Art for Children
Author and tutor Dr Rotor poses with young artists V-jay Rigos, Francezz Ragasa, R-jay Tolentino, and Kimberly Santos, all students of San Vicente Integrated School. March 30, 2025 at Living with Nature Center
One fine Sunday morning four kids from the neighborhood came
to draw with pastel colors, cheerful and cellphone-free.
And what do we know, we grownups, teachers, parents, guardians?
Look at their works of art - what a great discovery!
“The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” – Aristotle
Take your choice - color as you wish,
from the creative mind, joyful heart
parrot, jay, heron - just don't miss
the free expression and joy of art.
"A picture is a poem without words". - Horace
"Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." - Pablo Picasso
Sailboats in the wind sans sailors;
a proud mother hen sans her brood;
sans man's presence, yet complete
to the young, not we who are old.
Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist when he grows up." - Pablo Picasso
B- 8 Important Benefits of Art for Children
That Everyone Should Know*
Creating art isn’t just a fun, colorful pastime. It has a variety of unique, positive effects on preschoolers, young children, and teens that other activities don’t provide. Here are eight reasons why you should encourage kids to participate in art on a regular basis.
1. Stimulates Creativity and Problem-Solving Skills2. Promotes Self-Esteem and Self-Expression3. Contributes to Fine Motor Skill Development4. Helps Develop Visual-Spatial Processing5. Builds Memory and Self-Control6. Provides Rest, Relaxation, and Reward7. Increases Academic Performance8. Connects Kids to People and the World
Dr Rotor's family and friends, grownups and children - all disciples and students of art.
Acknowledgement with Gratitude to *Painting to Gogh (Painting to Gogh Offers Fun, Engaging Painting Tutorials for Kids), Internet
“The urge to draw must be quite deep within us, because children love to do it” – David Hockney
Acknowledgement with Gratitude to *Painting to Gogh (Painting to Gogh Offers Fun, Engaging Painting Tutorials for Kids), Internet
C- Respite in Drawing
Living with Nature Center
San Vicente, Ilocos Sur
“I experience things by drawing them.” -Eleanor Dickinson
"Lolo," knocking on the gate, they called,
"Why it's gloomy, typhoon's coming," I said;
And the wind had started blowing cold;
Children are children, bless them, oh Lord.
And I, a parent, a teacher grown very old,
Rose from my armchair to meet the three;
"Can we draw?" chorused they cheerfully
What shall they draw when the sky's heavy?
Dr Abe V Rotor
Facilitator
Living with Nature garden with Rizal's shrine as background.
The shrine depicts his life in exile at Dapitan as artist, scientist,
doctor, teacher and farmer, among other roles.
Who knows more than one's mind and feeling,
more than all the world's hearing and seeing?
They write "finished" when they've not really started;
children are impatient to what we grownups wanted.
As an artist, art's never finished, take Venus de Milo,
or the works of Michelangelo and Vincent Van Gogh.
However I explained, chorused they "Tapos na, Lolo."
Ideals never die, they live in innocence of childhood,
Where have all the singing birds gone after a typhoon?
Listen to the children with colors, they'll return soon.
Children see beauty restored sooner than we do,
and a brighter tomorrow. ~
Author's Note: From the neighborhood these three children came to learn drawing in the course of weather disturbances caused by a series of typhoons lately. School classes were suspended, but thanks to the brief calm moments the children found respite in drawing. They brought home their works, in order to share their acquired skill and optimism to their family and community.
2.3 . Take time out to be close to Mother Nature
(Original title: Children Painting under the Trees)
"Go to Mother Nature when tired, lonely and uncertain,
when all human comfort fails, when abandoned." - avr
Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature - School on Blog (avrotor.blogspot.com)
Also open Naturalism -the Eighth Sense
Integrated Children's Summer Workshop conducted by the author
at the San Vicente Botanical Garden , San Vicente, Ilocos Sur.
Take time out from TV, computer, malling;life's so dull, busy yet empty;The left brain's overworked, the right idle,growing up is a sad story.
Take time out in summer away from school,put down your books and depart;give imagination a chance over knowledgethrough creativity in the art.
Take time out to be close to Mother Nature,draw and paint under the trees,recreate the world you wish it should be,let your worries go with the breeze.
Take time out to be your real self, discoverbeyond the world of reality,with myriad colors and the paintbrush,the boundless realm of fantasy. ~
Author's Family takes a break for chores and school
(John Muir, also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks", was an influential Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologist, and early advocate for the preservation of wilderness in the United States of America). ~
2.4. Ode to the Kite in the Sky
Dr Abe V Rotor
Kite Flying on the Lakeshore in acrylic, group project,
Children's Summer Art Workshop, circa 1995.
Fly high into the sky, until you see us but minuscule on the ground,how insignificant we all are, to the world and to the universe;Fly with the wind with all your might, that we too, feel we are flying,save our strength, our will and faith to remain with Mother Earth,our home, our only planet, our spaceship, the place of our birth.Fly high with our dreams, our fantasy of conquering space and stars,how lofty dreams are, how ambitious, how proud we humans are;Fly away from our hold, be free, drift aimlessly if you call that freedom;then neither you are a friend, nor we are your master, but a renegade,breaking away from the rules and order that humanity has made. ~
2.5. Children Praise Nature in Paintings
Children painting nature is freedom of creativity, joy of communing with nature, and recognizing nature as the greatest teacher and artist." - avr
Dr Abe V Rotor
Art Instructor
A Field of Flowers and Blue Butterflies by Hannah Laurente, 12
Flowers, flowers everywhere, I am blessed;how I wish beyond the horizon it's the same,where Paradise is regained, as sages said;take me to it and I shall paint it on frame.
"If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere." – Vincent Van Gogh
Twin Waterfalls by Harris Laurente, 9
Roar, hiss, and whistle all day long,over the cliff and down the stream;it is here where I wish to belong,to live in reverence and to dream.
"Every child is an artist; the problem is staying an artist
when you grow up.." – Pablo Picasso
Siblings Hannah and Harris proudly presents their paintings.
Art is not just competition, but cooperation
with those of the same thoughts and illusion.
"Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty.":
– John Ruskin
“We have art in order not to die of life.” ~Albert Camus
- - AV Rotor, Art Teacher"I am a connection of the scenes of nature,of the old, new and upcoming generation;past and present, as foreseen in the future.peace and beauty. I'm a guardian of creation."
Imagination is as important as reason, I must say,
more so to the young, and those young at heart,
for creativity takes us away and stray
to where we are free and happy.
Hurrah, indeed to art!
"Children have neither a past nor a future.
Thus, they enjoy the present, which seldom happens to us.":
РJean de La Bruy̬re
Red Flowers by Princess, 8 and Kean 9
"Let nature be your teacher.": – William Wordsworth
Neither we're too young nor too old for art.prodigies and late bloomers are not apart;art knows no end even after we depart;everything we do in life, in fact, is art.
Student guests from Ilocos Sur National High School,
St Paul College of Ilocos Sur, and San Vicente Integrated
School at Rizal Shrine at the Living with Nature Center.
Nature welcomes the lovers of beauty and humanity,
her ways the best guide to our actions and destiny.
“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature – the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.” – Rachel Carson
2.6. Children's art workshop paintings
Dr Abe V Rotor
Art workshop instructor
"Childhood is forever,in summer, all to gain;how we, grownups, wish,to be children again." - avr
Summer on the beach
"Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
School life scene
Hospital Scene
"A hospital bed is a parked taxi with the meter running" from Brainy Quote.
Three selected works of school children who participated in a summer workshop show three important values for growing up, namely
- Love nature and make outdoor life part of lifestyle.
- Study and play in proper balance. "All work and no play makes a dull boy."
- Keep healthy and be compassionate to the sick and infirmed.
2.7 - Children's Field Trip
with Nature on the Wall
Living with Nature Center
"Art is the greatest human expression of beauty, thoughts, feelings
and spirituality that connect man and his Creator." avr
Wall murals painted by Dr Abe V Rotor
Stopping by a mural of nature,they sought in its shadow reliefin make-believe adventure,in imagery passing and brief.
Faithful to the sense of vision and imagination,these murals are alive with happy children.Wonder how long they last as the kids grow up,as brightness and colors fade 'til the day is done,but the lesson is ne'er lost with the sinking sun.
"One for all, and all for one, " cried the musketeersof Alexandre Dumas classic novel;who's the enemy today, who are the brave knights?if ever the cry's still heard clear as a bell.
The bell that tolls for the dead in the battlefield,victims of calamities and injustice;now a chime in the once beautiful landscape.dirge for a natural world we will all miss.
A natural world reminiscent in muralson the wall asking how long they shall last;like a puzzle of the mirror on the wall,and the bell for whom it tolls for none but us.
Walking home from school is joy,passing through nature on the wall.
Take a break, boys.enough for cellphones,
loafing and toys.
A rendezvous by a spring,what more can summer bring?
Ambiance of nature at home,on a mural from floor to wall,at low tide on the seashorewith company and nothing more.
* Children's Field Trip to Nature's Wall Mural Paintings
- San Vicente Ilocos Sur In celebration of Earth Day April 22 2021
2.8 - Home with Nature
Painting and Verse by Dr Abe V Rotor
"Nature is not a place to visit. It is home." - Gary Snyder
Home with Nature in acrylic (30"x17") AVR 2025
Home with Naturefar away from the city,down to the green valley,where life is happy and free.
"My wish is to stay always like this, living quietly in a corner of nature." – Claude Monet
Details of Home with Nature painting: Birds nesting and feeding their young.
Home with Nature -whispers the gentle breezein spring and long summer,birds build nests in the trees.
"Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself." – Henry David Thoreau
Details of Home with Nature painting: Fish going upstream, children fishing.
Home with Nature -fish return to spawnreptiles and frogs stirlively to the season.
"For a time, I rest in the grace of the world, and am free." – Wendell Berry
Details of Home with Nature painting: A flock of migrating birds, a flutter of butterflies.
Home with Nature -birds to where they're bound,stop over for a while,with butterflies around.
"Fresh air is as good for the mind as for the body. Nature always seems trying to talk to us as if she had some great secret to tell. And so she has." – John Lubbock
Details of Home with Nature painting: Waterfall, doves in the blue sky.
Home with Nature -clouds rise from the valley,
water falls from the sky
down the stream and play.
"Nature always wears the colors of the spirit." - Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Author with young artists: Lorenzo, Chrea Mae, April, and Joseph.
Home with Nature -technology not the keyto Nature's conservationunless environment-friendly.
Home with Nature -where children are happiestquietly fishing all day long,dream - their biggest fish.
Home with Nature -away from the mallfree from the cellphone,hurrah! to body and soul.
"In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous." - Leonardo da Vinci.
Details of Home with Nature painting.
Home with Nature -Young artists recreatingNature with their handsin the art of painting.
Home with Nature -"Redeem the lost Eden,"great challenge to the young,to re-build this Garden.
"Nature is the art of God." - Dante Alighieri ~
3. Love the Children
“Children are our most valuable resource.” — Herbert Hoover, 31st President of the United States
Photographs by Dr Abe V Rotor
“Children are great imitators. So give them something great to imitate.” — Anonymous
“Children need models rather than critics.” — Joseph Joubert, French moralist
“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”
— Frederick Douglass, abolitionist and statesman
“The greatest legacy one can pass on to one's children and grandchildren is not money or other material things accumulated in one's life, but rather a legacy of character and faith.” — Billy Graham, evangelist
“Children are not things to be molded, but are people to be unfolded.”
“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it
treats its children.” — Nelson Mandela, Former President of South Africa
“Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.”
— Margaret Mead, cultural anthropologist
“Children make your life important.” — Erma Bombeck, American humorist
Children's Art Workshop conducted by the author at his residence, San Vicente, Ilocos Sur. Children playing under a Kalumpang Tree, Tandang Sora, QC
4. Children's Stories
1.Guava - the Tree of Happy Childhood
By Dr. Abe V. Rotor
"If there is another wonder of the world, it is the guava tree." - avr
Picking guava on the tree, a childhood adventure (Internet photo)
Here is for the Book of Guinness Record. Have you heard the guava tree talk, laugh and shout, sing beautifully or grunt, make echolocation signals? Its branches bend without wind, the trunk sways at 9.0 intensity, leaves fall as confetti.
Parents know where to find their children, and fetch them from their perch in the tree for their siesta or class. At once the tree falls silent, but the doldrums reigns briefly. Soon the children are back to their bailiwick tree.
Take the backseat London Bridge, Golden Gate or Eiffel Tower. The guava tree can bend and touch the ground, and become upright again – not once, not twice but many times in its lifetime. And every branch equally obliges to the 180-degree weight and pull of children. No wonder the best spinning top and the best frame for slingshot are made from guava wood, and is perfect "Y", too.
It is a living Christmas tree, sort of. Birds come frequently. The perperoka and panal - migratory birds from the North, come with the Amihan and eat on the berries, while combing the place of worms, and gleaning on anything left by harvesters. The pandangera bird (fan-tailed) dances on the branches, while the house sparrow perches, picking ripe fruits and some crawlers. And if you wake up very early, meet the butterflies and bees gathering nectar and pollen from the flowers. Take a deep breathe of the morning air spiced with the fragrance of both flowers and ripe fruits.
And the tree has eyes. True. Round and luminescent in the dark, mingle with the fireflies and the stars – and a waning moon. It is romantic, scary, sacred. Fruit bats come at night and pick the ripe fruits. Rodents and wild pigs scavenge at night. Moths and skippers, relatives of the butterfly, are nocturnal in their search for food and mate. Old folks would warn us kids never to go near the tree at night. In my career as biologist I had the experience to see in the middle of a field guava trees lighted with fireflies. This scene was in Sablayan in Mindoro island. What a sight - Christmas in another time and in another place. What a magnificent sight!
Would a child go hungry where guava trees abound? I don’t think so. Because the fruits are packed with sugar, vitamins and minerals. The fruits are made into jelly, pickled and cooked as vegetable. It is perfect for sinigang. Have you heard of guava wine? It is the most aromatic of all table wines made from tropical fruits, and it displays a rare pinkish glow. Nutritionists say guava is rich in Vitamin C, richer than most fruits, local and imported. I came to learn later of the cancer-preventing substance derived from Psidium guajava, its scientific name, and its miraculous healing attributes.
Name the ailments commonly encountered, and the guava offers a dozen home remedies. Chew the tops and make a poultice to relieve toothache. The village dentist tells you to first make a poultice the size of a marble, then after he has extracted your tooth, he tells you to seal the wound with it to prevent bleeding and infection. Pronto you can go back to your usual chore.
Guava stem is the first toothbrush, try it. Soften the smaller end and you can also use it as toothpick. This is practical when traveling in a remote rural area. Chew a leaf or two for astringent and tooth paste. Crushed leaves serve as aromatherapy, a new term for an old remedy. And for an unconscious person, burn some dried leaves, fan the smoke toward the patient while pressing his large toe with your thumb nail. The patient senses both pain and smoke and soon takes a deep breathe - another, and another, until he gets enough oxygen and he wakes up.
Decoction of guava leaves for bath is practical in eliminating body odor. Guava soap is effective against skin disorders like pimples and eczema. With this knowledge my daughter Anna Christina formulated an oitment from guava as her college thesis. It is an all-natural antibacterial formula of the plant’s anti-inflammatory and therapeutically active properties against wounds or burns. Extract from the leaves contains 5 to 10 percent tannin, and fixed oils that have antibacterial and inhibitory effect against harmful microorganisms.
When I was a kid my auntie-yaya would gather succulent green guava fruits as remedy for LBM. Tannin regulates the digestive enzymes and stabilizes the digestive flora. She would also make guava leaf tea as a follow-up treatment.
As an offshoot of all these experiences, I asked my students to look into the potential value of guava seeds. The seeds contain 14 percent oil, 15 percent proteins, and 13 percent starch. And study also the bark and leaves in the development of drugs against diarrhea, and as astringent.
At one time I was isolating yeasts that occur in nature which I needed in preparing bubod – yeasts complex for basi wine fermentation, I stumbled upon two kinds of yeasts - Saccharomyces elipsoides and Brettanomyces. The second, I discovered is the secret of French wine premium quality. This French yeast resides in our home yard, in the flower of the native guava! Later I found out with the help of Food Development Center of the National Food Authority the same yeast naturally occurs in the flowers of macopa (Eugenia jambalana) and duhat (Syzygium cumini), both are members of the guava family - Myrtaceae.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Guava is the tree of happy childhood. The tree bears fruits and children. Look at all the children climbing, swinging on its branches, some armed with bamboo poles, others with small stones, still others with slingshots aiming at one thing: the ripe fruits on the tree. The tree builds sweet childhood memories.
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The guava seed is an example of Nature’s way of breaking dormancy of seeds and enhancing their dissemination. Dormancy is a temporary delay for seeds to germinate, which may last for a few days to several years. This is important as a survival mechanism. Guava seeds are not destroyed by gastric juice and peristalsis of the digestive system of animals – cold or warm blooded - because of their very thick and hard pericarp. This biological property ensures the species to colonize a new land.
You can’t crack guava seeds. If you do, especially with a decayed tooth you’ll end up going to your dentist. Oh, how I would wince and hold on anything. Either the old tooth is forced out of its place or the seed has lodged in the cavity.
Old folks also believe that guava seeds can cause appendicitis. Well, its seed is too large to enter this rudimentary organ. I believe though that it is its abrasive nature that makes way for the bacteria to enter and cause infection. And subsequently inflammation. Well, if this is true, then it’s a risk one takes in eating guava. You really can’t remove all the seeds, and if you succeed you take away the fun and quaintness of eating this berry.
We have introduced foreign varieties of guava which really don’t grow into a tree. The fruits are very much bigger, but far from being as sweet as those of our native variety. In a few years the guapple, as it is called, becomes senile and die, while the native guava lasts for a lifetime, and longer.
Today when I see children climbing guava trees it reminds me of my childhood. It reminds me of its many friends – birds, ground fowls like ducks, chicken, bato-bato, goats and self-supporting native pigs. I imagine butterflies, dragonflies and Drosophila flies attracted by the ripening fruit. And frogs and toads patiently waiting for these flies to become their prey. Finches and sparrows, the quick and dainty La Golondrina (swift), the pandangera, panal and perperroka – I miss them.
Yes, the fruit bats, they are the source of children’s stories, among them is about clumsy bats dropping their load of ripe fruits accidentally falling of rooftops. In the dead of the night what would you imagine? “It’s the manananggal! (female half-bodied vampire).” Our folks at home would even make their voice tremble. And we would cling to each other in bed we kids of our time. Our elders take advantage of the situation and whisper, “If you don’t sleep, it will come back.”
In the morning who would care about the manananggal? Or seeds causing appendicitis? Or the danger of falling from the tree. Or chased by a wild boar? Or challenged by a billy goat or a brooding hen? As usual we would search for ripe berries and have our fill. Then we would hurry down and run to relieve ourselves, too loaded we simply take comfort in some nearby thickets. In time guava trees would be growing this these spots.
Children would be climbing these trees, having their fill of the fruits, and joyous in the adventure of childhood, making the guava tree the greatest wonder of the world. ~
2. The World of the Mysterious Bagworm
Adventure in Nature with My Children
Adventure in Nature with My Children
Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature - School on Blog
Shot holes caused by bagworm (Cryotothelea heckmeyeri) besiege a talisay tree (Terminalia catappa), Cebu City
Pagoda bagworm, Crypothelea hekmeyeri Heyl., in pseudo colony
on duhat leaf; below, enlarged side view of the pagoda-shaped insect.
Sheepishly she peeps from under a pagoda she built;Like the turtle she hides, creeps ‘til finally ceases to eat.A Venus de Milo she emerges, sans wings she must wait,Love scent in the air she urges a winged groom her mate.She lays her eggs in the tent, broods them ‘til they hatch,With heart’s content; leaves and dies after the dispatch.To the Great Maker, life’s full of sacrifice and obligation;Mother keeps young and home, the species’ bastion.- AV Rotor, BagwormLight in the Woods, 1995
My pastime reading under a spreading duhat tree standing at the backyard of our old house was disturbed one summer. This favorite shady spot almost disappeared as the tree my father planted before I was born completely shed its leaves. Our yard turned into a litter of leaves. Our tree appeared lifeless.
Summer is when this tree is a deep green canopy, loaded with flowers and luscious, sweet fruits, and laughing children, their tongues and hands bearing the stain of its black berries.
The culprit cannot be the drought spurred by El Nino, I thought. Duhat is highly tolerant to prolonged dry spell, because its tap roots can reach deep seated ground water.
Even before I discovered the culprit - a shy insect protected by a pagoda-like bag - my children had already set up a field laboratory in their a tent, complete with basic research tools, and books of Karganilla, Doyle and Attenborough. For days our backyard became a workshop with the touch of Scotland Yard, Mt Makiling and Jules Verne.
My children called the insect living pagoda because of the semblance of its house with the Chinese temple, and because of its turtle-like habit of retreating into its bag. Leo, our youngest fondly called it Ipi, contracted from “insect na parang pagong at pagodang intsik”.
Ipi belongs to the least known family of insects, Psychidae, which in French means mysterious. Yet its relatives, the moth and the butterfly, are perhaps the most popular and expressive members of the insect world.
Curious about the unique bag and how it was built by such a lowly insect, Matt and Chris Ann worked as research partners. They entered their data in a field notebook as follows:
1. Base diameter - 2 cm2. Height of bag - 2 cm3. No. of shingles on the bag - 204. Size ratio of shingles from base to tip – 10:15. Basic design – Overlap-spiral
We examined the specimen in detail with a hand lens and found that the bag has several outstanding features. My children continued their data entry, as follows:
1. Water-resistant (shingle roof principle)2. Stress-resistant (pyramid principle)3. Good ventilation (radiator principle)4. Light yet strong (fibrous structure)5. Camouflage efficient (mimicry and color blending)6. Structural foundation - None
The pagoda bag has no structural foundation, I explained. It is carried from place to place by a sturdy insect which is a caterpillar, larva of a moth. Beneath its pagoda tent, it gnaws the leaf on the fleshy portion, prying off the epidermal layer to become circular shingles. Using its saliva, it cements the new shingles to enlarge its bag, then moves to a fresh leaf and repeats the whole operation. As
the larva grows, the shingle it cuts gets bigger,
This is a very rare case where construction starts at the tip and culminates at the base, noted my wife. Remember that the structure is supposed to be upside down because Ipi feeds from the underside of the leaf, I said. “An upside pagoda,” our children chorused.
As Ipi grows, the shingles progressively increase in size and number, thus the bag assumes the shape of a storied pagoda. Thus there are small
Pagodas and larger ones, and varied intermediate sizes, depending on the age of the caterpillar which continuously feeds for almost the whole summer during which it molts five times.
If there are no longer new shingles added to the bag it is presumed that the insect had stopped growing. It then prepares to pupate and permanently attaches its bag on a branch or twig, and there inside it goes into slumber. The attached bag appears like thorn as if it were a part of the tree, and indeed a clever camouflage on the part of the insect. Here suddenly is a parasite becoming a symbiont, arming the host tree with false thorns!
My children's curiosity seemed endless. I explained that like all living things, bagworms have self-preserving mechanisms. They must move away from the food leaf before it falls off. They must secure themselves properly as they tide up with their pupal stage. After a week later they metamorphose into adults. Here on the twigs and branches they escape potential predators. Here too, the next generation of newly hatched larvae will wait for new shoots on which they feed.
Matt picked one bag after another to find out what stage the insect is undergoing. I recalled my research on Cryptothelea fuscescens Heyl, a relative of C. heckmeyeri, the pagoda species. Chris Ann took down notes
1. Specimen 1 - Bag is less than 1 cm in diameter, caterpillar in third instar (molting), voracious feeder.2. Specimen 2 - Bag large, construction complete, insect in fifth or sixth instar, morphological parts highly distinct, head and thorax thick, three pairs of powerful legs.3. Specimen 3 - Insect in pupal stage, expected to emerge in one week, chrysalis (skin) full, dark and shiny. Feeding had completely stopped.4. Specimen 4 - flag empty, opening clear, chrysalis empty.5. Specimen 5 - Bag contains eggs laid on cottony mass, chrysalis empty.The last specimen is intriguing. Where is the insect? Why did it abandon its lifelong home? A puzzle was painted on the face of our young Leo. So I explained.
Let us trace the life history of Ipi and its kind. Both male and female bagworms mature into moths. The winged male upon emerging from his bag is soon attracted by love scent emitted by a waiting female moth still ensconced in her bag. The scent is an attractant scientists call pheromone. Then in the stillness of summer night, her Romeo comes knocking. Without leaving her bag she receives him at an opening at the tip of the pagoda bag. A long honeymoon follows, but signaling an ephemeral life of the couple.
The fertilized female lay her eggs inside the bag, seals it with her saliva, then wiggles out to the outside world but only to fall to the ground - and die, because Nature did not provide her wings!
“Poor little thing,” muttered Cecille apparently in defense of the female species. “Nature did it for a reason,” I countered, “otherwise we would not have bagworms today.” The wingless condition of the female bagworm is the key to the survival of the species.
The sun had set, the litter of leaves had been cleaned up. And the silhouette of our leafless duhat tree against the reddening sky painted gloom on our subject. As dusk set in, I noticed nocturnal insects circling the veranda lamp. A moth paused, then passed over our heads and disappeared into a tree. “Bye, bye,", cried Leo Carlo.
Summer was short, the rains came early and our duhat tree developed robust foliage. Cicadas chirped at the upper branches and an early May beetle hang peacefully gnawing on young a leaf. I was reading Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring when a gust of wind brought down a dozen tiny bagworms hanging on their own invisible spinnerets. My children were aroused from their reading of The Living Planet.
We had unveiled the mystery of the pagoda bagworm, but above anything else, we found love and appreciation on the wonders of Nature and the unity of life itself. ~
Another species of bagworm (Crypthothela fuscescens Heylerts), Family Psychidae. Photos taken at Angels' Hills, Tagaytay. The larva builds a bag of dried twig of the same diameter and length and attaches on the host plant until it reaches maturity. The spent bag simply remains hanging. Lower photo shows an exposed larva purposely for study.
Photos taken at Angels' Hills, Tagaytay.
Bagworms make bags out of pieces of stems and leaves attached to the host plant. The male insect emerges leaving behind its molt at the opening of the bag. The female is wingless and does not leave the bag. When ready for mating she exude sex pheromone to attract a winged male through the posterior opening to fertilize. After laying her eggs inside the bag, she pushes her way out and drops to the ground and dies. In a week's time the hatchlings emerge from the nursery bag and soon find food and start building their own bags. Lowest photos: full size bagworms. The caterpillar molts five or six times before becoming into pupa, and consequently adult. Exposed caterpillars in their fifth and final instars.
* Lesson on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio 738 DZRB AM, 8-9 evening class Monday to Friday
Bird Kite - La Golondrina
A Tribute to the late Manong Bansiong Repulleza, Master Kite Maker, a native of San Vicente, Ilocos Sur.
Kites always fascinate me, thanks to Manong Bansiong, nephew of Basang my auntie-yaya. He made the most beautiful and the biggest kite in town. Remote and small a town San Vicente is, we had the reputation in the neighboring towns for our best kites, best pieces of furniture and wooden saints.Manong Bansiong made different kites: sinang gola, agila, kayyang, golondrina – in the likes of bull, bird with outstretched wings, maiden in colorful, flowing dress, and many other designs. His kites were known for their strength, stability, beauty, and agility. In competitions he always brought home the bacon, so to speak.
“Can you make me a La Golondrina?” I found myself asking Manong Bansiong one afternoon.
Detail of mural by the author
La Golondrina or the swallow has slender streamlined body, and long pointed wings, which allow great maneuverability and endurance, as well as easy gliding. Her body shape allows efficient flight. Her wings have nine primary feathers each, while the tail has twelve feathers and may be deeply forked, somewhat indented. A long tail increases maneuverability, and serves as adornment.
As a child, I love to watch swallows in flight. And there is something special about them because I discovered their nesting ground in Caniao, the source of our faucet water. Caniao is a spring at the edge of Cordillera facing the South China Sea, some 20 kilometers away. The swallows roost on a very big tree and one particular bird came close and posed to us picnickers. She seemed unafraid and even sang a beautiful melody. I stalked to have a good look at her, but on sensing my closeness, she took off and soared like a kite in the wind.
Actually La Golondrina is a difficult design of a kite to make. But Manang Basiong was a real expert. He won’t back out at any kind of kite especially if it is for a contest. He always wanted his kites to win.
“When will be the contest?” He asked in our dialect.
With that statement and a kindly smile I knew Manong Bansiong would make my La Golondrina. “Yehay!” I could not help keep it a secret and soon everyone knew it and anticipated the big event.
The day of the contest came. There were many kites from our town and nearby towns. Vigan, the capital of the province had the most entries and the biggest kites at that. There were designs of airplanes, eagles and dragons, huge and colorful, and dominated the sky. But my confidence did not sag.
Then our turn came. La Golondrina appeared unique. She was not really very big. All eyes were on her. I asked my brother Eugene to help me carry her across the field while Manong Bansiong held the string at the other end.
“Farther … some more,” he signaled. “Stop.” He paused and whistled a few notes. It is a technique in kite flying. Release the kite at the moment a strong breeze comes. We waited for the precious wind.
Then it came. It was a gust of wind that came all the way from the North. It is called Siberian High, the wind that brings in the chills in October lasting throughout the Christmas Season. It is the wind of Amihan, the season we harvest our rice crop, when the grains turn to gold in the sun. It is the season farmers build haystacks (mandala) that look like giant mushrooms dotting the landscape. But to us kids, amihan is the season of kite flying. It is a season of games and laughter in the field.
“Steady now,” Manong Bansiong shouted, and Eugene and I raised La Golondrina and waited for the signal. “Now!”
She took off strong and soared above our heads, above the nearby trees, above the church steeple. Our town mates and my classmates rallied. They followed her ascent, and clapped, coaching to the top of their voices. “Up, up. Go up some more! More! More!” She mingled with the other kites, bowing here and there, sometimes flying close to the dragon or eagle, and to the airplane kites in some kind of greeting.
Manong Bansiong let the string glide on his hand, making a crispy whistling sound as our kite continued to rise. Now it was higher than any other kite. It appeared as if it were the smallest of them all, and one won’t recognize her if he did not see her first on the ground. Beyond lay the blue Cordillera the home of this beautiful bird. I could see Caniao in the back of my mind. She hovered steadily like a duchess in the sky. I wondered at how she looked at us down below. I just imagined we were also just specks on the ground, and if my T-shirt were not red, she would not be able to distinguish me from the spectators.
Then the unexpected happened. The string snapped! La Golondrina was adrift. She was flying free, and she was not coming down. Instead, she went farther up, riding on the wind current. Everyone was silent. All eyes were focused on the ill-fated kite. Soon it was but a dot in the sky. No one could tell what was going to happen.
Manong Bansiong rolled the remaining string back into its cage. “She didn’t get much string.” He muttered. My first impulse was to run to where she would most likely land. “No,” he said, catching me on the shoulder. Many had joined the chase.
I remained dumbfounded, agape at the wide, wide sky. Time stood still. There was a deafening silence. Nothing seemed to move. Not even the kites.
La Golondrina was swallowed up by a dark cloud and the cloud was heading for the mountains, as it often does, momentarily becoming part of its top like a veil or a blanket. During Amihan the cloud is thin and high because the wind is cool and dry. It is time for birds in the North to go down South, and return in the dry season. But for birds of La Golondrina’s kind, it is time to go home to nest and rear their young.
With that thought, I said, “She’s going home.” Manong Bansiong nodded in submission to the fate of his masterpiece. Eugene had just come back panting, brushing away weeds and dusts. He had given up the chase together with our town mates. Everyone talked about how they crossed the fields, climbed over fences, forge streams and even climbed trees to get better view of the route of the lost kite.
But no one knew where La Golondrina had landed.
We soon forgot all about the contest as we sadly prepared to go home. The plaza was empty now. It was already dark.
That night I dreamt I found La Golondrina in Caniao, hanging on a branch where I once saw her as a bird. How different she was from the once beautiful La Golondrina. But at least she had reached home at last.
Manong Bansiong did not make kites anymore since then. But because of him I became a kite maker, too.
But time has changed. Kite flying has become an endangered art. Kids are more interested with other playthings. They have remote controlled toys and other electronic gadgets. They would rather stay indoors in front of the TV and the Computer. And they seem to be more serious in their studies than we were then. They seldom go out to the fields. Rivers and forests are full of danger. No, their parents won’t allow them to go to these places. Many of them have moved to the city, and flying kites in open spaces is very dangerous.
It consoles me to see a kite flying around, whether it is made of simple T-frame or plastic. Or one made in China. How different kites are today from the kites we had before.
When I reached the age Manong Bansiong was as kite maker, I also found joy in making kites for children. I am not as good as my mentor though. When Leo Carlo, my youngest son, took part in kite flying at the University of Santo Tomas, I helped him re-create La Golondrina. It was turning back the hands of time. He carried our kite across the football field with Marlo, his brother, and I, at the other end, held the string. We waited for the old friendly wind.
Leo Carlo and team display winning bird kite, UST.
Then it came, it came all the way from the North, and La Golondrina rode on it, flew above our heads, above the trees, above the grandstand and the chapel and the tall buildings, and up into the blue sky.
La Golondrina is the grandest kite of all. ~
4D- Lost in the Desert
A Short Story
Dr Abe V Rotor
Oasis at Sunset, acrylic painting by Miss Anna Christina Rotor, circa 2002
He has been there for some time now filling up a well he made in the sand with water from the sea.
“What are you doing?” I asked nonchalantly, knowing what a silly thing he was doing. I acted like a teacher with the critical nature of one showing up.
“You know, you can’t really fill your well, or empty the sea either.” I said with an aura of authority.
He looked up at me and beamed a smile in the sun. He was not just pouring water into his well; he was decorating it with seashells, seaweeds, corals and plants growing nearby. He was making a landscape.
Fish were not biting that morning so I folded up my fishing rod and passed by the boy's well again.
Why it was an oasis model he made! Complete with a sandcastle, a pathway, a retaining wall and waterhole. The boy was no longer there.
That was a long time ago when I had the luxury of spending a whole day or two fishing, when weekend is a day of leisure and unwinding from pressure of work.
Who cares about one boy out of millions of boys building oases and sandcastles? What is the boy’s name? Oh, the only thing that lingers in my head under graying hair is his lovely innocent face and charming smile.
Years later, in my last year in government service I was sent to Israel to attend a Food and Agriculture Organization sponsored conference. What a luck! A pilgrimage to the Holy Land!
Tourists in general, love to take side trips, and I am no exemption. After touring Israel “tracing the footsteps of Christ,” I decided to continue on to Egypt where the Holy Family, according to the bible visited. So I joined a tour from Tel-Aviv to Cairo via the Sinai Peninsula, crossing the Suez Canal.
In the middle of the desert, we the passengers were told to register somewhere at the border of Israel and Egypt, before reaching the Gaza Strip. We left our bus and proceeded to an isolated police headquarters. The inspector looked at my passport and started questioning me in Arabic. I didn’t understand a word. He presented me to the officer-in-charge who spoke a little English. He said they are on a lookout for terrorists who attacked a tourist bus. After examining my papers which included those about the conference I had just attended, he sort of apologized and let me go.
Outside I met a blinding sandstorm. I lost my way to my bus. When I saw it, it was already far and moving away. I ran after it shouting until I was exhausted. Was it a mirage?
When the sandstorm subsided I found myself alone. “Where is the station, the road?” I was talking to myself, feeling abandoned.
In the desert the reference for direction is the sun, and at night the moon and stars. I remember the pilot lost in the desert in The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery. And Coleridge’s Water, Water Everywhere about a mariner lost at sea.
The sun was now going down. I reckoned, “If you go west, you will reach the Mediterranean.” So I walked toward the sun. Sand trapped in my shoes made my feet sore. “Surely there are buses, cars and people around,” I said, always keeping an eye on the horizon.
But there was none. I remembered what the tourist guide said, “Vehicles travel on the Sinai in convoy. You can’t travel alone on the long stretch of sand.” What if my bus was in the last convoy for that day?
I had never felt so hungry and thirsty in my life, and now fear was creeping in. I was empty handed; I left everything in the bus. “Now where is my hand-carry bag? My medicine? My camera? I had left them, too. Why did my bus leave without me? They should have made a roll call, at least a headcount.” I was in soliloquy. I was like the old man in Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea talking to himself in the middle of the sea. “But he had a boat. I have none.”
I used to tell tall stories, “You know, I was assigned in very dangerous places,” referring to Cordillera and Samar island, bailiwick of bandits and rebels. But here the enemy is different - it is emptiness. And I would continue, “You know, I was twice taken hostage by dissidents and never gave in to their demands.” What if they tagged me an Arab terrorist! Here courage just turn into bravado, a kind of bahala na stance. I began to despair.
Sitting on top of a dune I imagined Alexander the Great searching for the Oracle at the Oasis of Siwa near Cairo. According to history he got lost, but how can a man destined to conquer the world get lost? That’s legend, and legends are for great people. And here I'm but a lost soul.
Oasis! That’s a bright idea. I could almost hear the melody of the song, The Desert is Hiding a Well. Yes, if I find date palms and olive trees, there must be an oasis nearby.” And perhaps people living there, and travelers passing by.
Climbing on to the crest of a taller dune reminded me of Golgotha. "I would rather die on top of sand dune than be buried under it." So I stayed there straining my sight to where an oasis might lie. Again I remembered the Little Prince, not the story but what he symbolized – inner vision, unending hope. I needed any kind of encouragement now. I was desperate.
Suddenly, something reflected at the foot of a crescent dune, hidden by another. Water?
Eureka! Eureka!
And down the dune I ran, sliding and tumbling, and in a record time reached a greenery of date palms and olives, a waterfall pouring into a small lake, its water shimmering with the rays of sunset. I cupped the precious liquid with my hands and immediately quenched my thirst. And slept.
I saw a boy repeatedly filling up a well he made in the sand with water from the sea.
“What are you doing?” I asked. “You can’t succeed filling your well, or emptying the sea either.” He looked at me, his face beamed in the sun, and continued with his craft. When I returned I found a beautiful landscape - an oasis!
When I woke up I was in a clinic, in the same headquarters I was earlier interrogated. A search team found me unconscious of dehydration and delirious with high fever.
“What is the name of that beautiful oasis?” I asked. The attendants just looked at each other. One of them wearing a stethoscope said, “You need more rest. Tomorrow we will take you to Cairo”
Today, I care about that boy, and millions of boys making oases and sandcastles.
What is the boy’s name? It does not matter. For the best thing that lingers in my head under graying hair is his lovely innocent face and charming smile, and a lovely masterpiece he made. ~
5. A - When was the last time you built a sandcastle?
“History is a child building a sand-castle by the sea, and that child is the whole majesty of man’s power in the world.”
- Heraclitus
Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature - School on Blog [avrotor.blogspot.com]
Oh, you should buildsandcastle again!And keep young always.Keep close to children.To while time away.Keep the innocenceof not all knowing.To be yourself again.
Building Sandcastles on Morong Beach, Bataan
Build sandcastles, they make dreams come true,on a flying magic carpet’s view;Build sandcastles and copy the clouds,faces of creatures behind a shroud;Build sandcastles and meet the Martians,the Aztecs, the cowboys and Indians.Build sandcastles, poet Milton long aimed:Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained;Build sandcastles along the river,playground of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer;Build sandcastles, and meet Peter Pan,Casper, Nemo, in the world of fun;Build sandcastles and hunt for treasurein the Pyramids and Aegean shore;Build sandcastles for pleasure and painin Great Expectations by Mark Twain;Build sandcastles, they bring back the past,when you're young and never cease to ask;Build sandcastles, while in tender years;grownups who did, live up in good cheers;Build sandcastles, tall as the Eiffel,until the sun sets and the winds chill;Build sandcastles and reach out to sea,to the unknown and risk to be free;Build sandcastles, fairy tale or true,for life's but a passing review. ~
Author's family enjoys building sandcastles in Nasugbu, Batangas.
* Lesson on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio 738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday [www.pbs.gov.ph]
5 B -The Seed of Childhood
Dr Abe V. Rotor
Flying kites and fishing, mural AVR 2008
Children let the night pass quickly,Rising on the farm as the sun rises,As early as the butterfly and the beeAnd birds singing in the trees.
Frogs freeze before the kingfisher;Rain is read from hovering dragonfly;Nests are secrets only to the finder -Early lessons live to live by.
War is resolved in kites and fishing poles,In hide-and-seek and barefoot races;Faith lies in the seasons the sky extolsAnd virtues friendship embraces.
Peals of thunder break the afternoon,Driving the fowls to their tree;The children catch the rain, and soon,Across the field, dash for home aglee.
Respite not enough, schooldays are long,And everything is passing imagery,Ephemeral is childhood, and all alongThe years are but blissful memory.
Take it from the sages of old who knewWhat makes a man, the child of years ago.What the seed was and how it grew –Look and behold! It is true. ~
5C. Bathtub - A Place of Great Discovery
"Would there be a place best to play and be free,
and let all summers pass in brief?" avr
Dr Abe V Rotor
Paul, Ronald and Jaja, at home in San Vicente (Ilocos Sur)
How missed Archimedes in his law of buoyancy,"Eureka! Eureka!" (I found it! I found it!)For the value of gold and silver, yes, but didn't seeChildren growing up in a bathtub every minute;More so, their joy and content that capture the seaIn a crude receptacle of a sailing ship;And would there be a place best to play and be free,And let all summers pass in brief?"Eureka! Eureka!" resounds in the halls of history,Loudest in a bathtub though, not in the street;And if someday sages come to liven that memory -These kids once that the world is glad to meet. ~
6. 12 Functions of Toys
Dr Abe V RotorLiving with Nature - School on Blog
Lesson: Building toys is indeed a manifestation of intelligence and revelation of a hidden talent. With changing time and life becoming more and more difficult, what are toys for? After reading this lesson, write an essay on Functional Toys – A Revolution in Toys
When I saw a film about suspending Christmas in America during the First World War, I thought that the idea was good. For how can a nation at war afford to manufacture toys, celebrate Christmas at home when thousands of its citizens are out there in the battlefield? So the
A boy's version of a football, Jakarta, Indonesia
campaign was – No Christmas, No Toys. At least temporarily until the war is over. So toy companies went into manufacturing arms and war materiel, people were told to buy bonds, not toys. Logical isn't?
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Little horse on wheels, ancient Greek child's toy. Miniature of the Trojan Horse in Homer's Iliad. From a tomb dating 950-900 BCE, Kerameikos Archaeological Museum, Athens
Until the president of one of America’s biggest toymaker AC rallied against the campaign and before the US Congress closed for the Christmas, he convinced the body to re-consider the campaign. So convincing was his approach by showing toy models that the President himself lifted the No Christmas, No Toys Campaign that very Christmas.
What was AC’s selling point? First, he rode on the foundation of American culture that gives importance to important events and celebrations. But the key was his revolutionary concept of toys. Toy models that stir the mind of the young to associate themselves with issues, to stir imagination and invention: learning toys.
Let's consider the functions of toys.
1. Toys can help children to learn – learn positively and functionally, meaning toys that have applied value; toys that can increase functional literacy.
2. Toys can tap inventive skills - Not toys that merely stimulate curiosity. By so doing, toys are dismantled and eventually destroyed without satisfying curiosity itself – much less added to basic and functional knowledge. Many inventions started as toys. Examples: pendulum of a clock, gyroscope of airplane, electromagnet in metal industry.
3. There are sorts of toys, irrespective of status in life. What should be the toys of the poor, the children in marginal communities? Are there toys that can help them in their plight – at least ultimately, in one way or the other. If there are toys of this kind, what are their special features? Principle of a push cart. Building a house (bahay bahayan).
4. Differentiate toys from gadgets, say a cell phone or computer? Computer games need re-classification. Explain what is mere entertainment from a functional toy.
5. Electric and electronic devices have taken out the quaintness and challenges of toys. But you can ingeniously modify them. Toys should be learning tools. Toys should not deprive our children of their time to play, to attend to their hobbies, and to be at the playground or in the countryside with nature.
6. Devise games that teach children values. Games that do not only make us aware of our responsibilities as citizens but as members of the living world – as ecologists or environmentalists.
7. Know what to do with your toys after you have used them, or outgrown them. There are toys for recycling. Are they transformable in the sense that they can be useful again with the lesson they carry? Should toys be permanent or at least lasting?
8. Toys create a healthy archetype which children will use as tool when they grow up. Can toys be shared with adults and therefore the lessons are likewise commonly shared – lessons that are useful in strengthening values, in building skills, etc.?
9. There are toys worth keeping for a life time. There are toys that remind us of our childhood even when we shall have grown very old. Remember Maria in Sound of Music sing My Favorite Things.
10. Express love on living toys? Unlike rhinoceros beetles in tug-of-war, and spider {gagambang hari) gladiators, we can culture butterflies in our garden, build nest for transient birds.
11. Toys promote universal values, such as preservation and exchange of cultures, cooperation, brotherhood and peace. Toys are agents of peace and understanding.
12. Toys are investments, they make a wholesome enterprise. No country or organization has the monopoly of toys.
Does a toy lead to invention? I noticed a sign on an assembled motor car, "Toy for big boys." Remember the solar powered car made by De La Salle boys which caught world attention? Earmuff was invented by a boy, so with the stethoscope.
There are inventions miniaturized into toys. These become teaching models and learning aids. I visited the miniaturized city of Madurodam in the Netherlands. Everything is a miniaturized version of say, the Eiffel Tower, the Pyramids, the Himalayas. Madorodam is a one-hectare site of thousands of famous buildings, personalities, landcapes, events,and the like. It is a sprawling sand table.
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Wood blocks puzzle, plastic machine model, assortment of typical toys reflects modern living.
Toys are as universal as the language of music; they are the language of children, and people who nurture precious childhood. Toys are the best teachers. They are the key to world peace.~
from the Tender Trap of Consumerism
Our senses are held captive: sight, sound, smell, touch. It's difficult to know real from psychological hunger. Good and fancy clothing. Durable and throw away gadget. Urgent from necessary. Pretty from beautiful. Love from care.
Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature - School on Blog [avrotor.blogspot.com]
Children's party in a fast food playground.
We went shopping as a family. Carlo our youngest was keen at many things, the city kinder that he was. "Mahal ba eto, Mama?" (Is this expensive, Mama?). This became his expression, the dawn when a child begins to weigh his own pleasure and the cost of it.
But how many kids today are destined on a path of roses capitalism has planted alongside profit, and more profit? How can we brace ourselves from the powerful marketing force that sweeps our children to a world of want over and above the world of need? Imagine $12 billion annual cost to ignite this force, and this is in the US alone, albeit the emerging economies around the world.
High cost of consumerism
Consumer language has evolved lately out of passion to buy, like bilmoko (ibili mo ako - Buy me.), a kid's expression beginning at post-toddler age. Gustokoto ("I like this," in commanding tone.
And when asked what made a kid buy fancy ball pens bearing cartoon characters, he simply quipped, "Wala lang." (None at all.)
And when asked what made a kid buy fancy ball pens bearing cartoon characters, he simply quipped, "Wala lang." (None at all.)
Restaurant on Boracay Beach. Scene not far across push Boracay Beach
On the receiving end billions of dollars are generated with kids influencing their parents, school endorsing products and services, media riding on children's show - it's a kid's world. We are pampering them too far out with our hard-earned money, and extending their dependency, when at their age in older societies, their counterpart would have found independence and accepted responsibility.Media is largely to blame - multimedia, from billboard to Internet. Media is littered, polluting the field of information and entertainment. You can't drive through Edsa with clear head. Billboards block the sky; they roll on with buses on your route. Give your name to the Internet and you'll gain world wide popularity, because you are a potential client or customer. My son Marlo, even if he didn't smoke, received cigarette promo cards beautifully crafted when advertising of cigarette was totally banned. My daughter found herself an automatic member of clubs endorsing children's products, with special discount. There are a variety of clubs for teenagers, from fashion to magazines, and you just find their invitation in the mailbox or on their e-mail.
Our senses are held captive: sight, sound, smell, touch. It's difficult to know real from psychological hunger. Good and fancy clothing. Durable and throw away gadget. Urgent from necessary. Pretty from beautiful. Love from care.
Let us save our children from the tender trap of consumerism *
1. Lead by example
Do what you say. Easier said than done. These are adages that should be put to practice. We cannot teach frugality when our kids see us frivolous. Austerity is sacrifice. It means more savings, less waste, optimized use of resources. Austerity is a virtue.
2. Encourage critical thinking
"Advertisement is Genie from Aladdin's lamp. He is not real," says a retired corporate manager. I used to tell my kids, "Don't believe in everything you see or hear. And don't be a Guinea pig of new products in the market." Guide your children to investigate and asses before making decisions. How many times have we been misled by the art of selling. Some end up holding an empty bag - victims of unscrupulous deals.
3. Supervise with sensitivity
Sit with your child with the computer as you would watch together a TV program. Or when he was younger, would sit on your lap while you read for him. Bedtime stories make our children happy not by the story alone but our presence, our bonding, our goodnight kiss and prayer. Until they are responsible to make correct judgment, parents make the board of censors for healthy information and entertainment.
Maybe is often our answer to our kids when it comes to less serious matters, or things no one can answer. But on matters of importance we have to be firm with our children, with a yes or no answer. Don't keep them long as fence sitters otherwise they just jump by themselves into the greener side, so to speak. When we say No, it's final. But the gravity of our position should be based on strong sense of values and security. "No, don't ride a motorcycle. No, don't drive. You are too young for that." It is the condition that makes our child understand and accept our position. It removes our guilt and reinforces our being guardians.
5. Offer Alternatives
Actually this means discovering our children's talents, and developing them into hobbies. Hobbies prevent habits. "Cooking is a hobby, eating is a habit," I usually differentiate the two in this analogy. "Listening to music and playing a musical instrument, is a hobby. But listening to music alone may fall short of the definition of hobby. Hobby is progressive, it is self-challenging, it is shifting the mind to the creative part of the brain. It is learning through curiosity and imagination. And the most important of all is that, through hobby you are a maker (Homo faber), not a mere consumer. You make kites instead of buying them. Your toys are your invention, not one you buy and never understand how it works. And in your frustration end up destroying it with screwdriver.
But the best alternative is outdoor life. Consumerism thrives best with indoor children. They want to create a world in their walled domain. But the outdoor child goes out to the world, to Nature, and he finds contentment in the countless things nature provides him free - clean water and air, mountains as high rise, waterfall as fountains, pebbles as marbles, river as swimming pool, moon and stars as neon lights. And he learns to live a contented life with the least amenities.
Athenian Syndrome
A child devouring a fried chicken may be an amoral act. We know that in a hungry world, a chicken has the equivalent food value of the grains it ate to attain its size, which could have been food for five hungry children for not only a single meal. When we buy our children clothes just for fashion or fancy we imagine children who have nothing decent to wear in school. When we waste water, food, electricity, and other valuable things because we simply have so much of them, the other side of the globe could have shared them.
These are basic to our children's formative years. We have to educate them well, not to be wasteful, to keep the environment clean, and in the future to raise families of their own with assurance of their welfare. We cannot entrust our children to media. We cannot trust one institution to fill in the gap of another. We cannot leave our children in the nursery or kinder school. Religious education cannot guarantee righteousness, the community of healthy integration.
Malling a new culture
Historically, in here informal economy reigns and why not? You can make bargains (tawad, baratilyo), establish patronage (suki), join rummage (ukay ukay). Just don't be outsmarted (naisahan, nalamangan). And if you have a sari-sari (corner store) of your own, outsource here and you are comfortable with 20 to 35 percent ROI (Return of Investment). Or if you are an enterprising employee in your organization, you can be an entrepreneur as well.
That's why customers still flock these centers where tradition exudes quaintness to shopping, where the peso is more elastic, goods and services virtually unlimited. We still get from Divisoria supplies for our home industry at wholesale. Puerto Princesa, Palawan
Now and them we join the pilgrimage in Quiapo or Baclaran and pick up some items from makeshift stalls. Don't miss, lechon in La Loma, fish in Navotas, fruits in NLEX interchange in Balintawak. Name it all - these informal economies - tell the mall to take the back seat.
But as people leave the countryside, towns grow into cities, shopping has indeed evolved into an institution all over the world, courting everyone to go to the mall regularly, say on a weekend. To the younger generations it means much, much more - dating, promenading, eating, playing, cooling off summer, rendezvous (tagpuan). The mall is like a ganglion physiologically. All roads lead to Rome, analogously applies today in our postmodern world,
If this is the Good Life our children are looking up to, I am afraid they are likely to be the next victims. Let's save them from the tender trap of consumerism, the handmaid of capitalism.~
Kuya Center for Street Children in Quezon City. These children, among millions of other deprived children around the world, find new hope to fight poverty and homelessness. KCSC is a foundation that rehabilitates and reconnects street children with their families headed by executive-director Bro. Luc Boudreault, SC. (Brothers of the Sacred Heart). PHOTOS avrotor
*Reference: Living with Nature Series AVRotor; Marketing to Innocents, by Gabrielle Bauer Reader's Digest July 2005.
LESSON on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio 738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday [www.pbs.gov.ph]
If this is the Good Life our children are looking up to, I am afraid they are likely to be the next victims. Let's save them from the tender trap of consumerism, the handmaid of capitalism.~
Kuya Center for Street Children in Quezon City. These children, among millions of other deprived children around the world, find new hope to fight poverty and homelessness. KCSC is a foundation that rehabilitates and reconnects street children with their families headed by executive-director Bro. Luc Boudreault, SC. (Brothers of the Sacred Heart). PHOTOS avrotor
*Reference: Living with Nature Series AVRotor; Marketing to Innocents, by Gabrielle Bauer Reader's Digest July 2005.
LESSON on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio 738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday [www.pbs.gov.ph]
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