Christmas Message: Let's Aim for Peace of Mind, Holism, and Selflessness

 Christmas Message: Let's Aim for Peace of Mind, Holism, and Selflessness

Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature School on Blog

                              UST Paskuhan's giant Christmas Tree and its reflection 

  To our beloved followers and visitors of this Blog, students and radio listeners, friends - and all.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
From: Dr Abe and Mrs Cecille Rotor; Marlo and Charisse and Laurence; Anna and Mac and Mackie; Markus; Leo Carlo, Lorraine - and Manang Veny.

- Fr JM Manzano and co-hosts and staff TATAKalikasan-Radyo Katipunan radio program,  RK 87.9 FM
- Ka Melly and staff of USAPANG BAYAN and former DZRB Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid, and Family
- Former co-workers and faculty members, UST, SPUQC, DLSU-D, UPH-R, DA, NFA; townmates San Vicente, Ilocos Sur 

Wake up every morning a "balanced" person. You must be a perfect square. Look at yourself on the mirror and examine the four attributes of life - mental or intellectual, psychological or emotional, spiritual, and physical well being.

If you are not, be aware of your strength, weaknesses and deficiencies. Learn to adjust, do not delay. If you have colds you need rest. If you feel sad, cheer up. Look at the brighter side of life. Your conscience may be bothering you for whatever reason. Pray. Amend. Seek spiritual advice. Mentally dull? Postpone important decisions. Maybe you need a weekend rest with the family. An outdoor activity? Visit your relatives. Recharge before you run low in energy.

When you have found yourself in a square - perfect or nearly so - you will enjoy Peace of Mind (POM). Peace of mind is the greatest tool in a person's life every day. It is the most potent tool in overcoming tension and stress that we face in our modern world. POM is earned, it does not just come, it is not a matter of luck. It comes after a good rest and sincere prayer. It accompanies joy and hope. And most importantly, it is like light that radiates and shared by others in the family and community.

Our motives in life on the short, medium and long term are defined in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, which appears like a stair - actually a ziggurat or tiered pyramid. The physiologic needs form the base. They are survival needs which are often referred to as drives or instincts. They are biological and as such are universal in the living world. So with social motives in many respects.

The primary social unit is the family. It is not made-to-order. It does not come in silver platter. You have to make it yourself. It is in your plan, determination and resolve. Success of the family is the number one criterion to say you are successful in life.

The family expands into community, then into society. Our actions are governed collectively by culture, as a nation, and ultimately, humanity. We are part of that web .

Because we have risen above our instincts and social motives, we search for that elusive meaning of life - life not equated with money and power, but self-actualization and self-fulfillment. When you are there on that pedestal, you among great men and women. You belong to the rank of heroes and martyrs.
How far do we look from where we stand in terms of space and time? Each one has his own perception and perspective. But the general rule is that, the more we have provided ourselves with guarantees in life - job, financial and material things, natural resources around us, concern of others for us, and the like, the farther we look ahead into the future. We look not only for our own good today and tomorrow. We look forward to future of our children, and beyond. We talk of tomorrow when we have enough today. We talk of investment when we have savings.

And the wider our perspective is, the more we expand our concern, concern not about ourselves but for other people we may not even know. We become interested in things happening around the world, even if these do not directly concern us.

We look beyond our fence so to speak, we become interested with what is happening. Not mere spectators but players. Here we realize the meaning of what Shakespeare said, "the world is a stage and each one of us has a role to play."

We no longer live just for life's sake. We make friendship into brotherhood. We care because we love. We are not only citizens of our country, or members of a particular race, religion or creed. We are citizens of the world. ~

Listen to the Music of Nature

                     Listen to the Music of Nature 

"Classical music is patterned after nature's music." avr

Dr Abe V Rotor

Identify the sounds of nature in this painting, translate them into notes. Arrange the notes into melody, and expand it into a composition. Try with an instrument - guitar, piano, violin, flute. This is your composition. Mural detail, Nature: Rivulets and Streams, AVR 2011Ethnic music makes a wholesome life; it is therapy.

Have you ever noticed village folks singing or humming as they attend to their chores? They have songs when rowing the boat, songs when planting or harvesting, songs of praise at sunrise, songs while walking up and down the trail, etc. Seldom is there an activity without music. To them the sounds of nature make a wholesome music.

According to researcher Leonora Nacorda Collantes, of the UST graduate school, music influences the limbic system, called the “seat of emotions” and causes emotional response and mood change. Musical rhythms synchronize body rhythms, mediate within the sphere of the autonomous nervous and endocrine systems, and change the heart and respiratory rate. Music reduces anxiety and pain, induces relaxation, thus promoting the overall sense of well being of the individual.

Music is closely associated with everyday life among village folks more than it is to us living in the city. The natives find content and relaxation beside a waterfall, on the riverbank, under the trees, in fact there is to them music in silence under the stars, on the meadow, at sunset, at dawn. Breeze, crickets, running water, make a repetitious melody that induces sleep. Humming indicates that one likes his or her work, and can go on for hours without getting tired at it. Boat songs make rowing synchronized. Planting songs make the deities of the field happy, so they believe; and songs at harvest are thanksgiving. Indeed the natives are a happy lot.

Farm animals respond favorably to music, so with plants.

In a holding pen in Lipa, Batangas, where newly arrived heifers from Australia were kept, the head rancher related to his guests the role of music in calming the animals. “We have to acclimatize them first before dispersing them to the pasture and feedlot.” He pointed at the sound system playing melodious music. In the duration of touring the place I was able to pick up the music of Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven and Bach. It is like being in a high rise office in Makati where pipe in music is played to add to pleasant ambiance of working. Scientists believe that the effect of music on humans has some similarity with that of animals, and most probably to plants.

Which brings us to the observation of a winemaker in Vienna. A certain Carlo Cagnozzi has been piping Mozart music to his grapevines for the last five years. He claims that playing round the clock to his grapes has a dramatic effect. “The grapes ripen faster,” he said, adding that it also keeps away parasites, fruit bats and birds. Scientists are now studying this claim to enlarge the limited knowledge on the physiological and psychological effects of music on plants and animals.

Once I asked a poultry raiser in Teresa, Rizal, who also believes in music therapy. “The birds grow faster and produce more eggs,” he said. “In fact music has stopped cannibalism.” I got the same positive response from cattle raisers where the animals are tied to their quarters until they are ready for market. “They just doze off, even when they are munching,” he said, adding that tension and unnecessary movement drain the animals wasting feeds that would increase the rate of daily weight gain. In a report from one of the educational TV programs, loud metallic noise stimulates termites to eat faster, and therefore create more havoc.

There is one warning posed by the proponents of music therapy. Rough and blaring music agitates the adrenalin in the same way rock music could bring down the house.
The enchantment of ethnic music is different from that of contemporary music.

Each kind of music has its own quality, but music being a universal language, definitely has commonalities. For example, the indigenous lullaby, quite often an impromptu, has a basic pattern with that of Brahms’s Lullaby and Ugoy ng Duyan (Sweet Sound of the Cradle) Lucio San Pedro PHOTO. The range of notes, beat, tone, expression - the naturalness of a mother half-singing, half-talking to her baby, all these create a wholesome effect that binds maternal relationship, brings peace and comfort, care and love.

Serenades from different parts the world have a common touch. Compare Tosselli’s Serenade with that of Hating Gabi (Midnight) by Antonio Molina PHOTO  and you will find similarities in pattern and structure, exuding the effect that enhances the mood of lovers. This quality is more appreciated in listening to the Kundiman (Kung Hi Kundiman (Kung Hindi Man, which means, If It Can’t Be). Kundiman is a trademark of classical Filipino composers ndi Man, which means, If It Can’t Be). Kundiman is a trademark of classical Filipino composers, the greatest of them, Nicanor Abelardo. His famous compositions are

· Bituin Marikit (Beautiful Star)
· Nasaan Ka Irog (Where are You My Love)
· Mutya ng Pasig (Muse of the River Pasig)
· Pakiusap (I beg to Say)

Ryan Cayabyab's masterpieces span OPM (Original Pilipino Music) hits like "Kay Ganda ng Ating Musika," "Paraiso," "Da Coconut Nut," and "Tuwing Umuulan," alongside major musicals ... earning him the title National Artist for Music. Excerpt AI Overview

War drums on the other hand, build passion, heighten courage, and prepare the mind and body to face the challenge. It is said that Napoleon Bonaparte taught only the drumbeat of forward, and never that of retreat, to the legendary Drummer Boy. As a consequence, we know what happened to the drummer boy. Pathetic though it may be, it's one of the favorite songs of Christmas.

Classical music is patterned after natural music.

The greatest composers are nature lovers – Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, and our own Abelardo, Molina, Santiago, and San Pedro. Beethoven, the greatest naturalist among the world’s composers was always passionately fond of nature, spending many long holidays in the country. Always with a notebook in his pocket, he scribbled down ideas, melodies or anything he observed. It was this love of the countryside that inspired him to write his famous Pastoral Symphony. If you listen to it carefully, you can hear the singing of birds, a tumbling waterfall and gamboling lambs. Even if you are casually listening you cannot miss the magnificent thunderstorm when it comes in the fourth movement.
Ryan Cayabyab masterpiece compositions
Lately the medical world took notice of Mozart music and found out that the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart music can enhance brain power. In a test conducted, a student who listened to the Sonata in D major for Two Pianos performed better in spatial reason. Mozart music was also found to reduce the frequency of seizure among coma patients, improved the interaction of autistic children, and is a great help to people who are suffering of Alzheimer’s disease. The proponents of Mozart’s music call this therapeutic powerMozart Effect.

What really is this special effect? A closer look at it shows similar therapeutic effect with many sounds like the noise of the surf breaking on the shore, rustling of leaves in the breeze, syncopated movement of a pendulum, cantabile of hammock, and even in the silence of a cumulus cloud building in the sky. It is the same way Mozart repeated his melodies, turning upside down and inside out which the brain loves such a pattern, often repeated regularly. about the same length of time as brain-wave patterns and those that govern regular bodily functions such as breathing and walking. It is this frequency of patterns in Mozart music that moderates irregular patterns of epilepsy patients, tension-building hormones, and unpleasant thoughts.

No one tires with the rhythm of nature – the tides, waves, flowing rivulets, gusts of wind, bird songs, the fiddling of crickets, and the shrill of cicada. In the recesses of a happy mind, one could hear the earth waking up in spring, laughing in summer, yawning in autumn and snoring in winter – and waking up again the next year, and so on, ad infinitum. ~

 

Katydid, (upper photo) a long horned grasshopper (Phaneroptera furcifera), and the field cricket (Acheta bimaculata) are the world's most popular fiddlers in the insect world.

And, of course the Caruso in the animal kingdom - the frog. Here a pair of green pond frogs, attracted by their songs which are actually mating calls, will soon settle down in silent mating that last for hours.

Beautiful Nature: "Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads" —Henry David Thoreau

                                                     Beautiful Nature 

"Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads" 

—Henry David Thoreau

Dr Abe V Rotor

1. Low Tide

Floor-Wall-Ceiling mural by AV Rotor, San Vicente, Ilocos Sur residence

You are alone at your lowest ebb,

At low tide the sea reveals her shore

That bathes under the sun to its edge,

Go to the sea and learn its chore.

2. Well Spring

Author's grandchildren enjoy drawing ground water with a hand pump. - avr

  

Where there is a well, there is curiosity, 

where there's curiosity, there is will (well).

3. "A boy is forever."

                                                                                         Internet photo

A tree is meant for a boy in summer

That seasons until the "twelfth of never",

He will through life always remember

The most precious thing is a boy forever.

4. Towering Cotton Tree

Kapok (Ceiba pentndra), UP Diliman QC, photo by author

You touch the cloud

And cause rain to fall,

You bar wind and flood,

Sing with the waterfall,

But once you are bald,

Death comes to all.

5. Buds and Butterflies

Mural in the Garden, AV Rotor, San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

I wait for your bloom

Every tick of the clock,

It is better to be soon

than lose my luck.

Fluttering butterflies

will not come back.

 

6. Bamboo in Summer

Golden bamboo grove Internet

Without your feathery gown

In which we seek fun and cover,

And wait for the sun to go down,

We know summer is over.

"It is during our darkest moments that we must focus 

to see the light." - Aristotle

"We don’t inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow 

it from our children." —Native American proverb

Acknowledgement: Internet photos (as indicated); verses from Nymphaea: 

Beauty in the Morning by A.V. Rotor, A Giraffe Book 1996

Folk Wisdom - Keeper of Tradition (10 lessons)

 Folk Wisdom - Keeper of Tradition (10 lessons)

"It's better to light a candle than curse the darkness" - Chinese proverb

Dr Abe V Rotor

1. Thunder and lightning spawn mushroom.

In the province, it is a tradition to go hunting for mushrooms in bamboo groves, on anthills, under rice hay and banana stalks during the monsoon season, specifically after a period of heavy thunder and lightning. And what do we know? Old folks are right as they show you the prize - baskets full of Volvariella (rice hay or banana mushroom), Pleurotus (abalone mushroom), Auricularia (tainga ng daga), and a host of other wild species. Where did the mushroom come from? When lightning strikes, nitrogen, which comprise 78 percent of the air is combined with oxygen (21 percent of the air) forming nitrate (NO3). 

Scientists call this process, nitrogen fixation or nitrification. Nitrate, which is soluble in water, is washed down by rain. Lightning occurs every second in any place of the earth, keeping the earth sufficient with this life-giving compound. Not only green plants are benefited from this natural fertilizer, but also phytoplankton (microscopic one-celled plants) - and the lowly mushroom whose vegetative stage is but a cottony mass of mycelia enmeshed in decomposing media such as plant residues. With nitrate now available, rain softening the culture medium, and other conditions favorable, the saprophyte transforms into its reproductive phase. This is distinctly the mushroom we commonly see – one with an umbrella atop a single stalk. In all its luxuriance and plenty, one may discover clusters and hills of mushrooms in just a single spot. 

2. Kapok laden with pods means there’s going to be a poor harvest.
Ceiba pentandra, or cotton tree, has large secondary roots to compensate for its lack of primary root that can penetrate the deeper source of water. Nature endowed this plant with fleshy trunk and branches to store large amount of water for the dry season. Insufficient rains or early onset of summer triggers flowering, as it is the case in many species under stress. Thus it is one of the indicators of poor harvest farmers rely on. It has been observed that a bumper crop of kapok fiber occurs during El Niño, a climatic phenomenon characterized by extreme drought.

3. Ethnic music makes a wholesome life; it is therapy.

Have you ever noticed village folks singing or humming as they attend to their chores? They have songs when rowing the boat, songs when planting, songs of praise at sunrise, songs while walking up and down the trail, etc. Seldom is there an activity without music. Even the sounds of nature to them are music.

According to researcher Leonora Nacorda Collantes, of the UST graduate school, music influences the limbic system, called the “seat of emotions” and causes emotional response and mood change. Musical rhythms synchronize body rhythms, mediate within the sphere of the autonomous nervous and endocrine systems, and change the heart and respiratory rate.  Music reduces anxiety and pain, induces relaxation, thus promoting the overall sense of well being of the individual.

Music is closely associated with everyday life among village folks more than it is to us living in the city. The natives find content and relaxation beside a waterfall, on the riverbank, under the trees, in fact there is to them music in silence under the stars, on the meadow, at sunset, at dawn. Breeze, crickets, running water, make a repetitious melody that induces sleep. Humming indicates that one likes his or her work., and can go on for hours without getting tired at it. Boat songs make rowing synchronized. Planting songs make the deities of the field happy, so they believe; and songs at harvest is thanksgiving. The natives are indeed a happy lot.

4. When earthworms crawl out of their holes, a flood is coming.

 

This subterranean annelid has built-in sensors, a biblical Noah’s sense of a coming flood, so to speak. Its small brain is connected to clusters of nerve cells, called ganglia, running down the whole body length. These in turn are connected to numerous hair-like protrusions on the cuticle, which serve as receptor. When rain saturates the soil, ground water rises and before it reaches their burrows, they crawl out to higher grounds where they seek refuge until the flood or the rainy season is over. The more earthworms abandoning their burrows, the more we should take precaution.

5. To control rhinoceros beetles from destroying coconuts throw some sand into the base of the leaves. 

Male rhino beetle

This insect, Oryctes rhinoceros, is a scourge of coconut, the larva and adult burrow into the bud and destroy the whole top or crown of the tree. There is scientific explanation to this practice of throwing sand into the axis of the leaves. Sand, the raw material in making glass, penetrates into the conjunctiva - the soft skin adjoining the hard body plates, in effect injuring the insect. As the insect moves, the more it gets hurt. As a result the insect dies from wound infection, or by dehydration. Thus we observe that coconut trees growing along the seashore are seldom attacked by this beetle.

6. Don’t play with toads. Toads cause warts.

Old folks may be referring to the Bufo marinus, a poisonous toad that secretes white pasty poison from a pair of glands behind its eyes. Even snakes have learned to avoid this creature described as ugly in children’s fairy tales.

But what do we know! The toad’s defensive fluids have antibiotic properties. Chinese folk healers treat wounds such as sores and dog bites with toad secretions, sometimes obtained by surrounding the toads with mirrors to scare them in order to secrete more fluids.

Similarly certain frogs secrete antibiotic substances. A certain Dr. Michael Zasloff, physician and biochemist, discovered an antibiotic from the skin of frogs he called magainins, derived from the Hebrew word for shield, a previously unknown antibiotic. It all started when researchers performed surgery on frogs and after returning them to murky bacteria-filled water, found out that the frogs almost never got any infection.

What are then the warts the old folks claim? They must be scars of ugly wounds healed by the toad’s secretion.

7. Animals become uneasy before an earthquake occurs. It is because they are sensitive to the vibrations preceding an earthquake. They perceive the small numerous crackling of the earth before the final break (tectonic), which is the earthquake. 

Fantail or pandangera bird is usually restless at the onset of bad weather.

As a means of self-preservation they try to escape from stables and pens, seek shelter, run to higher grounds, or simply escape to areas far from the impending earthquake. Snakes come out of their abode, reptiles move away from the water, horses neigh and kick around, elephants seem to defy the command of their masters (like in the case of the 2004 tsunami in Sri Lanka). We humans can only detect such minute movements on our inventions such as the Richter Scale.

8. Don’t gather all the eggs. Leave some otherwise the laying hen will not return to its nest. 
True. The layer is likely to abandon its nest when it finds it empty. Leave a decoy of say, three eggs. But there are layers that know simple arithmetic, and therefore, cannot be deceived, and so they abandon their nest and find a new one.

9. Raining while the sun is out breeds insects.
Now and then we experience simultaneous rain and sunshine, and may find ourselves walking under an arch of rainbow, a romantic scene reminiscent of the movie and song, Singing in the Rain. Old folks would rather grim with a kind of sadness on their faces, for they believe that such condition breeds caterpillars and other vermin that destroy their crops.

What could be the explanation to this belief? Thunderstorm is likely the kind of rain old folks are referring to. Warmth plus moisture is vital to egg incubation, and activation of aestivating insects, fungi, bacteria and the like. In a few days, they come out in search of food and hosts. Armyworms and cutworms (Spodoptera and Prodina), named after their huge numbers and voracious eating habit, are among these uninvited guests

10. Garlic drives the aswang away.

If aswang (ghost) being referred to are pests and diseases, then there is scientific explanation to offer, because garlic contains a dozen substances that have pesticidal, antimicrobial and antiviral properties such as allicin, from which its generic name of the plant is derived – Allium sativum. Garlic is placed on doorways, in the kitchen and some corners of the house where vermin usually hide, which is also practiced in other countries. It exudes a repellant odor found effective against insects and rodents – and to many people, also to evil spirits, such as the manananggal (half-bodied vampire). ~

"The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool"

 - Shakespeare

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

Our ancestors were a lot happier than we are today

 Our ancestors were a lot happier than we are today

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature School on Blog

Throughout history and through countless generations our ancestors brought about a wealth of native knowledge and folk wisdom.

Like Lola Basiang relating folklore to children, we imagine a campfire, around it our ancestors exchanged knowledge and recounted experiences, with spices of imagination and superstition. It was a prototype open university.

Like Homer’s epics, Iliad and the Odessey, we can explore, retrieve and study knowledge in olden times through early writings, archeology, and interview with old folks. With modern science and technology, we can even create virtual reality scenarios on the screen and in dioramas, reliving the past and deliver them right in the living room and in the school.

But it is important to undertake the enormous task of gathering the fragments of knowledge transcended through our old folks. And before we can draw the threads of wisdom and weave them into a fabric we call science, we should be able to distinguish facts from myths, reality and imagination.

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

There is a beautiful novel Swiss Family Robinson written by Johann Wyss nearly two centuries ago. It is about a family stranded in an unknown island somewhere near New Guinea and during the many years they lived in the island, they learned to adapt to a life entirely disconnected from society and devoid of the amenities of modern living. When finally they were rescued, the family chose to stay in the island – except one son who decided to go back to Europe to study and promised to return.

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

But to many of us, particularly the young generation, such stories seem to have lost their appeal, more so their relevance. It is as if we have outlived tradition in such a manner that anything which is not modern does not apply any longer. What aggravates it is that as we move in to cities we lose our home base and leave behind much of our native culture. There is in fact an exodus to live in cities, whether in ones own country or abroad, and the lure is so great nearly half of the world’s population is now living in urban centers. Ironically the present population explosion is not being absorbed by the rural areas but by cities, bloating them into megapolises where millions of people as precariously ensconced. And now globalization is bringing us all to one village linked in cyberspace and shrunk in distance by modern transportation. We have indeed entered the age of global homogenization and worldwide acculturation.

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

These questions bring us to analyze ten major concerns about living. In the midst of socio-cultural and economic transformation from traditional to modern to globalization - an experience that is sweeping all over the world today - these concerns serve as parameters to know how well we are living with life. As the reader goes over the various topics in this book he can’t help but relate them with his own knowledge and experiences, and in fact they way he lives. This is essentially the purpose of this book.

1. Simple lifestyle

2. Environment-friendly

3. Peace of mind

4. Functional literacy

5. Good health and longer active life

6. Family and community commitment

7. Self-managed time

8. Self-employment

9. Cooperation (bayanihan) and unity

10. Sustainable development

I have been able to gather some traditional practices and beliefs and put these into writing. Primarily these are ethnic or indigenous, and certainly there are commonalities with those in other countries, particularly in Asia, albeit of their local versions and adaptations. It leads us to appreciate with wonder the vast richness of cultures shared between and among peoples and countries even in very early times. Ironically modern times have overshadowed tradition, and many of these beliefs and practices have been either lost or forgotten, and even those that have survived are facing endangerment and the possibility of extinction. It is a rare opportunity and privilege to gather and analyze traditional beliefs and practices. It is to the old folks that I owe much gratitude and respect because they are our living link of the past, they are the Homer of Iliad and 

Odyssey of our times, so to speak. It is to them that this book is sincerely dedicated.~

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

* 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

"An Honorable Man" - NBI Director Caesar Nonnatus R Rojas

 PUL-OY (Breeze) 

San Vicente Ilocos Sur Philippines to the World Series 

"An Honorable Man" 

- National Bureau of Investigation

 Director Caesar Nonnatus R Rojas

"... at least in our day and age, when delicadeza is almost a museum piece, something thoroughly old-fashioned, best preserved behind a glass window... " PDI 

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature School on Blog

The essence of this article is that Nature does not merely refer to our natural world, the Environment, but a kind of nature that resides in the mind, heart and spirit of man –Human Nature.  Here is such a man whom we may take a keyhole view of human nature, and from which we also view our own.  

Director Rojas is a native of San Vicente, Ilocos Sur.  He was appointed by the present administration to head the NBI, then riddled with controversies and shrouded by alleged anomalies which tarnished the good image of this highest investigative body of the country, the counterpart of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the US. He took it on a concurrent capacity, leaving his post as regional prosecutor, also under the Department of Justice,

Cesar as he is fondly called in our town took the challenge. At the helm for more than a year the bureau began to gain back the trust and confidence of the people. It was able to establish stronger ties of support and cooperation with other offices of the government specifically in the overall fight against graft and corruption. The presence of Cesar in the bureau, being an “outsider” was a fresh wind.  It did not only boost the morale of the employees, it removed barriers within the bureau itself, separating the grain from the chaff, so to speak.  It was indeed a gargantuan task.

From here the task became bigger until it grew extremely difficult to handle. Like in a war, it is no longer the task of one man and hope to win; it needed a holistic down-the-line strategy. Cesar felt he was at a crossroad no place is more vulnerable.  It is here when he made a crucial decision. Which is the subject of this editorial about an honourable man none other than Caesar Nonnatus Rojas.  

Philippine Daily Inquirer Editorial 
September 8, 2013

An Honorable Man 

By all accounts, President Aquino did not have since-resigned National Bureau of Investigation director Nonnatus Rojas in mind, when he expressed his concern about "less trustworthy" officials working in the NBI.  Just the same Rojas felt resignation was the right response, and the only option.

In a TV interview, Secretary Leila de Lima recalled Rojas' words to her during one of the three times she tried to change his mind: "I feel that it is the most honorable thing to do and I want to keep my honor and integrity intact."

This is an unusual instance - at least in our day and age, when delicadeza is almost a museum piece, something thoroughly old-fashioned, best preserved behind a glass window. When Rojas insisted on resigning, despite repeated entreaties from De Lima and public statements from Malacañang officials, his conduct had all the impact of a museum artifact rousing itself to life and then walking out the main door.

People were stunned.

The point of honor here is not wounded pride, the sense that one has been unfairly blamed for the faults and shortcomings of others.  Rather, it is the opposite: the sense that leaders bear command responsibility for the institutions they lead.

While President Aquino was careful to make a distinction between the NBI as an institution whose reputation has been largely rehabilitated in the last few years and a few problematic officials and agents who answer to other bosses or baser motives, it is difficult to fault Rojas for thinking that the President's lack of trust in certain NBI officials was a reflection of his lack of confidence in the agency - and therefore in Rojas himself. 

The crucial adjective "full" can be easily misinterpreted; it is only fair to state that in fact President Aquino has learned to depend on the NBI for critical tasks.  But in the case of businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, the suspected mastermind behind the alleged P10-billion pork barrel scam, the President thought it necessary to bring in a third party: the national police. 

Napoles and her brother had accused the NBI of harassment and extortion, related to the charges of serious illegal detention involving her former employee and man whistle-blower Benhur Luy; having the police take Napoles into detention seemed like a reasonable compromise. 

This decision, together with the President's concern is about moles in the agency tipping Napoles off about her impending arrest and especially his statement about "less trustworthy" officials in determining the work of the NBI, must have been received by NBI personnel as a slap in the face.  For someone like Rojas, they must have amounted to an accusing finger, directed at him. 

Taken together, the President's statements and actions suggest that the rehabilitation of the NBI, even under Rojas, was not yet complete.  Rojas took that to mean his time is up.

Unlike other officials whose offices have been publicly rebuked by the President (Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon comes to mind), Rojas did not ask his principal whether he should resign. He just did it. ~ 

                                                    

                                      Diogenes

      By Dr Abe V Rotor

Oh, Diogenes, don't despair,

put off your lamp at midday;

save it in the darkest hour,

when people rage than pray,

take into their hands the trilogy:

Liberte', Egalite', Fraternite'.

And if the dawn be spilled 

with crimson before the day,

when fail the hall of justice;

though heads roll in ignominy;

hold old sentinel, your lamp,

for someone else to see. ~    

Director Cesar comes from a family of honest and dedicated civil service servants, his father the late Atty Mariano Rojas was NBI regional director, and his mother the late Ms Librada Riotoc was an Auditor, both natives of San Vicente, IS.  Director Rojas is the eldest of three children, all successful in their career.  Director Rojas continued to serve the government as Regional Prosecutor, and Undersecretary of Justice. He is a model family man and citizen of his town, and the whole humanity for that matter. 

* Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School on Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio 

   738 DZRB 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday

"I can lift the huge universe." - Principal Sebastian Ruelos

PUL-OY (Breeze)

San Vicente Ilocos Sur to the World Series

In memory of Principal Sebastian Ruelos, 

San Vicente Central Elementary School.

 

"I can lift the huge universe." 

Literature’s Unending Charm and Challenge. 

Postwar to Cyber Age Transition

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature School on Blog

 Our principal, Mr. Sebastian Ruelos, visited our classroom and wrote on the board, I can lift the huge universe, and asked us, “What does this mean.  Anyone?”

Silence fell in our brick walled classroom which still bore the scars of war. No one dared to recite. There was total silence like anticipating another air raid.  But the war was already over.  It was already peace time.

“This is what you will face in life.” He continued, this time in our dialect - Ilokano. We were about to graduate in elementary in a small town, San Vicente, west of Vigan. War had taught us survival in the midst of danger and uncertainty. It erased much of the joy of childhood, and instead tempered us early to take over the role of adults.

When one is focused on responsibility and meeting daily needs, unsure of what lies beyond,  dreams are just wishes and prayers like passing wind. When fear has numbed the mind to learn, how can it go beyond the three Rs of education - the fundamentals of literacy?

That was 75 years ago.

This time I asked my students in the university to interpret the same statement. It was the opposite of silence that filled our air-conditioned room. Atlas! came a ready answer - the mythical figure holding the sky from falling.  Discussion proceeded as my students consulted their electronic notebooks, laptops, tablets, smart phones and i-Pods, and came up with different versions of “lifting the huge universe” through cyberspace. It was like picking up fragments of information from the sky, so to speak. But how can knowledge condense into philosophy from fleeting cirrus and stratus clouds? Shortcut to knowledge seldom leads to wisdom.   

These contrasting scenarios and the years that separate them raise questions presenting themselves into a thesis. Indeed it is.

These questions have been raised before.  They are traced as far back as Aristotle advising the young Alexander the Great, to establish peace soon after winning a war. To Washington Irving’s Rip van Winkle who slept for twenty long years and found himself a stranger in his own village. To the Charles Dickens’ story of Oliver Twist, an orphan who at the end found his lineage to a rich family. To a boy hero who plugged a hole in the dike with his arm and saved Holland from deluge.  To Tarzan who inspired adventure in children and kindness to animals. To sages on the question of who is more civilized – the primitive or the educated, in The Gods Must be Crazy.  To Lola Basyang’s melodrama, Walang Sugat, played on the town’ entablado during fiesta.

I remember Camilo Osias’ books for school children, which are rich in lessons for growing up, but never moralistic in approach. It has the touch of Aesop, Grimm Brothers, Hans Anderson, 1001 Arabian Nights and our own folklores. One story is about a Golden Lion. Impatient of getting a gold coin each day, a greedy boy inserted his hand into the lion’s mouth to scoop all the coins like forcing a slot machine to release the jackpot’s prize. Poor boy, the lion never let go his arm. It has the same theme as Aesop’s goose that lays golden eggs.

We kids in our time imagined the legendary Angalo moved mountains. It is no different from Superman, Lam-ang, Achilles and Beowulf.  They reside in fantasy and live forever in children.

We also loved to go into the bottom of the sea, or into a deep crevice below the earth, or to go around the world in eighty days, for the love of adventure. Thanks to Jules Verne.  And lo!  Science and technology has succeeded in turning fiction into reality.  They made us grow into real men.

And for girls, Heidi, the orphan in Spyri’s novel who did not only survive ordeal but also help others succeed as well, has lasting impressions to these girls who someday will raise families of their own. So with The Little Women.  What greater test of love can one find in Balagtas’ Florante at Laura? Man’s chivalry for a woman in Lorna Doone? Or a mother’s utmost devotion to her children in The Railway Children? Or a child’s surprise in opening an old forgotten garden locked by painful memory, bringing forth new life, and rekindling the love of a father and daughter in The Secret Garden?

The Great Books are now on the Internet. 

The Great Books of the Western World is a series of books originally published in the United States by Encyclopedia Britannica in 1952 presented in a package of 54 volumes. The Great Books of the Western World cover the categories of fiction, history, literature, natural science, mathematics, philosophy, politics, religion, drama ethics, and economics. The original editors of the series chose three criteria for inclusion:

1. A book must be relevant to contemporary issues, not only in its historical context;
2. it must reward rereading; and
3. it must be a part of "the great ideas," identified by the editors;

Each year from 1961 to 1998 the editors published The Great Ideas of Today, an annual update on the applicability of the Great Books to current issues. With the advent of the Internet and the proliferation of E-book readers, many of these texts became available online. Today Encyclopedia Britannica has phased out the printing of the Encyclopedia proper and has limited the printing of other publications, giving way to online publication, and the various forms of presentation on the Internet. 
 
I remember dad’s books he brought home after finishing his studies at De Paul University in the US during the Great Depression. One particular book is Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. It was about the French Revolution. “Be like Jean Valjean, the hero.” He told us, his three children then in our elementary schooling. It was many years later that we understood him.

Another book is Evangeline or Tale of Acadie by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow written in romantic hexameter and patterned after Homer’s epics, Iliad and Odyssey. Longfellow listened to Nathaniel Hawthorne relate the story. It’s not my style the latter confessed. So Longfellow re-created the forcible separation and exile of two young lovers on their wedding day only to see each other again in their very old age. It was a sweet parting, their torn lives coming back in one piece, but only for a moment as Gabriel died in the arms of Evangeline.

     

 

And the epilogue goes –

“Still stands the forest primeval; but far away from its shadow,

Side by side, in the nameless grave, the lovers were sleeping

… In the heart of a city, they lie, unknown and un-noticed.

Daily the tides of life go ebbing and flowing…”

That was a long time ago. Things have greatly changed. Cable TV is bringing into the home whole theaters, the Internet whole libraries. And with palm-size gadgets, any information is virtually at fingertip’s access. Why many universities no longer have walls! Not physically able to attend a conference or read a paper?  Go for Zoom, Webinar, Teleconference and other APPS available in your area, here and abroad.

And the audience has not only increased by leaps and bounds; their profile now includes infants to senior citizens whose longevity is ever increasing. Interestingly as the world walks on two feet – communication and transportation – people are losing their cultural identity and original domicile.  One-half of the world’s population of 8 billion lives in big towns and cities, and cities are ballooning into metropolises and megapolises. Ironically one-half live below the poverty line, while the other half have simply more than what they need and the control of the world’s resources is virtually at their disposal.

Literature seems to be far out. It is one of the uninteresting subjects in school.  It is a topic we encounter everyday and yet at the end ask, “Literature ba yan?”  (Is that literature?) Or one distinct from other disciplines and confined in its own quarters. It is literature, if it wears a laurel or olive leaf. And written by well-known writers whose authority is unquestionable.

Literature textbook for K-12 or the new curriculum, written by AV Rotor and KM Doria, and published by C and E Publishing Co., 2010

I have yet to read Filipino versions of An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore, and Thoreau Legacy published by Penguin Classics that warn of the harmful consequences of global warming. Of a local treatise between man and nature as in Walden Pond, of the Origin of Species that broke a the age-old church’s dogma of creation, of Small is Beautiful that warns of dinosaur syndrome when man’s dream goes beyond control of bigness. Of Silent Spring that challenged the excesses of modern agriculture, chemicals that destroy the very base of production. Of Genetic engineering which created Dolly the sheep, the gateway to stem cell technology and cloning, with the human being coming next in line.

Many people are asking where does literature begin and end. What and where does it set its boundaries? What is its stand on issues like pornographic art, euthanasia or mercy killing, same sex marriage? This prompted me do my own share of research.

Among the ideas of our fast changing world since Principal Sebastian Ruelos came to our classroom 75 years ago are the following:

1. Common Wealth’s new concept. National interests aren't what they used to be. Our survival requires global solutions. The defining challenge of the 21st century will be to face the reality that humanity shares a common fate on a crowded planet.

2. Runaway world population will reach over 8 billion, and will double in 50 years. By 2050 stabilization is believed to be manageable under a sustainable development system.

3. Geo-engineering . Messing with Nature caused global warming. Messing with it more might fix it. One solution to global warming is induced volcanic eruption. (Mt. Pinatubo’s eruption in 1991 cooled the Planet Earth. Ash and sulfur actually lowered the atmosphere’s temperature)

4. Aging gracefully . Forget conventional wisdom; gray-haired societies aren't a problem. Aging gracefully means productive retirement and longer life span. Some 5 billion people in 120 countries will live to 60 years old and over not far from now.

5.Women's Work. Tapping the female entrepreneurial spirit can pay big dividends. The role of women may soon equal that of men, and may even surpass them in many fields.

6. Beyond the Olympics. New games and sports, constant TV coverage of local and global sporting events, are outshining the Olympic games.

7. Jobs are the New Assets. A sampling of fast-growing occupations - actuaries, financial analyst, computer programmer, fitness trainer, biophysicists, translators, manicurists, marriage counselors, radiologists, and many more.

8. Recycling the Suburbs. Environmentalists will celebrate the demise of sprawling suburbs, which left national addiction to cars. Infrastructures will be converted in favor of "green", town centers, public libraries, museums, sports centers, parks.

9. The New Calvinism. More moderate evangelicals are exploring cures for doctrinal drift, offering some assurance to " a lot of young people growing up in sub-cultures of brokenness, divorce, drugs, sexual temptations, etc."

10. Amortality.  Amortality is "non-moral sensitive" or "neutral morality' - whatever you may call it, this thinking has revolutionized our attitudes toward age. There are people who "refuse to grow old," people who wish to be resurrected from his cryonized corpse.

11. Biobanks. Safe deposits - freezers full of tissues for transplants, cryotube for blood samples, liquid nitrogen storage for sperms and eggs, test-tube baby laboratories and clinics. Welcome, surrogate motherhood, post-menopausal technology, in-situ cloning, multiple birth technology, and the like.

12. Ecological Intelligence. There are guidelines now available to judge products on their social and environmental impact. This is new culture characterized by environment-consciousness, environment-friendliness. Here life-cycle assessment and clean-up corporate ecology become an obligation. We are going back - happily and beautifully to a simple and natural lifestyle.

 TV Program for Growing Up – A Neo-Renaissance 

When my grand daughter was less than one year old I was advised to keep her away from TV because of the bad reputation of TV programs to very young children, much more to infants.  But I discovered something that convinced her mom - my daughter, and everyone at home. 

 

  

                                         Barney and Friends in Jim Jam; bugs orchestra in Baby TV

There is a TV channel (21) that features Jim Jam Everyday which consists of two dozen children-designed programs, and recently Baby TV (Channel 122), and Nick Junior (Channel 103) which are indeed baby-friendly programs.

These TV programs, among emerging ones that skillfully combine healthy entertainment and formative age values offer an alternative to reduce exposure to arrogance, violence, sex, sensationalism, and overbearing format which characterize many programs. Another important feature is that there is no interruption of advertisements and programs that would negate their child-friendly nature. Episodes may be replayed from time to time, but this is advantageous in the learning process.

The richness of TV programs can be explored on channels like Discovery (3 versions, one for kids), National Geographic in two versions, History, also in two versions, and other channels of the same category, accessible in armchair travelogue thus bringing into the living room nature, whole novels, historical episodes, and live shows.

The big challenge to other channels is do away with violence, real or in cartoon, frivolities and wastefulness, and to run stories that present ways to live by as good children and citizens. – without proselytizing unless shown with good examples. Under the heap of cheap dramas, features, shows, and the like, true literature is difficult to appreciate. So with the tremendous daily output of social media and digital photography all the more mask what literature is and should be, thus requiring a redefinition and continuing education regarding the subject. Are diaries considered literature?  Homilies and speeches? Office memoranda, legal opinions and court decisions? How about advertisements?

I was watching State of the Nation of Jessica Soho, and found out how well researched her topics are. I would say the same to SOCO, Matang Lawin, Asia Network and similar programs. I can only guess how many view regularly Discovery, History and National Geographic.  A million copies of printed literature would be a far cry from the power of the Radio, Television TV and the Internet whose total audiences  at present reaches millions and millions worldwide via Satellite and worldwide networks. The power of media can never be underestimated, for which reason literature should be able to harness it like riding a strong and beautiful horse. 

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"I can lift the huge universe." so says Elementary Principal Sebastian Ruelos. Not literally, but we may say we can through fiction and fantasy, in cybertechnology and audio-visual imagery, on screen and hologram, and in the various fields of Humanities ever expanding in our postmodern world and time. 

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As a professor I find my students becoming more and more informed than in our time. They are wired  to the world practically all the time. They carry more subjects than we did before. The information highway includes inter university library service, fellowship, student exchange, congress and symposium. There is never a dull moment for the dedicated student of today. . 

On the part of the professor, he uses the computer to facilitate his work.  Now and then he attends in his home broadcast programs in some kind of refresher course or simply to keep abreast with events. Every semester my classes view selected movies and documentaries, like in Humanities, The Little Prince, The Fourth Wise Man, Dead Poet Society, Oliver, and in Mass Communication, Shattered Glass, Reporters at War, Mother Teresa, Gandhi, Count of Monte Cristo, Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Finding Nemo (photo), the Land before Time, Babe are few of  the recommended cartoon movies that keep our world young, so to speak. While literature is tested by timelessness, it is also measured by its success when young and old share together their time, thoughts and feelings, their dreams and hopes for a better world and brighter tomorrow.

Through the Humanities, particularly literature, Yes, we can lift the huge universe.  Thanks to the great  Principal Sebastian Ruelos.~

*Lesson on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School on Air) with Ms  C Tenorio 738 DZRB 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday

 In celebration of World Teachers' Day October 5, 2022