Personal Reflection of Unknown Heroes of Today

Bonifacio Day November 30, 2025

   Personal Reflection of Unknown Heroes of Today 

Little do we know of the unknown great man:

the Unknown Soldier -

unknown doctor, unknown teacher

farmer, worker, entrepreneur,

old man, father, housewife, child;

the unknown in other fields of life, regardless.

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog

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

Catholic priests organized a “voluntary” procession on Sunday, culminating in a solemn rally at the historic Edsa Shrine to express their stance against corruption and promote the nationwide Nov. 30 protest amid the multibillion-peso flood control scandal hounding the government. The protest coincided with the Feast of Christ the King, the last Sunday marking the end of the current Catholic liturgical cycle. The new liturgical year begins on Nov. 30, which also aligns with another nationwide protest as part of the Trillion Peso March, which started on Sept. 21. Internet

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

Bonifacio Day is a Philippine national holiday celebrated annually on November 30 to commemorate the birth of Andrés Bonifacio, the "Father of the Philippine Revolution" and founder of the Katipunan. It is a non-working holiday for public and private sectors, honoring his bravery and contributions to the country's fight for independence from Spain.

Lesson:  Make your own personal reflection on a regular bond, in any style, 500 words more or less. Reflection brings out the inner person in you, like the inner eye of Heller Keller, the Little Prince of Antoine de Saint-Exupery', idealism of Longfellow and Alexander Pope, meditation in Michelangelo's Pieta, the mysticism of Venus de Milo, enigma of wildlife in Rousseau's painting, inner ear of Beethoven, waning light in Claude Monet's Waterlily Pond. 

I invite our viewers to this exercise. You may find this useful in retreats and seminars, specially on leadership, and in the fields of history, arts, theology,  philosophy, and humanities.

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

One man fought a nation, and save a nation, abhorring violence.
His greatest weapon: peaceful protest and civil disobedience
in asceticism that swept the land;
people revering him as father and almost god.
His name is Gandhi.

His likes are the greatest specimens of mankind; they too, changed
the world forever, making it a better place to live in.

• His name is Jose Rizal.
• His name is Andres Bonifacio
• His name is Apolinario Mabini
• His name is Mao Tse Tung.
• His name is Ho Chi Minh.
• His name is Ramon Magsaysay
• Her name is Princess Diana.
• His name is Jose Burgos.
• He is Maximilian Kolby

Nelson Mandela 

• She is Mother Teresa.
• He is Nelson Mandela
• He is Pope John Paul II 
• His name is Francis of Assisi, father of ecology,  et al

They are people for all seasons, for all ages, for all waves of change.
They are whose deeds are also those of great men and women we revere today.

They are us – each one of us
in our own little way to make the world go round and around –
or make it slower, that we may taste better the true Good Life,
the sweet waters of the Pierian Spring, the cool breeze on the hill.

All of us - we have the capacity to be great.
Bringing up our children to become good citizens,
being Samaritan on a lonely road,
embracing a returning Prodigal Son, 
plugging a hole in the dike like the boy who saved Holland from the sea,
or living life the best way we can that makes other lives better.

These and countless deeds make us great,
and if in this or that little way we may fall short of it,
then each and everyone of us putting each small deed together,
makes the greatest deed ever,
for the greatest thing humans can do is collective goodness –
the key to true unity and harmony,

and peace on earth. ~

ANNEX

 Andres Bonifacio  

"Father of the Philippine Revolution"

Andres Bonifacio is known as the "Father of the Philippine Revolution" for founding the secret society Katipunan, which initiated the revolution against Spanish colonial rule. He was born in Tondo, Manila, on November 30, 1863, and led the Katipunan in its fight for Philippine independence.

Founder of the Katipunan:

In 1892, Bonifacio and others formed the Katipunan (Kataas-taasang, Kagalang-galangang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan) to secure independence from Spain through armed revolt.

Revolutionary leader:
As the "Supremo" (supreme leader) of the Katipunan, he organized and led the initial stages of the revolution.

Key actions:
Bonifacio famously led the "Cry of Pugad Lawin" where revolutionaries tore up their community tax certificates to symbolize their refusal to pay taxes to Spain, a pivotal moment that sparked the revolution.

Legacy:

Despite his tragic execution in 1897, his role in igniting the revolution and founding the Katipunan earned him the title "Father of the Philippine Revolution". AI Overview

Acknowledgement with gratitude: Internet info supplement and images.

2025 Yearend Meditation and Reflection

 2025 Yearend Meditation and Reflection

A Study of Rembrandt's

"Return of the Prodigal Son"

Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature - School on Blog

This masterpiece leads us to ponder on the deeper sense of sin which is pride and unforgiving attitude of the "righteous" brother over his returning prodigal brother. And on the part of the mother, what role had she as a mother? How about the wealthy guest, who apparently like the mother were unmoved, indifferent, cold?

In 1976 I had a chance to visit the Netherlands.  There I stood at the center of Amsterdam plaza facing a monument of Rembrandt, the greatest Dutch painter rivaled only by Vincent Van Gogh who - two centuries later - revolutionized the romantic and classical schools the former brought fame worldwide.

The works of Rembrandt are distinctly unique. His colors are almost divine, combining warm and cool colors into something which make Rembrandt paintings Rembrandt - unmistakable, alluring, devotional. Painters all over the world followed his style, even up to the present. But none has ever claimed success. Rembrandt is original.

Juan Luna's Spolarium bears Rembrandt's influence in color, style and subject. Like the great master, Luna knew how to create special effects. For example the heads of the dead gladiators are smaller compared to their torso, creating a massive yet undistorted view, a kind of foreshortening effect. A diagonal perspective adds to forward movement, and common direction. A distant view of the mural draws spectators like Rembrandt's murals. 

The hidden characters (like in Rembrandt's Return of the Prodigal Son) adds mysticism to the scene, combining romanticism and realism. Luna inspired people to fight for freedom. He influenced later works like Millet's Man with a Hoe becoming a model of ideological movement against social injustice.

This is where Rembrandt is left in peace with his subject and theme, for Rembrandt was not a reformist of this nature. His own way of changing the world, so to speak, through his painting is by love and compassion as shown by this masterpiece - The Return of the Prodigal Son - unparalleled, universal, timeless.

The Return of the Prodigal Son, c. 1661–1669. (262 cm × 205 cm) by Rembrandt van Rijn, Hermitage Museum, St. Peterburg, Russia. (Unedited as it appears on the Internet).

The Return of the Prodigal Son demonstrates the mastery of Rembrandt. His evocation of spirituality and the parable's message of forgiveness has been considered the height of his art. “Monumental,” is perhaps the highest praise by Rembrandt scholars led by Rosenberg. “The painting interprets the Christian idea of mercy with extraordinary solemnity, as though this were his spiritual testament to the world.” Historian Kenneth Clark, exulted the work, "A picture which those who have seen the original may be forgiven for claiming as the greatest picture ever painted."

It is among the Dutch master's final works, likely completed within two years of his death in 1669. It depicts the moment of the prodigal son’s return to his father in the Biblical parable. In the painting, the son has returned home in a wretched state from travels in which he wasted his inheritance and fell into poverty and despair. He kneels before his father in repentance, wishing for forgiveness and a renewed place in the family, having realized that even his father's servants had a better station in life than he. His father receives him with a tender gesture. His hands seem to suggest mothering and fathering at once; the left appears larger and more masculine, set on the son's shoulder, while the right is softer and more receptive in gesture.

A stream of light bathes the whole body of the repentant son, and strikes directly the face of his father in anguish and joy. The light extends to reveal the expression of the face of the older brother (standing at right) pathetic but unmoved as his body is unbent, and his hands freely crossed over a guided cane which is symbol of authority and affluence to. This further projects extreme comparison. With worn out sandals, one foot bare, clothes tattered , and head shaven - all makes wretchedness real. Rembrandt purposely hid the other characters in dim light and little details to focus the singular encounter. Yet viewers have the idea who they are in their own guesses and conclusions as they contemplate on the painting.

This is the same photo as above with Adobe Photoshop editing on lighting and contrast to show a clearer background in order to expose the characters. The woman at top left, barely visible, is likely the mother, while the seated man, whose dress implies wealth, may be an advisor to the estate or a tax collector.The standing man at center is likely a servant.

The prodigal son's older brother crosses his hands in judgment. In the parable he objects to the father's compassion for the sinful son.

But he answered his father, "Behold, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed a commandment of yours, but you never gave me a goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this, your son, came, who has devoured your living with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him." (Luke 15:29–30).

The father explains, "But it was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found" (Luke 15:32). World English Bible.

Rembrandt was moved by the parable, that he made a variety of drawings, etchings, and paintings on the theme that spanned decades, beginning with this 1636 etching.

Dutch priest Henri Nouwen (1932–1996) was so taken by the painting that he eventually wrote a short book, The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Meditation on Fathers, Brothers, and Sons (1992), using the parable and Rembrandt's painting as frameworks. He begins by describing his visit to the State Hermitage Museum in 1986, where he was able to contemplate on the painting alone for hours. Considering the role of the father and sons in the parable in relation to Rembrandt's biography, he wrote:

Rembrandt is as much the elder son of the parable as he is the younger. When, during the last years of his life, he painted both sons in Return of the Prodigal Son, he had lived a life in which neither the lostness of the younger son nor the lostness of the elder son was alien to him. Both needed healing and forgiveness. Both needed to come home. Both needed the embrace of a forgiving father. But from the story itself, as well as from Rembrandt's painting, it is clear that the hardest conversion to go through is the conversion of the one who stayed home. (Wikipedia)
--------------------------------------

Pope Francis' 100-page new book released in 86 countries (12 Jan 2016), to start the Francis Holy Year of Mercy The Holy Father criticized the self-proclaimed righteous, the doctrinaire-minded rigorists, the scholars of the church laws and rules, who in the long history of the church have challenged Christ's unconditional love and mercy. He offered "We must avoid the attitude of someone who judges and condemns from the lofty heights of his own certainty, looking for the splinter in his brother's eye while remaining unaware of the beam in his own." Pope Francis said

Which leads us to ponder on the deeper sense of sin which is pride and unforgiving attitude of the "righteous" brother over his returning prodigal brother. And on the part of the mother, what role had she as a mother? How about the wealthy guest, who apparently like the mother were unmoved, indifferent, cold?

The book rallies the church and her leaders to go out from the confines of the altar and pulpit, to reach out for the needy, the suffering, the hopeless.

To quote Pope Francis in his new book:

“I often say that in order for this to happen, it is necessary to go out: to go out from the churches and the parishes, to go outside and look for people where they live, where they suffer, and where they hope. I like to use the image of a field hospital to describe this “Church that goes forth”. It exists where there is combat. It is not a solid structure with all the equipment where people go to receive treatment for both small and large infirmities. It is a mobile structure that offers first aid and immediate care, so that its soldiers do not die.”

“It is a place for urgent care, not a place to see a specialist. I hope that the Jubilee [The Holy Year of Mercy] will serve to reveal the Church’s deeply maternal and merciful side, a Church that goes forth toward those who are “wounded,” who are in need of an attentive ear, understanding, forgiveness, and love.”

Which leads us back to The Prodigal Son. Wouldn't the father have taken the road to look for his prodigal son? A good father is not only forgiving, he is a missionary. Thousands, nay, millions out there are proverbial prodigal sons. ~

Have you seen a kugtong or giant lapu-lapu?

  Have you seen a kugtong or giant lapu-lapu?

Dr Abe V Rotor

"If there is a Coelacanth long thought to have been extinct that lives in the craggy bottom of Madagascar Sea, we have our own kugtong, the biggest coral dwelling fish." (AVR) 

Giant Lapu-lapu in its abode, section of a wall mural by Dr AV Rotor 

in his city residence, QC.  Closeup photo of a blue lapu-lapu.

In the craggy depth of the sea lies a monster - the giant lapu-lapu or grouper. Fishermen in the area respect the niche of this benthic creature. They tell stories of missing pets and fishermen, of mysterious encounters that turn the sea inside out, a battle between a kugtong and a giant squid or whale. These are stories of fishermen and are often exaggerated. 

At SEAFDEC (Southeast Asia Fisheries Development Center) along the coast of Iloilo, lapulapu is cultured and studied in captivity.  The making of a giant is evident in one of these photos. The longevity of the fish may be the same as that of human, and a full grown has a mouth so huge it can engulf its prey whole and alive.

I saw two giant lapu-lapu (kugtong) in Sablayan Occidental Mindoro caught by local fishermen sometime in 1982. I had been hearing kugtong since childhood, a threat to fishermen and picnickers because it could swallow a whole human being, and here with my own eyes the kugtong in Lola Basiang’s story is true after all. So huge are these overgrown lapu-lapu that two men could hardly carry one of them with a bamboo pole on their shoulders.  A third man had to lift its tail from the ground as they inched their way to a waiting vehicle. I examined the fish; its body is coarse and shaggy, covered with seaweeds and barnacles, and had lost all semblance of the favorite lapu-lapu on our dining table. But this makes a perfect camouflage that suits the predatory habit of this benthic fish.  By the way, it is the female lapu-lapu that attains this enormous size.  The male is a diminutive partner permanently attached to her body, indeed a very special kind of relationship in the animal world.    

There is a story about a kugtong that lived under the old pier of San Fernando, La Union. For a long time the strange fish was feared by the residents and many animals around had mysteriously disappeared.  Then the local fishermen decided to catch it with a big hook luring the fish with a live piglet as bait.  The fish took it and struggled until it was finally subdued.  It was hauled by many men and if the story is accurate it took a six-by-six truck to transport it.

There are giants in the deep.  After the tsunami in 2004 that hit the Indian Ocean, by coincidence I saw giant squids measuring 3 feet long being sold at the SM Fairview supermarket. I surmise that these were flushed out from their deep dwellings and landed in the fisherman’s net when the calamity struck. I remember the giant squid that almost sank Captain Nemo’s submarine in Jules Verne’s “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.”  

There is mystery in the biology of lapu-lapu- or grouper, as it is known worldwide. Groupers are hermaphroditic, which means that sex switch from male to female and vice versa. The young are predominantly female but transform into males as they grow to about a kilogram in a year, remaining adolescent until they reach three kilos. From here they become females. But wait. When they are about 10 to 12 kg they turn to males and grow very, very big. Lengths over a meter and weights up to 100 kg are not uncommon.

A 64-kg lapu-lapu caught in Siaton, Negros Oriental Internet

A newspaper reported a 396.8 pound grouper caught off the waters near Pulau Sembilan in the Straits of Malacca in 2008. Shenzhen newspaper reported that a 1.8 meter grouper swallowed a 1.0 meter whitetip reef shark at the Fuzhou Sea World aquarium.

I asked my friend Dr. Anselmo S Cabigan, a fellow biologist. “What is really the sex of a full grown kugtong, such as those I found in Mindoro?”

In my research it is male. The male is larger and wilder than the female, and I use as analogy the bull to the cow, rooster to hen, peacock to peahen, lion to lioness.

Dr Cabigan thinks it otherwise. The female is larger, in fact much larger, that the male is virtually a remora-size creature attached to the female. I imagine the huge size of the queen termite as compared to the tiny king termite. The enigma of the grouper, considering its diversity, and worldwide distribution could yet reveal other amazing facts about the kugtong. Among the institutions working on the kugtong is SEAFDEC, which admits its biology and ecology remain a mystery.

 At least we are sure the kugtong does exist. ~

The KRAKEN exists - do you believe it?

  The KRAKEN exists - do you believe it?

Giant and grotesque creatures of the deep are emerging lately with the series of earthquakes occurring in different parts of the world. People are asking whether their emergence is prediction or aftermath of force majeure. Exobiology is searching and studying life in the cosmic and abyss. Among these mysterious giants known largely in fiction are sunfish, oarfish, and the legendary kraken - monstrous colossal squid or octopus.

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog [avrotor.blogspot.com]

Author displays rare specimen, giant in size compared to commercial squid.

  

 

Nearly six kilos, and 1.5 meters long, this giant squid was flushed out of the deep off the coast of Pasacao, Camarines Sur, following a mild earthquake that shook the area. It is one of several others,  some weighing more than ten kilos. Their tough and thick skin protects them from extreme pressure at hundreds of meters on the ocean floor where few creatures can tolerate. Here they prey on deep fish and marine organisms such as crustaceans and other mollusks.  They rid of the sea of aging and injured organisms as sharks do on the surface of the sea. 


In Jules Verne's novel, Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, the giant sea monster is an octopus (left photo)  so huge it nearly wrecked the prototype submarine Nautilus of Captain Nemo. High voltage electricity was applied to release the monster's crushing grip. The other picture is the legendary kraken described by sailors as far back as in ancient Greece. 

In John Steinbeck's less popular book, "Where have all the sardines gone?" there is a photo of a giant squid washed ashore along San Francisco, California.  From the looks of the B and W photograph the creature could weigh half a ton. This is not an isolated case; several specimens were caught or discovered as carcasses in many parts of the world. 

Just after the tsunami that occurred in the Indian Ocean in the early part of this decade, my son, Marlo and I saw two giant squids being sold in a wet market in Fairview, QC. They are twice bigger than the specimen shown in the first photo. 

Indeed monsters lurk in the dark, deep ocean.  And considering the fact that the earth's surface is three-fourth ocean with an average depth of nearly four kilometers, plunging to more than twelve kilometers in Marianas and Philippine Deep, there are indeed countless of unimaginable monsters down there.  They continue to build legends that became part of mythology, fiction stories, and lately, scientific discoveries.~  

 

 Mysterious Giant Squid stranded on Spanish coast. 

  Rare Sunfish weighing 1.5 tons found by Indonesian fishermen.

Giant oarfish (Regalecus glesne) caught in the Philippines after an earthquake. 

"Over 60% of our planet is covered by water more than a mile deep. The deep sea is the largest habitat on earth and is largely unexplored. More people have traveled into space than have traveled to the deep ocean realm." - The Blue Planet Seas of Life ~

Corn or Maize – World’s Emerging Number One Crop

 Corn or Maize – World’s Emerging Number One Crop

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog 

  

Thai corn is exported to the Philippines. Changmai Thailand 

Corn or Maize (Zea mays L) is the most important cereal in the world today, surpassing wheat and rice. It is because corn has a wide range of adaptability, from the tropics to the temperate and high elevation areas. And it comes in many varieties and cultivars - natural, hybrid and genetically modified - thus widening its cultivation and uses, including the production of medicine and biofuel.

What makes corn No.1?  Here are important reasons.  

1. Yellow corn is the most important feed ingredient for poultry and livestock (up to 80 percent). The yellow pigment - carotene and xanthophyll group is rich in vitamins and it imparts attractive color to meat and eggs. Calories, protein and other nutrients in yellow corn compensate to a large extent for lack of costly feed supplement like fish meal.  

2. Corn's response to increasing input (fertilizer) is higher than that of wheat or rice, reaching up to 12 MT per hectare, twice or more than either of the two staple crops. This means the ratio of  input and yield (Nitrogen:Grain) is wider, translated into higher productivity and income.  

3. Inter-cropping of corn with legumes, like peanut and bean (e.g. mungbean, cowpea), is key to sustainable productivity: corn fixes Carbon (C4) which is shared with the companion crop (legume), while the latter being a Nitogen fixer  provides the needed nitrates (NO3) to both crops. After the crop season, the residual fixed compounds are kept in the soil which will be used by the next crop or crops.  

4. Three Sisters cropping system is a modification of the dual inter-cropping, though practiced since ancient times by Mesoamerican farmers - the Aztecs, Mayans, Incas, Olmecs -  by planting three crops at the same time: corn (C-fixer), bean (N-fixer), and squash which controls weeds and serves as mulch to reduce soil moisture evaporation, and soil nutrient loss due to ultraviolet rays. We can only imagine the ingenuity of these farmers centuries ago, albeit scientific explanation that accompanied their skill and art.   

5. Corn offers different subspecies, varieties and cultivars to meet cultural preferences, food preparations, and other uses.

    Flour corn — Zea mays var. amylacea

·        Popcorn — Zea mays var. everta

·        Dent corn  — Zea mays var. indentata

·        Flint corn — Zea mays var. indurata

·        Sweet corn — Zea mays var. saccharata and Zea mays var. rugosa

·        Waxy corn — Zea mays var. ceratina

·        Amylomaize — Zea mays

·        Pod corn — Zea mays var. tunicata Larrañaga ex A. St. Hil.

·        Striped maize — Zea mays var. japonica. 

These categories have been modified through DNA analysis into multi-variable classification adopted by many research centers, particularly CIMMYT (Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento del Maiz y Trigo) the world's leading corn center where, like IRRI for rice, keeps a germplasm bank for corn gathered from all over the world. Corn is perhaps one of the most studied crops, genetic studies on its genome has been completed. A Nobel prize was awarded to a certain  Barbara McClintock who discovered knob markers to validate her theory of "jumping genes" which is key to modern genetic taxonomic study of crop. 

6. Genetically modified corn is the most widely cultivated GMO in the world, with the US and Canada planting more than three-fourth of their land area to GM corn.The Philippines has recently joined other countries in GMO research and cultivation in spite of heavy objections.  It is estimated than a third of the world's corn crop is GMO.  Which means that people are eating and indirectly GM corn unaware and without warning. In September 2000, up to $50 million worth of Taco Bell's shells were recalled from its restaurants as well as supermarkets. The shells contained genetically modified corn that was unfit for human consumption by the Food and Drug Administration.(Wikipedia, underscore retained)

7. Corn is a major source of fuel. There is controversy as to whether corn as fuel is more important than human food particularly in developing countries. Whereas, in the US corn, being grown on large commercial scale, is not only the chief feed for the animal industry, but as source of alternative fuel to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

The US is the world’s top producer of ethanol from corn with a production target of 35 billion US gallons (130,000,000 m³) of biofuels by 2017, ethanol production will grow to 7 billion US gallons (26,000,000 m³) by 2010, up from 4.5 billion in 2006, boosting ethanol's share of maize demand in the U.S. from 22.6 percent to 36.1 percent.

Corn is widely used in Germany as a feedstock for biogas plants. Here the maize is harvested, shredded then placed in silage clamps from which it is fed into the biogas plants. This process makes use of the whole plant rather than simply using the kernels as in the production of fuel ethanol.

In developing countries on the other hand "feed maize" is being used increasingly for heating on specially designed stoves similar to firewood stoves. Corn cobs are also used as a biomass fuel source.

8. These are the top corn producers 

Top ten maize producers in 2012
Country	Production (tonnes)	Note
United States	273,832,130
China	208,258,000
Brazil	71,296,478
Argentina	25,700,000
Mexico	22,069,254
India	21,060,000
Ukraine	20,961,300
Indonesia	19,377,030
France	15,614,100
South Africa	12,500,000
World	690,668,292	[A]
No symbol = official figure, A = Aggregate (may include official, semiofficial or estimates).

Our local production is very low, lower than the world's average, in fact in most corn producing areas using conventional method, yield per hectare is barely 1 MT.

9. How nutritious is green corn or corn on the cob? Or steamed or boiled corn? Here's the nutritional value of steamed corn, sold on the road side in India, similar to that we buy along Katipunan road near Ateneo.  Wikipedia

Sweetcorn, yellow, raw (seeds only)
Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy	360 kJ (86 kcal)
Carbohydrates	18.7 g
- Starch	5.7 g
- Sugars	6.26 g
- Dietary fiber	2 g
Fat	1.35 g
Protein	3.27 g
- Tryptophan	0.023 g
- Threonine	0.129 g
- Isoleucine	0.129 g
- Leucine	0.348 g
- Lysine	0.137 g
- Methionine	0.067 g
- Cystine	0.026 g
- Phenylalanine	0.150 g
- Tyrosine	0.123 g
- Valine	0.185 g
- Arginine	0.131 g
- Histidine	0.089 g
- Alanine	0.295 g
- Aspartic acid	0.244 g
- Glutamic acid	0.636 g
- Glycine	0.127 g
- Proline	0.292 g
- Serine	0.153 g
Water	75.96 g
Vitamin A equiv.	9 μg (1%)
- lutein and zeaxanthin	644 μg
Thiamine (vit. B1)	0.155 mg (13%)
Riboflavin (vit. B2)	0.055 mg (5%)
Niacin (vit. B3)	1.77 mg (12%)
Pantothenic acid (B5)	0.717 mg (14%)
Vitamin B6	0.093 mg (7%)
Folate (vit. B9)	42 μg (11%)
Vitamin C	6.8 mg (8%)
Iron	0.52 mg (4%)
Magnesium	37 mg (10%)
Manganese	0.163 mg (8%)
Phosphorus	89 mg (13%)
Potassium	270 mg (6%)
Zinc	0.46 mg (5%)
Link to USDA Database entry One ear of medium size (6-3/4" to 7-1/2" long) maize has 90 grams of seeds Percentages are roughly approximated using US recommendations for adults. Source: USDA Nutrient Database

It is no wonder corn eaters are hard workers and are known for their physical endurance. Many athletes, particularly boxers come from the South where corn is the staple food.

10.There are many other uses of corn such as

·      .o  Corn as alternative medicine is an age long practice.  Water from boiled corn is taken with or without sugar has diuretic properties. It is recommended in folk medicine for kidney problems.  

·         Starch from maize can also be made into plastics, fabrics, adhesives, and many other chemical products.

·         The corn steep liquor, a plentiful watery byproduct of maize wet milling process, is widely used in the biochemical industry and research as a culture medium to grow many kinds of microorganisms.

·         Chrysanthemin is found in purple corn and is used as a food coloring.

·         Corn as green fodder is popular on the farm for working animals, particularly carabao and bullock.  To improve digestibility and palatability corn fodder is first made into silage, rather than fed in dried form. We do not practice silage in the Philippines, unlike other countries where fodder is not available throughout the year.

·         Maize kernels can be used in place of sand in a sandbox  enclosure for children's play.
.  Corn cob powder is a substitute of talc in the manufacture of talcum powder for the face, body, and babies. Corn cob powder is safer because it is organic, unlike talc which is a mineral.  Talcum powder is made from talc, a mineral made up mainly of Magnesium and Silicon, and in its natural state may contain asbestos which causes cancer of the lungs - and ovarian cancer in the case of talcum dependent women.  

The author was visiting scientist at CIMMYT Mexico in 1986.The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), headquartered in Mexico, is a non-profit international organization focused on agricultural research and training. A key member of the CGIAR global research partnership, CIMMYT was founded in 1966 and is one of the world's most historically significant agricultural research centers.

 Acknowledgement with gratitude: Wikipedia for Table data and Corn illustrated on morphology. Internet images.