Champion Kite

Dr Abe V Rotor

Kite flying competition winning team led by Leo Carlo Rotor right. UST Manila 2005

Clear against the blue mountain far
Are specks of yellow, red and blue,
And white, and the many colors they make.

Swaying like birds, rising and swooping,
Suspended in time and space,
If not for the sinking sun.

The wind is fair, the grain is golden now,
Else the old folk would complain:
Don’t call the wind when the grain is young.

But kids that we were cared for nothing,
Except our kites at all costs must fly
At the other end of the string.

Up, up they soared into the sky,
Dwarfing Babel, trailing the Apollo-
Flight only dreams could follow through.

My kite took me away to the city and beyond-
Years had passed and I see kites flying again,
Familiar they seem, but in another time.

Ho Chi Minh University of Technology, Vietnam: The fastest growing university in the region

Dr Abe V Rotor

Visiting Professor

Living with Nature - School on Blog

Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio

738 DZRB AM, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday

The mythical bird Phoenix deserves a place in history. It is not confined only in the imagination shaped by the gods and goddesses of Mt Olympus. Go to Vietnam. Here mythology lost much of its myth. Myth after all is reality when people are able to rise from the ashes of war, specially by themselves alone.

I have visited their museum - the War Museum - and saw the atrocities committed during the two-decade US-led war against the Vietnamese enshrined in history and memory.

Author and wife, pose with Vietnamese alumni at the entrance to the University.

I have entered the Cuchi Tunnel, the underground network dug by bare hands which runs through more than 500 kilometers. It is an underground city complete with hospital, kitchen, living quarters and offices. It is indeed an engineering feat. Above it all, monumental human endurance and determination for freedom - first from their colonial masters the French, afterward the US invaders.

What I least expected in my visit in Vietnam is their tremendous zeal for self-improvement through education. Most scholars think of the West when it comes to superiority in education. Wrong. Go to Ho Chi Minh University of Technology, named after the national hero in the Vietnam War. It is here where my wife, a friend of ours - Atty Edna Loberia, and I found Vietnam of today and how it is going to face the world - and win another war.

Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HCMUT) is the leading university in teaching and research activities of Vietnam. It plays the active role in the fields of talents cultivation and providing manpower with strong technical skills to the Southern areas of Vietnam.

HCMUT is a center of technology - industry and management training. Graduate students from HCMUT have strong professional skills, which are recognized to be equivalent to those in advanced countries in the Southeast Asia. Its training activities have made remarkable contribution to satisfy the requirements of manpower for the industrialization and modernization of Vietnam generally and Southern Vietnam areas in particular.

Moreover, HCMUT is also the science research and technology transfer center which plays the key role in providing information and applying advanced technologies of developed countries and transferring to concerning industries in the Southern areas of Vietnam.

   

Peace and quiet in the shade of trees contribute to an ambiance conducive to learning.

Professors are relatively young. They are idealistic and nationalistic. Many trained abroad, particularly in the Asian region.

   

HCMUT has 11 faculties, 10 science research and industry transferring centers, 4 training centers, 10 functioning offices and one limited company. During the past 30 years since the Liberation of South Vietnam and country unification, 45,000 engineers and Bachelors have graduated from the university. Since 1994, it has granted 20,000 Bachelors of Science, 1,503 Masteral and 25 Doctorate, many of whom are either keeping management roles and or leading experts in state-owned or foreign-investment enterprises of different industries in Ho Chi Minh City and other southern provinces. HCMUT celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2007 highlighted by a national conference on science and technology.

  

 HCMUT's publishing house and book store. The university is linked up with well known institutions like the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Bangkok, Maastritcht of Netherlands, and Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Western Australia. Vietnamese students studied agriculture at UP at Los Baños and IRRI.

Today the Philippines import rice from Vietnam, the second largest rice exporter in the world. New buildings have been built after liberation and reunification on the university's sprawling campus half an hour drive from the heart of the city - Ho Chi Minh, formerly Saigon.

 The University continues to build new buildings to keep pace with research, education and training needed by the rapidly growing nation. Vietnam has posted an average growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 10 percent in the last decade, second highest in Asia after China.

A few minutes’ drive from the university is the city's plaza and garden which takes pride in protecting trees spared by the war. Third to the last photo is the historic brick cathedral built by the French during their occupation in Vietnam for more than two centuries.

  

Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (Abbreviation: HCMUT, Vietnamese: Trường Đại học Bách khoa, Đại học Quốc gia Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh, French: Institut polytechnique de Ho Chi Minh Ville) – a member of Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City - still referred to by many as Phu Tho, is the flagship university in technology teaching and research activities in Vietnam. The university plays the active role in the fields of talents cultivation and providing manpower with strong technical skills to the Southern areas of Vietnam.

HCMUT is a center of technology - industry and management training. The HCMUT training activities have made a remarkable contribution to satisfy the increasing demands for man power of the industrialization and modernization in Vietnam generally and Southern Vietnam areas particularly. Moreover, HCMUT is also the science research and technology transfer center which plays the significant role in providing information, applications of advanced technologies and technologies transfers to concerning industrial zones in the Southern areas of Vietnam.

Up to May 2005, HCMUT has 11 faculties, 10 research and development (R&D) centers, 4 training centers, 10 functioning offices and one limited company. During the past 30 years since Vietnam's unification, 45,000 engineers and Bachelors have graduated from HCMUT. Since 1994, HCMUT have trained 20,000 Bachelors of Science, 1,503 Masters and 25 Doctors, many of whom are either keeping management roles and or leading experts in state-owned or foreign-investment enterprises of different industries in Ho Chi Minh City and other southern provinces. 

Acknowledgment: Chi Minh University of Technology E-mail: webmaster@hcmut.edu.vn 268 Ly Thuong Kiet St, Ward 14, District 10, HCM city. From Internet.~

Avoid Waste. Here are some ways

Dr Abe V Rotor 

Living with Nature - School on Blog

Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio

738 DZRB AM, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday

 Pencil Cover and Extender. 

 Give a second life to your pencil as it gets shorter and shorter. 

Protect it from hurting you and others. Make the cover colorful and artistic. 

 Make Gleaning a Habit

 Open spent toothpaste tube, there's a lot left, some 5 to 10 brushings. 

Glean bottles of coffee, butter, and the like; cosmetics, paste, ink, etc.    

Harvesting Rainwater

Be sure gutters and downspouts are in good condition and clean. 

Store rainwater in garden pond for long term and multiple uses.   

Calamansi juice stock

Add equal amount of sugar to calamansi extract, keep in glass jar in the 

refrigerator. Two or three tablespoonful make a lemonade. Chill or add ice.    

Avoid Decorative Toothbrush 

You are paying for the design rather than the function. What do 

you do with the spent toothbrush but to throw it away? It is a 

non-biodegradable litter

Use Banana Leaf as Wrapper

instead of aluminum foil, plastic, and waxed paper. 

 Tamales is an example of cooking with banana leaves, 

Cooking with Charcoal 

instead of  LPG and electricity.  Food tastes better. It is environment friendly 

Save on Power

What you need for baby's bath is tepid temperature.  Check with your elbow. 

Make your own mineral water 

Tap water plus two or three crushed seeds of malunggay left to stand for two or three hours.  

10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management

Dr Abe V Rotor 

Living with Nature - School on Blog

Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio

738 DZRB AM, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday

From book of same title by Hyrum W Smith. 

Hyrum W. Smith founded the Franklin Quest Company in 1981. Among the company's other products, Smith created the Franklin Planner and seminars on productivity development based on the "belief window" and other concepts. Author of The Modern Gladiator; Increasing Productivity in the Digital Age. Wikipedia

River of Time, acrylic painting by Dr Abe V. Rotor

10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management

Managing Your Time

1. You control your life by controlling your time.
2. Your governing values are the foundation of personal success and fulfillment.
3. When your daily activities reflect your governing values, you experience inner peace.
4. To reach any significant goal, you must leave your comfort zone.
5. Consistent daily planning leverages time and increases focus.

Light in the Woods, painting and title of a book by Dr Abe V Rotor  

Managing Your Life 

6. Your behavior is a reflection of what you truly believe.

7. You satisfy needs when your beliefs are in line with reality.

8. Negative behaviors are overcome by changing incorrect beliefs. 

9. Your self-esteem must ultimately come from within 

10. Give more and you'll have more. 

Frolic

Photos by Marlo R Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog

Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio

738 DZRB AM, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday

Tacloban, Leyte

Dr Abe V Rotor

Turn back the hands of time I beg,

when the rivers and streams flow,

whisper and shine deep from their bed,

of stones like gems in the glow.

Turn back old age to happy childhood

when there were no airplanes and cities;

when tall trees are enough to behold

the faces of clouds and the deities.

For childhood is the saintly phase of life

though raucous in frolic and in game;

who cares about rules knowing no strife,

that make grownups sad and ashame? ~

Nicanor Abelardo and Francisco Santiago - Titans in Philippine Music

Nicanor Abelardo and Francisco Santiago 

- Titans in Philippine Music 

They perfected the Kundiman, distinctly Filipino, into world class sonata and art song.

Dr Abe V Rotor 

Living with Nature - School on Blog

Lesson on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio

738 DZRB AM, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday

 

Nicanor Abelardo (1893-1934) "Father of the Sonata in the Philippines".

Composer, pianist, and teacher. His most popular works include the official song of the University of the Philippines,U.P. Beloved, Magbalik Ka Hirang, Himutok, Nasaan Ka Irog, Kundiman ng Luha, Bituing Marikit, and Mutya ng Pasig.

At age five the young Abelardo learned solfeggio and how to play the bandurria; at six he was already able to play the William Tell Overture on the guitar; at age eight, he composed a waltz, Ang Unang Buko, He later learned to play the piano while working for his uncle, painter Juan Abelardo, in Manila, where he studied in primary schools. He was barely 15 years old when he taught music in schools in San Ildefonso and San Miguel, Bulacan,Before he enrolled at the University of the Philippines Conservatory of Music, he worked as a pianist in pubs and theaters in Manila.

He eventually became a full-fledged instructor and obtained his teacher’s certificate in science and composition in 1921. In 1924, he became the head of the Conservatory’s composition department. He pursued further studies at the Chicago Musical College.

When he returned to the Philippines, he continued teaching at U.P. He also taught music to students in a boarding house run by his family. Among his students were National Artist Antonino Buenaventura, Alfredo Lozano and Lucino Sacramento.

Abelardo was credited for bringing the kundiman to the level of art. He also composed music for the sarswela as well as songs in different musical forms. He completed more than 140 compositions. He was given the title the "Father of the Sonata in the Philippines".
Our foremost Kundiman composer also showed the elements of modernism in his music. This is heard in his Cinderella Overture and Sinfonietta for Strings.

He died on March 21, 1934, at the age of 41. He left behind a number of unfinished works, including a symphony, an opera, and a concerto. The main theater of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, and the U.P. College of Music were named after him.

Francisco Santiago (1889-1947) The Father of Kundiman Art Song.

A renowned pianist, composer and teacher, he earned his masters degree and doctorate in music from the Conservatory of Chicago in 1924. College of Music from 1930-1946. Among his compositions are Kundiman and Anak Dalita, the first art song kundiman, was sung Royal Court of Spain upon the request of King Alfonso II. His masterpiece Concerto in B flat minor for pianoforte and orchestra was presented at the Chicago Music School, where he received his doctorate degree in 1924.

He became the Director of the University of the Philippines Conservatory of Music from 1930 to 1946. He also directed the music for such films as Manileña, Madaling Araw, and Pakiusap. Other compositions are Sakali Man, Hibik ng Filipinas, Pakiusap, Ang Pag-ibig, Suyuan, Alaala Kita, Ikaw at Ako, Ano Kaya ang Kapalaran?, Hatol Hari Kaya?, Sakali't Mamatay, Dalit ng Pag-ibig, Aking Bituin, Madaling Araw and Pagsikat ng Araw.

He died in September 28, 1947. Twenty-one years later, he was given a posthumous award as Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan by the City of Manila. A hall of BDO Makati head office is named Franscisco Santiago Hall in his honor.