Frank And Healthy Minds

Photo taken by me on Thursday, 13 June 2019, near the Sinapog River bridge east of Asingan, Pangasinan, overlooking fields of rice and fruit trees growing, and much water. I’m showing you this photograph because you, the looker, is at a vantage point – you are above all else, and you should be able to think of things to make things better . Like saving on water. Like multiple cropping with rice. Like growing young cacao with fruit trees as mother trees. Like growing more bananas. And attracting more farm tourists! “What Else?” is my brand new question that is actually a new rendering of a 16-year-old idea I called The Geography Of Knowledge , the title of the book I single-mindedly & singlehandedly wrote while consulting with PhilRice via then-Executive Director Leo Sebastian. An ebook, published on Innocents Day, 28 December 2003. At PhilRice headquarters in Maligaya in Muñoz, Nueva Ecija, I submitted a copy of the pdf of 198 pages, 7” x 9” trim size, to Roger Barroga (God bless h

In my new blog “The Wizard Of Os,” I am continuing my Creative Thinking Mantra of 5 Os: Obstacles, Opportunities, Options, Outputs and Outcomes.....  In Los Baños, there once was in the UP College of Agriculture, UPCA, the Department of Agricultural Education, Ag Ed, where I obtained my degree, BSA major in Ag Ed, in 1965. Then there was the Department of Agricultural Education & Rural Studies, DAERS. Then UPCA became UP Los Baños, and then came the College of Public Affairs, CPAf. Today, Wednesday, 29 January 2020, CPAf celebrates its 22 nd founding in 1998 as a college dedicated to “Public Affairs” – it became the College of Public Affairs & Development in 2011, same acronym. The anniversary has the theme “CPAf At 22: Recalibrating And Meeting The Challenges Of The Next Decade.” Professor Rolando T Bello is the Dean; the guest speaker is Emil Q Javier, former President of the UP System, former Chancellor of UPLB and recently honored by President Rodrigo Duterte as a National

Opportunities: On Facebook, Director Glenn B Gregorio shares the Manila Standard news written by Brenda Jocson: “SEARCA, PhilRice Renew Ties For PH Rice Industry [1] .” Very interesting – not the ordinary title but the extraordinary content . Sir, did you know actually you are revolutionizing the role of SCUs?! Options: My photograph above dramatizes rice demos being conducted to provide discussion points for the 8 th National Rice Technology Forum, NRTF in my hometown Asingan, Pangasinan on Sunday, 24 March 2019. (Superimposed, the image of Secretary of Education Leonor Briones, who supports SEARCA’s Director, to her left.) The NRTF is extension work by the Department of Agriculture, DA, and breeding companies on hybrid rice. Inbred and hybrid are options. Outputs: As I was going to say before I interrupted myself, under a 3-year Memorandum of Agreement, MoA, signed between them on 20 January 2020, SEARCA and PhilRice, according to Ms Brenda, “commit to collaborate on several activ

Above, note my source of this essay. Buhay Teacher ( A Teacher’s Life , my translation), whoever you are, you have my utmost admiration. You are unique; you are wonderful.  I was teary-eyed today, 27 January 2020, reading about the helicopter crash in Los Angeles, California, that took 9 lives: Kobe Bryant, 41, daughter Gianna, 13, and 7 others. Listen, I am not a fan of basketball. So, it is quite surprising for me to read that basketball is not simply physical: it is also or mostly psychological. If you want to be a star. Thank you, Buhay Teacher, for sharing your story: “8 Life Lessons We Can All Learn From NBA Legend Kobe Bryant [1] .” And yes, since I myself am trying to inspire the new Department of Agriculture under the leadership of Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/ Manong Willie , I am dedicating this essay to all the communicators of the DA, national, regional, provincial. Yes! We will now try to learn from the basketball legend’s “8 Life Lessons:” (1)       Rest at t

Sleepily this morning, when I stopped rewriting for the 12th time the original of this essay, the thought just came to me lying on my bed: DoubleTalk! This time, The Wizard Of Os is pointing to common Obstacles and common Opportunities of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology & Seismology , PhiVolcS, and Department of Agriculture, DA, both talking their science to the people – today especially PhiVolcS.  Above: Main image from NKY [1] ; superimposed are the faces of Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie, and Ma Antonia V Bornas, Chief of the Volcano Monitoring & Eruption Prediction Division of PhiVolcS. They are both in troubled waters, so to speak, but more so Ms Bornas. On mass media such as the newspapers as well as social media such as Facebook, commonly people have been complaining that they do not understand volcanospeak (my term). Of course not! Even I, having been a very wide reader and now always an Internet hound, I cannot explain in plain language su

Of the 5 Os – Obstacles, Opportunities, Options, Outputs and Outcomes – I am talking Options here. Via email from Academia , I have just downloaded Communication For Development And Social Change , a book edited by Jan Servaes (429 pages). Right under “Introduction,” Mr Servaes quotes Everett Rogers in 1976: Development Communication is the study of social change brought about by the application of communication research, theory, and technologies to bring about development.... Development is a widely participatory process of social change in a society, intended to bring about both social and material advancement, including greater equality, freedom, and other valued qualities for the majority of people through their gaining greater control over their environment. Now then, the Mission of DevCom is Social Change , the Vision being Development . Mr Rogers is saying development is “intended to bring about both social and material advancement.” Then, the College of Development Communicati

In pursuit of the new PH Agriculture with Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie, my new contribution comprises the concept I call The Wizard Of Os , where the 5 Os are: Obstacles, Opportunities, Options, Outputs, and Outcomes. Here now is another job for The Wizard! Obstacles They are all over the place – read! Opportunities Jica Simpas, Content Producer at Pepper.ph, writes, “ Here Are 4 Organizations That Work Directly with Our Local Farmers [1] : BukidFresh – Aaron David & Gorby Dimalanta work with small farmers who are members of coops in Cavite and Laguna. Farm To Folk – Ms Jica does not say where FTF operates. Good Food Community – Adrienne Tan & Carl Lee work with farmer groups in Capas, Tarlac and Dumagats from Rizal. Real Food – Nicole Olbés Fandiño goes for healthy, clean food – free of chemicals, hormones and preservatives. She works with farmers from different places. She says: We have visited many of their farms and have seen their passion – we’ve see

You may want to read first my earlier essay, The Wizard Of Os . Original, these 5 Wizard Os: Obstacles, Opportunities, Options, Outputs and Outcomes – Agriculture Anywhere proceeding from production to marketing. Obstacle: I junked the Farmer Field School, FFS, in this essay here: Creative Scus . But Alyssa Jade McDonald-Bärtl reacted positively, and Ms Alyssa is a respected board member of the Unternehmensgrun-Bundesverband and Founder of Blyss Chocolate gmbh [1] . She informed our Facebook friend Nestor V Saludo, who in turn sent me her message: I understand! Just curious as the efficacy of FFS and diffusion education etc is something I work on. In November, the FFS HQ of FAO put together some great work on digitalization of FFS aspects; however there are still some points which need adjustment locally. Thus, your colleague's suggestion of local R&D from uni / higher ed to contribute to custom-FFS (or digital or diffusion) infos for farmers as a concept is well backed by pop

In rethinking Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie’s “New Thinking for Agriculture” with its embedded “Eight Paradigms,” today Thursday, 23 January 2020, I came to the realization that we need to  add  a Wizard of Os if we are to succeed in one of the prime goals of the new PH Agriculture:  Entrepreneurship . Yes! The 5 Os are:  Obstacles, Opportunities, Options, Outputs  and  Outcomes  - proceeding from production to marketing. That is to say, to train anyone senior, adult or young, on entrepreneurship, one must teach and go through the 5 Os.  Obstacles.  What are the problems, complexities, lacks, insufficiencies that may be encountered along the way from old knowledge or new idea to the start of production up to marketing?  Opportunities.  The obstacles must be viewed some other way. They may be re-viewed in perspective so that the opportunities may be discerned. Or, thinking out the obstacles, what are the scenarios, openings, prospects that can be considered as hidin