Frank And Healthy Minds

I I must say! This 2-day old blog of ours, PAJacks , acronym for Philippine Agricultural Journalists Advancing Agriculture Aided By Commu nity Knowledge & Science , is dedicated to the pursuit of Masaganang Ani At Mataas Na Kita (Bounteous Harvests & Bountiful Income, my translation). It is dedicated to The New PH Agriculture , under the leadership of Secretary of Agriculture William Dar, who prefers to be called Manong Willie – Ilocano for Brother Willie . Wen Manong! That Masagana slogan is for farming families, and it’s excellent, such as it is. Now I want a slogan for the aggie journalists, male and female, and I have found what I think is perfect: “Brother Sun, Sister Moon.” That is from the “Canticle of Brother Sun and Sister Moon” of St Francis of Assisi. What does the canticle mean? That “All creatures = one family [1] ” – Jack Wintz ( Franciscan Media ). You are my brother, you are my sister . (sun-moon image from Redbubble [2] ) Now, how do you translate that to jour

India had its 9 th Digital Awards January 2019 [1]   (the digital image for the 10 th was unimpressive, sorry) – why not my beloved Philippines giving out impressive digital awards starting next year, to be called Digital Philippines (DigPH)? And because it’s my territory, but more so because Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie is much more modern and much more ambitious for his country than any other chief of the Department of Agriculture, DA, before him has been, I am encouraging a DigPH Agriculture! I want journalists to dig into digital journalism for Philippine agriculture. I’m praying that the DA welcome it with an excellent budget, starting now, DigPH Agriculture 2020 , for any and all workers with words and ideas, from teenagers to seniors, from in-school to out-of-school. (I’d gladly be the Program Leader for DigPH so that I will be automatically out of contention and cannot be accused of inventing my own award! Truth be told, I already have an award, and I di

Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie is an original thinker himself – why can’t aggie journalists be innovative? We are in The Age of Social Media – the above image indicates 16 media, but there is more. Never has there been a plethora, superabundance of social media, very different from the old media of print, radio and TV. The image above, from Phys.org [1] , accompanies the article “Social Journalists And Social News Media Logic When Social Media Is Adopted In Journalism” written by the University of Gothenburg, 27 August 2019. Studying Swedish journalists’ use of social media since 2011, Ulrika Hedman says, “There is a concern that the use of social media could change journalism and the professional roles of journalists fundamentally ” (my italics). Could? I say: Should! Let’s do it! In the Philippines, nobody is talking about journalists employing social media. Now, I wanted to be the one to revolutionize PH media in the service of agriculture, that is why yesterday,

Image from Impromptu Publishing [1] ): “Blogger vs Journalist” – Is that an intelligent assertion? Never mind the nationality, fashion and swagger: What do you think? My opinion: “Versus” (vs) reflects a huge misunderstanding of the roles of bloggers compared to journalists in modern society. I am a 15-year veteran blogger in the Philippines, 13 of those years in the Science of Agriculture and related fields, so I know that in The Digital Age, there should no longer be a difference between journalist and blogger. I am introducing a new, free blog. I am inviting you to submit your articles, 500 words long, to PAJacks for publishing. (Until we get sponsors, your byline will be your reward.) Whatever the controversy, I ask of you only one thing: Study the “New Thinking for Agriculture” of Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie , that is expressed in 8 paradigms: (1)    Modernization (2)    Industrialization (3)    Promotion of exports (4)    Consolidation of small- and medium-

My title’s end borrows from British Robert Browning’s beloved poem “Oh, To Be In England,” although I love more his wife Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s verse, “How Do I Love Thee?” Still, this essay is about love, as you will see. The link shared on Facebook by Arlene Escalante (above image) is “to PHSeniors Fighting Covid-19.” So I am a Manila senior, thank God! I am reading the thoughts of an Indian student (name not shared) in Japan. I will now begin quoting (selected, with editing): I am (continuously) thinking (that because) Japan was the first country to be impacted by (the) coronavirus from China because of the luxury ship Diamond Princess from China in January, by now it would have gone to stage 4 like European countries… But in Japan everything (has been) normal till today. We (are) going to offices daily, we are going to all essential services. No restaurants are closed. No malls are closed. No lockdown. Metro trains moving normally. Bullet trains moving normally. All Internati

I am an incessant blogger who surfs the Web even at unholy hours – because while I know I am a genius, I do not know everything!  Now, here comes AGHAM handing out a national warning, according to Ellalyn de Vera-Ruiz of Manila Bulletin in an article dated 29 March 2020: “Gap Between Food Production And Distribution May Cause Crisis, Experts Warn [1] .” Ms Ellalyn begins her article saying, “Food security and self-sufficiency advocates warned the government over the weekend…” I cut it short here because my research says that that warning was issued last Wednesday yet, 25 March, certainly not the weekend. The AGHAM Facebook page says so! And that lapse in the use of the word weekend , by Ms Ellalyn, is only my introduction to a very public Freudian slip by the AGHAM people themselves. On their Facebook page, they say: Access to food must be a foremost concern of the national government amid Covid-19 pandemic. ¶ The AGHAM-Food Security and Self-Sufficiency Committee warns the government

“Bring back soil health. It is a must!”  We must go back to healthy soils. This comes from the Facebook sharing of Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie; soil health was his main message during the 3 rd SEALNET Meeting on 23 September 2019 at the Bureau of Soils & Water Management, Quezon City. SEALNET is the Asian Soil Laboratory Network, established in Bogor, Indonesia, in November 2017, for “the harmonization of soil laboratory methods [1] .” (I can’t find anything more about the Network, except that the leadership is female; the current Chair is Gina Nilo of the Philippines.) “Bring back soil health. It is a must!” I have never heard of any PH Secretary of Agriculture saying anything remotely related to the health of the soil as a crucial national resource. I am not surprised with Manong Willie saying that because he was from 2000 to 2014 the Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, based in India – if you

For sure , armchair journalist , that’s me before, during and after this coronavirus lockdown. But I never run out of content – and certainly not context – when I write my news-views.  Christina Mendez of The Philippine Star , who wrote the story accompanied by the image above, may not be an armchair journalist, but her article runs out of content – and context – I’m sorry to say. And no, it is not a minor lack . The title of her Star story is, “Philippines Seeks ASEAN Help In Sourcing 300k MT Of Rice [1] ” (above image). In content, the title is justified because, as Ms Christina says: The government has tasked the DA and concerned agencies to work on the importation of an additional 300,000 metric tons of rice through government-to-government arrangements with ASEAN trading partners and/or from all sources, including India and Pakistan at the ASEAN-level tariff. But when you read her article of 218 words, including the title, the context is that the Philippines is running out of ri