Frank And Healthy Minds

The 1967 “Loyalty Day” celebration of the University of the Philippines College of Agriculture (UPCA) is the single most memorable event in my life connected to UPCA – except the day I was kicked out of UPCA as “Extreme Delinquent” student! (No details now.) Rather, let me talk about the day I discredited the purpose of Loyalty Day. A sad story, a glad story! The theme of this year’s Loyalty Day is “Strengthening The Partnership Between UPLB And Alumni For More Progressive Communities.” That partnership was neither given importance nor mentioned in any Loyalty Day celebration on or before 1967. (“104 th ” image from mobile.twitter.com ) Loyalty Day 1967 was when I changed the nature of the celebration all by myself – Believe it or not! It happened this way: Tuesday, 10 Oct 1967, I was already ready with copies of my open letter titled “What Did You Do In The War, Daddy?” It was purportedly an open letter to the unborn child of Frank & Amparo Hilario , our first. It was a lab...

“Restore Filipino Values Now!” is the Facebook cry of Rizalito David I saw on Friday, 07 Oct, in mixed Pilipino (Tagalog) and English. Among other things, Mr David is a pro-life advocate and perennial candidate for government office – Senator & Vice President. Shouldn’t we admire him? The loser never quits! (David/Leni image from ph.news.yahoo.com ) He ran for Vice President in the last elections under the Democratic Party of the Philippines, with Jose Montemayor as President – eventually, he endorsed Leni Robredo for President, and his rival Tito Sotto for VP! (I voted for Leni.) It looks to me like Mr David is unsure of his politics – today, is he sure of his polemics? Excerpts from his Facebook shout (my translation): Restore Filipino Values Now! Lack of morality in society and lack of trust by citizens in the government are the two most important problems and issues that should be paid attention to by those who are in government… We now need people who have the c...

The vegetables in the lower photo all look delectable – you can be sure they are healthy because they have been grown with organic fertilizer in the “ Villegas Organiks ” farm of Pabs Villegas at Malvar, Batangas – the upper image was taken by me when my wife Ampy and I visited the place, on invitation by Pabs – he had learned that I was a disciple of organic agriculture myself. (upper image photo taken by me 31 July 2016 at Villegas Organiks; lower image from villegasorganiks.com ) Yes Sir! If you want to eat healthy foods, you have to make sure they have been grown in a healthy manner in a farm that applies organic matter to grow the crops – yes, zero chemical fertilizers & pesticides. When are we going to mind eating healthy foods if not today, now? As you can see in the upper image, Villegas Organiks uses compost to fertilize the plants in the farm – nothing can be more healthful than compost – naturally, you have to make sure that the materials did not come from any cr...

Food crops destroyed by floods, forests destroyed by fires – what other signs do you want from the Heavens Above? God! “Good comes from Good” says Webstaurant Store – only healthy farming can bring healthy fields and homes! (“Good Comes” image from webstaurantstore.com , “Whatever good” from brainyquote.com ) “Climate Change“ is forcing us to redefine “Primate Change“ and I, Agriculturist and writer engaged in what today I call “Communication for Village Development in the 21st Century” (CoViD21) in the last 42 years – now preach Regenerative Agriculture (RA) in the villages. Primates, only RA will save us from climate change! That is a CoViD21 action/reaction from my BSA Ag Edu, UP Los Baños, 1965 and continuing self-study with the advent of the Internet in PH in 1991. Wide thoughts come from wide reading. Here now is my considered definition: Regenerative Agriculture is any principle, process, procedure, or practice applied that repeatedly returns, revives, resuscitates, or rei...

Yes, “HeArtfully Speaking” is my single phrase of praise of Jerry R Yapo’s first book of essays titled “Artfully Speaking.” This 75-page handy volume of 12 heartworks based on 12 artworks is an original, a good read. Jerry’s book contains 12 essays with 12 art pieces as inspirers of the writer. The titles of the 12 heartpieces are: “Atop A Carabao” (p4) “Elbi Is Home” (p10) “Curve-Spin”   (p16) “Almost There” (p22) “A Dog’s World” (p28) “In Loving Memory” (p36) “A Summa Story Retold” (p42) “The Pilot, The Prince, And The Fox” (p48) “Artfully Speaking” (p54) “Show Openings” (p60) “Vertical Living” (p66) “A Commuter’s Tale” (p72). In the Preface , Jerry says: Writing is my creative space and the essay the most congenial genre in my attempt to make sense of life’s defining moments. Such moments looped together propel our lives in a certain direction. I know the feeling . I have been writing thousands of (digital) essays myself since 2000, with a few extra long ones of 8,000 word...

Today, Wednesday, 05 October 2022 (Manila), is “World Teacher’s Day” – and as a teacher, I know that we have not been teaching our farmers rich or poor about natural and man - made disasters . With the Internet, there is absolutely no excuse ! (Images: top from istockphoto.com , bottom from istockphoto.com ) The upper image tells us that up to now, 53 years after scientists of the universities UCLA and Stanford accomplished the first long-distance networking of computers in 1969 ( Jonathan Hodgeback ,   britannica.com ), the actual beginning of the Internet, the world looks at teaching in a mechanical way, not connecting things one to the other, like a field suddenly burning. The Internet came to the Philippines in 1994 ( wikipedia.org ), and the Hilarios got connected sometime in 1997. Considering what I have learned since attending college for my BS Agriculture major in Ag Edu at the University of the Philippines College of Agriculture (UPCA, now UP Los Baños ), ...

I am challenging either BBM or Leni Robredo to become the modern liberators of farmers from poverty by reinventing farm equipment – old one pulled by tractor in the image above needs improvement! With funding, I UP Los Baños alumnus will reinvent the rotavator so that it does 3 things simultaneously: (1) cultivates soil, (2) creates organic mulch, and (3) spreads that mulch all over the field – all automatically! This is organic farming so advanced you couldn’t believe it until you see it! The proposed 2-year project, with techno-demos, will be executed at PhilRice Los Baños Station in Laguna, where we have nearby UP Los Baños and IRRI. Engineers from UPLB College of Engineering & Agro-Industrial Technology (CEAT) will be called upon as necessary. (Above, the lower image shows a rotavator behind the tractor at PhilRice Los Baños.) (Tractor+ image from me, 18 April 2018) Reinventing the rotavator is one simple way to transform all of PH Agriculture to solve 2 problems simultane...