Look Homeward, Angel Locsin!

Why is Angel Locsin, Filipina movie superstar, looking up? Let’s see what she sees!

Lily Grace Tabanera writes in Cosmo.ph 19 May 2020, “Angel Locsin Is Raising Funds To Help With Mass Testing In The PH[1]:”

Real-life (Wonder Woman) Angel Locsin is going non-stop! In April, Angel set up the #UniTentWeStandPH campaign to provide more than 28 hospitals with specialized tents for their Covid-19 patients, raising almost P11 million. This time, she has a new goal: to purchase test kits and help poorer sectors get tested.

Ms Angel is “pushing the TEST-TRACE-ISOLATE/TREAT formula… the only proven way to defeat the virus.”

Let us grant, Ms Angel, using the 4T Formula, in the Philippines, you are talking of 109,500,000 warm bodies[2] – as of midnight today, Tuesday, 19 May 2020 – so, how are you going to apply 4T to the millions?! It’s crazy! If you targeted only 20%, that would still be 21,900,000 (million), so I can see you will never finish. It’s insane!

Earlier, 18 May 2020, President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesman Harry Roque said, “Mass testing only possible in an ‘ideal world’; PH resources limited[3]” quoted by John Ezekiel J Hirro (PressONE.ph). I agree! “Test kits were hard to acquire, as other countries such as mass-producer China and the United States were prioritizing the use of testing kits on their citizens.”

Above everything: Diagnostic testing is not fail-safe!

Jennifer MacLachlan writes, “The Positives And Negatives Of Mass Testing For Coronavirus[4]” (15 May 2020, The Conversation):

Among the shortfalls of diagnostic testing is the possibility of false negatives (failing to detect a condition when it’s present) and false positives (detecting a condition when it’s absent).

And when you are done testing 20 million – when will that be?! – you are going to repeat the process with the same people because of false positives and false negatives!

But I am not one to surrender. "But above all the din, came the cry no surrender. ‘Twas the voice of James Connolly, the Irish rebel[5].” My rebel “No surrender” cry is this:

Treat The Threat Thru
Good Food Vs Bad Vibes!

“Eating For Everyday Wellness[6],” says WebMD. For everyday, you need good food.

I say: Good food is the simple, non-threatening, non-chemically laden, non-pesticide-bathed, non-exclusive eatables to achieve health. Ergo:

Good Agriculture, Better Food, Best Bodies!

Look homeward, Angel Locsin, visit your kitchen and cook yourself a good meal!

Meanwhile, let us dine on these food for thought, from the Web:

Good food is all the sweeter when shared with good friends.
Nothing brings people together like good food.

“You don’t need a silver fork to eat good food!” – Paul Prudhomme

“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” – Virginia Woolf.

“One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever we are doing and devote our attention to eating.” – Luciano Pavarotti.

What makes food tastes good?
“The secret ingredient is always love.” – Dreamstime.@517

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[1]https://www.cosmo.ph/entertainment/angel-locsin-shop-and-share-mass-testing-initiative-a2520-20200519?utm_source=Facebook-Cosmo&utm_medium=Ownshare&utm_campaign=20200519-fbnp-entertainment-angel-locsin-shop-and-share-mass-testing-initiative-a2520-20200519-fbfirst&fbclid=IwAR2Ypp9cbkFfVE744tFljGVM1DWug32prTdLkzKfNHuVSEd2UvHzk6flY5M

[2]ttps://www.worldometers.info/world-population/philippines-population/

[3]https://pressone.ph/mass-testing-only-possible-in-an-ideal-world-ph-resources-limited-roque/

[4]https://theconversation.com/the-positives-and-negatives-of-mass-testing-for-coronavirus-137792

[5]https://www.facebook.com/GlasgowRepublic/photos/a.307291062975191/411128679258095/?type=1&theater

[6]https://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/eating-everyday-wellness#1

Balik Probinsya Si Frank A Hilario: How? WFH!

Here is the latest news from the Official Portal of the Department of Agriculture, DA: “Balik Probinsya” Paves Way To Agri Industrialization – DA Chief.” Great!

Yes, I have read the BusinessMirror news of 06 May 2020 by Samuel P Medenilla: “Duterte Issues EO To Institutionalize Balik Probinsya Bagong Pag-asa Program.” BP2, which I translate freely as Return to Country Return to Hope. Yes, I support the DA supporting the BP2 program of President Duterte.

For BP2, I am willing to relocate to my hometown of Asingan in Eastern Pangasinan. It will be easy for me, even at 79 years old – all I have to bring with me is my backpack where I have my Lenovo Core i7 14-inch touchscreen laptop, external hard disk, Lumix FZ100 digital camera superzoom, some clothes – and wife Ampy. With just those, I can work anywhere for you: All I would need is a fast WiFi connection.

And what could I offer the DA under Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie? The same things I have been offering since at least 13 years ago when I began work-from-home, WFH, for the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, when Manong Willie was Director General; he was DG from 2000 to 2014.

For you, given all that, I can do any of these virtual/visual/real/unreal mental/intellectual works via Work From Home, WFH. That is to say, “home” to me is where the heart is and where I sit at the moment, being:

Mentor.
My mentoring is limitless, depending on what I see you need – no extra charge if I give more than you bargained for, because mine would be the pleasure!

Co-Author.
If you want to write something of any length, including somebody’s biography or your own, I can be your co-author.

Author’s Editor.
I will guide your writing in any manner except write a paragraph.

Ghostwriter.
I can write in your name following your style of writing – and faster!

Technical Editor.
Extraordinary! In the late 1990s, I helped Editor In Chief OK Bautista achieve for the Philippine Agricultural Scientist world-class or ISI status. In the early 2000s, as Editor In Chief of The Philippine Journal Of Crop Science, I brought the journal to ISI status, which the previous editors of 25 years failed to achieve.

Desktop Publisher.
Yes, I desktop-published my 7 books of articles on the aims and accomplishments of ICRISAT that the Institute paid for commercial printing, from 2008 to 2014.

Book Producer.
In October 2016, I compiled notes, edited and layouted a book on Philippine native animals for the National Swine & Poultry Research & Development Center, which is under the Bureau of Animal Industry, more than 170 pages.

Earlier, in 2012, I produced the Silver Anniversary coffee-table book for the Agricultural Credit & Policy Council. I wrote the text, including title, The Filipino Farmer Is Bankable, 198 pages, with about 50% of the total photographs taken by me using my new Lumix FZ100 digital camera.

So, Manong Willie, which more of me would you like to help more of DA?@517

Real & Virtual – 2 Worlds The PH DA Must Struggle In To Win The War

The press release from the Department of Agriculture, DA, was titled “DA Proposes Measures To Revive, Reboot PHL Agri Sector[1].” Now: 

Revive – to restore to life physically;
Reboot – to restore to life virtually.
2 different worlds contained in 1 linear titular sentence.

Did someone in the DA mix metaphors?

Looking at the above image, my “global sunset” giving life to a dull scene, taken 08-Dec-16 with my Lumix FZ100 digital camera:

The mixed metaphor is welcome – it gives light to a sleeping giant!

Yes. The title “DA Proposes Measures To Revive, Reboot PHL Agri Sector” is excellent! It:

(1) realistically refers to the resuscitation of physical measures needed for PH agriculture to spring back to its feet; as well as  

(2) digitally refers to the renewing & revitalizing of virtual measures necessary to bring PH agriculture from inaccessible science to knowledge at your fingertips.

And so Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie has formally asked from the PH government a total of P66 Billion for the new Agriculture “Plant, Plant, Plant Program,” Agri 4Ps. Nobody asked, but it is a Dream Budget to me because it covers the real world less of cities and more of countryside, and covers the virtual world of science (knowledge) and technology (tools & systems).

The interventions comprise 6 components; I rearranged the listing to combine the real: (1), (2, and (3): and the virtual: (4), (5), and (6).

(1) Food logistics/food markets project;
(2) Strengthening of price monitoring and enforcement system;
(3) Agricultural and fisheries commodity exchange system; 
(4) Communications support to Agri 4Ps;
(5) Expanding extension support to the provincial local government units; and
(6) Digital agriculture.

(4), (5) & (6): I’m into digital support systems for Agri 4Ps communications, extension, and digital agriculture.

This excites me because I am a science writer seeing the Agri 4Ps as “Science seeking the human face.” History: In 2007, I became international consulting writer for the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, when William Dar was Director General; he was DG from 2000 to 2014. ICRISAT’s slogan at that time was “Science with a human face.” To modify it for today, I say that what Manong Willie is pursuing as Secretary of Agriculture is “Science with a farmer’s face.”

On 10 April 2003, Rita T Dela Cruz reported that the ICRISAT DG proposed “the creation of an open academy… empowering farmers and fisherfolk with the latest technology developed through research and development, R&D.” This became the Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture, OpAPA[2], and PhilRice took over. In December of 2003, I was engaged as a PhilRice consultant, and I came out with a complete proposal on how to construct and communicate OpAPA, a 198-page inspiration/instruction book titled The Geography Of Knowledge. Alas, that was the end of it!

Nonetheless, thinking of the Agri 4Ps, I will submit my knowledge-defining-geography book again, even as I hope the scene will become a beautiful sunrise!@517

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[1]https://pia.gov.ph/press-releases/releases/1042027?fbclid=IwAR3xe5wg4QfOrmklnB4hFav9rWtuBtuGn4EopX7JjPNpo1RXKINchvK6asE

[2]https://www.bar.gov.ph/index.php/test-archive/407-april-2003-issue/3103-da-creates-open-academy-for-philippine-agriculture

Agriculture & Norman Borlaug: The Relevance Of Science & Geniuses

How relevant is the old biotech genius Norman Borlaug today? 

Facebook sharing, below Ben Peczon’s name in the above image, the text reads:

This article is a bit long but at this time, more than ever, Homo sapiens must use science. We must find effective ways to overcome the efforts of people who do not adhere to the tenets of good science.

Counting via Word 2016, it’s about 1,400 words long, but I am a very fast reader (absorber); I want to challenge myself with your challenge of using “good science” to solve any of the world’s bad problems. And so, with that article by Marshall Matz & Nina V Fedoroff[1], I find that I can summarize the authors’ points using their own 2nd-to-the-last paragraph, and it is this:

We ignored our experts and our public health system wasn’t prepared for a long-predicted pandemic. And we ignore Borlaug’s wisdom about food and population at our peril. The breeding practices that brought Borlaug success have done what they can, yet can’t assure crops yields to feed an even modestly larger population as the climate grows harsher. Nor will the critics’ nostalgia about traditional crops and farming methods make up the growing shortfall.

“We ignore Borlaug’s wisdom about food and population at our peril.” What the authors are saying is simply this: “Food production will always outrun population growth no matter what we do.” This is otherwise called the “population bomb” – and, as far as I know, it has not exploded in any country, except those at war against vested interests.

And no, it is not production that is the problem – it is distribution of & access to food. Do you know that the United States dumps so much food into the ocean for its economy’s sake?

That way, your science Mr Matz & Ms Nina, will never work because it is patchwork science, not holistic. It does not belong to a network of solutions that are designed to bring about one and only one common result:

Prosperity for all.

That is why we need in the Philippines Secretary of Agriculture William Dar’s “The New Thinking For Agriculture” because as in baseball, it covers all the bases! His genius. (About “The 8 Paradigms” covering all the basics, read this genius[2]!)

Yes, we need more science – but not only crops that continue to be improved and continue to yield even more – more & more science to modernize production, industrialize, promote exports, improve small-scale production, improve infrastructure, and overall roadmap development!

Norman Borlaug was a genius, but he failed to grasp what another genius earlier did, Albert Einstein – the relevance of insight.

“All great achievements of science must start from intuitive knowledge[3],” Einstein told a friend (Psychology Today). He also said, “The only real valuable thing is intuition.” (superimposed image from pondot.com). If truth be told, “My now-automatic call for intuitive knowledge is the secret of my extraordinary creativity” – Frank A Hilario.

My insight today is:
Science will not save us from ourselves – intuition will!@517

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[1]https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2020/05/14/viewpoint-norman-borlaug-knew-technology-could-fight-hunger-in-the-biotech-age-we-ignore-his-wisdom-at-our-peril/?fbclid=IwAR2HYccmTWuCDgOD8X_OBplzNqVoV83PPb3vAOhXvgrXo4A1-Swv3yjQLII

[2]https://puckinsights.blogspot.com/2020/05/ph-aggie-mechanization-ernesto-m.html

[3]https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/29/steve-jobs-and-albert-einstein-both-attributed-their-extraordinary-success-to-this-personality-trait.html

PH Aggie Mechanization: Ernesto M Ordoñez & His Law Of Diminishing Returns

Images: tractor from PNG[1], sign from Shutterstock[2]. Where is that point of diminishing returns beginning or going in an agricultural mechanization?

That is my bold image of Ernesto M Ordoñez who has been insisting singly on agricultural mechanization all these years, at least since 20 June 2013 when President Noynoy Aquino signed the Agriculture and Fisheries Mechanization Law (“The Agriculture Mechanization Law[3],” EM Ordoñez, business.inquirer.net).

That was 7 years ago. Now comes the same Mr Ordoñez swearing that the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act, AFMA, “should be implemented.” In his latest Inquirer column, Mr Ordoñez recommends that aggie mechanization proceed from national to local government units (“‘Bayanihan’ In Agriculture[4],” 15 May 2020, Inquirer.net). By “bayanihan,” he quotes from Lexico.com to mean (a) “a traditional system of mutual assistance in which members of a community work together to accomplish a difficult task” and (b) “a spirit of civic unity and cooperation among Filipinos.” We lack both of that, Mr Ordoñez says, and that is why our agriculture grew by an average of only 1.6% in the last 6 years.

Now, now, Mr Ordoñez, between 20 June 2013 and 15 May 2020, President Rodrigo Duterte appointed William Dar on 05 August 2019, and that same day, he came up with his “The New Thinking For Agriculture,” which for all intents and contents goes beyond your “Agricultural Mechanization” and/or your Bayanihan obsession.

Mr Ordoñez claims that there are no new things in Manong Willie’s New Thinking for Agriculture, because already they were fleshed out in the AFMA in 1997, or 23 years ago.

Wrong, Mr Ordoñez. The AFMA contains nothing similar to the integrated “New Thinking For Agriculture” and the “8 paradigms” that nourish it. Your view of national aggie stimulation has been suffering from systemic degradation for the last 23 years!

Manong Willie’s “The New Thinking For Agriculture” has remained whole while your “Agricultural Mechanization Law” has deteriorated over the years. Mechanization is only 10% max of “The New Thinking For Agriculture”  that is composed of 8 separate and yet interconnected paradigms, which are:

(1) Modernization.
(2) Industrialization.
(3) Promotion of exports.
(4) Consolidation of small- and medium-sized farms
(5) Infrastructure development.
(6) Higher budget & investment.
(7) Legislative support.
(8) Roadmap development.

Mr Ordoñez, your “Mechanization” is an important part but not even 50% of what “Modernization of PH Agriculture” requires. If you insist only on mechanization of PH agriculture, your returns will diminish over the years!

Manong Willie’s thinking is holistic, where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, as according to the philosopher Aristotle. In contrast, Mr Ordoñez, your insistence on Mechanization is mechanistic thinking of the progress of PH agriculture. “Mechanistic thinking focuses on “what,” and holistic thinking digs into “why” – Pearl Zhu. Ms Pearl is “an innovative ‘Corporate Global Executive’ with more than 21 years of technical and business working experience in strategic planning[5].” Mr Ordoñez, I will gladly dig into Ms Pearl’s “why” anytime, never into your “what!”@517

 

 

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[1] https://www.pngfuel.com/free-png/narze

[2] https://www.shutterstock.com/search/diminishing+returns

[3] https://business.inquirer.net/128217/the-agriculture-mechanization-law

[4] https://business.inquirer.net/297300/bayanihan-in-agriculture?fbclid=IwAR3Y1x3vgT2gelXjwQrgLB8DTLhlGE9reW1j1DesRaBjLdrwvCfrg-4Bjhc

[5] https://www.cio.com/author/Pearl-Zhu/

ABS-CBN Delivering Hope (NeGOsyo) By Delivering Gardening Lessons (Department Of Agriculture)

Today, Joey Concepcion is himself a voice crying in the wilderness for media freedom.

No, Mr Concepcion is not redefining media freedom – he is redefining how we moderns should look at media. ABS-CBN has myriads of offerings: variety shows, dramas, game shows, talk shows, memory-lane shows, and replays of old movies.

Mr Concepcion is an unexpected champion in this case, as he is Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship, and he is a businessman, founder of Go Negosyo, Go Business. I know he is also a champion of PH Agriculture, agri-business co-mentor with Secretary of Agriculture William Dar.

I wrote about the matter 07 May 2020, ”What If Duterte Unmuzzled ABS-CBN? Then He Will Be My Hero !” – Frank A Hilario” (Greenfields Asia). In that essay, first I quoted:

The University of the Philippines (Diliman) College of Mass Communication strongly decries the action of the NTC’s cease-and-desist order (vs) ABS-CBN operations. ¶ Again, the current (Duterte) Administration demonstrates the lengths it will go to silence critical media voices.

In reply, I said:

Using UP Think, I must decry NTC’s CDO against ABS-CBN: NTC took away ABS-CBN’s academic freedom.

Being a media person myself, now that I hear loud an entrepreneur talking about media freedom, I love it! Especially that this one is Filipino.

Says Mr Concepcion above in his Facebook sharing:

ABS-CBN, along with other networks, does so much in uplifting our people, bringing not only entertainment, but hope. In these tyring times where many of our people lose their jobs, their life savings, and their family members, the least we can do is to deliver HOPE to them.

Those are only 48 words, but since they are from one of the respected leaders of the private sector, they are as powerful as a declaration of faith in the media by PH business as well as a declaration of care to the people of the Philippines who love the programs that PH TV networks present to them. What do those programs do to the people who watch them? “The least we can do is to deliver HOPE to them.”

What we can do if we are not fully satisfied with what the networks are offering to the masses is complain via media, not shut down media.

ABS-CBN is not among the vociferous media critics of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, no. I said there:

Differently, a senior citizen at 79, a self-taught journalist and a Facebook hound, with everyday half-a-day surfing the Web, I have not seen ABS-CBN among the “critical media voices” vs President Rodrigo Roa Duterte. A mislabeling I cannot forgive UP Diliman’s MassCom for!

For ABS-CBN to become a palpable Network of Hope, I suggest that the Department of Agriculture, DA, through Secretary William Dar, arrange with the network heads the holding of digital classes on urban, school, and home gardening following the example of SEARCA’s “School-Plus-Home Gardens (S+HG)” SOLVE Webinar (contact http://fb.com/seameo.searca). SOLVE is Searca Online Learning & Virtual Engagements. Engaged, henceforth, digitally, DA & SEARCA will help turn ABS-CBN into a network of hope!@517

Greenhorns BSP To Promote Urban Gardening Throughout The Islands – How?!

PH Urban Gardening has found new soil on which to grow: the Boy Scouts of the Philippines, BSP. This is serious – BSP has 3,000,000 members.

Aye, there’s the rub!

BSP is 84 years old, founded in 1936, but has always been composed of boys in high school, who would have had hardly any experience in anything productive, much less in agriculture.

So what is this news that the BSP, along with its millions of boys, is into promoting urban gardening?

Above images: Urban Gardening from Agribusiness PH[1] and “Laging Handa” from BSP. The slogan translates literally to “Always Prepared.” The BSP did not interest me then; today, reading the press release of the Bureau of Plant Industry, BPI, via the Philippine Information Agency, “BSP To Mobilize 3M Members To Promote Urban Agri” (PIA, 11 May 2020), the prospects excite me:

Recognizing the role of urban agriculture as one of the practical, effective measures to (help ensure a) stable food supply amid the threat Covid-19, the Department of Agriculture (DA), through the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI), signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with the Boy Scout of the Philippines (BSP) on 04 May 2020 in Diliman, Quezon City.

Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie said of it:

We are happy that BSP, one of the largest scout organizations in the world, has responded to our call in massively promoting urban agriculture.

This is a new role for the BSP, as far as I know. I just checked the website and only once is the word “garden” mentioned in 1 sentence in the 1-paragraph, 81-word mention of the Turok Liso, Tubo Piso Project, TLTP, in the town of Biliran in Biliran Island in Eastern Visayas. Thus: “TLTP is a sustainable extension project, which equips the beneficiaries with skills and resources needed to build their own (gardens).”

I wonder how. No, gardening is not one of the skills our Boy Scouts are trained to display. No, our Boy Scouts are not prepared for gardening. Now, the MoA says the boys are to promote urban gardening throughout the Philippines – they can only do that after they learn gardening.

So, how do you teach gardening to 3 million boys who would become teachers of gardening anywhere and everywhere in Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao?

The MoA is silent on how the Boy Scouts will first learn their urban gardening, but I will not be. After all, I am a teacher, a BSA graduate from UP Los Baños, major in Ag Education (high school). The Boy Scouts are right up my alley.

Now, can we train 3,000,000 boys at the same time? Yes!

The platform for teaching I suggested earlier in my 01 May 2020 essay, “Digital Extension Coming Up! Actually, It’s Already Here At SEARCA[2]” (Greenfields Asia). SEARCA has begun what it calls SEARCA Online Learning & Virtual Engagements, SOLVE, the digital endeavor showing us the way to create webinars in urban gardening for 3 million Boy Scouts to learn at the same time wherever they are!

SOLVEd!@517

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[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=fuPccuC388E

[2] https://greenfieldsasia.blogspot.com/2020/05/digital-extension-coming-up-actually.html