A Brave New World PH

Wake up, Philippines!

British author Aldous Huxley wrote the novel Brave New World in 1931, “Largely set in a futuristic World State, whose citizens are environmentally engineered into an intelligence-based social hierarchy” (Wikipedia[1]) – as opposed to the ideal utopian, there is a dystopian society with its “huge scientific advancements in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation and classical conditioning.” Sounds familiar?

As if Huxley’s BNW is not enough, we have another British author, George Orwell, writing in 1949 his final book, Nineteen Eighty-Four, which “examines the role of truth and facts within politics and their manipulation[2].” Sounds familiar!

No matter how early or how late in your world right now, as I begin to write this at about 2008 hours 08 08 2020, Manila time, with this essay, I am announcing my creation of this brand new blog, Brave New World PH.

The Beast is here.
The Best is yet to come!

I am looking for a non-masculine Brave New World, BNW. More like a feminine BNW, not excitingly sexy but exciting! (BNW image from comicbook TV[3], image I extended down a little bit)

The other image: And why did I superimpose a map of the Philippines? (from Wikipedia[4]). I want to point out that all of us Filipinos now have a duty to discover a brand new world called The BNW Philippines! You don’t see it now, but we will.

With BNW PH, I want to emphasize to all Filipinos that we in fact entered a brand new world beginning when President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, Du30, a Mindanao-happy political leader, declared a partial lockdown in the whole country – legally only Metro Manila – starting midnight of Sunday, 15 March 2020. I don’t want to contest the why or how; I just want to get over it! With my proposal for a Brave New World PH!

All such thoughts had been triggered by an actual advertisement by a PH government agency extolling a highly successful farmer who once was an OFW. I consider that double jeopardy. One, government does not pay for Filipinos to applaud other Filipinos, especially a single success story, SSS. This is something old and something new: PH’s 1-year old Secretary of Agriculture William Dar has declared a clustering approach to PH Agriculture – see my essay, “The New 7 Arts Of War – Against PH Farmer Poverty, Via Clustering[5]” (05 August 2020, THiNK Journalism, Digital).

Which is why as a college grade in agriculture and a self-taught science writer, my view of the Brave New World PH is naturally anchored on agriculture. And certainly, based on:

“The New Thinking for Agriculture” and
The 8 Paradigms
(c/o William Dar, PH Secretary of Agriculture)

We must apply that whole package to create a brave new world for us. We have to fight bravely for beyondsurvival lockdown and for a Brave New Thinking-Agriculture Philippines!

That victory must be in a Brave New World starting now!

The Brand New Philippines is
for us not to Discover but
for us to Create.
First in our Minds.@517

 

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[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four
[2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four
[3]https://comicbook.com/tv-shows/news/brave-new-world-tv-show-spoilers-review-peacock/
[4]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippines
[5]https://ithinkjournalism.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-new-7-arts-of-war-against-ph-farmer.html

William Dar – PH Man Cultivating Our Cultivators. More, Cultivating Our Minds!

PH Agriculture today, Wednesday, 05 August 2020, the 122-year old Department of Agriculture, DA, celebrates the 1-year old Secretary of Agriculture William Dar.

Above, below the left superimposed image, the headline says, “P2.6 Billion Released For Farmers, SMEs[1]” (Metro News Central). Released by Mr Dar, that is a small part of the huge amounts of DA assistances to the Filipino farmers.

The Filipino head is serving the Filipino farmers, not the least by seeking Du30’s support for the budgets, plural, to cultivate the cultivators of the soil.

And I celebrate as a cultivator of the mind.

It was Mr Dar who inspired me much to cultivate the minds of the Filipino aggie scientists to cultivate the minds of the Filipino farmersto become much more productive.

We first had a meeting of the minds literally in the digital world when at that time, 2003, he was stil Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, his proposal called Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture, OpAPA. That was the time 17 years ago I was a consultant at PhilRice, an agency under the DA. Inspired, with the idea of PhilRice as Webmaster, I wrote a digital book on how to implement OpAPA, 198 pages of it, that I titled The Geography Of Knowledge, TGoK. I submitted TGoK to PhilRice Director Leocadio F Sebastian, but nothing came out of it. PhilRice had no more use of me. (For ecopy, email me: frankahilario@gmail.com.)

Ah, but old soldiers never die – they just fade into the background. Today, that background has changed – it has become insistently digital. Above, the digital image (from Information Age[2]) is telling us:

What the mind discovers, the hands should apply!

The mind is where I have been working in and on and out of since I began to master my creative writing in 1965 when I was about to graduate from college. And the latest digital product that I have in mind right now fits into OpAPA:

a-Book Talk.

A book talks? It fills your eyes. It fills your mind.

It’s really Mr Dar’s OpAPA digital universe open to farmers via those freely downloadable a-Book Talks in handy sizes.

Any one of those a-Book Talks will be available instantly. Via your PC, you can download the entire book from OpAPA in complete pdf form, then print on your own. Or simply read. Each a complete publication in itself.

Here are hints to give you ideas about the contents of a single a-Book Talk:

Rice
Brief history, historical yields
Inbred rices, Hybrid rices
Varieties, strains – described, differentiated
Rices in regions – differentiating regions
Rainy season rices – expected yields
Dry season rices – expected yields

As Webmaster, I would see to it that the Language In is correct technically according to the experts – with the Language Out being popular, farmer’s.

Message in, Massage out!

Our farmers will be more intelligent deciding via books of options. Now is the time for all good men to come to the digital aid of their country!@517

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[1]http://metronewscentral.net/in-and-around-the-metro/p26-billion-released-for-farmers-smes
[2]https://www.information-age.com/6-ways-overcome-digital-disruption-paralysis-123461522/

The New 7 Arts Of War – Against PH Farmer Poverty, Via Clustering

I love the farm clustering idea as a roundup to William Dar’s 1^st Year as Secretary of Agriculture today, 05 August 2020. (cluster image from Clusters 2.0[1])

Beyond the simplistic logo of the Department of Agriculture, DA, these times we need multiplicity not only of food choices but also of ready resources!

All of PH Agriculture should be ready for all that clustering.

So now I will campaign for more Cluster Success Stories. After all, it’s the community that is all-important, not the single standouts.

Regarding the so many billions and millions of pesos being offered by the DA to the Filipino farmers to not only to survive but thrive during and especially after all these coronavirus lockdowns, the Filipino farmers as a whole must know now that they will be held hugely accountable.

Beggars cannot be choosers!

My advice:Practice The New 7 Arts (Rs) of War Against PH Farmer Poverty – via Strategic Clustering.

(1)   Responsibility.
Each region must be responsible for its own pandemic war preparations. They must have a master plan on how to spend those billions of pesos. 

(2)   Reorganization.
Filipino farmers are organized, disorganized, and non-organized. I recommend the multi-purpose cooperative with everything: loans, farm equipment, technologies, systems, postharvest processing facilities, warehousing, and marketing assistance. It is the members of the board of the coop who are responsible to the people, not simply a dictatorial Association President or a charlatan.

(3)   Remembrance.
Filipino farmers must not forget about the heirloom varieties that our forefathers had raised, especially in rice. These are valuable not only for the sake of history but for the sake of yield given the native productivity of the land. And they also remind us that left alone the Earth is rich by itself.

(4)   Rebuke.
Filipino farmers must now be rebuked in seeking usurious loans and actively assisted not only in obtaining affordable loans but also on how to spend them for what, when, and how. This is one of the main reasons I prefer a multi-purpose coop to any association or credit cooperative.

(5)   Revitalization.
We as a nation must help revitalize the spirit of the Filipino farmer from a lowly toiler of the soil because of lack of education or resources. Precisely! Via government, modern agriculture should provide the farmers the science as well as the financial assistances, plural, they need to raise honorable lives. Don’t forget to enlist the youth!

(6)   Research.
As a cluster themselves, researchers must actively contributute to the growth of Agriculture, not simply conduct R&D & publish papers! They must continue to come up with new and/or improved knowledge for extensionists to disseminate.

(7)   Retrenching hopes.
Finally, let me emphasize that farmers should abandon dreams of farming making their families richer while others remain poor, just like the single stories coming out of the media every now and then. These are not the Times for The Filipino Farmer Dreamer in Singularity – these are the Times for The Filipino Farmer Dreamers in Community!

Clustering:
All For One, One For All!@517

 

 

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[1]http://www.clusters20.eu/clusters-2-0-postcard/

Pandemic Maria Today Has The Savage Breast That Must Be Soothed Universally

“Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast[1]” – this is the first line of the play “The Mourning Bride” by British playwright & poet William Congreve, 1697 (Wikipedia).

We have lost the music. With a universal problem like the coronavirus, how do you solve a problem like Maria? Sing of the hills & apples!

Ha. Here is where The Song is The Soul of The Soil!

55 years ago – I was 24, single & a new graduate of the University of the Philippines’ College of Agriculture – when along with the rest of the world I celebrated the coming of “The Sound Of Music” with Julie Andrews as lead star, released 02 March 1965[2] (The Hollywood Reporter). (images from Hits Movies[3] and OSF[4])

But I did not know then what I know now, what I realize now. First, let us look at the Prelude to The Sound of Music with Julie Andrews dancefully singing

The hills are alive with the sound of music
With songs they have sung for a thousand years
The hills fill my heart with the sound of music…

Where is the sound of music coming from? The breeze. Where is the sound of the breeze coming from? The leaves of trees, the leaves of grass. And where are the trees and grasses coming from? The grounds.

So, the Sound of Music is really coming from The Soil!

Today, during these difficult times of the Coronavirus Pandemic all over the world, we have difficult times singing any song. Today, I realize that I must go back to Asingan High and sing – and teach – the sound of music again.

All the powers of the universal medical world will not, cannot bring us the lost health of millions of people treated and untreated for the coronavirus disease. But the powers of the universal agricultural world can. “Let thy food be thy medicine,” the Universal Father of Medicine Hippocrates said, “and medicine be thy food.” Good food. (And yes, we grow good apples in the Philippines now too!)

Where is the origin of the story told in “The Sound Of Music?” Austria, which is “largely mountainous and landlocked[5]” (Britannica). In 2001, the US Library of Congress listed it in the National Film Registry, finding it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant[6]" (Wikipedia). That’s the film. About the setting and song, I Frank A Hilario find it naturally significant: All the music I appreciate comes from Mother Nature eventually.

The sound of music is really coming from the soil. And it is the soil that gives soul to the singer. No medicine can do that!

It is the good food from the good soil that gives good music to the composer that gives good health to the singer. And to the rest of us, now Souls in Purgatory!

We have to go back to Good Agriculture and nurse it back to its good health using its own resources. And where do we start? With our good mental resources!@517

 

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[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Congreve

[2]https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/sound-music-review-1965-movie-1090228

[3]https://movies.hitstv.com/movies/details.php?ID=209

[4]https://www.okspecialtyfruits.com/earth-day-the-future-of-produce-waste/

[5]https://www.britannica.com/place/Austria

[6]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sound_of_Music_(film)

“PH Agripreneurships, Here We Come!” – The Dynamic Duo?

Note, I said Agripreneurships – plural.

In her Manila Timesitem of 01 August 2020, “Officials Bat For Agripreneurship[1]” Eireene Jairee Gomez says:

To cope with the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) on the country’s agriculture sector, Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Jose Maria “Joey” Concepcion 3rd and Agriculture Secretary William Dar pushed for agripreneurship under a new-normal setting.

I will now make a fine distinction between private-oriented entrepreneurship, as Mr Concepcion has it, and farmer-oriented entrepreneurship, as Mr Dar has it.

Mr Concepcion says, “The opportunity for many who have lost their jobs is to move into agri – whether you are in rural areas or whether you are at home, you can start your own agribusiness.”

I’m concerned more with PH farmers as entrepreneurs trying to escape penury. An inveterate blogger since January 2007, of mice, men & minds, here I cannot separate inclusive market-oriented development, IMOD, that I first learned about when Mr Dar was still Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, taking me in as international consulting writer based in the Philippines. ICRISAT was/is based in India.

Among the Friday webinar panelists were enterprise-minded heads: Department of Science Technology, DoST, Fortunato de la Peña; Mat Maderazo of Planters Products, and Cherrie Atilano of Agrea Philippines.

Miss Gomez says:

The webinar also presented opportunities that aspiring and practicing agripreneurs can consider to (kick start) their own agribusiness ventures in addition to government programs to support the development of such enterprises.

Along with Mr Concepcion’s traditional agribusiness, I see Mr Dar going after untraditional agribusiness. I know he would prefer they are inclusive of the poor farmers, that is to say, the agribusiness is an act of liberating them from poverty and reaching the level of sustainable prosperity.

For that, IMOD has a different kind of market-orientedness. The way I understand it since 13 years ago is that the IMOD pursuer must see to it that the market becomes a friend of farming and not a fiend, at the very least not William Shakespeare’s Shylock exacting his pound of flesh!

Miss Gomez says Mr De la Peña said the DoST offered agripreneurs millions of pesos worth of Niche Centers dedicated to R&D and 17 Food Innovation Centers across the country. “’Science for the people’ is our tagline.” Actually Sir, Mr Dar came up with a more memorable phrase when he was still DG or ICRISAT years ago:

Science with a human face.

To systematically cultivate entrepreneurship in agriculture, you need Science. To sustainably cultivate farmers, you need Science applied via Cooperatives successfully applying economies of scale for many poor farm families in the countryside. (coop entrepreneurship image from Drexel Coop[2])

Yes, for farmers to exit poverty. I do believe in:

Science With Coop Hands!@

 

 

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[1]https://www.manilatimes.net/2020/08/01/news/top-stories/officials-bat-for-agripreneurship/748468/?fbclid=IwAR0gQ4C2KyPGipFgcWyji8KQQ8vJZkdMZWDx_GRM3p3PTucMg9Z6yz1aMtA

[2]https://drexel.edu/close/programs/co-op/

From 16 Weeks To 1-Day Organic Farming Training – Farmers Learning Digital, Trainors First!

Nobody is saying it, so I become Nobody:

Today and all throughout 2020,
Digital is the best way to go in Agriculture!

On Facebook, Noel Punzalan shared on 29 July 2020, “Ex-MILF Rebels Undergo 16-Week Training On Organic Farming[1]” (PNA), of farmers of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, MILF – and I thought 16 weeks was way, way too long. Immediately I saw the people and purpose were perfect for a digital learning, for ATI first and farmers next! (digital screen image from eLearning Industry[2])

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[1]https://elearningindustry.com/convert-instructor-led-training-to-digital-learning

In the main image above, a former MILF combatant fighting people turns into a warrior fighting hunger and poverty by signing his name for inclusion as a trainee for vegetable organic farming in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao, Orientation Day. He is among a batch of 25 MILF farmers to be trained at the MILF main base in Sultan Kudarat from August to September.

“(Instead) of rice and corn, the MILF farmers will now venture (into) planting and raising of vegetables,” Abdulraof Macacua said, the Executive Secretary of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Today, you can train in Season-Long
Organic Farming 16 times faster –
after ATI makes it Digital via
video & computer apps.

Digital. At the Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Training Institute (DA-ATI) premises in any region of the Philippines, the training that used to take too many weeks can now be taken in 1 day – once the ATI reduces 16 weeks (equivalent 16 days) to only 1 day (equivalent 1 week) – a whooping 94% saving of everything!

It was only last Friday, 31 July 2020, writing about the problems of the New “Normal” PH Agriculture (“RCEF For PH Agriculture: Farmers Not Yet Business-Aware. Scientists Not So Active. Extensionists Not So Alive[3]!” THiNK Journalism), that I mentioned, among other things:

Super Knowledge: Make sure our Extensionists can compose & decompose Technologies and/or Systems for & bring to the attention of farmers the quickest & unobtrusive way: Digital.

From now on, farmer or not, in Luzon, the Visayas, or Mindanao, anyone can cut off 15 days out of field training in organic farming after the ATI people have done their digital homework.

Composed or decomposed? 16 weeks of training cannot be decomposed in real time – but they can be composed-decomposed in digital time.

My thoughts: To decompose-compose 16 weeks of training into 1 week, in 1 actual season-long rice farming, first the ATI people will record digitally and separately what are supposed to be seen (also shown in sweeping and panoramic video views with appropriate & complete audios), very visible, almost touchable, sequence to sequence, season to season. The outputs will include video clips, PowerPoint presentations, and Microsoft Word documents printed out for distribution.

Trainees can then bring home their soft copy set of the lessons and watch on their own sweet times eating, chatting with loved ones. Learning agriculture has never been this entertaining!

Now playing: “DA-ATI 1 Day Organic Farming Digital.”
The miracle of the digital world brought to you by the DA!@517

 

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[1]https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1110421?fbclid=IwAR2syqdbw-jxLLPpX2X5J0K0SoRIhFOqUuh5XMYYe6oB6bvap3x7dPD6bDk

[2]https://elearningindustry.com/convert-instructor-led-training-to-digital-learning

[3]https://ithinkjournalism.blogspot.com/2020/07/rcef-for-ph-agriculture-farmers-not-yet.html?fbclid=IwAR3ibqGfK3p7Q30FyputuE7WsdbbXv4Z9hWN_esDlHTIdcA4858RE2g_21w

These “God, No Jokes ” Stories Of Mine

If you don’t mind, I do!

Unfashionable, these little stories are just starters. That image is my photograph, taken 2010 – will these God little stories of mine scare, scar, sear or save you?

Ever the original aboriginal Ilocano, I am collecting-writing “God, No Jokes” stories to celebrate my 80^th birthday, __ September 2020. You will know the exact date when I offer free the complete soft copy (pdf) with as many stories as i hope to live: 120.

I have been inspired by my old fellow Ilocano Jun AV Revilla sharing jokes on Facebook, told by others even from many years back. The difference is this: He has a good memory; he is a copywriter – he copies jokes. I am an original; I am a jokewriter, and I joke you not! Even the word jokewriter I just invented right now.

So here are some God, No Jokes Stories, all my originals, all off Facebook:

Manny Pacquiao: Heinous Crimes He Knows?

Manny Pacquiao: On a Facebook sharing linked to PhilStarpicture-story of 29 July 2020: “Hindi po labag sa mata ng gobyerno, sa mata ng Panginoon… dahil biblically po, allowed po ang gobyerno, the authority which is established by God, to impose (death penalty for heinous crimes).” (image from Forbes.com[1])

Frank A Hilario: What Manny is saying is that “You shall not kill” applies only to “non-wicked, abominable crimes” as Man/Manny defines/“dictionarizes” it. In fact, biblically, what God said is, “You shall not kill.” He did not qualify. Here, Manny is qualifying God. Manny, I’m the Editor, not you!

Life’s Magic

Rebecca R Hannah: “I like cancelled plans / and rainy day naps. / I like old bookstores / And empty coffee shops. / I like muddy gardens / And the smell of melting chocolate. / But mostly I just like the sweet, simple magic that this life has to offer.” – Brooke Hampton, barefootfive.com

Frank A Hilario: Actually, my dear, life does not make the magic – we do, if and when suddenly we discover it!

The Shepherd You

John Dela Cruz: Quoting from the Bible: “I am the good Shepherd, and I know My own, and My own know me.” John 10:14

Frank A Hilario: That’s why we have a lost sheep all the time. We Christians are sheep, and we have a shepherd.We are a flock. The best metaphor I can think of a group of Christians is from Servant Leadership. Our community is always a whole Sheep Leadership: One leads now, but at any time the Shepherd becomes mere Sheep and any Sheep becomes Shepherd. That is why we are all invited to learn everything.

Growing older, or growing wiser?

Rebecca R Hannah: She says in a Facebook sharing of 30 July 2020, “SO did I, so it goes,” to introduce the huge big colored text that says in 7 words:

I thought growing old would take longer.

Frank A Hilario: Actually yes, and you should thank God for that! What you should be aiming at is growing wiser, because that always takes much longer!@517

 

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[1]https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2016/04/09/manny-pacquiao-set-to-retire-with-500-million-in-career-earnings/#28b0007e75c1