MANILA: This morning I bought 6 packs of Magic Flakes at my old favorite store (my OFS). When I bit on one cracker, it tasted differently, definitely bland, not the way I loved Magic Flakes to taste. I like my crackers a little toasted, and the one I have been buying at my new favorite store (my NFS) is the one I like better (in the scanned image, the one below, which is browner especially at the right edge.) If you had to know, I graduated from Skyflakes, which now to me tastes bland. It's either less salt or less toasting.

Late this afternoon, I had a hunch, and I played it out. I bought Magic Flakes from my NFS and compared the taste. This afternoon's crackers really tasted just like I thought they would. Better.

I had the feeling that there was something wrong somewhere, so I compared the packages. I looked at the fonts, colors and design of the 2 packs from 2 different stores. They looked exactly the same and contained exactly the same information. Such as on the display side:

Jack 'n Jill Magic Flakes
Premium Crackers
Apat Dapat!

On the backside:

Jack 'n Jill Magic Flakes
Manufactured by Universal Robina Corporation

Nutrition Facts
Serv Size 4 crackers (28g)
Servings 1
Calories 130
Fat Cal 45
(etcetera)

INGREDIENTS
Wheat flour, refined fats (may contain any of the following hydrogenated coconut, palm olein, palm kernel and/or fish oil), iodized salt, sodium bicarbonate, malt barley flour and yeast.

NET WT 28g
(etcetera)

So, I thought, if the packages are exactly the same, why are the crackers so different in taste?

Then I noticed that the crackers from my OFS are much paler and the crackers from my NFS are browner, that is, a bit more toasted to my taste.

Not only that. As I fondled the packs some more, I noticed that the pack from my OFS is slightly bigger than the one from my NFS. I measured the difference and it's about 1 mm longer and 1 mm wider. Since I paid for 1 peso more for the pack from my OFS, why am I paying more for the slightly bigger crackers that I don't like? What kind of marketing is this?

Even if I paid exactly the same per pack, 5 pesos, why is Universal Robina Corporation (URC) making crackers that weigh more and cost more but taste less?

One of my suspicions is that the crackers that taste less are meant for the export market, because Filipinos like their food tastier (like, saltier). If I am right, what's the sense of selling in the local market the crackers that are meant for export?

Another possible explanation is that Magic Flakes is trying to capture the market that Skyflakes occupies, bland cracker vs bland cracker. Does that mean Magic Flakes will soon be reducing cost of production at the expense of taste, since the brand has already established itself and most people won't notice the difference? The design, printing, and sizes of the plastic wraps are exactly the same, meaning they come from the same source. The crackers they wrap are different, one bigger and the other smaller, but I wouldn't have noticed if I didn't investigate on the taste that I remembered of Magic Flakes.

Another explanation is that one of the blander Magic Flakes has more extenders. Whatever. Or someone is faking Magic Flakes by looks. Well, no one, not even URC can fake the taste I like.

MANILA: I'm doing it because I can, at 72. I'm spreading The Gospel of Creativity According to Frank Hilario as my legacy, sharing my talent, collecting only achievements, not assets, because my journey is my reward.

I will now quote my poster invitation:

Inviting you to a 3-hour Creativity Workshop, designed to be the first step in your Journey Of A Thousand Smiles. Come and join us in a work & play space where, with a little help from a friend, your mind and heart will open the doors (and windows) to the blessings of the outside world by cultivating your own creative spirit.

To a personal inner, richer world, everyone welcome!

A free Creativity Workshop offered by Frank Hilario, UP Outstanding Alumnus for Creative Writing (2011)

To introduce the idea here, let me simply say that I'm just following the excellent example of God when He created the world. What was His first wish? "Let there be light." My Gospel of Creativity is dedicated to that very first creativity scene: "Let there be light." You will know exactly what I mean when you attend my workshop.

Towards this end, if truth be told, I have been busy since 23 March 2013, or in the last 2 weeks, in designing a new creativity tool for writers, young, old or new. Last Friday, 05 April 2013, requested by Teacher Dolly delos Reyes and with the knowledge and consent of Vice Principal Josefina Pano, I conducted a free creative writing workshop at the Divine Light Academy in Las Piñas City attended by young student writers and young teachers in high school.

What happened? I have reported that in my essay, "Good Will Writing. When I want your creativity, I'll give it to you!" 07 April 2013 (Writers' Lib, blogspot.com). What happened next? That same day in the afternoon, with just a little nudge from me, my mind transformed the Writers' Lib Workshop into the Creativity Workshop, which now admits non-writers - and that could be you.

For a good reason, I cannot tell you here what exactly happens during the sessions, because that would rob the whole thing of the elements of novelty and surprise, but I can tell you that my Creativity Workshop is "your free view to your richer world" because it frees your mind from your own limited viewing of old but unexplored ideas as well as liberates you from limited thinking and in the next instant transports you into a world of new ideas. To see is to believe!

It's all in the attitude. That's why I call my brand of creativity Creattitudes, and as such, the name suggests Christ's own Beatitudes. You know, in the Sermon on the Mount. The Beatitudes are little lessons in positive metaphor; here are a few (Matthew 5: 3-6, New Revised Standard Version):

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

As a matter of fact, after you attend my Creativity Workshop, you may conclude that I probably derived the technique from these biblical metaphors. In fact I did not, but indeed the Beatitudes taken together suggest the approach I have invented.

Right now, you can see for yourself how fruitful the Attitude of Creattitudes is if you view my own mind products in my all-inclusive blog The Creattitudes Encyclopedia (blogspot.com). I have many blogs, but that blog itself has more than 1,500 long essays, that average 1,000 words each, written only in the last 7 years.

If you don't know it yet, I must tell you that as a writer, I am self-taught. I did not even study Journalism; I studied to be a teacher in an agricultural high school. When you're a high school teacher, you need more an absorptive & extractive than a creative mind. I got out of teaching because of circumstances beyond my control, but I'm glad I did. I returned to my first love, which was writing, and I have remained true to her.

The concepts that I now call Writers' Lib and Creativity Workshop are decidedly new, both less than a month old, but my surprising torrent of creativity has been with me for the last 7 years, starting when I was already 65 years old! So you can't blame me when I say, "Age doesn't matter because gray matter doesn't age when it's creative."

The extraordinary burst of my creative writing started in early 2006, when I began blogging in earnest, and especially when I became a correspondent of the American Chronicle, an online magazine. I estimate that the number of words I have so far uploaded to my blogs and the American Chronicle is equivalent to at least 24 books of 150 pages, 7" x 9" trim size, single-spaced, all text.

What about you? You don't have to be a so-called writer to enjoy and benefit from my Creativity Workshop. If you are a teacher, preacher, priest, planner, proposal packager, lecturer, speaker, sharer, columnist, or TV host, you can be sure that you the worker will be rewarded according to your labors.

Like, if you think you're an average thinker, I will help you smash your Thinkers' Block. If you think you're an average writer, I will help you smash your Writers' Block. You can be more creative no matter who you are - or how old. Look at me, I'm 72, but because of my creativity, I am confident enough to claim that I am "The World's Most Creative Writer" (see my blog, The Creattitudes Encyclopedia, blogspot.com).

If you can round up a minimum of 10 warm bodies to attend my workshop, I will be there, your place, not mine. All I ask is access to an LCD projector, which I use to present the workshop part by part, and to project onscreen selected outputs during the sessions, zoom in, zoom out. One learns, all learn.

MANILA: Don't ask Bro Mike Velarde if there is a Catholic Vote. He'll say, "I'll show you." Here is a scene in a Saturday gathering in Parañaque City of the El Shaddai members numbering around 500,000:

Bro Mike: "Sino ang Catholic sa inyo?"
El Shaddai: "Lahat!"
Bro Mike: "Who will vote sa eleksyon?"
El Shaddai: "Lahat!"
Bro Mike: "'Yon ang Catholic Vote!"

Actually, I invented that merely as a joke, but on second thought, when I look at it again, I see that the joke is not simply on Bro Mike; the joke is on us Catholics.

My Catholic Vote joke implies 4 things:

(1) The Catholic Vote is not united.
(2) The Catholic Vote is not championed.
(3) The Catholic Vote is not targeted.
(4) The Catholic Vote is a powerful force.

I'm talking here of the Catholics as voters. They don't have a voice; what they have are many a voice. Too many voices spoil the vote.

"There were those who said that there's no Catholic Vote," Bro Mike said at the event. "I want to thank Congressman Lagman for saying that because, if not for him, I won't be here" (familyandlifeupdate.com). So, the launching of the Catholic White Vote Movement is Answered Prayer for Catholics. "We will prove that there is really a Catholic Vote," Bro Mike said. "The Catholic Church is not dead. It is alive; it has power" (09 April 2013, tribune.net.ph).The elections will be on 13 May 2013. "And we the people compose that power ... It's time to let the public know that there is such a vote that's coming this coming elections and in future elections" (Patricia Ongsiako, 08 April 2013, solarnews.ph).

What about the separation of Church and State? "The Church and the State cannot be separated entirely because we are the Church and we are the State," Bro Mike said (Ongsiako, as cited). "We the people form the government. Without the people there is no government. Without the people there is no Church at all." He said the bishops are free to guide the Catholics in their dioceses with general guidelines or a specific list of preferred candidates.

I believe all that. I also believe all these:

(1) The Catholic White Vote will unite the Catholics.

Truth to tell, the logo is a divine revelation (see image), and the choice of color to signify the movement is perfect!

"The color white affects the mind and body by aiding in mental clarity, promoting feelings of fresh beginnings and renewal, assisting in cleansing, clearing obstacles and clutter, and encouraging the purification of thoughts and actions" (Jennifer Bourn, 05 December 2010, bourncreative.com).

I love the image of the Holy Family on yellow! I note that the White Vote logo, image & words, is actually yellow on white. While there is no clutter, yellow is overwhelmed by white. Here, yellow ribbons are not defined by selfish political interests but surrounded by purity of thoughts and actions.

The Movement is a fresh beginning. Never in the history of the Church in the Philippines have the Catholics publicly declared a unity like this. All for One, One for All. All Catholic groups to work for the same purpose: Victory of pro-Church candidates, especially the Senators. It is to the Senate where proposed legislations finally go to die. Or fly.

Never has the Church been threatened like this. The first major and successful assault by the State on the Church was the passage of the Reproductive Health Bill into Law. With the passage of Republic Act 10354, known as "The Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012," the cherished sanctity of family and treasured sacredness of life as Filipinos know them are now under attack by modern warriors armed with bullets disguised as medicines for mothers. This Health Act promotes promiscuity - disrespect for the female of the species, now treated as object of conquest. It encourages abortion - the fetus is not considered "life" and therefore is disposable, which means you can literally get away with murder!

Since the Catholic clergy themselves are prohibited from taking part in partisan politics, the job of fighting for the Church now belongs to the Catholics themselves. In the first place, it is the people who make up the real Catholic Church. It is the people who must choose their political leaders.

(2) The Catholic White Vote will produce Catholic champions.

"Vote for Family. Vote for Life." Here is the fullest list (41) I can gather of the Catholic lay organizations that have joined the White Vote Movement (the list is mainly from whitevote.org):

(1) Adoracion Nocturna Filipina
(2) Archdiocesan Council of the Laity of Lipa
(3) Archdiocesan Council of the Laity of San Fernando, Pampanga
(4) Bukás Loób sa Díyos Catholic Charismatic Covenant Community
(5) Catholic Doctors' Guild
(6) Catholic Teachers’ Guild
(7) Children of God Our Father of All Mankind
(8) Children of Mary
(9) Christian Family Movement
(10) Christ's Family Mission Movement
(11) Council of the Laity of the Philippines
(12) Couples for Christ Foundation for Family and Life
(13) Diocesan Council of the Laity of Kalookan
(14) Diocesan Council of the Laity of Novaliches
(15) Diocesan Council of the Laity of Tarlac
(16) El Shaddai DWXI Prayer Partners
(17) Ex Seminarians for Life
(18) Familia Community
(19) Family Renewal Movement
(20) Family Rosary Crusade
(21) Family Rosary Crusade - Youth Ministry
(22) Focolare Movement
(23) Holy Name Society of the Philippines
(24) Kababaihan ng Maynila
(25) Kilos Laiko
(26) Knights of Columbus - Luzon Jurisdiction
(27) Legion of Mary
(28) Light of Jesus
(29) Live Christ Share Christ Movement
(30) Live Pure Movement
(31) Lord’s Flock
(32) Marriage Enhancement & Team Services
(33) Mother Butler Mission Guild
(34) National Sandigan Foundation
(35) St John Apostle & Evangelist Association
(36) St Peter Community
(37) Teodora
(38) Teresian Association
(39) Vincentian Marian Youth
(40) Women of Asia for Development
(41) Young Christian Workers of the Philippines

Today, the leaders are the heads of the Catholic lay organizations that have joined the White Vote Movement, like Raul Garcia who is President of Bukás Loób sa Díyos, Ma Corona Salcedo Romero who is Director of the Catholic Teachers Guild, and Frank Padilla who is Servant General of Couples for Christ Foundation for Family and Life. But they are not necessarily the ones to emerge as Catholic champions. Heroes are born - out of the crucible of fire.

And the aftershocks of the White Vote Movement will be felt beyond the 13 May 2013 elections. Catholic Champions will find ways to defeat RA 10354; they will find ways to stop the legalization of abortion, euthanasia, divorce and same-sex marriage in the Philippines. The State is not going to destroy the Church as it has done in the United States.

(3) The Catholic White Vote will discern the worthy.

Discernment precedes endorsement. Archbishop Antonio J Ledesma said in a pastoral letter that the Catholic bishops "commend and support lay initiatives to form circles of discernment to choose worthy candidates" (facebook.com).

In a press conference for the launch of the White Vote Movement in Parañaque City, Bro Mike said, "We're still in the process of examining their backgrounds, their commitments to family and life" (Rainer Allan Ronda, 09 April 2013, philstar.com).

The names of candidates endorsed will be by batches. The first batch was announced on Saturday, 13 April, and comprised the following candidates for Senator (Vito Barcelo, 14 April 2013, manilastandardtoday.com):

Aquilino Pimentel III
Antonio Trillanes
Cynthia Villar
Gringo Honasan
JV Ejercito
Mitos Magsaysay.

The discernment is by a panel. It includes personal interviews; who may be invited are those who oppose divorce, same-sex marriage, euthanasia, and abortion. After the interviews, the candidates are asked to sign a covenant before they are formally endorsed (Ongsiako as cited).

(4) The Catholic White Vote will show the power of the Catholic Vote.

Bro Mike is the spokesman; Ms Aurora Santiago of the Council of the Laity of the Philippines is convenor of the movement (cbcponlineradio.com). Bro Mike is the natural choice as the face of the White Vote Movement because his own Catholic renewal movement has 7 million members.

Is it doable? The minimum target is 6 million votes. Bro Mike said there are about 3,000 Catholic parishes in the country; if every parish yields only 2,000 votes, already that's 6,000,000, "enough to ensure victory of pro-Church candidates" (Corabelle Guevarra, 10 April 2013,bayanihannews.com.au).

"I think that's doable," Bro Mike said. "I believe we can muster enough vote to make a difference this coming elections" (09 April 2013, cbcpnews.com).

The Catholic White Vote Movement was announced at a press conference at the College of Divine Wisdom at the Amvel Business Park in Parañaque City on Monday, 08 April 2013. That day is the Feast of the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary. How fitting! About the divine Annunciation, here are excerpts from Luke 1: 26-38 (New Revised Standard Version) to encourage the Catholic faithful about this earthly annunciation:

Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.
Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
You will conceive in your womb and bear a son. He will be great.
How can this be since I am a virgin?
The Holy Spirit will come upon you.
For nothing will be impossible with God.
Here I am, the servant of the Lord.
Let it be with me according to your word.

Let it be with us!

It isn't music when the decibels are too high, and many a time I approached the technicians to please keep the volume down, from 100 times too high for my listening pleasure. I must say the quality of the sound systems is 1st class; the quality of the technicians is 3rd class.

Yet, the writer's voice must rise above the din! The one song that has kept ringing in my ears until now, 1 week after I left Asingan, is the Ilocano folk song of love that has kept bugging me long enough I have decided to translate it into English: "O Naraniag A Bulan" becomes "O Moon Shining So Bright." While I have been working on it since Wednesday, 24 April 2013, I have intuited that this old Ilocano song is a new metaphor for old Philippine politics. No love's labor's lost.

To appreciate that, first grab a microphone and sing with me!

Gary Granada has a short Tagalog introduction of it (garygranada.com), but it doesn't quite match the original. I don't blame him if he's not Ilocano; if he is, he has a lot of explaining to do! I'm an Ilocano; my translation is not perfect, but now you have a pretty good idea what you're singing whether or not you're Ilocano.

"O Naraniag A Bulan" is a paradox because the girl who is singing is sad; her love story is very sad. If she doesn't get some enlightenment soon, she is now contemplating suicide ("samsam-itek ni Patay"). And yet the music has a fast beat and it is uplifting. Exactly like Philippine politics today as we approach election day!

The girl's story is maddening; she has been abandoned by her love. The same as in Philippine politics - the poor Filipinos have been abandoned by and large by the politicians, including those in President Noynoy Aquino's Administration. Noynoy promised to solve the problem of poverty; after 3 years in office, in the words of the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB), "poverty remained unchanged" from 2006 to 2012 (23 April 2013, nscb.gov.ph). So, if politicians - or their pollstergeists - tell you we Filipinos are less poor now, remember this: Figures don't lie, but liars will figure.

Now then, this writer's discovery is that in fact "O Naraniag A Bulan" is the enlightenment that predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines has arrived at in choosing major candidates for elective offices: the Senators. The Senate is crucial because it is the final hurdle for any proposed legislation, after which it is the President's game.

That enlightenment is the Catholic White Vote Movement launched 2 weeks ago, on Saturday, 13 April 2013. Brother Mike of El Shaddai is the spokesman; Ligaya Acosta is the convenor (17 April 2013, lifenews.com). Here is Batch #1 of those endorsed for white voting:

Aquilino Pimentel III
Antonio Trillanes
Cynthia Villar
Gringo Honasan
JV Ejercito
Mitos Magsaysay.

O moon glowing so bright!

"O Naraniag A Bulan" / Catholic White Vote is particularly applicable to those who are at loss for whom to vote: "In this darkened world of mine / Do come visit & shine / So I won't go astray!" When you sell your vote, you don't get enlightenment - you get instant gratification. You are also abetting corruption in high places.

Archbishop Soc Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan opposes the Catholic White Vote Movement choosing for us Catholics whom to vote for as Senators (Amanda Lago, 11 April 2013, gmanetwork.com). He has 2 lines of attack, and I find that they are rather easy to parry:

One, Villegas says that white voting is block voting, and that it is wrong. He fails to see that white voting is selective, while block voting is non-selective, only party-selective. In fact, the Catholic White Vote as of today goes equally to senatorial candidates of the United Nationalist Party (3 warm bodies) and of Team PNoy (3 warm bodies). What is more non-partisan than that!?

Two, Villegas says that the conscience vote is the correct Catholic Vote. But the conscience is precisely the one that is being manipulated by the politicians who are anti-family and anti-life! What kind of conscience do you expect people have when they are either ill-informed, misinformed or disinformed?

"No inka nanglipaten" is the Filipino Catholic who has forgotten to practice his religion and now is in the dark ("toy nasipnget a lubong ko"), listening to so many attractive songs of self-enlightenment. "Inka kad silawan / Tapnon diak maiyaw-awan!" We live in a darkened world of politics. We need some light on whom to vote as Senators, not simply our conscience, which may be clueless about the political realities.

"O moon glowing so bright / Hear my crying tonight / Into this darkened world of mine / Do come visit & shine / So I won't go astray!"

"O Naraniag A Bulan" is a waltz and very danceable; let's dance to it! If you want to listen to a variety of performers, click these links:

O Naraniag A Bulan, sung by Tres Rosas, youtube.com
Naraniag a Bulan Blues, original by JhenL, youtube.com
Naraniag nga Bulan, piano cover by ShaFrance, youtube.com
O Naraniag A Bulan Dance, uploaded by Jules Abundo, youtube.com
Ruperto Cayabyab on guitar, Michelle sings in background: youtube.com
O Naraniag A Bulan - Marcy de Luna, youtube.com (sexy voice, I love it!)
O Naraniag A Bulan by the Mabuhay Singers, youtube.com (I like them here)

I have a total of 53 hyperlinks to YouTube videos to the song, but with those selected 7, now you can enjoy this old Ilocano folk melody even more. But more than that, remember now:

"O Naraniag A Bulan" is the Enlightenment called the Catholic White Vote!

MANILA: Paghahanap, Mga Larawan, Mga Mapa.

Is Google trying to make me a nationalist by imposing the Tagalog (Filipino) language on me? No, thank you, I'm not a Tagalog nationalist; I'm an Ilocano nationalist!

I hate Google talking to me with its Tagalog menu by default. To the Google mind who thought of language menus, like Filipino for Filipinos, here's a dose of your own medicine:

Denggennak: Kayatmo nga sawen, nalalaingka ngem siak? Birukek ti Tagalog no kayatko, saannmo nga ipapilit kaniak! Ania nga gapu nga aramatek ti Tagalog menu ket English ti kayatko nga sapulen, ala ibagamman kaniak?! "Lukdit ti aso nga kadapdapo," as kuna ni Lakay Disiong nga amangko idi. Apay nga ilakom kaniak ti Filipino ket Filipinoak? Uray koma ngem nagalas met, di nga umno ti translationmo. Leppasem nga basaen daytoy tapno maammuam no kasano ti kinalaingmo. Ania ngarud ti riknam itatta nga agbasbasaka iti dimo matarusan wenno dimo kayat?

That describes in my language my personal battle against the intrusion of Google's Tagalog (Filipino) menu in my Internet browsing, in one word, frustrating, to be nice about it.

Routinely, I use 4 browsers: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera and Safari, but more of the last 2. I seldom use Internet Explorer. Safari is fast, and I like the Speed Dial of Opera. I use Yahoo for searching, but when I want many more results, I resort to Google Search.

Lately, Google has been bothering me, pestering me with its Pinoy (Tagalog or Filipino) menu as default:

+Frank A / Paghahanap / Mga Larawan / Mga Mapa / YouTube /
Gmail / Drive / Calendar / Pagsasalin / Higit Pa

Yes, I'm Pinoy, but it doesn't mean I like to read Tagalog (Filipino): I don't! Not in the Internet. (Not even in the papers.)

I browse with Safari, and I get that Pinoy menu. I hate that Google Pinoy menu!

I browse with Opera, and I get that Pinoy menu. I loathe that Google Pinoy menu!

I browse with Mozilla Firefox, and I get that Pinoy menu. I abhor that Google Pinoy menu!

I browse with Google Chrome, and I get that Pinoy menu. I detest that Google Pinoy menu!

I just tried Internet Explorer, and I got that pesky Pinoy menu. I despise that Google Pinoy menu!

That Google Pinoy menu as default is the fault of Google, and I can't forgive Google.

That is to say, Google has made Tagalog (Filipino) the default language when it's "doing service" to Filipinos. What is Google trying to prove here: That Filipino surfers prefer the Tagalog language when they're surfing? Google is doing a great disservice to me, a Filipino. I prefer English! When in Rome, do what the Romans do when they're surfing: Use the English language.

And by the way, those Google Pinoy translations are bad:

Paghahanap does not have the many shades of meaning that the verb Search has (American Heritage Dictionary): to look over carefully, investigate, scrutinize, find something lost, learn. Google wants me, a Filipino, not to learn too much!

Mga Larawan means Pictures, which is limitedand therefore is not as wide in meaning as Images. There is no equivalent term in Filipino for Images, and Mga Larawan is a lazy mind's choice.

Mga Mapa means Maps, which is absolutely correct, but the Filipino does not have a culture of mapmaking, so Mapa is just a sound while even Grade Schoolers know what is a Map.

Pagsasalin means Translation, but it's a word that is seldom used, while any Filipino will say, "i-translate mo, friend" (Translate it, friend).

Higit Pa means Much More, which refers to Quality, and is therefore the wrong translation of More, which refers to Quantity.

Did you notice that the Pinoy genius of Google cannot translate the YouTube button? He's obtuse to even try! Neither Gmail. He's oafish to even try. Neither Drive. He's dense to even try!

So why translate all those Google buttons in the first place - because Google wants to say "We love you, Filipinos?" I doubt that very much!

English is so much more intelligent and variable. Did you notice above that I could use so many synonyms for hate - loathe, abhor, detest, despise? And so many synonyms to describe the Google Pinoy translator as unintelligent - obtuse, oafish, dense? I love the English language!

Google doesn't know that when I surf, I don't want Tagalog intruding into my searches, or Google doesn't care if it bothers the Ilocano that I am, the Bicolano that you are, or Pangasinense, or Pampango, or Ilonggo, or Waray, or Cebuano, or Muslim that you are.

Google doesn't know that when I surf, I want to know what people are thinking and doing all over the world, and English is my ticket. Why should I search in Tagalog when I want the results in English?!

Google doesn't know that when I surf, English is just the ticket I need! The Google Pinoy menu is my one-way ticket to Purgatory. Google doesn't think that its Pinoy menu is a hot ticket; it is, yes, to Hell. Google in English is my meal ticket to erudition. The Google Pinoy menu is a round-trip ticket to nowhere! I wouldn't be caught in traffic and get a ticket surfing with a Google Pinoy menu.

By giving me those desperate Tagalog translations, Google is a language imposer, or impostor, in my own country. I dislike imposers and impostors in or out of my own country.

For wider searches, I will continue to use Google Search (not Paghahanap), but that Pinoy menu will continue to bother me. I hope that now they also bother Google Pinoy translators! If they can be bothered at all.

There was the time, 10 May 2006, or exactly 7 years today, when I wrote in the American Chronicle the essay "Google is genius. Or, the Soul of MSN, Yahoo Trails & Language of Internet Searches" (americanchronicle.com). I was wrong, right? That was the genius that was.

MANILA: If you haven't done so, go watch the YouTube video uploaded by James Smith showing Texas' Duncanville High School Sophomore Jeff Bliss lecturing his World History teacher Ms Julie Phung on how to teach (08 May 2013, youtube.com) - right after she kicks him out of the classroom. And I teacher will tell you this 18-year old student is good! (As I rewrite this at 0630 hr Sunday, 12 May, the video has been viewed 2,967,406 times 4 days after uploading.)

I know where Jeff Bliss is coming from. I was a student, I was a teacher, and I taught World History myself in high school. Truth to tell, I wasn't any better than Teacher Julie. The only difference was that I cared about my students, so who would tell me to my face that I wasn't teaching my students well; Julie Phung has her student Jeff Bliss telling the whole class, and the whole world, through a cellphone video via YouTube, that as a teacher she has not done enough - and what she needs to do.

As a certified teacher, that's an important point to me: Jeff Bliss tells the whole class how the teacher has been teaching, how she has failed - and what she needs to do.

Most of those who reported on the YouTube video called Jeff Bliss' outburst a "rant" and I thought they were wrong. But when I checked the meaning of the word, I found out I was wrong. To rant is, according to the American Heritage Dictionary, to speak or declaim in a violent, loud, or vehement manner. Jeff's manner of speaking is not violent but it is louder than normal and vehement, that is, characterized by forcefulness of expression or intensity of emotion or conviction. No wonder his own mother, a teacher in another large district in Texas, told him she was proud of him but that "he needed to change his attitude" (Kate Stanton, 09 May 2013, upi.com).

Selena Hill calls it "an impassioned speech" (09 May 2013, latinospost.com), and it is. Amy Sterling Casilin says (11 May 2013, policymic.com):

This incident shows ... a bright student who wants to learn and a teacher who either doesn't care, or does not know how to engage and educate. The chances are that Ms Phung, up until recently, probably did not care, or perhaps had a complete misunderstanding as to the effectiveness of her interactions with students.

Differently, "in defense of the teachers of America," Luis Ruuska labels it "teacher-shaming" (10 May 2013, huffingtonpost.com), which tells me he has not been listening to the video at all and not reading what others have said about it. Luis Ruuska will not call Jeff Bliss a hero; I do. Ruuska says, "What (Jeff) had to say could have been said without an entire class watching." Luis Ruuska, it was the best time for Jeff Bliss to say it! Jeff had just been kicked out of class, and he was bursting with things to say, and he said them. If indeed you watched and listened to the whole thing, you will see that Jeff Bliss did not use insulting words, no, except "freakin' lady" - he calls everything "freakin'." He was very intelligent about it.

Eric Nicholson calls it a philippic (09 May 2013, dallasobserver.com), and that is wrong; Jeff's lecture is eloquent but not hostile; it is instructive but not invective. "I'm not bitchin'," Jeff says. "I'm just making an observation." He is.

I agree with Nicholson though when he says that Jeff's speech "stands on its own" and that "it's what every bored and disaffected public school student has always wanted to say but dared not to." In an interview afterwards (Jason Whitely,08 May 2013, wfaa.com), Jeff himself says, "I believe that somebody needed to say this."

But what exactly did Jeff Bliss say in his fault-finding of his teacher's method? I have the full text, only 235 words, with minor editing by me, from LYBIO (lybio.net); remember, his teacher has just kicked him out of the class. The video starts with Jeff saying, "(This) freakin' lady goin' off on kids cause they won't freakin' get this crap?" He means the whole way Teacher Julie is handling her class in World History.

Almost the whole time, Teacher Julie is saying "Bye" or "Get out" or "Oh, would you please leave" or "Can you go outside please" or "Goodbye" or, for the last time, "Just go, bye. Close the door."

Teacher Julie comes to class and hands her students worksheets. Teacher Julie then sits in front of her desk and computer. "If you will just get up and teach them," Jeff says, "instead of just hand them a freakin' packet, yo. These kids in here don't learn like that. They need to learn face-to-face." Yes, Jeff, you're right, one-on-one. Students don't learn by reading all by themselves, the teacher not minding much.

Teacher Julie has just told Jeff to leave the class, get out of the classroom, for complaining. "You're just getting mad," Jeff says, "'cause I'm pointing out the obvious." Teacher Julie says, "No, 'cause you're wasting my time."

Jeff says, "No, no, I'm not wasting your time. I'm telling you what you need to do." He is right. He may be impolite right now but he is right. He is teaching the teacher.

I teacher know that the learning situation must be so constructed as to be stimulating, even electrifying. "You want kids to come in your class and get excited for this?" Jeff says, "You gotta come in here and make 'em excited." What if Teacher Julie had assigned Jeff's class to read on a chapter and then come to class the next time prepared to discuss and debate? There would have been excitement for days. What if the whole class had done some role-playing? What if Teacher Julie had asked her students to do research in the Internet and come up with at least 2 different versions of the same piece of history written by 2 different historians, ready to compare? There would have been eagerness to learn for days.

What do you do with the students who are lagging behind? Don't use your head - use your heart. "You want a kid to change and start doing better?" Jeff says. "You gotta touch his freakin' heart. Can't expect a kid to change if all you do is tell." Teacher Julie, easy for you to say!

From the one-track-minded responses of Teacher Julie, we can see that Jeff Bliss is right. She is not taking Jeff Bliss seriously, meaning, not taking her teaching job seriously.

"You gotta, you gotta take this job seriously," he says. "This is the future of this nation." He meant the students, the young ones in class. "And when you come in here, like you did last time and make a statement about, 'Oh, this is my paycheck,' indeed, it is! But this is my country's future and my education."

Teacher Julie is 44 and married; her field is Education Management (slideshare.net). She says in that website, "(I) work at teaching High School kids & I truly love it!" Teacher Julie, you must love teaching, yes, but you must love the students more.

Your job, Teacher Julie, is more important than your paycheck, simply because you're a teacher, and teaching is what makes a country great, or regret. As a teacher, I'm concerned, Teacher Julie. Your student is telling you, "This is my country's future and my education." You're not running but ruining both!

Worksheets are a good-looking way of leaving your students alone to teach themselves. "Since I got here," Jeff says, "I've done nothing but reading packets. So, don't try to take credit for teaching me that."

Teacher Julie: "Just go, bye. Close the door." Truth to tell, she says it softly, even kindly. But Teacher Julie doesn't realize that with that, when student Jeff Bliss closes the door, teacher Julie Phung closes the door that opens ways on how she can improve her teaching.

Under the circumstances, let this teacher tell you, Jeff Bliss, on the whole you did your school proud, not to mention your mother.

MANILA: This is the newest and most radical look of any University of the Philippines (UP) Alumni Website, or for that matter, any Alumni Website anywhere in the world. Click this link now if you want to look at the real thing: UPLB Jubilarians 2013.

Here, you're looking at my screen capture of the UP Los Baños alumni website, and it wasn't like this when I created that blog on Saturday, 11 May 2013, just 9 days ago. Unintentionally, with this, on Friday, 17 May 2013, I reinvented The Alumni Website on Planet Earth. From now on, all the other Alumni websites will look nice but unappealing, neat but unexciting, useful but unattractive. This is not your lucky day!

Since this is all about Alumni, people, I'm happy now to give the design a name, Square Tactics, to signify equality of the faces, races notwithstanding. As the Webmaster here and the Editor of the yearbook to come out based on these Alumni Squares, I shall make sure that there are no round pegs in square holes. As one of the Alumni, I will see to it that fair and square will be the rule.

It just so happens that in Square Tactics, my very first entry, Square One is starting from scratch; it was news on the very first meeting of the Steering Committee preparing for the double celebration of the 95th Alumni Homecoming & Loyalty Day (09-10 October 2013), with Golden Jubilarians President Carmen Paule presiding, with UPLB Alumni Association President Sim Cuyson and Chair of the Board of UPLBAA Pids Rosario in attendance (11 May 2013, UPLB Jubilarians 2013, blogspot.com).

Square Tactics did not happen overnight. My first idea was to write brief sketches of Alumni, focusing on what, now that they are Retirees and Senior Citizens, they have been contributing to their communities - hence the concept "Alumni in Villages" - as individual expressions of the year's theme, "UPLB-Alumni for Sustainable Community Transformation."

When I started this blog, the sole purpose was to have a common Internet address to get the latest news on the preparations for the double celebration of this year's Alumni Homecoming and Loyalty Day. It was meant to be all news, and a little pep talk.

Friday, 17 May 2013, I was thinking of the Steering Committee as wanting to know what we have been doing to date in the matter of the yearbook, and I thought of telling the stories of the Alumni one by one. The result? With a blog layout that matches the concept, there is now a mushroom of square umbrellas under which you will find stories from specific Alumni. Everybody knows everyone has a story to tell.

My first idea was to include only those Alumni who had stories serving their communities. What gave me the original idea was that I was struck by the story of Grace Anacta, who continued her advocacy for women after retirement using her own funds.

Still, along the way, as I wrote more of the lives of Alumni, I realized that I had to relate all those stories because those lives also transformed either themselves or people around them, or both. I also liked the stories where the Alumni decided to return to the Philippines despite tempting job offers in the United States. That is called Loyalty.

By the way, what those Square Tactics tiles contain about the Alumni are all going into a yearbook to come out before Loyalty Day this year, 10 October 2013, the biggest day in the history of the University of the Philippines' College of Agriculture (now transformed into the University of the Philippines Los Baños). The book will be titled thus:

University of the Philippines Los Baños
Alumni In Villages

The concept behind is the oft-quoted "It takes a village to raise a child" popularized by Hillary Rodham Clinton with her book It Takes A Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us published in 1996 by Simon & Schuster.

The book Alumni In Villages will comprise 2 major parts; Part 1 will be " Alumni In Villages" and Part 2 "Colleges In Villages." Both parts will contain the programs, projects, activities, and such other initiatives & innovations that the Alumni themselves and the Colleges of UPLB themselves have caused to happen in the villages with the prospects of progress for the villagers. This is the first time in history that such a book will contain such stories. A native of the Philippines, I have always been an original aboriginal.

I have so far written up the Alumni village lives of 33 people, including me:

(1) Abner Tarrega
(2) Alice Agudo
(3) Angelina Marquez
(4) Annie Labadan
(5) Antonio Frio
(6) Antonio Perez
(7) Arcadio Quimio
(8) Arsenio Ela
(9) Arthur Flores Jr
(10) Cesar Villegas
(11) Crisanto Gualberto
(12) Eduardo Rivera
(13) Ellen Bautista
(14) Elymar Vea
(15) Faustino Obrero
(16) Frank A Hilario
(17) Grace Anacta
(18) Jaime Lagdameo
(19) Jesus Alivia
(20) Joel Adriano
(21) Lolit Lim
(22) Marie Roldan
(23) Mila Kalaw
(24) Nicolas Braña Sr
(25) Ofel Ela
(26) Paciencia Castillo
(27) Ramon Nasol
(28) Remigio Torres
(29) Renato Gonzales
(30) Rogelia Sierra
(31) Romulo Davide
(32) Samuel Mancebo
(33) Urdulla Masajo

I am going to target at least 500 Alumni stories in that book so, Alumni, send in your stories now! frankahilario@gmail.com.

Except Adriano, the list of 33 above is made of Alumni who are Retirees and Senior Citizens, who have shown in their lives that they cared about other people, whether you agreed with their politics or not. I consciously avoid mentioning personal honors and awards received in the stories, except when they are vital to the narration, because there are too many of them and they would take up so much space.

The blog and the book are meant to encourage UPLB Alumni to contribute to the transformation of their villages. Now, what can the Alumni do for their alma mater in general?

I am now thinking of the whole giant University of the Philippines System. And when I think of UP, I'm not happy. Here are my thoughts on my alma mater today:

Do you know what's the opposite of UP? The Oblation. Why do I say that?

The Oblation says:
Here I am, all of me. I'm offering all of me to you!

UP says:
I don't care.
I don't care if the tuition fees are too high for poor students.
I don't care if UP graduates simply add to higher unemployment.
I don't care if I am not in the Top 100 of universities in Asia Pacific.
I don't care if I contribute little to government policy except in population.
I don't care if I can't generate enough funds to sustain the whole System by itself without relying on subsidy from the National Government and increasing all school fees other than tuition.

I say:
When will UP learn?

MANILA: You could also title this "Fire & Nice." They had Fire, I wanted Nice. Another title, "C is for Control." I had Control, they wanted Control.

This is all about my unforgettable journey with a journal in the last decade. They don't make journals like I used to anymore!

This is all about the Philippine Journal of Crop Science (PJCS); you're looking at the cover of one of the PJCS issues that I designed (in fact, I designed all the 22 covers while I was Editor in Chief, 2001-2008). On the cover of this one, August 2005 issue, the PC clip art is the illustration of my editorial, "The Challenge Of Creativity In Science & The Quest For Quality." I didn't say it directly, but I didn't find creativity in crop science at that time, and I didn't sense a quest for quality either.

I was being paid per issue off the press; I accepted that. "We can pay you only a little," CSSP President Conrad H Balatero had told me in the job interview at the Anest Towers restaurant in Los Baños; the CSSP was based within the campus of UP Los Baños, 2 km away. "I have no problem with that," I had said. I didn't have a regular job at that time; a little coming was better than more waiting for freelance work. No work, no pay.

The CSSP, Crop Science Society of the Philippines, was the publisher of the journal. They had advertised for the position of Editor in Chief; my son had seen the announcement at IRRI, and suggested that I apply. I must have written a nice letter, but for the love of me I don't remember if I said anything about being a one-man band, that I would be desktop publishing the journal all by myself, no extra charge, no problem. I was 63. If you told me it couldn't be done, as long as it had to do with words and the PC, I would go ahead and do it.

My Mission: To bring the science journal of crops perennially late to up-to-date, and at the same time ISI, or of officially recognized world-class quality. I had no problem with those either. I had taught myself desktop publishing, and I was ready to prove (or probe) it. I had been directly involved as one of the editors for the Philippine Agricultural Scientist to achieve ISI status, as that journal's Quality Editor, I might say. The PAS was coming out regularly, but somehow it lacked quality - you know of course that quality is in the details, and I was a nitpicker, so I was perfect for the job of assistant editor. So, I had personal ISI experience; you can ask former Editor in Chief OK Bautista (c/o pas-uplbca.edu.ph) about that. We hit ISI status before the year was over, 2001, with 4 issues.

For the PJCS, to accomplish my mission, as Editor in Chief, I knew I had to have full control of the production of the journal. I just assumed it, and nobody questioned that. To explain and to encourage, I was writing editorials. And I was personally using the personal computer to edit as well as desktop publish the manuscripts, from draft layout to camera-ready pages. If that's not full control, I don't know what is.

And that's how the PJCS came off the press with increasing regularity from April 2001 to April 2008. Like I said, 22 issues. And you know what? I was a one-man band; I was literally the only staff! Believe it or not.

Today, we go back 6 years, to 2007, the year they would fire me.

We are witnessing the Board of Directors of the CSSP meeting formally at the Conference Hall 2 of the Development Academy of the Philippines in Tagaytay City (from Minutes of the Business Meeting, 15 June 2007, prepared by Gretchen Ocampo, Executive Secretary and approved by Renato Reaño, CSSP President, from the CSSP website cssp.org.ph). This must have been after or during a National Scientific Conference of the CSSP. This was not only important but historic; the 1st item in the agenda was those problem BOD members; the 2nd item was another problem, me, Frank Hilario.

Those present were: Abigail Joy Rodelas, Ambrocio Castañeda, Antonieta S Tumapon, Antonio A Alfonso, Apolonio M Ocampo, Carlos C Huelma, Cleotilde A Caldo, Darlene L Sanchez, Dindo Tabanao, Edwin G Hondrade, Emma K Sales, Gabriel Romero, Gliceria S Pascua, Gretchen S Ocampo, Jayfred Gaham V Godoy, Jessica D Rey, Jocelyn Zarate., Jonathan C Descalsota, Jose E Hernandez, Juanita B Salvoni, Juanito A Atiwag, Lilian F Pateña, Ma Elizabeth B Naredo, Manuel Gaspar, Manuel Jose C Regalado, Marilou N Infante, Naomi C Lamata, Nelly S Aggangan, Norvie L Manigbas, Pilar D Burgos, Ramon A Oliveros, Reianne M Quilloy, Rey Rodriguez, Rhodesia C Manzano, Rhodora R Aldemita, Rita P Laude, Roberta N Garcia, Roel C Rabara, Rosalinda P Mediano, Rowena H Oane, Rufino B Calpatura, Sonia A Torio, Tahere A Sigari, Tamerlane Mark S Nas, Thelma F Padolina, Tiffany P Laude, and Tonette P Laude.

47 names. I wasn't there; I didn't know about this Business Meeting until today, 6 years later, when I was googling for more information on Rebong, who just happened to be a member of the Board of Directors of the CSSP at this time, 2013, leading me to the CSSP website. (My story of Democrito Rebong, Branch Manager of PhilRice Isabela, appears in my blog dedicated to UPLB Alumni (Alumni In Villages, blogspot.com).

What to do with Frank Hilario as Editor in Chief of the journal? There were 48 warm bodies present, including Renato Reaño who was the presiding officer, and the report was in the negative. This is from the minutes:

The ISI application for the Philippine Journal of Crop Science (PJCS) is still under evaluation. It was agreed that a new technical editor-in-chief shall be hired by CSSP. The CSSP already invited prospective editors-in-chief. Dr Azucena Carpena signified interest to become the editor-in-chief of the PJCS.

It looks like they were blaming me for the perceived delay in the granting of the ISI label. It is important to emphasize that ISI is a desired heaven for technical journals; it's the Good Housekeeping seal for scientific publications; to achieve ISI status is, to borrow from Shakespeare, "a consummation devoutly to be wished." This time, the consummation of the services of the Editor in Chief was being sought after without asking the person his side! Guilty by affirmation.

Dr Edwin Hondrade suggested that Mr Frank Hilario not be fired as an editor of the PJCS, since he worked hard to provide/publish PJCS on time. According to him, based on the CSSP experience, the PJCS publication has always been three years delayed due to the technical editors.

Thank you, Edwin, for speaking in my behalf. Being a former President of the CSSP, and someone who came to know me, your word carried much weight.

At that time, 2007, I as Editor in Chief (and at the same time the publication's layout artist without extra compensation) had already made history: The previous year, 2006, I had made the PJCS up-to-date from being perennially late 3 years. In fact, a Guinness Book of World Record, I dare say. They were rewarding me by firing me!? I forgive them for their ignorance of the facts. I'm not hinting here of any hidden agenda.

That historical achievement, from 3 years late to up-to-date, was brought about by only 2 men, happily with no women involved:

One, Teodoro "Ted" Mendoza. I recruited him as Chair of the Board of Editors (necessarily international) because I knew him to be a UPLB Professor of scholarly habits, and he had the clout. He was the one person who solicited more and more manuscripts to publish - and personally visited scientists at UP Los Baños who could provide intelligent peer reviews of those manuscripts. Without those papers gathered and reviewed, there could not be any succeeding journal issue at all. We were working so fast we were always running out of papers to publish! It was unbelievable; it was also true.

Two, Frank Hilario. I was the One-Man Band Editor in Chief: Technical Editor, Language Editor, Typist, Copyreader, Proofreader, and Desktop Publisher (the person, not the program). At the PhilRice Los Baños Station near IRRI, on the CSSP desktop computer, in those ancient days working with Windows XP (I'm working with the icon-driven 2013 Windows 8 right now), I was desktop publishing the PJCS all by myself, with no extra compensation - I didn't ask for any; I volunteered, because I loved the challenge of doing what looked impossible. I have always been ahead of my time; no other Editor in Chief would dare do the desktop publishing himself! I knew I could do it.

I started using the PC in December 1985 yet and I never stopped to explore what I could do with it as writer and editor; it was now 22 years later. I'm a certified teacher, 80.6% in the first-ever Teacher's Exam, 1964. I have always been self-taught. If I needed higher computer literacy, I would teach myself. I was already 63 when I began that journey of a journal, but I knew that age doesn't matter because your gray matter doesn't age if you continuously cultivate it.

Again, from the minutes of that business meeting:

Mr Reaño clarified that Mr Frank Hilario will (neither) be fired nor replaced. He will still be an Associate Managing Editor. However, a technical editor will be hired to edit the technical aspects of the papers submitted. It was clarified that no additional budget will be incurred in hiring a technical editor. The PJCS only needs someone who has the scientific background. Even if Mr Teodoro Mendoza (was) tapped in some instance, it was only done to fast-track paper reviews. It will still be best if there is someone who will constantly monitor the technical content of the paper.

He is saying that I will neither be fired nor replaced; I will still be an Associate Managing Editor. But Mr Reaño, I am the Editor in Chief; if you make me Associate Managing Editor where there is not even a Managing Editor, you are demoting me 3-4 steps down. You might as well have fired me!

I don't know what was the unrecorded part of the meeting, but the minutes goes on to say:

Ms Lilian Pateña also told the body that we should not sacrifice quality with speed. Although PJCS was always released on time, she got feedbacks that the journal’s quality has been degrading, thus the need for a technical editor.

That is an insult if you don't know enough English: "The journal's quality has been degrading." Wrong word used; by degrading, I know she actually meant deteriorating. But if you assume that Ms Lilian knew exactly what she was saying, saying "degrading" was too much! As a technical editor for the last 32 years (at that time), I should have been ashamed of myself!

The question is: At that point in time, 2007, was Ms Lilian and her sources essentially correct? I had at that time come out with issues from April 2001 to April 2007, a total of 19 issues. Had the quality of editing of the PJCS really been deteriorating? Quite the opposite! I say the members of the Board of Directors of the CSSP had not done enough homework, not asked enough people, that's why they thought of firing the Editor in Chief instead of rewarding him. I'm hinting here of a hidden agenda. Remember, this was June 2007. Note that the minutes also said, "The ISI application for the Philippine Journal of Crop Science (PJCS) is still under evaluation." Incorrect.

In fact, in January 2007, the Philippine Journal of Crop Science was already in the ISI list of accredited journals - Ted Mendoza and I Google-checked. (Today, 2013, the ISI is called Web of Knowledge, under Thomson Reuters, but ISI still rings a bell that WoK doesn't.)

Being in that list meant that after 18 issues, the PJCS had already been officially certified by the ISI people at least 5 months (say December 2006) before the CSSP people were trying to fire me (June 2007):

(1) that the PJCS was coming out regularly and on time
(2) that it was publishing papers with international value
(3) that it was readable
(4) that it was being well edited.

That's what being ISI means. You can't make the ISI list with mediocre publishing, editing and printing, not by any chance.

It had been I who did the final editing of the language of those manuscripts. It had been Ted Mendoza and the reviewers who took care of the science of those papers, but I still had to read. It had been I who had been desktop publishing the journal.

"The journal’s quality has been degrading, thus the need for a technical editor." We are listening to my death sentence in absentia.

The minutes said, "The PJCS only needs someone who has the scientific background." They were saying I did not have the scientific background? After 18 issues? For Christ's sake, this was all crops and soils, and I was a University of the Philippines BS Agriculture graduate, in the Dean's List once, graduating with a weighted average of 2.36 pt (I had 1s but also 5s). Not your Average Student. And I had been the founding Editor in Chief of all 3 Forest Research Institute publications that made FORI well known here and abroad: Canopy (monthly newsletter), Habitat (quarterly color magazine), and Sylvatrop (quarterly technical journal). Except that at FORI I had a layout artist, it was essentially a one-man job. And all that was achieved at the Age of Dinosaurs (large typewriters), 1975-1981, 4 years before I touched my first PC. Not your Average Editor.

Understand: Making the ISI list is doubly important. One, it is rewarding in prestige. Two, it is rewarding in dollars: When you publish in an ISI-listed journal and you are from the University of the Philippines, you get an incentive of $1,000, certainly not chicken feed!

The PJCS having achieved ISI status because of me, the CSSP should now have thought of giving me quadruple my per-issue contract fee instead of thinking of giving me zilch, instead of thinking of firing me, don't you think? Goad works in mysterious ways.

In the end, the CSSP didn't fire me. They didn't hire a new Editor either. End of story?

In this story, that was Chapter 1.

And now we go back 5 years, to 2008, the year they would fire me. Again.

After I came out with the April 2008 issue, my #22, I was summoned by the new President of CSSP, Rhodora Aldemita, to a meeting of the Board of Directors at IRRI where she was working at a high-level position, I understood. The CSSP already knew by that time that the PJCS was in the elite ISI list. She went straight to the point, not even thanking me for coming or crediting me for the ISI; let me recall what she said as much as I can (she spoke Taglish but I don't like that one, so I'll put it in English; note that she was civil and firm:

You know, Mr Frank, the PJCS is now ISI. (As if I didn't know!) And they (presumably the ISI people) are now very strict with their requirements that only those with a PhD can be Editor in Chief. (Everybody knew I didn't have a PhD. I didn't even have an MS.)

This time, I was personally listening to my death sentence.

In effect, she was telling me in front of the Board of Directors of the CSSP that it didn't matter that, one, I had made the journal up-to-date from being perennially late 3 years, and that, two, I made it ISI in 1 year. Since I did not have a PhD, I was not qualified to be Editor in Chief.

I must have interrupted her at that point to say:

"You know, you can't fire me."

Huh! Those were my exact words. I said it matter-of-factly, neither haughtily nor angrily but softly, because I knew I was damned right. I also knew I was sitting on a higher moral plane. I didn't look at their faces, but I suppose they were all shocked.

"Why? Because I did not sign anything. There was no contract. There was only a gentleman's agreement between your President, Conrad Balatero and me." I wasn't going to break a gentleman's agreement; they were.

Oh, not to worry, I said goodbye nicely.

In this story, that was Chapter 2. I hope The Final Chapter.

Before I began to write this essay, thinking of being fired, I thought of my favorite Robert Frost's little poem "Fire and Ice," and here it is:

Fire and Ice
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

Rereading Frost, now I know this poem fits precisely what happened to me, first, being fired behind my back, and second, being fired to my face. My God, with 2 different perspectives, they tried to have Frank Hilario perish twice!

Perish the thought. With his intellectual and historical journey of 22 issues with the Philippine Journal of Crop Science, this Editor will never die; he will just fade away.

I'm happily recalling now that at that 2008 IRRI meeting of the CSSP Board of Directors, I met their fire with nice. I also left them courteously. Since I could not resign technically, the next day I texted the presidential lady saying, in so many words, that I would no longer accept any offer of contract for services to produce subsequent issues of their journal. She never replied, but I had said my Consummatum est; it was consummated.

If you knew me before then, I could not have met fire with nicer.

MANILA: Speed thrills! Speed kills, if low. Modern metaphor.

The image you see is that of an alumbayad, Ilocano for earthworm. The metaphor is perfect even if I'm talking here of the whole UP System and not just my alma mater, the College of Agriculture of UP Los Baños. I'm talking here of electronic speed, Internet, WiFi.

As I write this, about an hour ago (it's 0500 hr Tuesday, 04 June 2013), for the first time I learned about eUP, the flagship program of UP President Alfredo E Pascual, and which has a dedicated website at e.up.edu.ph. I chanced upon eUP while googling for "Rex Victor Cruz" for more information about his UPLB Chancellorship, as I'm writing a profile of his for the book on UPLB Alumni that I had the grand idea of producing for Loyalty Day 2013. (If you visit my dedicated website Alumni in Villages, blogspot.com, you will now see CV stories of 54 Alumni, and counting. If you're ElBi Alumni, submit your profiles now!)

Pascual's bright idea of eUP has me quite intrigued because it promises the sky by and by while down below, through no fault of his, the websites of the component universities of the UP System like UP Baguio and UP Los Baños must crawl like alumbayads. Like, for as far as I can remember, and I'm 73, every time I visit http://uplb.edu.ph, either there is an error message (like "unable to open") or it takes forever to open. And I thought UP Los Baños is on fiber optics?!

If the rest of the UP System is slow, eUP is the horse before the cart running away from it!

Or maybe not. Considering that part of what the eUP is planning to do is this:

Benchmarking for hardware, software, manpower, data, connectivity will be performed as our team will visit selected top universities around the world. The project team will also conduct university-wide ICT inventory survey including IT systems audit. Part of this component is the identification of best practices and best implementation models among constituent universities for the identification of systems to be standardized, systems to be developed, and systems to be procured.

How long do you think it will take them to finish that benchmarking, inventory survey, systems audit and so on and so forth? I expect as long as it takes them to decipher all those long words in that heavy, 69-word paragraph that I simply copy-&-pasted from the website.

Notwithstanding, I note with gladness that the eUP will be setting up, among other things, WiFi hotspots around UP campuses. Promise? As of now, the buses have beaten you UP to it, like Solid North managers have installed WiFi Onboard that I enjoy going to and coming from Asingan, Pangasinan so early in the morning. Their WiFi is faster than my home-based SmartBro, I wonder why. I hope the eUP WiFi will be faster than the alumbayad.

Yet, I suspect that eUP will take a very long time coming to full bloom, if it were a mango tree. Even if at the right time you spray potassium nitrate (KNO3), which by the way is the discovery of UPLB Professor (Retired) Ramon Barba, I suspect the KNO3 will take a very long time to work on the mango because, in the first place, before the sprayer (the man, not the machine) can reach the mango and spray, he has to pass through a gauntlet of approving hands for the contract to be finally signed by Pascual! Would you believe 70 signatures? So, in a bureaucracy like UP has been for a hundred years, the signing will take forever, or require your infinite patience.

If you don't believe me, visit now eUP (eUP Project Teams, e.up.edu.ph), and count how many members there are of the Project Teams (plural); I already told you, 70, in the website list from Alfredo E Pascual (Project Sponsor) down to Dittas Formoso (Team Leader for Key Performance Indices). Just to give you an idea, in that long list, by titles, there are 21 PhDs, 12 Professors, and 2 Attorneys. The PhDs will give you dissertations to submit; the Professors will give you lectures to listen to; and the Attorneys will give you headaches.

1. Alfredo E Pascual
2. Antonio R Obsioma
3. Ariel S Betan
4. Aris Dacanay
5. Buenalyn Ramos-Mortel
6. Caesar A Saloma
7. Carlos Forteza
8. Cherie Anne R Pasco
9. Christian S Libunao
10. Christine Joyce Salvatierra
11. Crisanto A Dorado
12. Dante K Vergara
13. Dittas Formoso
14. Elvira A Zamora
15. Elvira Zamora
16. Emma Ruth V Bayogan
17. Encarnacion Emilia Santos-Yap
18. Evangeline C Amor
19. Gerald P Franco
20. Gisela P Concepcion
21. Gisela P Concepcion
22. Grace J Alfonso
23. Hector Danny D Uy
24. Hernando Siy Salapare III
25. Hernando Siy Salapare III
26. Hernando Siy Salapare III
27. J Prospero E De Vera III
28. Jaime Caro
29. Jaime DL Caro
30. Jason Balais
31. Jean A Saludadez
32. Jessica K Cariño
33. Jhie Respino
34. Jocelyn Rafanan
35. Jose Go
36. Jose Wendell P Capili
37. Jose Wendell P Capili
38. Joselito C Jamir
39. Juvy Camua
40. Karen Joyce Cayamanda
41. Lisa Grace S Bersales
42. Liza D Corro
43. Lorina T Alcid
44. Ma Rowena C Solamo
45. Manuel B Agulto
46. Maragtas SV Amante
47. Marie Josephine M de Luna
48. Melinda F Lumanta
49. Myrna Carandang
50. Nadira Abubakar
51. Nestor G Yunque
52. Noreen P Escultura
53. Oscar B Zamora
54. Patricia Anne Nazareno
55. Paulo Noel G Paje
56. Raymundo D Rovillos
57. Rex Victor Cruz
58. Ricardo Bagarinao
59. Richmon Pancho
60. Rina Alcid
61. Ritchelita P Galapate
62. Rommel A Espinosa
63. Rommel Feria
64. Ronald S Banzon
65. Rowena C Solamo
66. Sylvia B Concepcion
67. Vernon Velasco
68. Vincent Teodosio
69. Virginia C Yap
70. Wilfredo V Alangui

I hope I didn't leave out anyone.

That's a very, very long alumbayad. If I had a Team as long as that, I'll scream!

If you notice, in my list sorted by first name, there are 4 individuals who have 2 or more roles to play: Elvira Zamora (2), Gisela Concepcion (2), Jose Wendell Capili (2), and Hernando Siy Salapare III (3). Did they email everybody and find out who else was available?

What I'm thinking of is that The eTeam (my term) must be lean and mean, like NBC's The A-Team of legend, 1983-1987, starring George Peppard and Mr T (Wikipedia), where the chatter is short; the movements are fast; there is violence but no one gets hurt seriously; and there is joy in the morning or in the journey, which is the reward. The group is small, the plan is light and bright, after which The eTeam's Hannibal Smith can smile and say, "I love it when the plan comes together!"

And I'm thinking they should give the eUP to the young staff, because they are the only ones who can learn fast, think fast - and move fast. Or contract it out to a hotshot with young hotshots; there are plenty around - the Filipino is worth paying for! Unless of course the not-so-young UP staff are like an alumnus I know, now 73, slow to anger and quick to rise, self-taught in everything, and has mastered Microsoft Office 2010 and Windows 8 all by himself. But be warned: He's an original aboriginal.

So, here's to the youth! You are, still, the fair hope of the fatherland.

We must look at Rex Victor Cruz under quite a different light, because even as he is an alumnus of UP Los Baños, he is currently Chancellor, and as such he is leading the University in the present and into the future.

What happened to his Vision for the University as "One Goal, One Destiny, One University" after his assumption to the post of Chancellor on 01 November 2011? Where is the University now?

What the Chancellor of the University has been doing should be of concern to all Alumni because his activities, his approaches, and his accomplishments determine the present and the future of not only the graduates but also that of Philippine agriculture. After all, much of the manpower of public and private institutions comes from the University of the Philippines Los Baños. This is a reality that has been ignored for the last 100 years by the University itself.

Happily, Nestlé Philippines has just intimated to us the value of erudition in agriculture, by launching its Nescafé Coffee University of the Philippines Scholarship (Nescafé Cups) (ANN, 29 May 2013, sunstar.com.ph). Business Executive Manager Christophe Stern for Nescafé and Chancellor Rex Victor Cruz for UPLB signed the Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) on the 8th of May 2013. Nescafé plans to have trained 90,000 coffee farmers by the year 2020 so that it can source from the Philippines 75% of its coffee by then, compared to 30% today. Stern hoped that Nescafé Cups "will help generate interest in agriculture among the youth, especially coffee farming."

We have to pay more scholarly attention to agriculture! And to the youth!

Last year, Rex submitted a report to the Alumni titled "One Year of UPLB: One Goal, One Destiny, One University" subtitled "Preliminary Accomplishment Report 2011-2012" published in the yearbook of the 94th UPLB Loyalty Day And Alumni Homecoming (10 October 2012), where he said:

UPLB remains to be one of the premier tertiary educational and research universities in the country. The external review Team of UPLB in 2009, however, found that it had lost considerable ground to our peer institutions in the Asian Region in the past years. Hence, we pursued programs and initiatives to regain its premier position as a recognized educational institution in the Region.

UP Los Baños is no longer #1 in Asia.

We are now at various stages of implementing our strategic plans to address the challenges of improving the levels of our productivity outputs, attracting the best students to our undergraduate degrees, and increasing our graduate enrolment.

Enrollment at the College of Agriculture of UP Los Baños has been dwindling over the years.

Foremost among our initiatives is to enhance our ability to provide an enabling environment for teaching through facilities that would put us in the ranks of world-class research universities. We are now closely working with the UP System for the implementation of eUP towards better operational efficiency and excellence in the outputs from our core functions of teaching, research, and public service.

For UP Los Baños, higher efficiency along with excellence is a mountain to climb higher than Mt Makiling.

Rex knows about Mt Makiling much because he is a BS Forestry graduate of the UP College of Forestry (now the UPLB College of Forestry and Natural Resources), and CFNR is based on the slopes of this storied mountain, the laboratory of student forest rangers and foresters.

In April 2001, he received the Mancono Award as the Most Outstanding Alumnus of the CFNR. The Mancono is the highest award given to a forestry professional in the Philippines.

Rex obtained his PhD in Watershed Management from the University of Arizona, USA in 1990.

He was a member of the Working Group II of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as Coordinating Lead Author of the 4th Assessment Report (zoominfo.com). Now then, I know Rex Victor Cruz can rightfully share honor for his IPCC work, as the IPCC did share award, with former US Vice President Al Gore, the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2007.

He is a member of the UPLB Interdisciplinary Committee on Climate Change and was responsible for leading the vulnerability and adaptation assessment for the forestry sector as a contribution to the preparation of the Philippine Second National Communication to be submitted to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Previously he had several other projects on climate impacts, vulnerability and adaptation assessment in several parts of the Philippines. He has also completed a wide array of research and development projects in watershed and forest management (zoominfo.com).

Before he became Chancellor, he was Dean of the CFNR and the Director of the CFNR Environmental Forestry Programme.

He was proclaimed the new and 8th Chancellor of UPLB by the UP Board of Regents on 29 September 2011; he assumed office on 01 November 2011; his term ends 31 October 2014.

Rex was a member of the 2012 National Selection Committee for the Galing Pook Awards, a pioneering program that "recognizes innovation and excellence in local governance" (galingpook.org). The Awards started in 1993 as a collaboration of the Local Government Academy (based on the campus of UP Los Baños) of the Department of Interior & Local Government, Ford Foundation and individual advocates of good governance from the academe, civil society, and government.

Even as Chancellor, he is Chair of the Board of REACH Ministries International (RMI), Philippines (reachmin.com). In the just-concluded (29 April-01 May 2013) Yutang Saad 2 (YS2), a family regional conference held in Samal, Davao Province, Rex spoke of "the major task ahead of us - Explosive Evangelism and Infiltrative Disciple Making - Before Christ's Second Coming." A Christian denomination, RMI is "dedicated to the disciple making ministry in Third-World countries" and has these commitments: (1) to the whole person, (2) to the poor, (3) to indigenous leadership, and (4) to disciple making.

I just checked with the dictionaries in The Free Dictionary, and I find that only one, my favorite American Heritage Dictionary, has a definition for infiltrative, adjective for the process of gaining entrance gradually, discreetly. So, "Infiltrative Disciple Making" is pioneering, original.

That tells me Rex is a risk-taker. No wonder, in his report to the Alumni that I cited above, Rex also said, "We are looking at nanotechnology and astrophysics as potential areas of expansion." For me, the astral phenomenon I'm interested in has something to do less with the Stars and more with Heaven. And so I think it is for Rex.

For all that, I say Rex Victor Cruz is a unique fusion of a climate change scientist, management change leader, and Christian change evangelist. With my own unique vision, I love it that in him, there cannot be a separation of Church and State University!

MANILA: I'm not proud, but I'm happy.

This is a retelling - and a retailing - of the Declaration of Independence of the Philippines on the 12th of June 1898.

Are you proud that on that date, the Philippines declared independence from Spain and, at the same time and on the same paper and in the same paragraph, declared dependence on the United States of America? Here's the pertinent excerpt, from the English translation of Sulpicio Guevara (Wikisource):

And having as witness to the rectitude of our intentions the Supreme Judge of the Universe, and under the protection of the Powerful and Humanitarian Nation, the United States of America, we do hereby proclaim and declare solemnly in the name and by authority of the people of these Philippine Islands,

The 85 signatories invoked God as to the righteousness of their act, and appealed to the protection of the mighty and merciful United States of America. This is Church intruding on the State, right? I love that! This is the US intruding on the affairs of the Philippines thousands of miles away, right? Wrong!

The 84 Dons (translation, Mister, singular, title of high respect) who signed the Declaration, led by Ambrosio Rianzares Bautista who was the War Counselor, were the following:

Agapito Zialcita, Anastacio Pinzun, Andrés Tria Tirona, Antonio Calingo, Antonio Gonzales, Aurelio Tolentino, Buenaventura Toribio, Calixto Lara, Canuto Celestino, Carlos Tria Tirona, Catalino Ramon, Ciriaco Bausa, Claudio Tria Tirona, Daniel Tria Tirona, Emiliano Lim, Epifanio Crisia, Epifanio Saguil, Epitacio Asunción, Estanislao Calingo, Estanislao Tria Tirona, Esteban Francisco, Evaristo Dimalanta, Fausto Tinorio, Federico Tomacruz, Felipe Buencamino, Felix Ferrer, Felix Polintan, Fernando Canon Faustino, Flaviano Alonzo, Flaviano Rodriguez, Florencio Manalo, Francisco Arambulo, Francisco del Rosario, Gabriel Reyes, Gavino Masancay, Gregorio Alvarez, Gregorio Bonifacio, Gregorio Villa, Guido Yaptinchay, Honorio Tiongco, Hugo Lim, José del Rosario, José Maria del Rosario, José Medina, José Turiano Santiago y Acosta, Juan Arevalo, Juan Bordador, Ladislao Afable José, Ladislao Diwa, Leon Tanjanque, Luis de Lara, Luis Perez Tagle, Manuel Salafranca, Manuel Santos, Marcelino Gomez, Marcelo Basa, Marcos Jocson, Mariano de los Santos, Mariano Legazpi, Mariano Rianzares Bautista, Mariano Toribio, Martin de los Reyes, Narciso Mayuga, Numeriano Castillo, Pastor Lopez de Leon, Pedro Mendiola, Proceso Pulido, Ramon Delfino, Ramon Gana, Ramon Magcamco, Rosendo Simon, Sabas de Guzman, Santiago Garcia, Segundo Arellano, Sergio Matias, Simon Villareal, Sixto Roldan, Sulpicio P Antony, Teodoro Yatco, Tiburcio del Rosario, Timoteo Bernabe, Valentin Polintan, and Zacarias Fajardo.

84 Filipinos + 1 Yankee. The signers were in fact joined by an American, Mr LM Johnson, a Colonel of the US Artillery. What was Mr Johnson doing there? This is an anomaly that I can't joke about.

The Declaration of Independence was ordered by Egregious Dictator Don Emilio Aguinaldo under the Dictatorial Government of the Philippines, "taking into account the fact that the people of the country are already tired of bearing the ominous yoke of Spanish domination." Stop. I think there is something wrong with the translation: Spanish domination was not an "ominous yoke" - it was not only threatening, it had already been a fact for hundreds of years. Something is always lost in the translation.

One of the reasons for the Declaration of Independence was the "unjust deportations of illustrious Filipinos, especially those decreed by General Blanco at the instigation of the Archbishop and the friars interested in keeping them in ignorance for egoistic and selfish ends, which deportations were carried out through processes more execrable than those of the Inquisition, which every civilized nation repudiates as a trial without hearing." Uh, oh. Deportation means expulsion of an undesirable alien from a country (American Heritage Dictionary); the Spanish original reads, las deportaciones, which means this is not a mistranslation but wrong word used. The Filipinos were not aliens in this country - the deporters were!

We recognize, approve, and ratify, with all the orders emanating from the same, the Dictatorship established by Don Emilio Aguinaldo whom we revere as the Supreme Head of this Nation, which today begins to have a life of its own, in the conviction that he has been the instrument chosen by God, in spite of his humble origin, to effectuate the redemption of this unfortunate country as foretold by Dr Don Jose Rizal in his magnificent verses which he composed in his prison cell prior to his execution, liberating it from the Yoke of Spanish domination,

"As foretold by Dr Don Jose Rizal in his magnificent verses" refers to his Adios, Patria Adorada valedictory poem. (That title is mine, following literary tradition; they are the first 3 words in the poem, and they supremely summarize the whole - I know that for a fact because I myself translated the whole poem from Spanish to English; see my "Translating a hero. When Words Collide and Meanings Get Lost," 29 December 2007, Frank A Hilario, blogspot.com; all others give it the phlegmatic title Ultimo Adios or Mi Ultimo Adios.)

The invocation of a Supreme Being (God) is repeated, a legacy of Spanish domination, but it was right. The language of the Declaration was Spanish, another legacy of that domination, and it was also right. Why not in Tagalog? Because, following a basic rule in Communication, you communicate with someone in his own language, so you do not declare Independence from him in the language that he does not understand. Brandishing a bolo is of course a language anyone can understand, but that's not what I'm talking about. That’s why Rizal wrote the Noli and the Fili in Spanish!

That they are and have the right to be free and independent; that they have ceased to have any allegiance to the Crown of Spain; that all political ties between them are and should be completely severed and annulled; and that, like other free and independent States, they enjoy the full power to make War and Peace, conclude commercial treaties, enter into alliances, regulate commerce, and do all other acts and things which an Independent State has a right to do,

Why did they not declare that they had ceased allegiance to the President of the United States, that all political ties between them were and should be completely severed and annulled? It may have been that Filipinos knew that they were powerless against the American might, so they might as well be friends. Or, to give my countrymen the benefit of the doubt, the Filipino leaders were thinking, "One enemy at a time."

And imbued with firm confidence in Divine Providence, we hereby mutually bind ourselves to support this Declaration with our lives, our fortunes, and with our most sacred possession, our Honor.

God is invoked for the 3rd time, just to be sure. They were embarking on a perilous journey, and they needed all the help they could get. The US Declaration of Independence invoked God 4 times: Nature's God, Creator, Supreme Judge of the world, and Divine Providence. (Today? The Americans have declared Independence of the State from God.)

The Americans should be proud, but not happy.

I'm not proud, but I'm happy.

I see that we actually copied from the Americans. Note:

US Declaration of Independence:
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Philippine Declaration of Independence:
And imbued with firm confidence in Divine Providence, we hereby mutually bind ourselves to support this Declaration with our lives, our fortunes, and with our most sacred possession, our Honor.

Well! This is a revelation. It looks to me that we Filipinos in 1898 already could construct a sentence more powerful than the Americans did in 1776! The student had something to teach the teacher.

The Filipino Declaration begins with Divine Providence; the US begins with human resolve. Righteousness belongs to God; above all, God's will, not human will. Theirs is weak and ambiguous: "We mutually pledge to each other our Lives ..." Ours is strong and unambiguous: "We hereby mutually bind ourselves to support this Declaration with our lives ..." We were teaching Grammar & Composition to the Americans as early as 117 years ago! Not to mention Faith.

Notwithstanding, I still believe that the 4th of July 1945 is our true Independence Day and I thank the Americans also for English. Without that legacy, I wouldn't be here. I wouldn't be writing. I wouldn't be teaching Creative Writing. I wouldn't be blogging. I wouldn't be writing on ICRISAT, the #1 international center for agricultural research today. I wouldn't have published 6 books for ICRISAT. I wouldn't be writing now another book, this time for the alumni of my alma mater, the University of the Philippines Los Baños, to celebrate Loyalty Day. And I wouldn't be happy doing all those things.

Thank God - and the Americans - for English!

Gov,

Did you know that our beloved Hundred Islands now has shark-infested waters? That is the handiwork of the gentlemen in this photo.

Please investigate the matter of sharks roaming the waters of Hundred Islands, that inviting tourist spot in our beloved Pangasinan. I know the voters of Pangasinan love you because they just voted you into your 3rd term with another landslide victory; I also know you are very much concerned with the environment because you have courageously and successfully carried out the cleaning and dredging of the polluted bodies of water in the province and now I'm proud to say, as a native, that Pangasinan is clean and beautiful even as it grows in truth and in fact. (If you're reading this and you're not the Governor, just remember: Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country!)

I'm reading a piece of disquieting news that appears in one of the local community newspapers, the one named Northern Watch with the motto "Truth, Fairness and Courage" with Ms Yolanda Z Sotelo as Publisher & Editor, with offices in Tapuac District, Dagupan City. This news makes me a little worried. It's about sharks being released into the waters of Hundred Islands, in my beloved province.

Here is the complete news item that appears in the issue of 9-15 June 2013 of Northern Watch; it is a Page One caption story by Cesar Ramirez (a portion of the original image is shown above):

BACK TO THE WILD. Officials from the Manila Ocean Park (MOP), the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) and the city government of Alaminos release juvenile white-spotted bamboo sharks (Chiloscyllium plagiosium) at the Hundred Islands National Park last May 31. The activity is part of the MOP's Back to the Wild program. Bamboo sharks grow not more than a meter in length and feed mostly on small fish and bottom-dwelling invertebrates.

Those 72 words exactly match my age; I'm not worried about me, God is good, like I can type this without using reading glasses because still I have sharp eyes; it's the shark release that has me apprehensive about what will happen to Hundred Islands after that. I can't help it, but that piece of news makes me think now of the Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil in the middle of the Garden of Eden; you know the story about Adam and Eve, but those of you who have forgotten, let me remind you.

Adam & Eve were told not to partake of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, but Eve was tempted enough to disobey God. The release of those sharks is like biting into the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, in this case the Tree of Science, because those sharks are not native to the waters, and if I know my Science, those sharks will adversely affect the biodiversity of the body of water surrounding Hundred Islands.

Deliberately, above I used 2 of the most popular technical terms in the world of Science today: "adversely affect" and "biodiversity" just to let you know that, while I'm not a scientist, as a BS Agriculture graduate of UP Los Baños, a long-standing Editor of technical publications in agriculture, aquaculture and forestry, I should know whereof I speak. To put them in plain English, "adversely affect" means "to harm" or at the very least "to disturb," while "biodiversity" refers to the "variety of life" you find, from the smallest to the biggest, from those living in the bottom of the sea, to those living on top of trees on top of mountains, whether plant or animal or in-between (like the virus). The biodiversity of the Earth includes man, us.

Adam & Eve's eating of that forbidden fruit adversely affected their stay in the Garden of Eden: God kicked them out. I'm afraid those bamboo sharks will not simply kick out but eat out the other species in the earthly garden called Hundred Islands.

Truth, fairness and courage. The truth is, sharks will always be sharks. The Tagalogs call the white-spotted bamboo shark pating because it is a shark (flmnh.ufl.edu). If there was no study regarding the effect of the introduction of sharks into Hundred Islands, where is the fairness there? I'm writing this letter because I have the courage of my convictions.

Let me just talk about my anxiety regarding the variety of living organisms in the waters of Hundred Islands. The Northern Watch news item says, "Bamboo sharks grow not more than a meter in length and feed mostly on small fish and bottom-dwelling invertebrates." Shark or not, a 1-meter fish is a big fish; since this species "feed mostly on small fish," there will come a time when most of the fishes in Hundred Islands will be smaller than the shark, and what will happen to them? I know that we cannot do anything in business where the big fish swallows the small fish, or where the sharks abound in the economy, but we should be able to do something about this fish species that consume the smaller, helpless species in those waters. If economic life is beyond us, marine life should be within our control.

Note also that the bamboo sharks feed "mostly on small fish and bottom-dwelling invertebrates." One source is more specific; it says those sharks feed on small bottom fishes, cephalopods, shelled mollusks and crustaceans (omgsharks.com). And what are those cephalopods? Squids, cuttlefish, octopus. And what are those shelled mollusks? Snails and shellfish. And what are those crustaceans? Lobsters, crabs, shrimps. In other words, before we can catch our squid, snail, lobster, crab or shrimp, this shark has already caught them! I don't like sharks for dinner.

I am thinking here of the wipeout of the diverse marine life in the waters surrounding Hundred Islands. What will happen to the biodiversity? Will it not become a population of schools of sharks and nothing but sharks?

If I am right, the introduction of those sharks in Hundred Islands is contrary to the laws of biodiversity: You are introducing a non-native species that will disturb not only the habitat (the dwelling places) but more so the inhabitants (the dwellers) of the waters of Hundred Islands. Just because you think the bamboo sharks will attract more tourists, you are willing to sacrifice the other marine life that will become food for the species you want people to be happy watching and increase your income from visitors to the Pangasinan?

Not only that. I don't care how attractive those white-spotted bamboo sharks look like. Since these sharks are known to be favorite aquarium pets, you will make the waters of Hundred Islands attractive to poachers.

We do want to increase our tourism income but it cannot be at the expense of the environment, and certainly not at the expense of the multitude of aquatic life that Hundred Islands harbors today, don't we? The art of tourism cannot introduce the spectacle of cannibalism, because that's what those sharks are good at, aren't they? You cannot teach the cannibals to become lotus-eaters, can you? Cannibals eat other living things; if nothing is done, I'm afraid your cannibal will survive and the other species will not. Gov, we don't want Hundred Islands to turn into the Cannibal Hundred Islands, do we?

Sincerely your kailian,

Frank

Happy Birthday, Jose Rizal! Where are the youth who will consecrate their budding years and enthusiasm to the welfare of their country?

Wrong call! Now I know why Jose Rizal failed in his call for the Filipino youth to come to the aid of their country - he was too much of a dreamer, too idealistic, too much out of touch of the reality of his times. And so are we! We are the Lost Indios Bravos.

I have 1 last copy of my limited-edition book indios bravos! with the subtitle, Jose Rizal as Messiah of the Redemption. I published it in December 2005, all 186 pages of all, trim size 8.5" x 11" (you are looking at the cover, cropped.) My book is relevant even today because Jose Rizal is the failed Messiah of the Redemption. Because a hero cannot redeem us; we have to redeem ourselves! And we have not, so we are The Lost Indios Bravos. If not The Last.

Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III, our President Noynoy, in announcing that he was running after all after Mar Roxas gave way to him (see my "Noynoy's intent. Aquino's declaration, my translation," Frank A Hilario, 09 September 2009, blogspot.com), told the story of someone from Customs saying, when he heard that Noynoy was running for President, "Salamat naman at pwede na po muling mangarap." Thank you, we can dream again.

The trouble with us is that all these times we have only been dreaming!

We prescribe a contraceptive, close our prescription pad, and dream of a better Philippines.

We denounce the crooks in government, close our mouths, and dream of a better Philippines.

We talk on the air about abusive officials, close our programs, and dream of a better Philippines.

We write in abusive terms against the evildoers, close our computers, and dream of a better Philippines.

We condemn the politicians with the loudest voice in the bitterest terms, close our eyes, and dream of a better Philippines.

We email each other about the growing number of the poor and the over-population, sign out, close our computers, and dream of a better Philippines.

Dream, dream, dream! We are always dreaming like the Everly Brothers:

I can make you mine
Taste your lips of wine
Anytime night or day
Only trouble is, gee whiz
I'm dreamin' my life away!

Just like Jose Rizal, our National Hero. What did he say again through the mouth of PadreFlorentino?

Where are the youth who will consecrate their budding years, their idealism and enthusiasm to the welfare of their country?

That is an erroneous plea. Jose Rizal even talked about the youth being the beautiful hope of the fatherland. That is a mistake. The young don't know anything; they have nothing except their idealism, and that's the problem.

The young need the adults to guide them. And who will guide the adults? The Counsel of the Elders.

Where are the youth who will generously pour out their blood to wash away so much shame, so much crime, so much abomination?

Why does it have to be a bloody sacrifice? You cannot wash away your shame with blood; you can only redeem yourself. Nobody can do it for you.

Pure and spotless must the victim be, that the sacrifice may be acceptable!

That describes the original Messiah, Jesus Christ. But why do we need another Jesus Christ? Why should I be spotless first before I can make a sacrifice for my community, if not my country? If only the sinless can go and do good, all of us will be left behind!

Where are you, youth, who will embody in yourselves the vigor of life that has left our veins, the purity of ideas that has been contaminated in our hearts?

It's not only the youth that have vigor. I am 72, but I have more enthusiasm than a million of our youth. And I can walk faster than any of them too!

And no, it's not the purity of ideas that we need. It's the creativity that we must produce, and continuously.

And no, anti-this or anti-that is not enough.

We await you, O youth! Come, for we await you!

And while we wait, we twiddle our thumbs? Time and Tide wait for no man.

Let me now quote the very last lines of my Rizal book because they are relevant to the times, even 7 years after they had been published:

This book is my way of celebrating the birth and death of my newly[1] discovered hero. The heroic joy is mind. Are you with me? In his 18 August 1888 letter from London to Mariano Ponce, Rizal wrote: "I am very busy these days,. For I am working ad majorem Filipinas gloriam (to the greater glory of the Philippines)." Even Dr Octopus, the intellectual villain in Spiderman 2, has it right: "Intelligence is not a privilege but a gift. You have to use it for the benefit of mankind."

Ad majorem Filipinas gloriam. That was all I had planned from the start: This book is a call to greatness.[2]

A call to greatness through a book, a book? Enlighten me. Why not through an explosive? Of course, an explosive. A brilliant idea!

Enlightenment. What you have in your hand right now is explosive.[3]

The greater explosive. Of course. In Christopher Morley's The Haunted Bookshop (1951: 18), Roger Mifflin tells Gilbert:

"The world has been printing books for 450 years and yet gunpowder still has a wider circulation. Never mind! Printer's ink is the greater explosive. It will win."

I am rewriting this line on Good Friday, the 25th of March 2005, and I'm thinking: The Word was made flesh, and he dwelt amongst us, and we would never have known much had it not been for the written word. And his one call? To greatness.

So, let's get busy now.
Let the greatness begin!
And let it begin with me.
I am one of the undiscovered creative heroes.
And so are you!

[1] In that book, I wrote about 13 discoveries I made about the life & times, words and intents of Jose Rizal in his works and letters published by the National Historical Institute.

[2] I take it that Apo Frankie's (F Sionil Jose's) call is a call for richness. "We are poor because we have lost our ethical moorings, this in spite of those massive religious rallies of El Shaddai, those neo-gothic churches of the Iglesia ni Kristo sprouting all over the country, in spite of the nearly 400 years of Catholic evangelization" ("Revolution and the University of the Philippines," 2004, UP Online).

[3] I'm referring to the book that the reader is holding even as he reads it.

MANILA: Virgilio Almario, the Chair of the Commission on the Filipino Language (appointed by President Noynoy Aquino 30 April 2013) and a National Artist for Literature (selected 25 June 2003), perhaps doesn't know it yet, but certainly he will once he reads this:

There are clowns working for the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino today, and there's no affair being celebrated except being silly or ridiculous. Why, because the staff can't follow their own rules! And they pretend that the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF) is legitimate when it is just a shadow name of the Commission on the Filipino Language (CFL).

Now, let's find out who these clowns are. Smile when you read these, from the Komisyon's own website itself (kwf.gov.ph):

(1) Who is the clown who conceived of "Resound the Filipino Reason" as an essay-writing contest in Filipino (Tagalog) but the rules are written in English?!

The rules require that you write in that language, not English. Resound means to celebrate, to praise (American Heritage Dictionary). I can play with the English language at the flick of your finger, but I won't translate that one even in my own native tongue, Ilocano. I have better things to do.

(2) Who is the clown who conceived of "Resound the Filipino Reason" as an essay writing contest in Filipino but who didn't translate it into Filipino? It sounds funny I'd rather enjoy it than translate it!

(3) Actually, the clown did not translate "Resound the Filipino Reason" from English to Filipino because he couldn't. A loser knows when to quit.

(4) The contest rules are all in English! What's the matter - they ran out of translators, or Filipino? They could have tried an Ilocano. I remember that I was the first and only Tagalog Editor in a college organ (Aggie Green & Gold, University of the Philippines College of Agriculture, 1960s) who was an Ilocano.

(5) Who is the clown who declared the rule that they should not accept emails, only personal submissions or registered mail? That clown must be living in the Age of Dinosaurs (Giant Typewriters). "Entries sent via e-mail will not be accepted." Why, was that clown afraid the website (kwf.com) will be swamped with email entries coming in at the same time their computers will crash? (Deadline is today, by the way, 01 July 2013.)

(6) Who was the clown who declared the theme to be "Wika Natin ang Daang Matuwid" but who did not translate it? I shall now try: "Our Language as the Right Way." The right way to what?

(7) The clown's instruction says to use "a Literary History approach" - try translating that in Tagalog! And just when did the Filipinistas and the Tagalistas learn the literary historical approach!? That clown's hidden agenda is to discourage everyone from joining, because he knows in his heart it's a contest nobody can win.

(8) The contest "aims to sharpen, rekindle and further intellectualize the Filipino language." How can the Filipino language that clown is talking about be sharpened, rekindled and further intellectualized when it refuses to move on from Tagalog as the sole basis of the development of The Filipino Language? Like the carabao, it keeps wallowing in its own mud. And like the carabao, you have to whip it so it will move.

Forget those clowns in the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino. The KWF itself is no laughing matter: Virgilio Almario is the head of an institution that is unconstitutional as far as I can tell. What is provided for in the 1987 Constitution is the creation of the Commission on the Filipino Language (CFL), not the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF). On 14 August 1991, President Cory Aquino signed RA 7104, providing that the Act shall henceforth be known as the "Commission on the Filipino Language Act," and creating the CFL. In the Declaration of Policy, it mandated "the Government to ensure and promote the evolution, development and further enrichment of Filipino as the language of the Philippines, on the basis of existing Philippine and other languages."

The Board Members of the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino have violated their Constitutional mandate of developing the Filipino language instead of developing the Tagalog language, which they insist up to now. What do we do with violators of the Constitution? You decide. Meanwhile, I'll content myself with condemning them by paraphrasing the young Jose Rizal in his poem, "Sa Aking Mga Kabata" -

Ang sobrang magmahal sa sariling wika
Daig pa ang hayop at malansang isda!

Those who love their tongue too much
Are worse than a beast or smelly fish!

In violation of the Constitution, the first thing that the Commissioners of the Filipino Language did was translate the name of their office into Tagalog, pretending that this language is the sole basis of the Filipino language that needs to evolve.

Benefit of the doubt, if they had to translate the name, why did those Commissioners have to use the exclusive "Wika" and not the word "Salita" such as "Komisyon sa Salitang Filipino" because it sounds almost exactly and means exactly like the Ilocano word "sarita" (sarita in Ilocano also means "short story") - that would be following the Constitutional mandate of enriching Filipino "on the basis of existing Philippine and other languages." What's the matter with the Tagalogs: They don't want the Ilocanos to the contribute to the enrichment of the national language? Or are they afraid that the Ilocano language is richer than the Tagalog language?

And since we are at it, if we follow the right path according to the Constitution, "Wikang Pambansa" should be something like "Salitang Nasyon ng Filipino" because most Filipinos understand "nasyon" and in fact is already in their psyche. Yes, you actually knew it: Nacion-alista means nation-alist.

In another matter, about the names "Philippines" and "Pilipinas" for our country, Mr Almario wants them both changed to "Filipinas," arguing that "it is preposterous that citizens known to the world as the Philippines are called 'Filipinos'" (Kim Arveen Patria, 30 June 2013, ph.news.yahoo.com). You mean, Mr Almario, you haven't heard that those who live in the land of the free and the home of the brave love to be called Americans and they like to call their country the United States!? Shall we call them instead United Statesmen? I'm sure the women will object.

In fact, the resolution to change the names "Philippines" and "Pilipinas" in government documents was declared in the "Kapasiyahan ng Kalupunan ng mga Komisyoner Blg 13-19 Serye ng 2013" (Decision of the Board of Commissioners), and this refers to "pagbabalik ng gamit ng "Filipinas" habang pinipigil ang paggamit ng "Pilipinas" (the return to the use of "Filipinas" even as the use of "Pilipinas" is being stopped) (Paterno Esmaquel II, 30 June 2013, rappler.com). Again, let me point out that this resolution, never mind translating it, is illegal if not unconstitutional because it was signed only by a minority, consisting of Chair Virgilio S Almario, Commissioner Abdon M Balde Jr and Commissioner John E Barrios, when RA 7104 states that there should be 11 commissioners: Where are the others? No matter how eminent all those 3 commissioners may be, their action is questionable, to put it mildly. Is it that the majority of the members of the Commission don't agree with the Chair?

If I remember right Robert's Rules of Order that I learned as an officer (PRO) of the Future Farmers of the Philippines at the University of the Philippines College of Agriculture, no body but no body can pass a resolution with less than one-third of its members present or signing. Lack of quorum, lack of consensus, you name it.

All your Commissioners know that you, Mr Almario, are a National Artist for Literature and if indeed all of them support you in this, all the more this is a Dictatorship of the Proliterati!

MANILA: Ted Laguatan asked for it.

I didn't learn about it until today, by email. He asked those who agreed with him to eblast his column "Adding insult to injury: UP College named after Marcos’ Prime Minister" that appears in the 30 June 2013 online issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer (globalnation.inquirer.net). He didn't ask for the opinion of those who disagreed with him, so I'm giving him. An Ilocano, I have always been an original aboriginal.

Ted Laguatan, another Ilocano, is a lawyer who states categorically that he is "honored by the California State Bar as one of the best Immigration Law lawyers in the United States" (you find that at the end of his column). I will honor him by disagreeing with him without being disagreeable. I mean, I will avoid logical liabilities (my coinage); I will not quote and you will not see any logical fallacies here as much as I can see them.

Ted Laguatan's diatribe, to put it nicely, is all of 3,216 words including the title, byline and his request to eblast him (my response is only 1,326 words). But the Editor in me sees that we can all see where he's coming from in 109 words that all come from him:

As Prime Minister, Cesar Virata played the role of both politician and top technocrat in the Marcos government bureaucracy. He was installed as Prime Minister by Marcos in 1981 and stayed on until Marcos was toppled in 1986. He held this position concurrent with his position of Finance Secretary, which he held since 1970.

His time in these offices was marked by some economic advances but more failures as a matter of record. But his success or failure as an economic Tsar, his academic achievements and his mild-mannered countenance - are not the issues discussed here. The issue is his long-term participation and collaboration with [the Marcos] regime.

Ignoring Laguatan's attack, ad hominem, non sequitur and begging the question, with [the Marcos] as my edited Laguatan, I'm rewriting his last sentence as the essential issue:

Virata's long-term participation and collaboration with the Marcos dictatorship.

I said dictatorship, didn't I? Be careful with your name-calling, Frank A Hilario. I am careful. Karl Marx was for the dictatorship of the proletariat; I am for the dictatorship of the proliterati (see also my "Virgilio Almario, isn't that Dictatorship of the Proliterati?" 01 July 2013, Frank A Hilario, blogspot.com). I write to encourage Creative Thinking. I write for those who think for those who don't. So, be careful when you say long words like "collaboration"when I'm around!

In January 2009, I finished a book, Vanguards In War, Vanguards For Peace (205 pages, 97% text, unpublished), where I devoted 2 chapters on General Macario "Mac" Peralta, the Ilocano Hero for General MacArthur's defeat of the Japanese fleet in the Battle of Leyte, and who later became a Senator. I call him Chairman Mac; I say he reinvented and succeeded more in guerrilla warfare than your Chairman Mao (wait till someone volunteers to publish my book).

My research on Chairman Mac brought me to a book, courtesy of Mac's brother Diosdado, who was introduced to me by Jerry Quibilan, another Ilocano; the book is authored by Gamaliel I Manikan and published in 1977, Guerrilla Warfare On Panay Island In The Philippines (756 pages, excluding appendices). There I found, among other things, that Panay Governor Tomas Confesor, Bisaya, was a necessary & valuable collaborator. The great Asian thinker of The Art Of War Chairman Mac thought that first, not me; I now quote from my own book (page 29); the page numbers mentioned below are those of Manikan's book.

Start of quote:

The role of the civilian population was crucial to the whole resistance movement. Mac referred to this as "effective control," meaning, "at its best, that the civilians will voluntarily give moral and material support to the resistance movement as a matter of personal conviction, to the extent that they will risk their lives" (p55). Mac said, "The safe assumption to take was that the enemy action would be governed by the same realization that victory is, first and foremost, a race for the people's mind, their sympathies and, if possible, their loyalty" (p56).

In war, the bandits & lawless take advantage of the unwary, and the traitors to the cause take advantage of everyone. That is why a rebel civil government is necessary. That is why they needed the full cooperation of Governor Tomas Confesor and the other provincial officials.

That's how they survived.

End of quote.

That is how to look at the long-term participation and collaboration of Cesar Virata with the Marcos dictatorship.

There's more. Well into the Martial Law years, from the mid-70s to the mid-80s, I was working for government. I was collaborating with the political dictatorship of Ferdinand Edralin Marcos. And so were they, the ones I am familiar with:

Joseph Madamba
Abelardo G Samonte
Santiago R Obien
Emil Q Javier
Filiberto S Pollisco

Joseph Madamba, an Ilocano, was the first UP Los Baños scientist and leader who saw the collaborative opportunity and, acting on insight, drafted a law that Marcos signed as a presidential decree, and this created the Philippine Council for Agriculture (PCAR). This one has since metamorphosed into the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic & Natural Resources Research & Development, but PCAARRD has the same essential function as PCAR: manage the research & development efforts of government institutions in the broad area of agriculture & related fields. Should we call Madamba a traitor and call for the abolition of PCAARRD because it is the product of collaboration with the Marcos dictatorship?

Abelardo Samonte, another Ilocano, was the first Chancellor of UP Los Baños. I don't know them, males certainly, those people collaborated with Marcos, so he signed the decree elevating the Cow College called UP College of Agriculture into a University. Should we revert UPLB to UPCA because it is the offspring of a lesbian relationship?

Santiago Obien, still another Ilocano, was the first Director of the Philippine Tobacco Research & Training Center. It was he who drafted the decree that created the PTRTC. Should we then condemn Obien as a collaborator? It was this center that saved the tobacco industry when the industry of tobacco was drying up!

Emil Javier, a Tagalog, succeeded Samonte as Chancellor when the Ilocano died suddenly in office. Javier had earlier been the Secretary of Science, being the Director General of the National Science & Technology Authority where I also worked as assistant to Deputy Director General Dominador O Reyes. So, Javier was guilty as a double collaborator of Marcos? And I was an underling of a collaborator of a collaborator of Marcos?

Filiberto Pollisco, a Chavacano, was one of those who drafted the presidential decree signed by Marcos creating the Forest Research Institute. And since I was working under Pollisco as the Chief Information Officer of FORI, I was collaborating with him who was collaborating with Marcos, so I was collaborating with Marcos. Of course I was! And quite proud of it.

If I did not collaborate with Pollisco who was collaborating with Marcos, I might have gone underground and I would not have founded and edited 3 regular publications that catapulted FORI into the national and international limelights:Canopy (monthly newsletter), Sylvatrop (quarterly technical journal), and Habitat (quarterly color magazine, which I patterned after the National Geographic). With FORI, I was working on those publications from April 1975 to June 1981, all for forest conservation. Collaborating like a zealot, essentially a one-man-band, in the Age of Dinosaurs (Giant Typewriters), typing all my manuscripts all by myself even at night, later with an IBM Selectric III, a great many times sleeping on piles of books in Hiyas Printing Press without pillow or blanket, without extra-curricular activities, without fear or favor, I was never late in any issue.

Collaboration never felt so good!

MANILA: Mr Tiglao has been raising hell about it. This is all about the renaming by the UP Board of Regents on 12 April 2013 of UP Diliman's "College of Business Administration" into "Cesar EA Virata School of Business" (see "UP-CBA Renamed to Cesar EA Virata School of Business," cba.upd.edu.ph).

This is all about accuracy. So, careful now; to say that college is the University of the Philippines' is wrong; to be accurate, it is UP Diliman's, as UP Diliman is not the UP System but only an autonomous part of it. One speaks of a Diliman Republic; that's just UP Diliman. The University of the Philippines is composed of many universities, including UP Manila, UP Mindanao, and UP Los Baños, of which I am an alumnus. "UP-CBA" is wrong, of course. A similar error of attribution, "University of the Philippines' College of Business Administration" is found in Mr Tiglao's column who hates errors of fact. And me? I will point out the fact that I'm not perfect, but I expect you to be!

Perceiving one error of fact stated by the College of Business Administration Dean Ben Paul Gutierrez, here comes Manila Times columnist Rigoberto Tiglao punching and punishing him with 1,054 words, including the Editor's '[expletive deleted]" and "[expletives deleted]" - and that's in only 1 column ("UP business dean academically incompetent," 02 July 2013, manilatimes.net). It is easier to hate and write, but it is better to love - or keep your mouth shut!

I had high regards for Mr Tiglao before this. Competent author or not, if you can't control your wrath, you can't control your words. Man created words; God created love - I'll save on words, but I will not save on love.

And by the way, Mr Tiglao, the name is not Ben Paul Guiterrez as you spelled that name the first time in your column, 2nd sentence; it's Gutierrez, the i after t, not the i before t. I can explain that error by way of computer language, that of word processing. You have not been using your Spelling Checker, Mr Tiglao. To avoid an occasion of embarrassment such as this, there's nothing to it: If you're using Microsoft Word, simply press the F7 key (to check Spelling & Grammar). And you will benefit more if you learn Autocorrect. And no, one mistake like that and I will not call proof of incompetence on your part. I will give you the benefit of the doubt.

Just like I will give Dean Gutierrez the benefit of the doubt. I'm not going to call proof of incompetence on the part of this UP Dean whose letter of 15 March 2013 to the UP Board of Regents you quoted in part in your earlier column ("UP Dean lies to honor Virata" (06 June 2013, manilatimes.net) as follows:

"The naming of a business school after a distinguished person is widespread in American universities, eg, George Baker Graduate School of Business of Harvard, the Haas School of Business of the University of California in Berkeley, the Booth School of Business of the University of Chicago, the Wharton School of Finance, and the Sloan School of Management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

There are 5 schools Dean Gutierrez mentioned in that letter you quoted, but you chose to harangue him on only the first. That's called selective perception. And then you said that he got the idea merely from a caption in that school's website, and that it read:

The eighty-seven-year-old George F Baker presented Harvard President A Lawrence Lowell with the keys to the School - officially named the "Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, George F Baker Foundation"

And then you said, "Gutierrez' incompetence as an academic is that he took at face value a claim, that caption - which was erroneous. The keys were not to the business school, but to the building! No other Harvard document or report says that that was the official name of Harvard's business school."

Now, now, Mr Tiglao, as Editor of publications (and theses) of long standing, 38 years to be sure, I myself will read in that caption the name of the school as "Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, George F Baker Foundation" because that's plainly stated there - "the keys to the School - officially named ..." If the caption is wrong, that's not the fault of Dean Gutierrez but Harvard University! There must be proper attribution here.

Granting without conceding that it was error, that in fact was a minor disaster, but which you turned into a catastrophe with your great floodwave of words. I will refer to it as uncontrolled impertinence on your part.

On the part of Dean Gutierrez, I will refer to it as competence, that is to say, your label of incompetence on him is entirely inexpedient. In plain & simple English, Mr Tiglao: You're wrong!

To concede, how do I move you? Let me count the ways:

(1) You're wrong, Mr Tiglao; Dean Gutierrez is competent and reliable. There is a Haas School of Business at the University of California in Berkeley; you can visit it here: haas.berkeley.edu. I can't find a good reason if you did not check it out yourself. Judgment based on flimsy evidence is simply unacceptable.

(2) You're incorrect, Mr Tiglao; Dean Gutierrez is competent and consistent. There is a Booth School of Business of the University of Chicago; you can visit it here: chicagobooth.edu. I can't find a decent reason if you did not check it out yourself. Judgment based on fragile evidence is simply undesirable.

(3) You're mistaken, Mr Tiglao; Dean Gutierrez is competent and trustworthy. There is a Wharton School of Finance; you can visit it here: finance.wharton.upenn.edu. I can't find a virtuous reason if you did not check it out yourself. Judgment based on weak evidence is simply objectionable.

(4) You're inaccurate, Mr Tiglao; Dean Gutierrez is competent and dependable. There is a Sloan School of Management at MIT; you can visit it here: mitsloan.mit.edu. I can't find a blameless reason if you did not check it out yourself. Judgment based on thin evidence is simply deplorable.

Mr Tiglao, all this has been lessons in anger management and error management. As journalists, we don't need to attend any school of business to learn those. As Christians, it is your business as it is mine.

A sentimental open letter from an American teacher to the Filipino people. David H Harwell is a former Professor and Assistant Dean in the United States who now travels and works abroad designing language training programs. He is a published author and a son of a retired news editor.

David H Harwell, PhD

I am writing to thank Filipinos for the way you have treated me here, and to pass on a lesson I learned from observing the differences between your culture and mine over the years.

I am an expatriate worker. I refer to myself as an OAW, an overseas American worker, as a bad joke. The work I do involves a lot of traveling and changing locations, and I do it alone, without family. I have been in 21 countries now, not including my own. It was fun at first. Now, many years later, I am getting tired. The Philippines remains my favorite country of all, though, and I’d like to tell you why before I have to go away again.

I have lived for short periods here, traveled here, and have family and friends here. My own family of origin in the United States is like that of many Americans - not much of a family. Americans do not stay very close to their families, geographically or emotionally, and that is a major mistake. I have long been looking for a home and a family, and the Philippines is the only place I have lived where people honestly seem to understand how important their families are.

I am American and hard-headed. I am a teacher, but it takes me a long time to learn some things. But I’ve been trying, and your culture has been patient in trying to teach me.

In the countries where I’ve lived and worked, all over the Middle East and Asia, it is Filipinos who do all the work and make everything happen. When I am working in a new company abroad, I seek out the Filipino staff when I need help getting something done, and done right. Your international reputation as employees is that you work hard, don’t complain, and are very capable. If all the Filipinos were to go home from the Middle East, the world would stop. Oil is the lifeblood of the world, but without Filipinos, the oil will not come from the ground, it will not be loaded onto the ships, and the ships will not sail. The offices that make the deals and collect the payments will not even open in the morning. The schools will not have teachers, and, of course, the hospitals will have no staff.

What I have seen, that many of you have not seen, is how your family members, the ones who are overseas Filipino workers, do not tell you much about how hard their lives actually are. OFWs are very often mistreated in other countries, at work and in their personal lives. You probably have not heard much about how they do all the work but are severely underpaid, because they know that the money they are earning must be sent home to you, who depend on them. The OFWs are very strong people, perhaps the strongest I have ever seen. They have their pictures taken in front of nice shops and locations to post on Facebook so that you won’t worry about them. But every Pinoy I have ever met abroad misses his/her family very, very much.

I often pity those of you who go to America. You see pictures of their houses and cars, but not what it took to get those things. We have nice things, too many things, in America, but we take on an incredible debt to get them, and the debt is lifelong. America’s economy is based on debt. Very rarely is a house, car, nice piece of clothing, electronic appliance, and often even food, paid for. We get them with credit, and this debt will take all of our lifetime to pay. That burden is true for anyone in America - the OFWs, those who are married to Americans, and the Americans themselves.

Most of us allow the American Dream to become the American Trap. Some of you who go there make it back home, but you give up most of your lives before you do. Some of you who go there learn the very bad American habits of wanting too many things in your hands, and the result is that you live only to work, instead of working only to live. The things we own actually own us. That is the great mistake we Americans make in our lives. We live only to work, and we work only to buy more things that we don’t need. We lose our lives in the process.

I have sometimes tried to explain it like this: In America, our hands are full, but our hearts are empty.

You have many problems here, I understand that. Americans worry about having new cars, Filipinos worry about having enough food to eat. That’s an enormous difference. But do not envy us, because we should learn something from you. What I see is that even when your hands are empty, your hearts remain full.

I have many privileges in the countries where I work, because I am an expat. I do not deserve these things, but I have them. However, in every country I visit, I see that you are there also, taking care of your families, friends, bosses, and coworkers first, and yourselves last. And you have always taken care of me, in this country and in every other place where I have been.

These are places where I have been very alone, very tired, very hungry, and very worried, but there have always been Filipinos in my offices, in the shops, in the restaurants, in the hospitals, everywhere, who smile at and take good care of me. I always try to let you know that I have lived and traveled in the Philippines and how much I like your country. I know that behind those smiles of yours, here and abroad, are many worries and problems.

Please know that at least one of us expats has seen what you do for others and understands that you have a story behind your smiles. Know that at least one of us admires you, respects you, and thanks you for your sacrifices. Salamat po. Ingat lagi. Mahal ko kayong lahat.

July 1, 2013 at 10:27 PM

MANILA: 4th of July 2013. As I note that SciDev.Net has reinvented itself, I see that the science journalists don't see eye to eye with science communicators, despite the editorial (see image). A lover's quarrel. And I have a different problem: I can't tell right now whether I'm a science journalist or a science communicator!

I registered for weekly emails from SciDev.Net on 27 November 2007 at the instance when ICRISAT Director General William Dar requested SciDev.Net to forward the details of the ICRISAT-based article "Crop research 'must switch to climate adaptation'" to several people, including me, because I write on ICRISAT science.

Since 2007, SciDev.Net has switched and tried to adapt to different climates in its work as media in the universe of science for development.

Differently, I started consulting with International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics in February 2007, and I have never changed my science writer's view of ICRISAT, based on the Institute's own mantra: "Science with a human face." My own slogan is, "Thinking science globally, writing science locally." You can visit my dedicated blog if you wish, iCRiSAT Watch, blogspot.com. For the last 7 years, I have been happy just writing without having to worry about labels, whether I was doing Journalism or Communication, so that now I have a collection of at least 1,500 essays of at least 1,000 words each written on diverse topics ranging from Adaptation to Creative Writing to Mass Media to Partnerships to Watersheds to Zimbabwe (visit my one-stop-shop blog The Creattitudes Encyclopedia, blogspot.com).

With the new SciDev.Net, now I have to determine for myself whether I am a science journalist or a science communicator if I am to follow the logic of that network.

Actually, I have noticed that SciDev has undergone at least 2 transformations and presented itself in 2 different incarnations since that time it came to my attention.

On 19 December 2007, the SciDev tagline was this:

SciDev.Net is the leading electronic source of free news and commentary about science, technology and innovation in the developing world.

I interpret that to say SciDev is the #1 electronic medium for free news and views on new knowledge in the Third World.

Less than 2 years later, on 10 August 2009, SciDev.Net was still "Science & Development Network," but the tagline had changed to this:

News, views and information about science, technology and the developing world.

There is no essential difference between the old and new taglines, but I note that the words "leading" and "free" and "innovation" are gone. SciDev.Net had lost its leading edge; it was no longer focusing on innovation; and it was no longer free?

On 04 July 2013, the American Independence Day, the day I received my weekly SciDev.Net email again after more than a year of drought (I guess SciDev.Net was restructuring all that time), "Science & Development Network" was gone and the tagline was changed again and became (image):

Bringing science and development together through news and analysis.

Nice, but now, that is a big paradigm shift if ever I saw one. Inadvertently, it contains a radical reinvention of the role of science journalism, because I believe that, instead, the proper role of public and private science agencies is "bringing science and development together," and that the proper role science journalists should be playing is, to borrow from the SciDev tagline:

Bringing news and analysis on science and development together.

Now that I've restated the SciDev tagline that way, I think that this is what separates the men (science journalists) from the boys (science communicators): Most science journalists take "analysis" as mostly criticizing; and these journalists think most science communicators take "analysis" as mostly approving.

So, I'm not surprised that there is a funding crisis for science journalism, as SciDev and some science correspondents saw and discussed in their 23 April 2013 London pre-world conference meeting, as they wanted the 24-28 June 2013 World Conference of Science Journalists (WCSJ) in Helsinki, Finland to create plans for resolving it (Imogen Mathers, 26 April 2013, scidev.net).

If my interpretation is right, their wish did not come true. The final statement of that Helsinki Conference, all 282 words of it, did not include any plan to resolve any funding crisis; instead, it pushed the journalists and communicators to talk to each other and agree to work as one (wcsj2013.org):

The momentum of quality science journalism is stronger than ever before, and the global community of science journalists and communicators can work together to create new models of science journalism that cross national borders in this digitally connected world.

With the Internet, it's easy "to create new models of science journalism." Modesty aside, I have been trying to create one since 2007. But you have to set your heart to it. And you cannot do it if you do not reinvent yourself from being the journalist or communicator that you are now.

So, the WCSJ naturally favors its own kind, the science journalists, and merely acknowledges the presence of the science communicators. I take it that it is urging the communicators to work with the journalists to come up with better media outputs in the field of journalism, not communication. The Statement in fact started by pointing out the exceptional role of journalism as science is applied to work for global and national development:

1. Unique role of Science Journalism

Global social, economic and environmental wellbeing relies upon knowledge-based societies. Scientific evidence fosters many solutions to the grand challenges facing our vulnerable world. Science journalists have a unique role to play in examining that evidence and communicating changing science and its implications for society at large.

The WCSJ is saying that while science is applied for development, its impact on society must be examined by science journalists, after which they must communicate their findings to the people.

Different audiences and the general public as a whole need high-quality, independent science journalism that thoughtfully analyzes research and puts it into the larger societal perspective.

High-quality, independent science journalists? What the WCSJ is referring to are the investigative science journalists. In other words, science journalists are supposed to investigate new sets of knowledge such as in health, the environment, and technology, and broadcast to the world the implications that they understand of those, especially what they come to consider as the negative implications. In investigative science journalism, forewarned is forearmed.

Here comes Kaz Janowski, the new Editor of SciDev.Net insisting on the dichotomy with his editorial entitled, "Science journalism and communication make a good match" (10 May 2013, scidev.net), from which webpage I captured the image shown above. He doesn't really discuss how to create A Match Made in Heaven.

In his editorial, Janowski says about what President of the Association of British Science Writers Connie St Louis and WCSJ panelists say about that dichotomy:

St Louis sees a tension between what she calls true science journalism and science communication. As Pallab Ghosh, a BBC science correspondent and another panelist at the event, said, the job of science journalists is to ask awkward questions, not to act as translators of or cheerleaders for science.

If Ghosh is saying that science journalists say what they want to say, while science communicators say what their employers want them to say, I take that not only as an affront but a misunderstanding of the role of purveyors of science news and views. There are hacks and there are paid hacks everywhere.

I know. It's easier to ask an embarrassing question like "Why do you say Bt eggplant is safe for human consumption?" than an enlightening question like "What are the choices other than growing the Bt eggplant?" As a science writer, I like to ask questions that make people think better, not bitter.

Similarly, do science journalists think that science communicators merely behave as praise releasers? The trouble with science journalists arises when they are too learned, when they know everything and assume that the object of their investigative journalism is not telling the truth. The trouble with science journalists is when they focus on being negative and not being positive, when they focus on destructing.

Imogen Mathers is concerned about "the challenge of funding public interest and investigative science journalism, amid the crisis in traditional print media and a decline in the number of specialist science reporters" (26 April 2013, scidev.net). In other words, there is a drought in funding investigative science journalism.

Now, now, why should investigative science journalists be surprised that funding for science journalism is being visited by a drought? Why should they expect the ones they investigate to advocate for them?

They don't realize that the very problem lies in what they're doing: investigative science journalism? In other words, they want to propagate critical science journalism and yet they want public science, private science, science associations and their supporters to nurture them. If I see that you bite the hand that feeds you, why should I go on and offer you more fodder?

Perhaps, Janowski refers to science staff journalists when he says "science communicators" and media staff journalists when he says "science journalists." In that sense, presumably, one works for private interest, the other for public welfare. The communicators try to serve their patrons, the journalists try to serve the people. If that is their view, I say the science journalists regard themselves too highly for their own good!

To summarize:

Their science journalist is a fault-finder; my science communicator is a strength-seeker, not simply a translator or a cheerleader, and I prefer it that way. Ah, it is as if science journalists prefer to make enemies, and science communicators prefer to make friends. Now then, as my iCRiSAT Watch essays show, you can call me a science communicator anytime!

At this point, I will leave those boys to their critical investigative science journalism and I will continue with my creative investigative science journalism, an example of which I have just shown - this essay itself. The moving finger writes, and having writ, moves on, to instruct. I prefer to construct; occasionally, I intend to distract, never destruct.

MANILA: Re-elected Senator Antonio Trillanes wants a 2-year government-funded study of whether or not to relocate the Philippine capital from Manila. He doesn't know it yet, but I can give him a quick study right now, free.

Trillanes has filed Senate Bill 655 to create a National Commission "to determine if there is a need to retain Manila as Philippine capital" (Rio Rose Ribaya, 12 July 2013, ph.news.yahoo.com). Trillanes says (with little editing):

Metro Manila is a capital that can hardly stand proud in the ranks of national capitals throughout the world. To administer better government transactions, as well as spur development in other areas of the country, it is high time to study comprehensively the potential of relocating and transferring the national capital and permanent seat of the national government of the country from the City of Manila and the National Capital Region.

Trillanes notes that the City of Manila lacks "proper urban planning" and this is manifested in its "antiquated drainage systems, and traffic gridlocks" that have been noticeable since 1976. Compounding the situation is the air heavy with pollutants and the ground heavy with squatters, leaving Manila "a place with only a little space for development." He understands that national capitals "occupy a commanding position in the stature and development of nations, standing as symbols of pride or vehicles for national progress," and he does not see this in the City of Manila.

He is proposing an ad hoc National Capital Commission for Capital Relocation to undertake a feasibility study on the matter. Trillanes hopes that the work of the Commission will be finished in 2 years.

Me? I can't wait that long. Should the government move the Philippine capital? Without the benefit of a feasibility study, I say, yes, right away! Now, from A to Z, let me examine each town or city and why we should make it as the next capital and at the same time learn some other lessons in development.

Let's move the Philippine capital to:

(1) Point A, Alaminos City in Pangasinan, so that we can observe every day how the white-spotted bamboo sharks introduced to the waters of the Hundred Islands are eating away all those living creatures below the surface. Those sharks were released by the Bureau of Fisheries & Aquatic Resources and the City Government on 31 May 2013. These sharks are beautiful creatures; they also eat the local smaller marine species. Good for tourism. So we can learn from the BFAR and the City Mayor how to mind more the tourists than the locals. And soon there will be more sharks in the waters than on land.

(2) Or Point B, Baguio City in Benguet, so that we can learn from the City Mayor and the village leaders how to allow squatters to destroy a beautiful city on the mountains. While the Rape of the City is going on, what do we do? We celebrate every February with a flower festival, the Panagbenga, in which we can see that there are more flowers dancing on the streets than swaying on the hillsides of Baguio City.

(3) Or Point C, Calamba City, because that's the birthplace of our National Hero Jose Rizal, and that will remind us to limit the candidates for government offices to those who are 35 years or younger, because Rizal said the youth are the hope of the fatherland. Why, because we the elders are hopeless.

(4) Or Point D, Dapitan in Mindanao, so that we can learn to be businessmen like the National Hero Jose Rizal, who had no idle moments even while he was in exile from his native Calamba. Adversity is not an excuse for idleness. There are no mediocre opportunities, only mediocre thinking.

(5) Or Point E, El Nido in Palawan, so that we can appreciate the beauty that natural gas can do for the country, and the undisturbed sea and mountain sceneries. This is also to keep reminding us not to rely on our political leaders because what comes out from them is mostly gas.

(6) Or Point F, Famy in Laguna, which is close to Real in Quezon Province, which is where the UP Land Grant is located and remain largely undeveloped, despite the fact that the grant was given in 1939 yet. This is to remind us that UP Los Baños is more theory and less practice. This is an alumnus speaking.

(7) Or Point G, Gregorio del Pilar in Ilocos Sur, so that we will learn how to sacrifice even ourselves for the sake of the country. What did this Ilocano say at the point of death? "I regret I have only one life to offer my country." I regret I have only one pen to offer my country.

(8) Or Point H, Hadji Muhammad Ajul in Basilan, so that we can learn what our brother Muslims need to develop their towns and cities. We should not presume to know. They should not presume to know either, unless they have a Vision for everyone.

(9) Or Point I, Iloilo City, so that we will learn that we need collaborators in the fight for independence as well as the fight for economic justice. It was General Macario Peralta who advocated that Iloilo Governor Tomas Confesor collaborate with the Japanese for the sake of the guerrilla movement. Thus, Peralta's Guerrillas disabled the Japanese army and cleaned up enough parts of the Visayas for the defeat by the American fleet of the Japanese fleet in the Battle of Leyte. There are bad collaborators and good collaborators.

(10) Or Point J, Jalajala in Rizal, so that we will learn to appreciate how to conserve the largest freshwater lake in the Philippines, Laguna Lake, Jalajala being in the middle of it. With the capital in Jalajala, everyone will see every day materials from wastewaters coming from factories and homes, more so from homes. We will learn that bad habits begin at home.

(11) Or Point K, Kalibo in Aklan, so that we will learn that we must be original in our festivities and not simply copy from the popular festivals abroad, especially the United States' Mardi Gras, and then copy from each other. Why, even our tourist slogans are copies from abroad!

(12) Or Point L, Los Baños in Laguna, so that we will learn that the distinguished University of the Philippines Los Baños is hardly ever consulted or hardly volunteers its science to formulate policies for government involving agriculture for development. If UP Los Baños is so good, why isn't any government agency consulting it institutionally?

(13) Or Point M, Maguindanao, so that we can all easily visit the common grave of the 58 victims of an election-related massacre in November 2009 that included the wife of a would-be candidate for Governor of Maguindanao, his 2 sisters, journalists, lawyers, aides, and motorists. If you can't fight the enemy, eliminate him?

(14) Or Point N, Naga City, so that we can learn from Mayor Jesse Robredo how to propagate local autonomy as well as generate a system of transparency and accountability. Under Robredo, Naga City became one of the Most Improved Cities in Asia (Asiaweek, 1999). If we don't learn from Robredo, then we're only paying lip service to the people or not paying attention.

(15) Or Point O, Obando in Bulacan, so what we can learn to dance and pray for fertility, but we also have to take good care of our bodies and our souls. If we want miracles, we have to sweat them out.

(16) Or Point P, Puerto Princesa City, so that we will learn how to conserve our virgin forests and natural wonders like the underground river. You need only one hardheaded, headstrong local official like Edward Hagedorn to start it all. It's political will, and it starts with one man (embracing woman), and that could be you.

(17) Or Point Q, back to Quezon City, because that's where the University of the Philippines Diliman is located, and UP Diliman knows everything, including how to increase tuition fees and how to curb the population explosion of the country, a problem that they themselves defined in the first place.

(18) Or Point R, Roxas City, so that we can again blame President Manuel Roxas for consenting to the establishment of US military bases in the Philippines, which is a good alibi for Filipinos not thinking beyond exporting raw materials like sugar and logs. Pointing with the finger is easier than working with the hands.

(19) Or Point S, San Mateo in Isabela, where the Philippine Rice Research Institute has a station, where we can learn that hybrid rice is a much more profitable business than certified rice, but we still have to ensure that the farmers stop being victims of usurers and unscrupulous middlemen.

(20) Or Point T, Taguig City, where we can all learn to transform a grassland into a global city. Taguig is where the Department of Science & Technology headquarters has been located for years, and yet it is business that developed the place and science had nothing to do with it. Science should be participative, not bureaucratic.

(21) Or Point U, Urdaneta City, so that we can learn that the livestock market is, as most markets in the Philippines are, controlled by middlemen who are always the winners and the producers are always the losers. The man in the middle has always been a villain.

(22) Or Point V, Vigan City in Ilocos Sur, so that we will learn more about tobacco, and that it is not tobacco that causes cancer but a weakened immune system. If you get sick, don't blame it on the smoke, blame it on the smoker.

(23) Or Point W, Waterlogged Candaba Swamp, so that we will learn to cope with too much water at the wrong time, as well as too many fish pens at the wrong places. Mother Nature we can forgive, but not man's nature to be selfish.

(24) Or Point X, eXtreme Chemical Agriculture Asingan in Pangasinan, my hometown, where they have been over-fertilizing and over-spraying pesticides in the last 50 years so much so that the eggplants and tomatoes would grow but they would invariably be attacked by pests. When I was a boy, Asingan was the vegetable bowl of Pangasinan.

(25) Or Point Y, Young Aurora Pacific Economic Zone (2007), so that we will learn that not in every seacoast can we find a good port, and not every good port can be commercial.

(26) Or Point Z, Zamboanga City, so that if the poor remain poorer and the rich richer, we can always enjoy a beautiful city that has kept its Hispanic influences, including Roman Catholicism with its worldview. We can always go mountain climbing, biking, water tubing, island hopping ... And we can always visit the pink sand in Santa Cruz Grande Island, watch the colorful vintas, look around the City of Flowers, and pray for the intercession of Our Lady of the Ransom!