Thursday, December 26, 2013

10 CNN Heroes of 2013 - the everyday heroes of humanity. .

The everyday heroes of humanity   
Comments by Dr Abe V Rotor 
Chad Pregracke, CNN Hero of the year  
Philippine Environmentalists 
Pregracke, 38, grew up in East Moline, Illinois, where the Mississippi River was in his backyard. As a teenager, he worked as a commercial shell diver and began to notice the heaps of debris in the fabled waterway, which supplies drinking water to 18 million people in more than 50 U.S. cities.
"I saw thousands of barrels, thousands of tires, cars, trucks and tops of school buses. ... I got sick of seeing it and just wanted to do something about it," said Pregracke, whom some have called "the rivers' garbageman."
For nine months out of the year, Pregracke lives on a barge with members of his 12-person crew. They go around the country with a fleet of boats, and they try to make cleanup fun for the volunteers who show up in each city.
They use skits, music and mock motivational speeches to get the volunteers amped up, and sometimes they even do a little karaoke. Teams also compete to see who can find the "best" garbage.
"We do everything in our power to get people excited about it," Pregracke said. "We want people to leave feeling good about what they did so they'll come back."
Close to 90% of what they recover is recycled; Pregracke said the rest gets disposed of properly.
In addition to the river cleanup, Pregracke has launched a floating classroom barge where his staff educates high school students and teachers about the damages of pollution on river ecosystems. In 2007, his nonprofit implemented a program to plant 1 million trees along river shorelines to protect and restore the natural environment. The group is halfway to its goal.
Pregracke says his nonprofit has already held more than 700 cleanups on 23 rivers, but he says he's just getting started. He views his work as a different kind of service to the country.
"A lot of people call me a conservationist or an environmentalist, but the thing is I'm no different than anybody else," he said. "I just want to be known (as) a hardworking American."

Cleaning up the heavily polluted Pasig River complex is a nightmare. Although there are remarkable developments, the campaign is gaining more sponsors and supporters. Takbo para sa Pasig, a fun run was participated by thousands of citizens. But the real impact is the start of removing illegal settlers along the river's bank.  Filipinos are becoming more and more environmental conscious. Antonio Orosa Jr won the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2009 as environmental lawyer, Noel Cabagon sings about the environment, Chin Chin Gutierrez is an environmentalist through the arts, Von Hernandez is the action man in marginal settlements. The honoree and hero, Chad Pregracke has set the example of an environmentalist in the real essence.  

Here are the top 10 CNN Heroes of 2013, in alphabetical order: 

1. Dale Beatty: Making life easier for disabled veterans 
After Dale Beatty lost his legs in the Iraq war, his community thanked him for his service by helping him build a home. To pay it forward, Beatty co-founded Purple Heart Homes, which has helped build or modify homes for dozens of disabled U.S. veterans. "We wouldn't leave someone behind on the battlefield," Beatty said. "Why would we do it at home?"

 Infirmity is no excuse for not leading a normal life. In fact, among the greatest men and women in the world are on wheelchairs, directing the affairs of the state, introducing legislation in congress, and defending the constitution. They fought war and won.  It's the spirit in a frail body that made them victorious, the power of the mind and heart. 

2. Georges Bwelle: Bringing health care to the jungle
For decades, Georges Bwelle watched his father suffer, unable to get the medical attention he needed. Now a doctor, Bwelle travels into the jungles of his native Cameroon nearly every weekend, providing free medical care for those who don't have access to good health care. "To make people laugh, to reduce the pain, that's why I'm doing this," he said.
Barefoot doctors, they are sometimes called because they leave behind the amenities of comfortable living, as well as their sophisticated tools in hospitals, reminiscent of Dr Juan Flavier's "Doctor to the Barrio." More than health that they attend to the village doctor is often believed by the people as a know-all. The test of rural service is the extension of ones profession to the many facets of village life.  I remember there was once a book "Where there is no doctor" in English and Pilipino.  It was extremely useful where really there is no doctor around.  
   
3. Robin Emmons: Creating an oasis in a 'food desert'
More than 72,000 people in Charlotte, North Carolina, lack access to fresh produce. When Robin Emmons discovered this problem, she took action. "I decided to rip up my whole backyard and make it all a garden for people in need," she said. Since 2008, Emmons has grown more than 26,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables for area residents. 

One of the topics dicussed on Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School on Air) which Ms Melly C Tenorio and I have been conducting for a number of years now, focuses on home gardening that is applicable in both rural and urban areas by offering easy-to-follow models - virtually from A to Z. Here the models make a variety of plants to grow, from vegetables to orchard, herbals to ornamentals.  The key is to augment everyday needs in the kitchen, medicine as home remedies, as well as simple aesthetics for the home, healthful leisure notwithstanding. The whole concept centers on the principle of Bahay Kubo as an institution. 

4. Danielle Gletow: Granting wishes for foster kids
Foster children don't often get the things other children do, but Danielle Gletow is trying to help change that. She posts their wishes online so the public can help grant them. "I'm here to be the mom to all these kids who might not feel like they have one," she said. Since 2008, her group has helped grant more than 6,500 wishes in 42 states.


I appreciate Hollywood actor Brad Pitt and Angelina Jollie of their humanitarian project. It's heart warming to know orphans of different parentage given foster parent, home, and most importantly, future. Adoption is not uncommon, it is practiced in all societies with different policies, but the common denominator is, humanity must be whole and intact. An English poet beautiful put it, "when somebody dies, a part of each one of us also dies." When somebody triumphs a part in each member of humanity also triumphs.  Sp with healing, so with love. D Gletow must have the biggest heart of a mother. 

5. Tawanda Jones: Giving kids a way off deadly streets
Tawanda Jones is using dance to empower the youth of Camden, New Jersey, one of the poorest cities in the country. Through Jones' drill team program, at least 4,000 children have learned discipline, respect and community service -- and all of them have graduated high school. "We need to take back our city and, most importantly, take back our youth," Jones said. 

"New York, New York" has versions at Tondo notorious district, on dumpsite communities and prison camps. There was a band and dance troupe at the Bilibid Prison (Camp Sampaguita) in Muntinlupa which was part of the prison's rehabilitation. The key is in the success of T Jones ability to instill discipline in children to discipline themselves, a self renewal with continuing and lasting effect on character formation as they aim for bright future.   

6. Richard Nares: Helping sick kids get to chemo
For many children fighting cancer, it can be extremely tough to make it to their chemotherapy appointments. But Richard Nares started a group that gives them transportation and support. "No child should miss their cancer treatment due to lack of transportation," said Nares, who lost his son to leukemia in 2000.

Victims of cancer are becoming not only more in number but younger, these include very young children -  not to mention other major diseases like damaged kidney and diabetes. Indeed, the very young patients are pathetic to imagine the lost opportunity of their youth, maybe even to imagine a lost generation where epidemic may build up. R Nares may be able to cure, but as Mother Teresa put it, she gives comfort and dignity in the sick and dying, in their uphill climb and uncertain future.    

7. Kakenya Ntaiya: Educating girls for the first time
Kakenya Ntaiya is inspiring change in her native Kenyan village. After becoming the first woman in the village to attend college in the United States, she returned to open the village's first primary school for girls. "Our work is about empowering the girls," Ntaiya said. "They are dreaming of becoming lawyers, teachers, doctors."


What happens when one finishes college in the city - will he or she go back to his humble place of birth and serve.  Which reminds us of Plato's famous allegory about shadows seen in the darkness of a cave, and when a member of the group freed himself and traced the origin of the shadows, he never went back to "enlighten" his colleagues. Enlightenment is principal to learning, to K Ntaiya's empowerment. How many schools on the other hand were put up by enterprising educators for the motive of profit?  
   
8. Chad Pregracke: Cleaning up American rivers
Chad Pregracke has made it his life's work to clean up the Mississippi River and other American waterways. Since 1998, about 70,000 volunteers have helped Pregracke remove more than 7 million pounds of garbage from 22 rivers across the country. "Picking up garbage, it's tough, miserable and hot," Pregracke said. "We try to make it fun."

9. Estella Pyfrom: Bringing computers to kids in need
Estella Pyfrom used her life savings to create "Estella's Brilliant Bus," a mobile computer lab that provides tutoring for thousands of low-income students in Palm Beach County, Florida. "It's not just a bus, it's a movement," Pyfrom said. "And we're going to keep making a difference."


Bill and Melinda Gates, put up a foundation financed largely by their multi-billion wealth. Rationale: In spite of the fact that the world is "wired" by cyberspace technology, half of the population has so little to have for decent living - literacy, health, housing, longevity and the like - while the other half simply has too much affluence. Translated, the poor don't have the opportunity to build themselves up to have the capacity to rise above their present plight. Our own CNN hero Ka Efren PeƱaflorida's push part school brings school to the people; conventionally it is people going to school - in which case there are so few who can afford it. E Pyfrom works of this principle: reach out, take the school to the people, touch their lives. 
    
10. Laura Stachel: Lighting the way for safe childbirths
Laura Stachel created a special "solar suitcase" to help health care workers deliver babies in more than 20 developing countries. "I really want a world where women can deliver babies safely and with dignity," Stachel said. 

 CNN's Kathleen Toner and Erika Clarke contributed to the above report.
I remember our own Dr Fe Del Mundo, whom Ka Melly and I called as local Florence Nightingale, devised an incubator for the nursery, simple yet efficient, the design was adopted in hospitals and clinics. Innovations are key to easy operation and application at the grassroots.  Which made L Stahcel's contribution to health outstanding. Imagine 20 developing countries benefiting from her invention and its practical application.   


 (Acknowledgement: CNN Internet, TV broadcast, December 25, 2013)

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Movies on Parade at UST: Movies Fill Our Lives

 Movies on Parade at UST
Movies Fill Our Lives
Dr Abe V Rotor
 
Of pirates and witches...

Fantasy comes down to earth alive
in flesh walking: ghosts, fairies,
creatures of sea and land they thrive
in human laughter and tears

that fill empty lives e’en just a while
and give the world a break
in the idleness of time passing by
cares and worries at stake  

where friends and foes hold hands,
monsters tame and meek;
stories sad and happy cater to fans,
all for freedom they seek

from doctrinaire and conventions;
for it’s imagination that rules
and dictates all human institutions
with technology its tools;

movies – books visual, by audition,
in make believe and reality,
man’s gift to himself, his own  invention,   
his passport to liberty. ~

Wizard of Oz and fairytales
Of forest deities and kingdoms 
 
Finding Nemo, the friendly fish


Of old cultures and postmodern

And adventure with the imagination …

Monday, December 9, 2013

Bouquet

Bouquet
Dr Abe V Rotor

                                                        Painting in acrylic, AVR 
Bouquet - how extreme:
how happy, how sad,
how deceitful, how holy,
how tame, how mad!

Bouquet - how fresh,
picked for vase or lei;
how withered when gone
across the bay.

Bouquet - how fragrant
across the hall;
how lavish in summer,
how dearth in fall.

Bouquet - how missed
the bee, the butterfly
in the garden, the rainbow
an arch of sigh.~

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Sunset

Sunset

Photo and Verse by Marlo R Rotor

Old Quirino Bridge across Banaoang Pass, Santa, Ilocos Sur 

Sunset:
call it beauty,
the color of war,
and death itself;
it is enough,
the passing of day.
the coming of night. ~

Friday, October 18, 2013

Sugar solution extends the life of cut flowers.

Sugar solution extends the life of cut flowers.
Dr Abe V Rotor 
 Living with Nature School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class Monday to Friday

Pulsing for roses is done by immersing the stem ends for one to 

three hours in 10% sugar solution. Photo credit Wikipedia

Don't cut the flowers, if you can help it. Have potted flowering plants instead. To ensure continuous flowering give your plants proper care under suitable condition. Orchid painting in acrylic shows how delicate orchid flowers are. Don't detach the flowers from the plant. Display as a whole plant undisturbed. After the occasion, take it back to its original plant for recovery. 

In horticulture, they call this pulsing, a technique of providing nourishment and extending the shelf life of cut flowers. This technique lengthens vase life twice as much. It allows buds to open and postpones stem collapse, while it enhances freshness of the opened flowers.

Pulsing for roses is done by immersing the stem ends for one to three hours in 10% sugar solution, and for gladiolus 12 to 24 hours in 20% sugar solution. Daisies, carnation, chrysanthemums, and the like are better handled if harvested and transported in their immature stage, then opened by pulsing. It is best to cut the stem at an angle, dipped 6 to 12 hours in 10% sugar solution compounded with 200 ppm of 8-hydroxyquinoline sulfate, 100 ppm citric acid. Best results are obtained at cool temperature and low relative humidity. 


Thursday, October 17, 2013

Sun Tzu's Pieces Of Leadership Advice

Sun Tzu's Pieces of Leadership Advice
 "To fight and conquer in all our battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting." - Sun Tzu*
Researched by Dr Abe V Rotor

 
  • He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.
  • In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.
  • Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.
  • A leader leads by example, not by force.
  • You have to believe in yourself.
  • Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.
  • If your enemy is secure at all points, be prepared for him. ...
  • The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting. ~
* Sun Tzu was a Chinese military general, strategist, philosopher, and writer who lived during the Eastern Zhou period of 771 to 256 BCE. Wikipedia


 


Monday, October 14, 2013

Disturbing views speak of 1001 words. Photos obtained through social networking

Analyze and interpret. Please send to your nearest MMDA office. 
 Living with Nature School on Blog

 (1) ______________
(2).A and B  _______________
 (3) A ____________
(3) B ___________
(4) ______________

Saturday, September 21, 2013

UST-AB Finals (3CA1 2 3 4); PowerPoint Presentation Topics and Rules

Dr Abe V Rotor

For the finals, prepare a 50-frame PowerPoint Presentation about a topic of your choice, with preference to the following: . 
  • Successful UST Alumini in their respective fields of specialization, and community - at least five Thomasians.  They must have finished a course at UST.  They are looked upon as model, and practicing Thomasian values and principles.  
  • UST in action - events on-campus and outside that projects UST image as an ideal institution of learning.  Documentary  in nature, your work must speak well and true about UST and its alumni. 
  • UN campaign on reducing food waste which runs to billions of dollars a day.  When computed in relation to present need, savings on food waste would suffice supply, proper nutrition, improved health, and alleviating poverty.
  • Restoring integrity of government, upholding people's right to be governed by sincere, honest, and qualified leaders.  Restoring faith of people in their government, improving international image of the country.
  • True picture of the Filipino.  Who is he today in the face of tradition on the one hand, and globalization on the other - his regard to religion, family, career, commitment to community, his outlook to the future.  Does the Thomasian fit into the picture?   

  • "The Filipino is first," "Only in the Philippines," "The Filipino can." "Where in the Philippines?"  These and many more adages, motherhood statements, gimmicks, put the Philippines in the limelight.  Behind all these are disturbing issues: high infant mortality, birthrate, corruption, crime, traffic, cost of electricity, water, transportation, low productivity etc. Can the Thomasian do something? 

  • Environmental concerns, area- and event-specific. 
  • University without Walls, Distance Education, E-Learning, on-line teaching
Topics of your choice must be first approved by the professor.   

  • Presentation is one-on-one with the professor starting October 4, Friday (3CA3 and 3CA4), and October 7 for 3CA1 and 3CA 2. Sequence to be arranged by the class officers.
  • Holistic presentation, i.e., inter disciplinary, functional, experiential, contemporary.  
  • Present objectively, with positive views and advocacy. Uphold values and Filipino culture, and code of journalism.  
  • Follow standard format for PowerPoint, with modifications as may be necessary. 
  • Work must be original and specific to the present  course of Photography.  Previously submitted work in other subjects not accepted.  
  • Sign each photo you actually took at the right side, bottom. 
  • Show your presence  in action. 
  •  Use photos not your own only when necessary.  
  • Avoid downloading from the Internet. Be aware of intellectual property rights, laws and rules in journalism and publication.   
  • Label CD, including case (front and back) with your own original design.
  • Print CD content, portrait, 6 frames per page. 

    Your work will be submitted to our Faculty of Arts and Letters as part of its reference materials and documentary, with signed endorsement by the author, noted by the professor. 

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Edge of the Sea and Childhood

Dr Abe V Rotor
Palo, Leyte

The fringe of the land, the edge of the sea,
swell and recede in calm and in rage,
telling a saga or make-believe story
of child becoming man page by page.


Sunday, August 18, 2013

Quiz in Biology (True or False)

Quiz in Biology (True or False)

Dr Abe V Rotor

1. Life begets life, and there is no exception. This principle puts to rest the common notion of Spontaneous Generation, such as mushrooms come out after heavy rainfall and lightning, and flies coming out from the bodies of dead animals.

2. As the chemical world has its organizational hierarchy (atoms to molecules, elements to compounds), so with the biological world (cells, tissues, organs, organ-systems). This is true with algae, fungi, amoeba, paramecium, and other protozoa.

3. The tropical rain forest (PHOTO) has the highest biological diversity because this ecosystem contains the most number of living organisms, both in kind and number, as compared with other ecosystems. This kind of ecosystem is found in the tropical region which includes the Philippines, Australia, China, Pakistan, South America and Indonesia.

4. No two organisms are the same even if they belong to the same species, or even if they are identical twins. This is the basis on forensic science using DNA Analysis. The DNA of leaves belonging to the same plant is however, exactly the same.

5. Today it is possible to have a plant such as corn bred with a bacterium such as Bacillus thuringensis, thus their offspring is a kind of corn containing the genetic material of the bacterium. (Bt Corn). Similarly, we have now Bt cotton, Bt eggplant, and the like.

6. Organisms reproduce by sexual and asexual means, that is through the exchange of genetic materials (generally through union of sex cells), and by vegetative means such as cutting, grafting, fragmentation, spores, etc. Bacteria and protozoa reproduce by both means.

7. The reason why close relatives are strictly not allowed to intermarry is to prevent in-breeding (inbreeding syndrome). The gene pool must be invigorated now and then with new genes, more importantly dominant genes. This principle explains the importance of hybridization, cross-breeding, and the buildup of resistance and hybrid vigor.

8. Nature saw to it that dominant genes must prevail by various means in order that the species becomes capable of facing the ordeals of a changing environment. Certain dominant genes however, though they may be transmitted to the next generation do not contribute at all to the enhancement of species’ survival.

9. 
The most controversial subject matter between science and religion is Evolution. It has always been confrontational, and the church is likely not giving up its dogma of Creation. For this reason Christian Fundamentalists prohibit the teaching of Darwinian evolution.

10. Evolution is a thing of the past as we have known the fate of the dinosaurs, the end of the giant ferns that once covered the earth. It means that the organisms that we see today have ultimately reached the highest degree of perfection, with man as the ideal example. 

ANSWERS: All items are true, except No. 10.  Explain why No. 10 is false.