Riddle of the Sphinx: Where Does Modern Life Lead Us?

Riddle of the Sphinx: 

Where Does Modern Life Lead Us? 

What is it that walks on four in the morning, two at noon, and three in the afternoon? If your answer is correct, then you can safely pass. If not, the Sphinx will not let you go!

Dr Abe V Rotor

Sphinx at Giza, Egypt

In Shelly’s celebrated fiction novel, Frankenstein - wasn’t the monster Dr. Frankenstein created, a product of modern science of the time? It is not different today. Wittingly, or otherwise, we are creating a modern Frankenstein monster in our quest for power and wealth - a monster which first appears as an obliging genie, but at the end refuses to go back into the bottle.

Let us look into the monster modern man has created.

1. By splitting the atom man has unleashed the most explosive force the world has ever known. This tremendous power can plunge the world into Armageddon. Today’s nuclear stockpile threatens the globe with obliteration of humankind three times over. This means a thermo nuclear war can instantly kill a population of 18 billion people, notwithstanding the gross destruction of other organisms, and obliteration of the environment as we know it.

The proliferation of nuclear weapons – atomic, hydrogen and cobalt bombs - reached its peak during the Cold War. With the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or USSR, in 1987, the accountability of nuclear stockpiles became a big question among its former satellites. It is not impossible to smuggle a nuclear warhead which is only about the size of an attaché case, or produce radioactive material for making a nuclear bomb in the guise of nuclear power generation. We know that nuclear weapons technology is no longer the monopoly of the West and highly industrialized countries. The latest additions to the list of countries capable of making nuclear weapons are reportedly North Korea and Iraq.

2. Unrestricted massive expansion of frontiers of production and settlements has resulted in loss of natural habitats, in fact, whole ecosystems as evidenced by the death of rivers, lakes and coral reefs, and destruction of forests and wildlife. It is a fact that if man can tame the earth, so can he destroy it.

3. Growing affluence continues to accelerate man’s conquest of nature through industrialization. Practically every country in the world is on a race towards industrialization in order to meet capitalistic parameters for economic growth and development. But Gross National Product (GNP) merely sums up a country’s output. Very little focus is given to Human Development Index (HDI), the guarantee of equitable distribution of benefits that elevates quality of life in a country. In certain societies such us ours, socio-economic inequity can be aptly summarized as having 10 percent of the population controlling 90 percent of the nation’s resources, and that 50 to 60 percent of the population are trapped in a cycle of poverty.

Industrialization has widened the division between the affluent and the poor, stunting migration patterns that have caused massive urban growth, while siphoning off the resources of the countryside. This, in turn, has created a world order dominated by multinational companies and self-proclaimed global leaders now questioned by the free world, and challenged by civil initiatives and terrorism.

4. The recent scientific breakthrough, the breaking of the code of heredity - DNA (Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid), the Rosetta Stone of genetics, has opened up an entirely new concept of the origin and development of life - genetic engineering.

But more amazing and frightening is the new power of man to tinker with life itself – playing God’s role in the creation of new life forms, extending human life to nearly twice its present longevity, and in eliminating diseases even before their symptoms are manifested. Cloning suddenly became a fearful word as applied to humans, following the success with “Dolly, the sheep”. Even this early we are warned of food products manufactured from Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO), dubbed as Frankenfood. 

One by one, countries are coming out against crops with engineered genes – and there may be more to the skepticism over GM crops. Genetic modification can be a strategy to bring agriculture under the dominance of foreign corporations. An the grassroots level farmers doubt if GM crops can be grown side-by-side with non-GMO plants and not being affected negatively since open pollination knows no boundaries.

The biggest scare that can be spawned by genetic engineering is Genetically Modified Man (GMM) - a being different from the original man described in Genesis, who is God-fearing, loving, sociable, intelligent, and with a sense of values.

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A transformation of our technology and values could make it possible to build a society that will stand the test of time.

Time, A Culture of Permanence

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5. It was unprecedented that the world has traveled far and wide on two feet – communications and transportation – with the West discovering the East, and subsequently resulting in intermarriages of the races, in trade and commerce, education and culture, politics and government, religion and philosophy. With the advances of science and technology the world has shrunk further into the size of a village now wired with fiber optics. But such union cannot be merely characterized as gross merging of characteristics. Here the rule of compatibility may bring diverging directional paths, especially when we force the union of dynamic processes, such as the liberalism of the West and traditionalism of the East. Through time and with continuing “intermarriage”, perhaps a global society will form and accelerate towards homogeneity. We rejoice in meeting friends from across the globe, at getting international news live, and in finding commonalities of interests, and in being part of a genetic pool.

Remember the universal soldier? The Renaissance man? But this new kind of man - will he be superior over say, man in the times of the Greeks and Romans? This superman may yet represent the fittest of the survivors in accordance with the standard of Charles Darwin; or the righteousness of the Human Being in the pursuit of the precepts of the church. Is this true?~ 

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The demise of a single species can produce a cascade of extinctions and threaten an entire ecosystem.
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Creative Photography: Old Church Wall

Creative Photography: Old Church Wall 
"Across the azure sky a super jet plane disturbs our peace, its image well ahead of its roar; below the trees bow with the gentle breeze." avr

Dr Abe V Rotor

Old frangipani* against the deep blue sky

with neither clothes nor any shade;

like in our bold moments we don't feel shy,

 with glory we show to make us brave.  

*Calachuchi ‎(Plumeria rubra) the common name of "frangipani" comes from a sixteenth-century marquis of the noble family in Italy who claimed to invent a plumeria-scented perfume, but in reality ‎Plumeria alba Family ‎Apocynaceae. Introduced from Mexico, hence the name in old Aztec - calachuchi.

Old pillar, once a column against invaders

in colonial times, idle you have been

for centuries, save the tough chichirica*

common herbal yet rarely seen.  

*periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus) produces potent alkaloids, 

which are used to treat various cancers.

Across the azure sky is a long white tail 

of a super jet plane disturbing our peace, 

its image well ahead of its roar and trail;

 while the trees bow with the gentle breeze. 

Subject: 17th century church of San Vicente, Ilocos Sur.  
The author lives just across the outer wall of the church. ~ 

Living with Nature in Our Times

Living with Nature in Our Times

Chicken soup is best for convalescent.  If dust gets into your eyes, blow your nose.  And others

Dr Abe V Rotor
Author, Living with Nature Series
Winner Gintong Aklat 2005, National Book Award 2007

Some time ago a good old friend asked me, Abe how can you go back to nature? Are you going back to the farm. Don’t you like to live anymore in the city? Are you selling your car.

Yes, I answered. No not my car, that’s my only car. Yes, I can live with nature. Oo nga naman. We talked and talked, until we were back in our childhood – I mean, childhood. This was when my father got sick. And this is how I came to learn that chicken soup is good for one who is convalescing, yon’ galing sa sakit - nagpapagaling.

True. Totoo. Chicken soup is good for the convalescent. However, there are specifications of the kind of chicken to be served. 

First, it must be native chicken. Karurayan is the term in Ilocos for a pure white native chicken which does not bear any trace of color on its feathers. It is preferably a female, dumalaga or fryer, meaning it has not yet reached reproductive stage. It is neither fat nor thin. Usually the herbolario chooses one from recommended specimens. He then instructs and supervises the household in the way the karurayan is dressed, cut, cooked into tinola (stew) and served to the convalescent. He does not ask for any fee for his services, but then he takes home one or two of the specimens that did not pass the specifications. (The more affluent the patient is, the more chicken the herbolario takes.)

Chicken soup as a convalescent food is recognized in many parts of the world. Because of its popularity, chicken soup has become associated with healing, not only of the body – but the soul as well. In fact there is a series of books under the common title Chicken Soup - for the Woman’s Soul, Surviving Soul, Mother’s Soul, Unsinkable Soul, Writer’s Soul, etc. Of course, this is exaggeration, but nonetheless it strengthens our faith that this lowly descendant of the dinosaurs that once walked the earth of its panacean magic.

Try chicken soup to perk you up in these trying times - with all the rush, tension, various ailments, and expensive medication. Ika nga, bawal ang magkasakit.

But first, be sure your chicken does not carry antibiotic residues, and should not be one that is genetically engineered (GMO). By the way, I was a participant in the rituals made by this good herbolario. I was then a farmhand and I was tasked to get the karurayan. Our flock failed the test, but I found two dumalaga with few colored feathers. I plucked out the colored feathers and presented the birds to Ka Pepito. They passed the criteria. Three days after I asked my convalescing dad how he was doing. “I’m fine, I’m fine, now.” He assured me with a big smile.

Writing a book such as this needs advice. This time I needed one outside of the farm, and away from the village. There’s no one else to my mind but someone in the academe. I went to Dr. Lilian Sison, dean of the Graduate School of UST. Dean Sison went over the manuscript and after a few days, I went to see her again. In the message for the book she said the most beautiful things that encouraged me a lot to continue writing about Nature. She said, and I quote.

"Living with Nature in Our Times can be lumped up into one word - mindfulness. It is self awareness. For today’s trend in progress and development, spurred by science and technology, and spun by globalization cannot undermine the need to answer a basic question, Quo vadis? (Where are you going?) To where are we headed as a civilization?”

Dean Sison continued, “Living with Nature in Our Times" gives us practical knowledge that elevates our awareness on three levels: that of our perception of the things around us by our senses, that of our perception of the inner stimuli that affect not only our physical being but our psyche and emotion, and the third which occupies the highest level of awareness – that which is beyond mere perception because it requires us to imagine, plan and anticipate the future.

“Living with Nature in Our Times cautions us while walking on the busy lane of change. It reminds us to retrain our senses and to hone our sensitivity to better appreciate the best life can offer. Only when we are close to nature are we able to truly appreciate its exquisitiveness; only when we heed the old folks’ good advice can we truly appreciate the beauty and bounty of nature.”

I could say no more, overwhelmed by Dean Sison’s message. Then I realized. Mataas nga ang expectation ng reader sa libro ko! Did I write enough? Am I understood as much as the listeners to my radio program, Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid do? Baka naman hindi ako maintindihan ni Ka Pepe at si Aling Maria.

It was a weekend and it was the tail end the monsoon – the best time to be on the farm. I did the final editing of the book here – the farm where I grew up, where I got my stories, experiences I still remember, in a small town where I used to listen to old folks. This time I am one of them.

This same old good friend I told you earlier came to visit me. I took him out into the fields. It was harvest time and a time of festivities of sort in the fields. The maya birds came by hordes, A gust of wind blew and my friend winked, apparently napuwing. And he started rubbing his eyes. Huwag, I said. Just blow you nose. He laughed.

“Just do it.” I said. He did once, twice, each for each nose, covering the other. Harder. He looked amazed. The puwing is gone! Success! (You can try it later.)

My friend who grew up in the city complained again. “My tooth aches,” It’s lunchtime.  Sayang. We were going to have lunch, picnic style beside a farm pond we call alug.

“Sumasakit din ang aking ngipin,” I said, … “na hindi ko matikman lahat nito,” savoring the aroma of the food being cooked. It’s like the proverbial grandmother’s pie.

“Hindi ako nagbibiro,” He said.

“Okay press the base of your jaw, like this,” and demonstrated how. Open your mouth and feel the attachment of the jaw, it’s the hollow part. Press it long enough until the pain subsides. He did it and held it there.

“Okay ka na?”

“Masakit pa rin.”

“Saan ba ang sumasakit?” Para akong dentista.

“Doktor, nga si Dr. Rotor,” I heard a kindly old woman nearby.

“Dito sa left.” My friend opened his jaw. “Mali ang pinipisil mo, eh. Ang pinipisil mo as ang kanan mong jaw.”

A whole banana leaf was laid before us. We sat on the grass. A tabo of water was passed on to each of us to wash his fingers before eating. Then, like the old faithful Genie had arrived, we were partaking in a banquet no five-star hotel could match.

There were hito, martiniko, broiled medium rare on uling, pesang dalag (mudfish stewed with green saba and a lot of tomato and onion, and kuhol with tanglad. Rice is newly harvested upland Milagrosa! Miracle talaga sa bango at sarap. Everyone was quiet. How could you with your mouth full? Now and then a dog would come from behind begging, licking.

“How you eat this kuhol, my friend asked. Ganito lips-to-lips,” Matunog. It tells your host you like the food very much. “Ayaw, eh” Pukpukin mo muna ang puit.” Paano? Kumain ka lang. Then we had ulang (river crayfish). Hindi ba masakit kumagat yan? He whispered.

“Hindi naman alimango yan, eh. At patay na. Sigue kumain ka lang.”

With or without toothache, we had our fill.

Masakit pa ba ?

Ow.. Ouch.. Ow.. This time tiyan naman niya ang sumasakit.

Oo nga naman. Pag meron kang kaibigan na katulad nito. Either you want to live long or … forget him.

Living with nature is fun, live life best – it’s more than The Good Life. It is Renaissance Part 2. It is Postmodern Renaissance. It is Living with Nature in Our Times.

  x x x

Living with Nature in Our Times is a sequel to The Living with Nature Handbook published by the UST Publishing House in 2003..

There are 35 chapters in this new volume grouped into four sections. Enjoying Nature’s Bounty has eleven chapters, which deal with such hobbies as Home Gardening, Landscaping and Hydroponics. The second section, Understanding Nature’s Ways, has nine chapters. Mystery of the Fig Wasp is a recent research, while The Mosquito is an update about this deadliest creature on earth.

The third section, Conserving Our Natural Resources has seven chapters which include The 7Rs in Pollution Management, and Farming Peat Soil, a frontier of agriculture in the Philippines. The fourth and last section, Harmonious Living with Nature, has eight chapters which remind us of the importance of maintaining good relationship of man and nature. Topics include Health and Values and Walking with Nature.

Many of the articles in this book were taken from the lessons presented on Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People’s School-on-the-Air). This is in response to listeners requesting copies of the lessons. Like in the first book, Living with Nature in Our Times is distributed by the publisher through popular outlets. Other books on nature by Dr Rotor - Living with Folk Wisdom, Don't Cut the Trees, Don't, Light from the Old Arch, Living with Nature Handbook.

UST Publishing House, España, Manila Tel. 406-1611 loc. 8252/8278

Bioethics and Environment - Quest for Quality of Life

Bioethics and Environment - 

Quest for Quality of Life 

Ethics is the foundation of aesthetics; it is something very difficult to explain that makes beautiful more beautiful, rising to the highest level of philosophy where man finds hope, inspiration, and peace. It is a beacon. While ethics sets the direction of moral life, aesthetics is its beautiful goal.

                                                              Dr Abe V Rotor 

Living with Nature - School on Blog

 Concept of Nature as the whole universe, painting by the author 

1. Man has emboldened the causative agents of human diseases – both old and new - into epidemic and pandemic proportions, which include HIV-AIDS, SARS, Ebola, Avian flu (caused by a new virus H5N1, a hybrid of the human flu virus and the bird flu virus), obesity (caused by Ad36 virus) - and the most recent MERS-CoV (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus), now tagged as Novel 2019 Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19)

2. Through biological specialization or mutation – natural and man-induced – causative agents have crossed natural barriers of transmission across species, such as bird to man (bird flu), civet cat to man (SARS), and primate to man (HIV-AIDS, and Ebola), wild animals like bat to man (COVID-19). Man has built bridges between the non-living to the living as well. We have paved the way for the Prion, an infectious protein, the causative agent of Mad Cow Disease or BSE (Bovine Spongiosform Encephalopathy) to cross from cattle to man and cause a similar disease affecting humans, the Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD). Viruses have acquired new ability to infect and spread not only among humans but also in animals and plants. Viral diseases of plants have been responsible for the decrease in agricultural production in many parts of the world.

The aesthetics of Nature, source of legends, songs and festivities, painting by the author 

3. In the midst of enjoying the good life in a postmodern world more and more people are victims of accidents, heart attacks and strokes, anxiety and depression – and various forms of psychosomatic disorder - that often lead to ruined lives and suicides. Cancer, diabetes, and the deleterious consequences of vices (tobacco and alcohol), are on the rise among other modern diseases. Surprisingly, the number of years a person is healthy in proportion to his life span is not significantly longer than that of his predecessors, and that a person’s life span has not significantly increased at all. It is the average longevity of a population that has increased, not the individual’s. The fact is that modern medicine has increased survival of infants and young people, most of them are now in their past fifties, thus gross longevity appears to have increased, up to 78 years in some countries. On the contrary, more and more young people are getting sick and dying.

4. Modern society and science and technology no longer fit into the Darwinian theory of natural selection. There is a growing burden placed on the shoulders of the able and fit in our society who, without choice, is responsible in taking care of the growing number of dependents – many are the infirmed and the aged.

All these lead us to re-examine our values. It challenges us to look deeper into a paradigm of salvation through our concern for the environment. The prolificacy of the human species sans war and pestilence, plus growing affluence of our society has led to a population explosion which had doubled in less than fifty years. We are now more than 7.5 billion. Under this paradigm, there is no master and subject. All must join hands to prevent the exploitation of the earth’s finite resources. Today’s economists must also be good housekeepers of Nature, so with those in the other professions. While man’s aim is directed at the Good Life, he has unwittingly reduced the very foundation of that good life – the productivity and beauty of Mother Earth.

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There are few frontiers of production left today. We have virtually pushed back the sea and leveled off the mountain. Prime lands have all been taken, swamps have been drained, and even deserts are being reclaimed. But as we continue to explore the marginal edges of these frontiers the more we are confronted with high cost of production that is levied on the consumer, and more importantly, the danger of destroying the fragile environment. AVR

-----------------------------------------------------------Nature as socio-economic base in agrarian society, painting by the author

Ecological paradigm endorses an ecocentric approach where all forms of life and non-life are important to human life. Spirituality points out to a unitive force: the sacredness of everything. God’s divinity flows in everything. There is integration in the universe. And we are part of that integration, exceedingly small as we are, notwithstanding. Under ecological paradigm of salvation, the one responsible in the destruction of the environment leading to loss of lives and properties should be held accountable for it to God, nature and fellowmen.

The environment and the economy need not be viewed as opposites. It is possible to have a healthy environment and a healthy economy at the same time. More and more businesses have begun adopting this concept as a business philosophy. People behind business organizations are becoming more aware of the ethical decisions they face, and their responsibility for their consequences.

Industrialization and urbanization are akin to each other. Industrial growth spurred the building of cities all over the world. Today there are as many people living in cities as those living the rural places. A mega-city like Tokyo has a population of 15 million people. We are 10 million in Metro Manila. Cities are fragile environments. Cities are more prone to epidemics such as the bubonic plague that killed one-third of the population of Europe in the 13th century. Now we are confronted with HIV-AID, SARs, Meningo cochcimia, Avian flu, and now the dreaded CORID-15 which is gripping the world today as the worst human pandemic disease in recent history. AVR

There are organizations that have set some rules of governance of the environment, among them, GRI (Global Reporting Initiative), CERES (Coalition of Environmental Responsible Economies), and UNEP (United Nations Environmental Program). In line with these a multi- national corporation came up with the following thrusts:

 Nature defiled by genetic engineering, painting by the author

• Restore and preserve the environment

• Reduce waste and pollution

• Education of the public on environmental conservation

• Work with government for sound and responsible environmental program

• Assess impact of business on the environment and communities.

This approach is gaining respect and more and more businesses are looking at this model with great interest and favor.

The Question of Governance

One of the resource speakers of the 2010 International Congress on Bioethics,
Dr. Tai cited three themes in order that man can live in harmony with nature. Man is part of the ecosystem, Man is steward of the earth, and Man is finite. Dr. Tai cited models with which man can change his views about the environment and change his style of living. We have also models in the business world, in the church, and in the government, in fact all sectors of society. There are models everywhere in this or that part of the world, whether developed or underdeveloped. There are as many models in less developed countries as in highly industrialized countries. It could be that the less developed are closer to tradition, and still have strong ethnic roots, like the old civilizations mentioned in the paper – the native cultures of America and Africa.

But the world has never been one. It has become more diverse in views and interests though in many respects share the same aspirations towards progress and development. And this is the problem. Man is always in a race. In that race awaits at the end not a prize mankind is proud of and honorable. It is tragedy, which Garett Hardin calls, the tragedy of the commons. It is a greedy competition for a finite resource, each his own, until it is gone. The forests are disappearing today, the lake are dying, the fields are getting marginal, the pastures are overgrazed, the air is loaded with destructive gases, the sea  is over fished. All these point out to the syndrome - tragedy of the commons. And because time is of the essence, many believe that the world needs a new revolution now? Is revolution the only way to solve global problems of the environment today?

Definitely, while we need to reform to save our environment, any means that is contrary to peace and unity, is definitely unacceptable. And we would not adhere to the rule of force or violence just to be able to succeed. It is said, that revolution starts in a small corner. It starts in this congress.

Ethics is the foundation of aesthetics; it is something very difficult to explain that makes beautiful more beautiful, rising to the highest level of philosophy where man find hope, inspiration, and peace. It is a beacon. While ethics sets the direction, aesthetics is its beautiful goal.

In closing I would like to thank Dr. Tai, for his scholarly and incisive paper from which I was not only able to prepare myself as a member of the panel of reactors, but found an opportunity to review and expand my current research works in ecology as well. 

Lastly, I would like to recite this short prayer I made for this International Congress on Bioethics, and dedicate it through the little child who visited the two workshops in the village and exclaimed. “But there are no neighbors! But there are no trees, birds, fields and mountains!”

Ecology Prayer

By Dr Abe V Rotor

When my days are over,

Let me lie down to sleep

on sweet breeze and earth,

in the shade of trees

I planted in my youth;

since I had not done enough,

make, make my kind live

to carry on the torch,

while my dusts fall

to where new life begins –

even only an atom I shall be,

let me be with you,

dear Mother Earth.

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There was once a town in the heart of America where all life seemed to live in harmony with its surroundings…Then a strange blight crept over the area and everything began to change …Mysterious maladies swept the flocks of chickens, the cattle and chicken sickened and died …There was a strange stillness… The Few birds seen anywhere were moribund, they trembled violently and could not fly. It is a spring without voices.

Rachel Carson, Silent Spring

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Home Gardening - Green Patch at Home

Home Gardening - Green Patch at Home

Dr Abe V Rotor

 Community gardening, QC

By size, my home farm is a Liliputian version of a corporate farm. Intensive cultivation-wise however, it dwarfs the monoculture of a plantation. It is only when your area is small that you can attend to the requirements of an integrated farm with basic features of a garden.

When I moved to the city, I set aside a corner lot equivalent to a space of a two-bedroom bungalow. Here, after two years of experimentation and redesigning a city home garden evolved - a miniature version of tri-commodity farming where I have vegetables and fruits, chicken and hito.

My wife, who is an accountant, estimates that presently, the garden could save up to 20 percent of our family’s expense for food, in exchange for twenty family man-hours every week. Labor makes up to 50 percent of production costs, she says. Since gardening is a hobby in lieu of outdoor games, we agreed not to include labor as cost. This gives a positive sign to the garden’s financial picture.

We do not also consider in the book the aesthetic value of weekends when the garden becomes a family workshop to prove green thumbs, and gainful influence my family has made on the community, such as giving free seeds and seedlings, and know-how tips. When my children celebrate their birthdays, the kids in the neighborhood enjoy harvesting tomatoes, string beans and leafy vegetables - a rare experience for boys and girls in the city.

What makes a garden? Frankly, I have no formula for it. I first learned farming from my father who was a gentleman farmer before I became an agriculturist. But you do not have to go for formal training to be able to farm well. All that one needs is sixth sense or down-to-earth sense, the main ingredient of a green thumb. Here are valuable tips.

1. Get the most sunlight
A maximum of five hours of sunlight should be available - geographically speaking that is. Morning and direct sunlight is ideal for photosynthesis. But you need longer exposure for fruit vegetables, corn and viny plants like, ampalaya. So with crucifers like mustard and pechay because these are long-day plants.

Well, to get more sunlight, I prune the surrounding talisay or umbrella trees at least once a year. I use the branches for trellis and poles. Then, I paint the surrounding walls with white to enhance reflected and diffused light to increase photosynthesis.

Plot the sun’s course and align the rows on an East-West direction. Plants do not directly over-shadow each other this way. This is very important during wet season when days are cloudy and plants grow luxuriantly. Other than maximizing solar radiation you also get rid of soil borne plant diseases. Sunlight that gets in between the plants helps liminate pest and pathogens. And in summer, you can increase your seeding rate, and therefore potential yield. Try planting in triangular formation or quincunx. Outline that part of the garden that receives the longest sunlight exposure. Plant this area with sun-loving plants like okra and ampalaya.

Lastly, remember that plants which grow on trellises and poles “reach out for the sun,” thus require less ground space. Put up trellises at blind corners and train viny plants to climb early and form a canopy. For string beans, use poles on which they climb. You wouldn’t believe it but as long as your rows are aligned with the sun’s movement, and that trellises and poles are used, you can plant more hills in a given area, and you can have dwarf and tall plants growing side by side. Try alternate rows of sitao, tomato and cabbage.

2. Try Mixed Garden or Storey Cropping
What is the composition of an ideal garden? Again, there’s no standard design for it. The most practical type is a mixed garden. A mixed garden is like a multi-storey building. Plants are grouped according to height. That is why you have to analyze their growing habits.

Are they tall or dwarf? Are they seasonal, biennial or permanent? What part of the year do they thrive best? Refer to the planting calendar or consult your nearest agriculturist.

Look for proper cropping combinations through intercropping or crop rotation. Malunggay, papaya, kamias, banana and the like, make good border plants. Just be sure they do not shade smaller plants. Cassava and viny plants trained on trellis are next in height. 

 Our children grew up with a garden at home.

The group of pepper, tomato and eggplant follows, while the shortest in height hierarchy are sweet potato, ginger and other root crops. Imagine how these crops are grouped and built like a tall building. We call this storey cropping.             

A friend commented, “Why streamline your garden the American way?” I agree with him. Plant the Filipino way.         

At any rate there are crops “we plant and forget.” Before the pot starts to shimmer, you realize you need some malunggay leaves, a dozen tops of kamote, a handful of fresh onion leaves, etc. All you need is to dash to the backyard and pick these green ingredients.

3. Practice Organic Farming

Traditional farming is back with modern relevance. Organic farming is waste recycling - not by getting rid of the waste itself but by utilizing it as production input. “This system is an alternative to conventional chemical farming”, says Domingo C. Abadilla in his book, Organic Farming.

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Practice organic farming for two reasons. Crops grown without chemical fertilizers and pesticides are safer and more nutritious.

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What would you do with poultry droppings and Azolla from the fishpond? Kitchen refuse and weeds? Make valuable compost out of them. For potash, sieve ash from a garbage-dumping site. Just be sure it is not used for industrial waste.

Can we grow crops without insecticides? Generally, no. But there are ways to protect plants in a safe way, such as the following:

Alugbati, tops gathered for diningding and salad

• Use mild detergent, preferably coconut-based soap, to control aphids and other plant lice.

• Plant tomatoes around pest prone plants. They exude repellant odor on a wide variety of pests.

• Keep a vigil light above the garden pond to attract nocturnal insects that may lay eggs on your plants at daytime. Tilapia and hito relish on insects.

• A makeshift greenhouse made of plastic and mosquito net will eliminate most insects.

If you find stubborn insect pest like caterpillars and crickets, make a nicotine solution and spray. Crush one or two sticks of cigarette, irrespective of its brand, dissolve it in a bucket of water. The solution is ready for application with sprinkler or sprayer. But be sure not to use the solution on tomato, pepper and eggplant. It is possible that tobacco mosaic virus can be transmitted to these crops.

A friend who is a heavy smoker, came to visit our garden. When he touched the tomato plants, he was unknowingly inoculating mosaic virus. Tobacco virus can remain dormant in cigars and cigarette for as long as twenty years. Then it springs to life in the living system of the host plant that belongs to Solanaceae or tobacco family.

4. Raise Fish in the Garden Pond

Water from the pond is rich with algae, plant nutrients and detritus. While you water your plants, you are also fertilizing them. The pond should be designed for growing tilapia, hito or dalag, or a combination of these. For tilapia, keep its population low to avoid overcrowding and competition. Stock fingerlings of the same size and age. 

Catfish (hito) fattened in our garden pond have become pets; the biggest measures 2 ft long.  

Try growing hito, native or African. When you buy live hito from the market, separate the small ones (juveniles), which will serve as your growers. They are ready to harvest in 3 to 6 months with 3 pieces making a kilo. Hito is easier to raise than any other freshwater fish. One thing is that you do not change water often because the fish prefers to have a muddy bottom to stay.  

Feed the fish with chicken and fish entrails, vegetable trimmings, dog food, etc. Just avoid accumulation of feed that may decompose and cause foul odor, an indication that Oxygen is being replaced with Carbon Dioxide and Hydrogen Sulfide.

Azolla, a floating fern, is good fish and animal feeds because it contains 20 to 25 percent protein,. It is also an excellent organic fertilizer because it is rich in nitrate, a product of nitrogen fixation by Anabaena, a microscopic blue-green algae living in the fronds of Azolla. Nitrate is important for plant growth. Grow Azolla in a separate pond, or in floating cage, so as to maintain a regular biomass supply.

5. Integrate Backyard Poultry

Raise some broilers and layers in separate cages. Have other cages to rear chicks and growers to replenish your stock. Formulate your feed. If not, mix commercial broiler feed and yellow corn in equal proportion. This is more economical and you may get better results than by using commercial broiler feeds alone.

Construct a fence around the cages and have some turkey on the loose. Similarly you may rear a few native chickens to get rid of feed waste. Clip their wings regularly to prevent them from escaping and destroying your garden. I don’t recommend piggery unless the neighborhood does not object to it.

6. Plant Fruit Trees

Do not forget to have some native fruit bearing trees such as guava, atis, guyabano, kamias, kalamansi and other citrus species. If your area is big you can include coconut, mango, kaimito, bananas. Rambutan? Why not? There are fruit bearing rambutan trees in some residences in Quezon City.

Atis, ripe in the tree

Just like annual plants, adopt the East-West planting method for trees so that you can have seasonal crops in between their rows. Use compost for the fruit trees, just like in vegetables. You can plant orchard trees like mango, guyabano, coconut and cashew along the sidewalk fronting your residence.

7. Make Your Own Compost, and Grow Mushrooms, Too
In one corner, build a compost pile with poles and mesh wire, 1m x 2m, and 2m in height. Dump leaves, kitchen refuse, chicken droppings and allow them to decompose to become valuable organic fertilizer. Turn the pile once a month until it is ready for use.

In another place you can have a mushroom pile made of rice straw, or water hyacinth. After harvesting the mushrooms, the spent material is a good compost material and composting will take a shorter time. To learn more about mushroom growing and composting, refer to the technology tips of DOST-PCARRD, or see your agriculturist in your area.

8. Plant Herbals - Nature’s First Aid

It is good to have the following plants as alternative medicine. Lagundi for flu and fever, guava for skin diseases and body odor, romatic pandan and tanglad for deodorant and air freshener, oregano for cough and sore throat, mayana for boils and mumps, ikmo for toothache, pandakaki for cuts. There are other medicinal plants you can grow in your backyard. Remember, herbals are nature’s first-aid.

 Pansit-pansitan (Piperomia felucida) for arthritis; Oregano for colds and sore throat, also for food flavoring (dinuguan, pizza)

 Pandan mabango for rice flavoring; soro soro for lechon

Coconut provides  the family young (buko) and mature nuts every two months. 

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 Tanglad for food flavoring, also as deodorant  

 

 Saluyot and squash flowers grow with very little attention. 

 Malunggay is a must in every backyard. It grows along fences and in dead corners into a moderate size tree that remains productive up to 20 years or even more. Our malunggay tree at home is around 35 years now. Both leaves and young pods are rich in vitamins and minerals.  

These things and many others are the reasons you should have a home garden. One thing is sure in the offing: it is a source of safe and fresh vegetables and fruits, fish and meat, and natural medicine. Most important of all, the garden is a re-creation of nature itself, a patch of the lost Eden. ~

A Song for a Dying River

A Song for a Dying River  

"Now orphaned from your shed and basin, sluggishly

     you retreat to where you were born,

Wishing from among your children a Thoreau or Milton

     to keep vigil in the night ‘til dawn."

Painting and Poem by Dr Abe V Rotor

Waig River (Ilocos Norte) in acrylic (24" x 36") on board by AVR, September 11, 2017 

Three towns nestle on your basin, cropland on your shed,
     Your veins run from mountains high to sea
Throbbing with the seasons generation after generation,
     Homeland of the brave, strong, and free.

On your banks were heard legends, songs and verses,
     Your bounty, the joy of every fisher.
Your forests catch the clouds and funnel the rain
     Filling your streams, oh beautiful river.

Benevolent you’ve always been, you nurtured your children,
     Into illustrious sons and daughters,
Birthplace of a city, a university and museum you built,
     Living symbols to great leaders.

Would a guardian fall in disgrace and forgetfulness?
     Is weaning just primeval obligation?
What is wisdom, the counsel of the sages and old,
     Blind to see a spent nest in oblivion?

Now orphaned from your shed and basin, sluggishly
     You retreat to where you were born,
Wishing from among your children a Thoreau or Milton
     To keep vigil in the night ‘til dawn. ~

 

Childhood in summer never ends;

like a thing of beauty is a boy forever. 

 

The river a dating place of the feathered,

mating songs pleasant to be heard;

they build their nests in nearby trees, 

'til  music joins the passing breeze. 

Fish, birds, children are one, 

with the lilies and the trees,

in the laughter of the brook,

flowing down a cozy nook.  

A pair of owl, a pair of parakeet,

but would they ever meet?

At night's end, a new day's start 

they bid goodbye then part. ~