07 Wars of the World.

The worst of times, the best of times

By Frankenstein

2008, Battle for the Stomach. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of the Philippines and Director General Robert Zeigler of the International Rice Research Institute did not talk about the wars of the world on Friday, May 2 at the IRRI main campus in Los Baños, Laguna in the Philippines; they talked about the war for the stomach of the Filipinos, which are hungry for rice. The Warrior Queen by genes, the Warrior King by environment.

Did they talk about this paradox: That the Philippines is the world’s biggest importer of rice and, based in the Philippines, IRRI is the world’s biggest researcher on rice? No. And no, she didn’t beg for more rice from IRRI; and no, IRRI did not turn his back on his mother country. They talked about the worst of soils and the best of soils.

My shot shows the sign in the ricefield beyond and between them saying, ‘IDSA 77: TOLERANT’ – very suggestive, very educational. IDSA suggests EDSA, Epifanio de Los Santos Avenue, synonymous to People Power to the Filipinos and the world (EDSA Revolution); tolerant means able to put up with, withstand notwithstanding. GMA has so far tolerated an infinite number (77 times, Matthew 18: 21-22, New American Bible) of EDSA attempts to oust her from power. Will she be able to weather this food crisis? Wrong question!

She is my President, if you have to know. No, there is no food crisis in the Philippines – there is a food price crisis. And that’s true all over the world. The difference is gross: Food goes to the stomach, price goes to the pocket.

The use of food crops for biofuels has triggered the rises in the prices of foods. The United States and China are guilty in using corn to produce bioethanol – corn is a food crop, food to people and feed to animals. Brazil is guilty in using sugarcane to produce the same – sugarcane is sugar to everyone, confectionery and syrup and juice to millions. You can’t have our food and we eat it too!

The price crisis is a supply crisis. And it is triggered by 2 kinds of hunger: on one hand, peoples’ hunger for green & gold; on the other hand, other peoples’ hunger for food.

In fact, it’s not simply a crisis; it’s a war. In fact, it’s not simply a war; it’s 2 wars. In fact, it’s not simply 2 wars; it’s 3 wars.

2020, the Third World War. Which alien species brought the plague called climate change to the human inhabitants of the Earth? Homo sapiens. This species was alien to the idea that if you allow Politics to blend with Science to blend with Private Interests and leave out much of the Public long enough, there is a Climate Change where the Icebergs of Indifference melt and the Temperatures of Neglect rise and the Storms of Protests visit with fury. I’m imagining the 3rd War of the World, the very last. 100% success.

Leading to that 3rd War of the World, I'm imagining a failed 1st War of the World and a failed 2nd War of the World. Failed wars? I’m imagining wars different from your World War I and World War II. Those wars are nothing compared to what I am about to describe. Because they are largely unseen, and they seem to be unreal. And that makes each one of them deadlier than the physical thing. And yes, they are occurring simultaneously, in parallel worlds.

The First War of the World

The 1st War of the World is the War on the Poverty of the Spirit. Between those who empty their hearts and those who refuse to empty themselves of their baggages. I’m referring not only to Roman Catholics and Protestants of all denominations.

Why do we have a food price crisis in the Philippines? Despite the efforts of the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) and IRRI in increasing rice production, farmers suffer because of hoarders, private warehouses and private houses, big and small stashers of food, human squirrels who think nothing but of themselves. In one conference outside Manila, an official of a government agency confessed that some of his staff were buying ‘one sack of rice every day’ (see my ‘The Drylanders’). It’s easy to be selfish, to be self-indulgent – you don’t need practice.

The cause is the same as the political crisis in the Philippines: unlimited human wants. This is the take-off point, The Grand Assumption for the Science of Economics. That is to say, here is one Science that assumes gluttony as a necessary beginning for the acts of Man. So, why are we surprised that politicians have insatiable desires for power and privilege?

The destructive forces in the 1st War of the World emanate from unlimited desires; the Wealth of Nations is the Wealth of Some, not the Wealth of All. An unwinnable war?

The Second War of the World

The 2nd War of the World is the War on the Poverty of the Mind. Between those who are ignorant and those who think they know better.

Battle Stations #1

Take the advocacy of the Philippines in research for development (R4D) in agriculture. Last Friday, Agriculture Secretary Arthur C Yap and IRRI Director Robert Zeigler signed in between IRRI ricefields in the presence of GMA a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on ‘Accelerating Rice Production in the Philippines.’ Good for 5 years, in brief, the MOA calls for IRRI to ‘enhance’ – IRRI Deputy Director William Padolina’s term – the capabilities of the DA to improve advocacy and assistance to Filipino rice farmers from seed to drying of grains, and the capacity of the farmers to produce more rice, particularly in areas with either lack or excess of water supply. According to the MOA, the collaboration calls for, among other things, provision of high-yielding rice varieties, training, extension, use of modern information & communication technologies, including assessment of potentials of current and candidate rice-growing areas with the use of geographic information systems, remote sensing, crop & climate modeling. The farm technologies include site-specific nutrient management, integrated pest management, controlled irrigation, as well as better postharvest handling of produce to reduce losses. I say the farmers don’t have to be fed these hard-to-digest terms to benefit from them.

In his brief talk, Zeigler was very generous in his praise of Filipino IRRI staff and very emphatic in his promise of assistance by IRRI. Zeigler said:

I would like to make special mention of the extremely high quality of nationally recruited staff that makes us the envy of the agricultural research world. Their high quality work and dedication are the foundation of the success and contributions that IRRI has made to the Philippines and to the world. Madam President, I can assure you that as other international centers recruit our national staff to go work for them, we also contribute to (or suffer from) the excellent reputation of the Filipino Overseas Workers.

If IRRI’s so smart, why are Filipinos rice poor? It is neither technology nor mathematics, my dear Aunt Sally. The Filipino farmer, Zeigler said, produces much more per hectare than the Thai farmer. This is ‘testament to the ingenuity, hard work and effectiveness of the DA – farmer partnership.’ And oh, no, Zeigler said, ‘Thailand doesn’t even have to deal with typhoons!’

Madame President, I and my colleagues both in IRRI and in the Department of Agriculture are honored to have you witness the signing by me and Secretary Yap of a new Memorandum of Agreement between IRRI and DA that will allow us to work together to quickly move Philippine rice production forward towards self-sufficiency.

I liked the sound of that.

In his short message, among other things, I heard Yap talk about a ‘new management approach’ to rice production with the use of ‘compact cluster areas’ of 40-100 hectares, especially but not solely in agrarian reform communities. I understand that to mean the communities must learn to be communities.

I liked the sound of that too.

But I was expecting more. But I was expecting too much: The MOA was only for meeting the need to increase the rice supply up to the need to handle the harvest to decrease losses, not for meeting the needs to act to bring about advantageous marketing arrangements and react to adverse market developments.

Still, another thing I would expect is the DA convincing GMA on the need to pay serious attention to the drylands (the unirrigated as well as the uplands). For starters, the setting up of a Philippine Drylands Institute has been recommended as a result of a national conference on the drylands held at the Clark Special Economic Zone in Pampanga last April 17-18. (For more details, see my ‘The Drylanders’).

The drylands can contribute much. With 1 million hectares of the drylands adding say, a modest 10 cavans more per hectare, that’s 10 M cavans of added rice in 100 days. The drylands are also good for planting other cash crops that the farmers need, such as sweet sorghum, a drought-tolerant species used as food, feed, forage, fuel, fertilizer. (For more details, see my ‘Grey-to-Green Revolution.’)

Who are those who think they know better? The politicians in the Philippines, especially the opposition. And the noisy minority in and out of media who cannot see anything good that GMA does or says.

Battle Stations #2

Take the advocacy of the United States in R4D for the developing countries of Asia, Africa, America: Instead of slosh, there’s slash. According to Science, the magazine published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), ‘Researchers charge that the US Government is moving to slash funding for international agricultural research’ (Dennis Normile, April 18, sciencemag.org). Fionna Douglas, speaking for the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), said that the CGIAR has been told that ‘the 2008 USAID budget includes extensive earmarks requiring funding to be directed primarily to health issues, leaving little for agriculture.’

The 2008 USAID budget is like 75% for health, 25% for food. That is to say, for every dollar, 75 cents for AIDS and cancer and stem cells and the like, and 25 cents for cereals of the tropics. That is to say, the illnesses of the First World are more important than the hunger of the Third World. That is to say, the peoples of the developed countries first before the peoples of the underdeveloped.

So I understand when Zeigler says, ‘This is the worst of times.’ Certainly for IRRI, which is one of 15 CGIAR centers that depend on outside funding for their science, certainly for all of us in the tropics: ‘Part of the reason we’re having this deterioration of the global agricultural situation is that there has been a steady erosion of support for research.’ Zeigler means the global food crisis is in part explained by dearth of funds for research to improve the lives of poor farmers. So, the poor farmers we shall always have with us?

In the meantime, David Dickson reports that a ‘global agriculture study calls for increased research’ (April 16, scidev.net). ‘An international study of global agriculture has concluded that significant investment in agricultural research is needed for the world to feed its growing population in an economically and environmentally sustainable way.’ Rather than investing in war, the United States of America should be investing in peace.

To be fair, for the last 50 years, with US aids, science in agriculture has been concentrating on increasing yields of crops, for example, rice and corn for the Third World. And they have succeeded quite well, thank you very much. Did you know that, for instance, the Philippines increased its rice production from 5.3 M tons in 1970 to 16.2 M tons in 2007, that is, by more than 300%? Tell that to the Thais!

In the meantime, businesses have been concentrating on increasing their income from crops, that is to say, from the sweat of the producers of those crops.

Who are those who think they know better? Those who have ignored the marketing needs of farmers. Those who do not know that the Wars of the World are not between the Haves and Have-Nots; they are between the Grow Mores and the Gain Mores in the member countries of the United Nations.

In my mind, IRRI and DA, through PhilRice (and the Philippine Drylands Institute when established), can collaborate and together work with local government units, civil society and private interests to bring about not only a rice self-sufficient Philippines as soon as 2010 but also help create a social system that ensures an equitable distribution of the benefits from the growing of more rice.

If we can talk about that, then we can talk about fighting the Third World War. Is winning this war an impossible dream? No, but winning over our insatiable desires may be.

Endnote: This is Chapter 7 of my book, Creative Writer’s Guide For Non-Dummies. This essay is an example of packaging your story, from the small picture (rice crisis, marketing needs) to the Big Picture (food crisis, national distribution of benefits, climate change). We are all in this together.

How I Wrote The Frankenstein Mindster 03

As of February 24, 2008, I had already written, aside from the Introduction, 3 chapters of the book:

(1) My Law Of Graffiti. Graffiti as a metaphor for brainstorming.
(2) PC Fools. The PC as a tool for creativity.
(3) Serendipity X. The Muse is on-call.

By April 22, I had written 2 more chapters:

(4) A Thinker’s Faith. How to start writing anytime.
(5) Lesson Of The Water Cycle. Looking at the Big Picture.
(6) The Neutral Visits. Taking sides actually.

And the number of chapters had increased to 13.

By April 27, Chapter 13 had been written. Not only was it easier to write because I didn’t have to do research except write on what I know, I thought that it would be a good idea to break my own monotony of writing the book chapters in sequence. After all, as I said in an earlier chapter, Chapter 03, this is where you should begin, not Chapter 01.
(13) My Digital World.

By April 30, I had written chapter 10:
(10) Language Of Change. ‘If you don’t want to revise, you don’t want to be good’ said my note.

On May 01, I decided to make the book part of a series under the main title of Serendipity X, so that I could have
Serendipity X: A Creative Writer’s Guide For Non-Dummies
Serendipity X: A Creative Editor’s Guide For Non-Dummies
Serendipity X: A Creative Publisher’s Guide for Non-Dummies

Also on May 01, I had written Chapter 08:
(08) Readability Check. How to acquire vocabulary easily.

On May 04, I had written Chapter 07:
(07) Wars Of The World. Packaging your story.

On May 08, I had written Chapter 11:
(11) The Osims Years. Looking at the village.

Also on May 08 later in the day, I decided to have only 12 chapters and wrote Chapter 09 to finish the book:
(09) Virtual Thinking. Blogging for creative thinking.

So I had to renumber Chapter 13 to become Chapter 12.

How I Wrote The Frankenstein Mindster 02

On February 15, I had written ‘My Crazy Dozen. The Rebel Writer’s Guide For Non-Dummies’ – The number had changed to 12 chapters. This was intended as the Introduction to the book.

These were the suggestive ideas for the new 12 chapters of the book:

(1) If you want to begin right, don’t begin right.
(2) If you want to create order, don’t create order.
(3) If you want to write well, don’t write.
(4) If you want to be read, don’t read yourself.
(5) If you want to listen to advice, don’t give the advice.
(6) If you want to attract readers, don’t give your vocabulary.
(7) If you want to improve, don’t just improve.
(8) If you want to get more ideas, look where there are none!
(9) If you want to have a good sequence, make a bad one.
(10) If you want to write objectively, you’re a journalist.
(11) If you want to know everything, you’re an encyclopedia.
(12) If you want to give up, you’re a mad genius!

How I Wrote The Frankenstein Mindster 01

On January 10, 2008, I created the Word 2003 file ‘The Rebel Writer’s Club.’ Inside, the file was titled: ‘The Rebel Writer’s Club. Proclaiming The 13 Commandments Of Writing For Non-Dummies.’ Here in simulated Word 2003 collapsed outline form, the original file containing text beneath the level 2 heads, the content was this:

The Rebel Writer says,

(1) Law Of Graffiti. The Rebel Writer Writes, And Having Writ, Moves On
(2) The Rebel Writer says, ‘The computer is right minus wrong.’
(3) Frank’s Chaos Theory of Writing. The Rebel Writer says, ‘Create disorder after disorder.’
(4) The Rebel Writer says, ‘Talk to me.’
(5) The Rebel Writer says, ‘Throw your vocabulary out your windows.’
(6) The Rebel Writer says, ‘Listen To Music, Listen To Others.’
(7) The Rebel Writer says, ‘Do tomorrow what you can do today.’
(8) The Rebel Writer says, ‘If you don’t want to revise, you don’t want to be good.’
(9) The Rebel Writer says, ‘Negatives attract positives.’
(10) The Rebel Writer says, ‘To get the sequence right, make it wrong.’
(11) The Rebel Writer says, ‘Your Objective Is To Be Subjective.’
(12) The Rebel Writer says, ‘Know more, not no more.’
(13) The Rebel Writer says, ‘About Being Better Before Being Good ...’

Note the number of chapters: 13. This will change over the months.

Frankenstein's Rules of Virtual Writing

1. Welcome Yourself. Learn to live with yourself. Learn to accept your inadequacies, to admit your failings. Then you can be a better absorber of ideas, information, insights; then you can be a better, more creative writer.

2. Write On! The only way to learn to write is to write – and again and again. It has always been true since the first time it was said, even if it wasn’t said of writing: ‘Practice makes perfect.’

3. Begin Anywhere. You have to tolerate sloppy writing. Begin anywhere but begin. Begin with the title, begin with the beginning, begin with the middle, or begin with the end. Then you will release more of your creative juice. Then you will never have Writer’s Block.

4. Know More. The only way to say more is to learn more. Read on the subject; ask questions; listen, watch. Then you’ll become more interested to read on the subject; then you’ll become more interesting to read.

5. Write Less. Write more about less. Limit your subject matter to something you can handle at one time. For instance, don’t write about ‘His good work habits made him prolific as a writer’; instead, write about ‘His forcing himself to write a quota of words everyday helped him to become prolific.’

6. Relax. Learn to stop, look & listen – to something else. Don’t force yourself to finish. Doing something else unrelated to the article will – surprise – refresh your mind.

7. Rewrite. There’s always room for improvement. The best way to write is to rewrite. Win some, lose some – that too is the essence of rewriting.

8. Connect. See the Big Picture. You must look hard and long at your topic or subject matter, and try to arrive at a perspective of how it fits into the overall scheme of something bigger than it is. Nothing is unconnected; you must see the connection – that is your privilege as a creative writer.

9. Write Onscreen. The computer is a capitalist tool, so capitalize on it. You hesitate. If you are young, do you think the best (PC) is yet to come? If you’re no longer young, do you think you’re too old to learn? I was 45 when I started teaching myself. Now I can teach you Windows and Word with my eyes closed. Including Word 2003.

10. Write Big. If you want to be a great writer, believe in something bigger than yourself. Believe in and write for the individual, family, village, town, country – always in the context of the world. Whether your religion is Reason, Mysticism, Science, Islam or Christianity. To write, as well as to believe, is to relate. It’s a great feeling!

11 The Osims Years.

A campus grows in Magalang, Pampanga

By Frankenstein

The name ‘Aglibut Sweet’ evokes the history of a campus that grew from School to College – now grown up to be University – the story of seeds that grew into trees, as well as the story of three generations of men from the North who helped make it happen. My photograph shows the 30-year-old original scion grove of the sweet tree and the 2nd-generation scion of the man who planted the seeds. It’s early morning; everything’s looking up.

And I’m looking up to comparing this College in Central Luzon with the premier University of agriculture in Southern Tagalog in the Philippines. I should find the story compelling, if long.

A story grows

The old man, Andres P Aglibut, Ilocano, from the North, was a retired Agricultural Engineering professor of the University of the Philippines Los Baños; he brought seeds of sweet tamarind and gave some to his protege, Fortunato Battad, also from the North, who spoke Ilocano, and who planted them and saw that they were good.

I am Ilocano, so I know ‘Aglibut’ means in Ilocano ‘to go around’ – the good professor had been traveling. ‘Fortunato’ is Spanish for ‘fortunate.’ The Pampanga Agricultural College (PAC) was fortunate to have him as President. The family name ‘Battad’ came from ‘Batad,’ the name of the place where the Battads came from, up there in Northern Philippines. Batad is known for its spectacular, breath-taking ‘amphitheater-like terraces rising to the mountaintops’ (Robert Gardner, aenet.org). The Battads are pure Ifugaos, native Filipinos known around the world for their age-old engineering feat, the rice terraces, water coming from the watershed above, a most delightful way to irrigate the field. The Ifugaos know how to engineer their way to a world wonder. In 2006, I wrote about the ‘World-renowned Ifugao rice terraces’ and reported that the Unesco declared them a World Heritage Site (actually 9 towns). They are 10 times longer than the Great Wall of China. We should call them The Great Banaue Rice Terraces.

Personally, I have always had high respects for the Ifugaos, people from the boondocks. About 30 years ago, I was the Chief Information Officer of the Forest Research Institute (FORI) and Editor in Chief of Habitat, a full-color magazine I founded for FORI and which I patterned after the US National Geographic. Sharon Codamon, pure Ifugao, an intelligent, intense young woman social scientist of FORI, submitted a manuscript based on her visit to the natives of one of the mountains off Luzon and, with a little rewriting into the Habitat style by me, I approved it for publication. The content was meaty, the photographs were good. Excellent.

Then, the prejudice of lowlanders against uplanders reared her ugly head, and one lady raised a howl – the lady did protest too much – that the manuscript was not good enough for such a high-quality magazine. Ahem! She was telling everybody I was a dunce of an Editor. I didn’t mind it, because I knew I wasn’t – if I were, why would I deny it? But there arose a big editorial fight. She was a member of the Editorial Board, and she called for a Board decision, and the Board decided against publishing it. The lady didn’t realize she was fighting City Hall. I knew the Director of FORI, Filiberto S Pollisco, had always supported me in my decisions; I had the Chairman of the Board of Editors behind me – Ulysses M Lustria was a good friend – and I had the power of the Editor in Chief. I published the story. End of story. Some lowlanders aren’t as smart as some uplanders. They have to grow up.

A school grows

The Pampanga Agricultural College campus is found some 15 kilometers east of Angeles City, at the heart of the town of Magalang in the province of Pampanga. The College was founded in 1885 as an agricultural experiment station; it became the Pampanga National Agricultural School in 1938, and a Chartered State College in 1974.

Pure Ifugao Fortunato Battad became the second President of the PAC, 1976 to 1984. Sturdy as mountaineers are, intense and intelligent, instead of literally carving out a bustling College out of the sides of Mount Arayat, he built on what he had found there. That was how the PAC campus grew into an orchard unto itself, a mid-sized academic institution nestled on the foot of the western slope of a legendary mountain amid a forest-like environment. It takes a man not to conquer a mountain but instead grow on it.

I visited the campus last April 18 and slept there overnight courtesy of Zosimo ‘Osims’ Battad, the scion you see in the photograph. Personally, I can appreciate the growth of the dense vegetation and the development of the school into a College. I practice-taught here, when it was still the Pampanga National Agricultural School (PNAS), around 1962. I remember the place as a wind-swept sugarcane field with hardly a tree growing, even up to the top of Mount Arayat. It was a forlorn-looking mountain to a forlorn-looking stranger that was I. Now PNAS is PAC; it’s fresh air and trees and flowers and shadows. And the birds tell you it’s a happy place for them too, among them cinnamon bitterns, barred rail, red turtle doves, zebra doves, coucals, blue-tailed bee-eaters, pied fantails, black-naped monarchs, long-tailed shrike, munias, Eurasian tree sparrows (Linda Gocon, birdwatch.ph). This campus is for the birds, and that’s how a campus should be.

The College’s vision is: An improved quality of higher education in particular, and quality of life in general.

Thanks to the forest of trees and a forest of installations of desktop computers, the campus is a mild, wired country. The College is in touch with the rest of the world via modern information and communication technologies (mb.com.ph). The father Battad used to call it ‘a school within an orchard’ exactly as he had planned it. Today, with the Internet connections, we can call PAC ‘a world within a school within an orchard.’ The harvests on this campus are not only made of flesh in the fruits but also gray matter in the heads.

To pursue this vision, the College is sustaining a clear and steady focus on four major areas of its mandate, namely Instruction, Research and Development, Extension and Training, and Production.

Production. We then go back to the Aglibut Sweet tamarind, planting materials sold as grafts done on-campus to help raise funds for the College. For one, PAC has been aggressively marketing Aglibut Sweet as a fruit tree worthy of those who have orchards or backyards and who wish to enjoy the sweet pods or the sweet smell of honest money earned. True to its name, Aglibut Sweet has gone around the Philippines, now planted as far south in the Philippines as Mindanao.

PAC offers a total of 13 undergraduate courses (allied and non-allied), 2-year computer courses, 2-year course in agricultural technology. It maintains a laboratory high school, runs a science high school, and operates a graduate school for 3 masteral and 3 doctoral degrees. The College has a state-of-the-art Audio-Visual Center, sports facilities, a VetMed Hospital, in-campus dormitories, a Farmers’ Training Center, tissue culture and feed laboratories. As of 2006, 12 out of 14 academic programs of the College, including the Graduate School, have been accredited by the Accrediting Agency of Chartered Colleges and Universities in the Philippines (AACCUP).

I have just described a College that deserves to become a University. And now I shall tell you of its recent history, all the more to support my theory. Absorbing, I say, if educational.

The Osims Years

Many of the recent accomplishments of the College can be traced back to the scion, the son, Zosimo ‘Osims’ Battad, who was President of the College from 1999 to 2007, the Osims Years. From the PAC in 1984, the older Battad transformed the Mountain State Agricultural College into the Benguet State University and became its first President, proving, if further proof were needed, that he was an institution-builder. Like father, like son.

Osims led the rebuilding of the image of PAC and made it one of the leading institutions in Central Luzon in agriculture and allied sciences. He greatly inspired the staff and students in cultivating the values of excellence, discipline, hard work and positive attitude in every undertaking; this has redounded to overall outstanding performances of PAC students in academic, socio-cultural as well as athletic competitions. For instance, early April this year, the PAC girls won the archery championship in the Philippine Olympic Festival held in Subic, Olongapo City (sunstar.com.ph). Hard work pays like that.

During those years, new graduate and undergraduate courses began to be offered. Graduate: PhD in Management, MBM, MA in Education. Undergraduate: BS Information Technology, BS Math, BS Bio, Computer Secretarial, Computer Programming, Vet Nursing, Development Communication (DevCom). The College was also granted by CHEd to administer equivalency programs such as in Agriculture, Ag Econ, Ag Eng. Equivalency favors those who now want to continue their interrupted schooling, to go after a job.

Good image

With the overall high-quality image gained during the Osims Years, the College became a favorite of local and international visitors (entrepreneurs, professionals, students), retreat destinations for religious organizations, training and conference venues for government and private offices, for its first-rate products and services. Those years also saw a downpour of donations valued at P32 M, the items including 100+ computers and servers, a tractor and 450 scholarships a year for poor students. Computers attract minds; scholarships attract the best.

Those years also saw the establishment of the first community radio station (FM) in Magalang based at the College campus. It is now being used for broadcasts on technologies from the College as well as for training of DevCom students. Recently, the Chair of the Communication Committee of the Unesco National Commission for the Philippines Florangel Rosario Braid said, in her opening address at a national convention on community radio in the Philippines, ‘Radio cannot be replaced as the main media tool for development’ (portal.unesco.org). Personally, I favor the print media, but so far their vocabulary does not derive from development but the politics of opposition.

In 2001, the College was chosen as a Luntiang Pilipinas (Green Philippines) site, an honor and a recognition of the forest-like surroundings on campus, which has its own lake nourished by natural springs. The lake’s abundant and unending water stream means the watershed is alive and well on Mount Arayat and on the campus of the PAC. There are thousands of fruit-bearing mangoes and mahogany trees, among others; it is now regarded as the cleanest and greenest campus among the state colleges and universities in Central Luzon. Greenest. On campus, I saw one tree in bloom so profuse that at first glance it looked to me a golden shower. (It was a narra, Pterocarpus indicus.) Beauty always distracts me pleasantly.

R&D

The term research and development (R&D) has always bothered me because I keep noticing that people don’t really define it and don’t clearly delineate which is which. So I love it that Osims differentiates the two. In his report on the Osims Years, research is research, while development projects include commercialization of Aglibut Sweet, tissue-cultured bananas, bamboo, Jatropha (for biodiesel), organic vegetables and organic fertilizer production. Based on my own theorizing, organic farming was something I began to preach in 1967 when I began teaching at UP Los Baños. 41 years ago. The years have a way of catching up with you.

Academic & scholastic achievements

In the Osims Years, the College became one of the premier educational institutions in Region 3. The college produced topnotchers in board exams in teacher education, veterinary medicine, agricultural engineering. The College’s VetMed program became #2 nationwide while its teacher education program became #1 in Central Luzon. The UP Los Baños College of VetMed should be jealous.

Wired

The College acquired a Computer Center with at least 100 working computers at any time. Because of its computer literacy and readiness, the wired Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture project selected the College as its node for Region 3; it is referred to as OpAPA-Pampanga. At the close of 2007, OpAPA-Pampanga was running at 512 MBps performing fairly well on 3 major components: database and network connectivity, advocacy and social mobilization, and content development. The College now has its computer network and its own website (instanet.com.ph/pac or pac.edu.ph). It now offers the public the world of knowledge through an Internet Café. UP Los Baños should be so inclined.

Business assistance & partnership

The College is 1 of 7 institutions selected by the Development Bank of the Philippines to set up a Business Assistance Center (BAC) to encourage local entrepreneurs, with access to market information, technology, credit and technical assistance. Osims registered Aglibut Sweet and it became the first sweet tamarind variety approved for commercial production by the National Seed Industry Council (NSIC). This NSIC variety rivals the Bangkok variety, renowned internationally for its sugary taste. In 2006, the College commercialized the variety in Zambales Province with support from former Senator Ramon Magsaysay Jr and funding from the Bureau of Agricultural Research headed by Director Nicomedes P Eleazar. Thousands of grafted seedlings were provided and planted in farms and backyards in the province. The College trained and provided technical assistance to interested growers. Loans payable in 1 year in 3 installments were also made available. I don’t see such entrepreneurship at UP Los Baños.

The Osims Years also saw the College partnering with the Central Luzon Drug Rehabilitation Center in initiating the training in agriculture and computer skills for more than 2,600 rehabilitated patients in 5 years. Business partnerships were also established with 12 private entities, including Philippine Mission Organic Vegetable Co of South Korea, USETECH Co for organic banaba production, ACE Institute of Computer Education, F4 Company for bamboo production, and Concun group for agro-ecotourism. Business partnership is a lesson UP Los Baños has yet to learn. We visited the Technology Demonstration & Training Center set up by the Farm Foundation Inc and the College within the campus, and I saw colorful fishes being raised in 2 ponds for aquarium buyers. I was looking at the color of growth.

International collaborations

During those years, the College established more than 30 international academic and research collaborations with universities and other institutions in Europe, Israel, South Korea, the United States, China, the Netherlands, United Kingdom and Asean countries. To date, the College has a partnership with the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) for research to enhance cropping in rainfed areas. The College has also a stake in the proposed Philippine Drylands Institute, another advocacy of ICRISAT (for details, see my ‘The Drylanders’).

Science & service facilities

In those Osims Years, 20 science & service facilities were created, directly addressing the needs of students, farmers, fishermen, rural women and youth. In connection with this, in 2006, Osims was nominated by the CHED for the 2006 Lingkod Bayan (Public Service) Award for outstanding work performance. A well-rounded personality, Osims has received more than 50 citations-awards and recognitions in his research, administration, socio-cultural and sports involvements. As the man has grown, the College has grown.

The staff

Osims did not forget the staff. He institutionalized the granting of professional enhancement allowance at P10 K plus rice allowance worth P6 K each year. This is not to mention the health insurance subsidy and an incentives & awards system approved by the Civil Service Commission in 2000. He further improved housing, security services, provision of safe water, IGP system, and the grievance & discipline mechanism. No stone left unturned.

All in all

Let me point out that components of the Pampanga Agricultural College did not grow in isolation with the rest, or at the expense of the others. Osims is an illustrious son of an illustrious father, Fortunato. The father cultivated the trees; being President of the College from 1999 to 2007, the son cultivated the arts, the sports, the technologies, the partnerships, the bodies and minds of both College staff and students. Outstandingly. When I say Outstandingly, I mean exceptionally well, and on his own initiative and entrepreneurship. He would develop the whole College and not simply the components of the College where his field is, animal-veterinary science. And the whole College would help develop the whole town where it has grown.

A town grows, a college too?

There is a huge market potential for sweet tamarind as the country continuously imports this fruit to meet local demand. On the 13th of December 2007, the municipal council declared Magalang as ‘The Sweet Tamarind Capital of the Philippines’ (instanet.com.ph), mainly due to the Aglibut Sweet as the elite tree and the PAC as its privileged advocate. For all it’s worth, the College is the Science Capital of Pampanga.

The town of Magalang has benefited directly much more from the PAC, visibly in increased yields in crop and animal production. The town today teems with piggeries and fishponds. Pond owners in Pampanga source their tilapia fingerlings from producers in this town. Magalang is well-known for its confectioneries (sweets) for their unique taste arising from the quality of the milk from the water buffalo (carabao) that feed on green grass growing on pasturelands in the town. And lately, for sweet tamarind. And for businesses and enterprises connected directly and indirectly with the College. It is not only the PAC that has grown from Magalang; the town has also grown from the PAC. (And with the Aglibut Sweet, Zambales as a Province is growing into being Sweet Tamarind Country.)

Just as the University of the Philippines College of Agriculture created a University Town (Los Baños) and became a University, Magalang, Pampanga deserves to be officially recognized as a University Town and the PAC declared by law a State University of the Philippines. Already, the PAC envisions itself to be a regional center of excellence for research and development in agriculture, science and industrial technology, and for the provision of world-class comprehensive education and training.

On April 26, 2004, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo certified as urgent to Congress the bill for the conversion of the College into a University. No word. The House Bill titled ‘An Act declaring Pampanga Agricultural College as a State University’ sponsored by Pampanga Representative Carmelo F Lazatin, co-authored by Representatives Juan Miguel ‘Mikey’ Macapagal-Arroyo and Anna York P Bondoc, was filed July 30, 2007. No news. PAC deserves to graduate to a higher level of educational attainment, so isn’t it wrong that the honorable Representatives of Pampanga are not pushing hard for the College to attain University status and bring themselves honor as well? Well, Congressmen can be wrong sometimes, you know; they are not always bright.

This is Chapter 11 of my book, Creative Writer’s Guide For Non-Dummies. It illustrates how to stop looking at successful individuals or individual families; rather, it should be successful villages – a campus is also a village. If you have that perspective, you’ll never run out of stories – and enthusiasm – even with a boring subject like R&D.

09 Virtual Thinking

The day I reinvented the blog

By Frankenstein

To which half do you belong? Seeing my photograph, half of the lookers will notice the closed gate of iron bars, and half of the lookers will notice what lies beyond the closed gate of iron bars. The first lookers sense what cannot be and the second lookers sense what can be. The iron bars are my metaphor for critical thinking; what lies beyond the iron bars is my metaphor for creative thinking. Why do you mind the closed gate of reason when you can always open the windows of your free mind?

I suppose half of the bloggers in the world do it while looking at the imperial gate of reason. They don’t want to be unreasonable. They’d rather be logical – and so they end up being boring. You see, being unreasonable is the only way to travel the road of creative thinking. I’d rather be stimulating!

With this essay, I introduce virtual thinking as a new form of creative thinking that is distinct from the popular form of thinking, which is vertical thinking (also known as logical thinking, critical thinking, that is, sequential, hierarchical, linear, mathematical), distinct from Edward de Bono’s lateral thinking (horizontal thinking, as opposed to vertical thinking), from Ray Bradbury’s word association (every which way), and from Julia Cameron’s Artist’s Way (journaling regularly at an easy, personal time) (check it out at artistswayatwork.com).

(I hasten to add, though, that creative thinking neither negates nor opposes critical thinking. Rather, these two types of thinking complement each other. It’s just that if you want to engage in creative thinking, first you suspend critical thinking so that you can go to ridiculous places and come back with wonderful ideas. In the end of course, the creativity you reach must somehow be reasonable or acceptable. It's just that creative thinking is more equal than critical thinking. If you believe the modern Filipino 'truth crusader' Jun Lozada, then it's the other way around.)

I just thought of the term virtual thinking today, May 8, 2008 Manila time, at about 1800 hours, excitedly upon which I created immediately the blog ‘The Virtual Thinker’ without a single post to upload, as I wanted to register the date and time in virtual history (thevirtualthinker.blogspot.com).

It is only once in a million blue moons that an idea like this comes to mind. In fact, I have been searching for such a name actively since 2005. I said ‘name’ and not ‘concept’ because I have had this concept since I first read about Edward de Bono’s lateral thinking in his book Mechanism of Mine in 1975 when my good friend Orli Ochosa gifted me a copy, and I juxtaposed lateral thinking with my earlier experience with Rudolf Flesch’s Readability Formula (in his book How to Write, Speak and Think More Effectively), that which if you applied puts you right in the universe of creative thinking leading to creative writing. You don't have to call it creative thinking to be creative thinking.

How did the idea of virtual thinking come to me? It was a long time coming; it happened this way:

We go back to 40 years ago when I realized that it was almost impossible to get published by the local papers. However can you become a good writer if you are never published? You are never published because nobody wants to publish you, that’s all, no explanations given, no explanations necessary. Even today, the papers don’t even acknowledge email submissions. Writers are at the mercy of publishers (and editors) of newspapers and magazines and publishing houses. But not quite as doleful as before with the invention of the blog.

Now, a week ago, May 01, 2008 Manila time, it suddenly occurred to me that a beginning or not-yet-mature writer can have lots of practice at his own pace and still be assured that each piece he writes is published, I guarantee it! It’s all very simple, now that I have been inspired to look at something I have been doing in a different light:

To practice writing everyday, blog everyday. You’re practicing and at the same time you’re publishing yourself. The power to publish is in your hands. This is the ultimate freedom of the press!

And even that’s not enough. So, I had this idea of mind-blogging; I was happy with that, as you can see if you note that I have written many posts after the first one on May 6 as you can see if you visit ‘Mind-boggling or mind-blogging?’ (themindbloggers.blogspot.com).

I was thinking: Mind-blogging is creative blogging, creative writing using the blog as medium. It gives me almost complete control, assures me that what I’m going to write, whatever it is, will be published – I am the publisher of my blog. A blog is wholly, totally personal. Just like an insult.

Then today, May 08 Manila time, I came to comparing vertical thinking and lateral thinking with mind-blogging. Thinking of vertical lines, I thought mind-blogging is more than vertical thinking; thinking of horizontal lines, I thought mind-blogging is more than lateral thinking. And it is more than just a combination of the two, a burst of arrows of energy from one source into all directions in the universe of thought. I needed a new term.

Mind-blogging did suggest thinking (mind) and virtual (blogging, as you cannot blog except in the virtual world). But that’s not how today the term virtual thinking came to me – it just popped out of the blue, not as a pun but as an insight that which appeared out of nowhere, of course, otherwise it was not insight.

Test your insight: Look at my photograph again, and tell me what you see that I haven’t told you. Email me at frankahilario@gmail.com and I will write an essay about the first 10 of you who submit an insight or two.

Now then, how do you do virtual thinking so that it really is creative thinking?

For the virtual part, you need to start with a blog. Always with a blog, otherwise it’s not virtual. For the thinking part, you need to accept any & all thoughts that intrude into your mind, to allow them to process themselves in and out and not to interfere, to be only a virtual receiver and not a reviewer, to concede and not to contend. Let the Muse of Serendipity tempt you with her wiles. That is to say, be inspired!

Half of the time you don’t blog like that; well, it’s time you do it all the time if you want to learn creative thinking in the most pleasant way.

While I have just invented the term today, I in fact have been virtual-thinking officially, you might say, since February 11, 2006, when I submitted my very first essay to American Chronicle (‘Fuzzy logic and the avian flu’) and, inspired by the immediate and warm acceptance of the article, I at once wrote another and submitted it and it was published in the same day (‘Google is Genius’). My logic was clear, my genius showed up.

Blogging has become second-nature to me, like typing has become play, as you see that I can’t seem to be able to write short pieces. After some 124 weeks, I have written as many long essays, that is to say, I have authored an average of 1 essay a week for the last 28 months. I have always been prolific, even in the number of my children from 1 mother: Would you believe 12?

Can you use a mantra for virtual thinking? Try mine, that which I call ‘PS,’ (without the quotes) (click here for details on PS, as mantra).

Open your own blog today, a different or a new one, for learning virtual thinking as a new skill. A blog a day keeps the blues away. If you’re not so sure of your own writing yet, treat your blog as a daily journal for the reading pleasure of your friends and no more. You will gain confidence as you write-publish, write-publish, write-publish from day to day, week to week. This is full freedom of the press, full power of the press, and you're wielding it.

The beauty of a blog as a plan for practice in creative writing is that:

(1) It’s free.
(2) It’s relaxing.
(3) It’s exhilarating.
(4) There is no killjoy Editor or Publisher – you are on your own. (You can have one KJ later if you like.)

In the meantime, enjoy blogging for your friends. Like I said in December of 2005, blogging is the revenge of the unpublished writer’ (‘The 5th: Freedom of blog,’ creativeleaps.blogspot.com).

If you are religious in your creative blogging, it’s for your own good – you learn to write creatively better, faster. The only way to learn to write is not to write – it’s to write seven times seven times. If you don't have passion, you'll pass out.

While doing your virtual thinking / virtual writing, learn at least one little lesson in creativity everyday. And where do you get those lessons? Read (or reread) any of my essays and I’m sure you’ll learn something, or be inspired by something, and then go ahead and write what you have in mind. (Visit my blogs: ‘The Virtual Thinker’ and ‘Excellence, Manila!’ and revisit this one, ‘Serendipity X.’)

In the world outside the Internet, editors and publishers are the lords and masters, not necessarily respectively. Either or both dictate whom to publish, no matter what quality of writing or thinking has gone into a manuscript. I should know. I have been sending articles to the Manila Chronicle and Daily Express of old, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Philippine Star, Manila Bulletin, Today of today. Their silences have been disquieting.

Not only that. If you are persistent, you will earn for all your blogging from Google AdSense. How’s that for incentive? From those newspapers, you don’t even get an A for Attempt.

To help you in your virtual thinking, you can always refer to the online copy of my book (you’re on the right site right now), or you can order the print from me later (I’m going to press within the month). At any rate, possessing the book is not important or necessary; processing the thoughts in the book is.

In fact, I meant that book to be my sourcebook when I conduct creative writing workshops. I’m finishing that book with this chapter you are reading now.

Flashback: On May 03, 2008 Manila time, I was still 4 chapters short of the 12 I had planned for that book, but at the rate I was writing, I was going to finish before the month ended. So I was already thinking of how to conduct my creative writing workshop using the book. I didn’t write the book for me; I wrote the book for you. (If you’re reading this elsewhere, you may use my book free as far as that goes; visit ‘Serendipity X,’ theserendipityman.blogspot.com).

So, how was I going to transform non-writers into writers, or poor writers into better writers in, say, 7 days? Creative writing is not simply writing; you don’t pluck creativity from a tree – you pluck it from the air, and that needs technique, even a mantra (see my ‘PS,’ frankahilario.blogspot.com). PS, is a mantra, for creative thinking, yes, but you still need to write creatively. The two don’t necessarily go together.

Then I looked at the act and the fact of blogging. What has blogging done to me, the art and the science of it? That’s when I had the insight: Blogging is not an act; it’s a process. In other words, the process is more important than the act. That’s when I connected blogging with creative thinking. So I had invented creative blogging.

Of course, you probably have connected blogging with creative thinking. Let’s examine that assumption. How do you make sure that when you’re blogging, you’re thinking creatively? (Never mind the grammar and the typos.) And how do you think much, much more? That’s the 64-M dollar question. Half the billion blogs in the world are only half-critically thinking, not to mention half-creatively.

I have been blogging since 2005. On the American Chronicle alone, I have published more than a hundred long essays. As of today, I probably have 70 blogs comprising hundreds of essays, and not the little, disorganized ones you see half of the time, and none of them a rehash of another – so I speak from deep experience. If you want half of the world to respect you as a Blogger, blog well. (The other half of the world isn’t paying attention.)

To write well, what you need is good practice. So, practice well. The only way to learn to write is to write. No, let me reinvent that too. The best way to learn to write is to blog. Blog. And the only way to learn to blog is to blog. The only way to learn to blog well is, well, to learn from the master.

Now then, to learn creative writing, you must learn creative blogging. Virtual thinking. You say: But I don’t feel creative half the time when I’m blogging. Ah, that’s where the guru comes in. For your virtual thinking sessions, apply Frank’s Rules of Virtual Writing (thevirtualthinker.blogspot.com) – it’s free, on me. Print it out and follow each one of them as much as you can. I guarantee you pleasant results.

And yes, in your blogletting, remember these as my advices:

Blog with all your heart & soul.
As you practice blogging, practice your humanity,
Writing is personal.
Make love, not war.
Say thank you.
Have fun!
Do theater when you can.
The Reader is more important than the Blogger.
Tell stories.
Show.
Excellence is in the details.
Open your eyes, not the gate.
You don’t have to be right all the time.
Enjoy the journey - the journey is the reward.
Separate the biodegradable from the non-biodegradable.

As of course I myself have been following Frank’s Rules for decades, even if I had not written them down before, I have found my rhythm. I now have ease of thought flow: 90% inspiration, 10% perspiration. That’s my genius. I have it all the time, on call. What about you who are yet struggling to write or struggling to be a better writer? With virtual thinking, your genius awaits you.

When Ray Bradbury was that high, he met Mr Electrico and, in a magical hour, the magician enchanted the boy, wish-shouting at the believer, ‘Live forever!’ (raybradbury.com). If you write well, you will live forever.

I have proven to myself in the last 33 years that Frank’s Rules work like magic – you just have to believe, believe me. Believe forever!

Endnote: This is Chapter 9th of my book, Creative Writer’s Guide For Non-Dummies. Virtual thinking is a practical way of flogging the mind so that it doesn’t flag down when you’re trying to think creatively. Since it’s a new invention of mine, I’m still in the process of fine-tuning it. Theory must transform itself into practice; practice will confirm or confront theory. Also, if I tried to explain it fully here, where would the fun be if you attended my creative writing workshop?