Friday, June 30, 2017

First Part: Functional Literacy, "A Camilo Osias Story"


First Part: Functional Literacy, "A Camilo Osias Story"

Dr Abe V Rotor

Here is a story about Pedro and Jose I read in the elementary.

One day Pedro approached his boss and complained why his partner Jose is receiving a higher pay when both of them have the same nature of work.

RARE 1924 CAMILO OSIAS THE PHILIPPINE READERS

“Ah, Pedro,” sighed the boss with a sheepish smile. “You will come to know the reason.”

Just then the doorbell rang. “Pedro, please find out who is at the gate.”

After some time, Pedro returned, “Someone is looking for you, sir.”

“Ask who he is.” Pedro went to the gate again, and reported back.
Image result
“He is a certain Mr. Carlos, sir.”

“Ask him what he wants.” Pedro went to the gate for the third again, and then returned.

“I did not get it well, sir. But he said he sells home appliances…promotion, something like that. He would like to meet the manager.”

“Tell him we do not need appliances.”

The next day the doorbell rang again. This time, both Pedro and Jose were in the office of their boss. Jose promptly rose from his seat to attend to the visitor at the gate. After a while he returned and reported back.

“Our visitor is an insurance agent, sir. He was offering insurance for our building, and knowing that it is already covered, I told him we do need his offer for the moment. He gave me his business card.” Jose handed the card and excused himself for another call.

“Now you understand,” said the boss to Pedro with a sheepish smile.
_______

About Camilo Osias

Camilo Osias (March 23, 1889 – May 20, 1976) was born in Balaoan, La Union. He was noted as one of the senate presidents of the Philippines, a nationalist leader who worked for Philippine independence and sovereignty, and is remembered as an educator, politician and writer who produced works such as The Filipino Way of Life, the Philippine Readers, and Jose Rizal, His Life and Times – a biographical work on Rizal. He also wrote a wide variety of articles with themes ranging from the nation to personal life and day to day living in the Philippines.

He edited the series Philippine Readers (known as Osias Readers) for primary intermediate schools. He translated in English Rizal’s famous novels Noli Me Tangere (1956) and El Filibusterismo (1957). He also wrote numerous books and essays on Rizal, education, religion, and the Filipino Way of Life.

Dr. Osias believed that education should secure for every person the fullest measure of freedom, efficiency, and happiness. Efficiency, he demands that one must be able to cooperate with the other members of the society to promote common good.

He also advocated that the educational system must contribute towards the achievement of the goals of education by inculcating their minds and hearts of the youth the value of preserving the patrimony of the country promoting the general welfare of he people.

Dr. Osias’ suggestions to Philippine schools:

  • Preserve the solidarity of Filipino; 
  • Maintain the unity of the Philippines; 
  • Work out a proper equilibrium in economic order; 
  • Develop social justice; 
  • Observe the merit system in government service; 
  • Promote peace and national defense; 
  • Uphold the inalienable rights of life, property, liberty, and happiness; 
  • Keep in their prestige majesty the fundamental freedom, especially freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of peace and assembly, and freedom of worship; 
  • Conserve the principle of equality; 
  • Hold high the ideals of religion; 
  • Keep over aloft the torch of education, and 
  • Make democracy a living and functional reality. 
Internet, Wikipedia


Third Part:: Functional Literacy in the Cyber Age



Laptop computer, and its versions, a must in college, office and in the home.

Dr Abe V Rotor


Today, to have a credit card or an ATM card is no easy task; much more if you have both. One must acquire mastery in their uses, and basic knowledge in accounting. But these are only tools used in countless transactions that include electronic marketing, now a booming industry. It is “armchair marketing” whereby all you need is watch the merchandise on TV and dial the number for your order.

• If there is e-marketing, there is also e-learning, that is on-line or distance education using the computer and other media. Here is a chance of increasing the level of literacy for those who failed to complete basic education, and those who aspire to learn more or even earn a degree. But first, one should have basic communication skills before he is admitted into the program.

• Medicines are no longer as simple as they were a generation ago, even if we have a law to label them generically, that is, to include the active principle in universal language. Prescriptions alone are difficult to follow, much more in understanding the mode of action and effects of the medicine. Paracetamol or Alaxan, is there a difference? I know of Cortal during my time. They are all to relieve headache, but why not take Ponstan or simply Aspirin?

• Appliances for the home and office are no longer as simple as switching on and switching off. How do we set the controls for temperature, timing, carbon dioxide level, fire alarm, light intensity? How about operating a camera monitor, microwave oven, automatic dish-washing machine? And we have not yet mentioned attending to their regular maintenance.

• A chauffeur or driver, one hired by a family or an executive is required to know basic mechanics as a requirement in proper car maintenance. For his part too, he must learns the cardinal rules of human relations - courteous, respectful, diplomatic in many ways, yet on the other hand, secures the family or his boss from danger, a security guard, and an intelligence agent of sort.

• I have a friend who, like me, belongs to the so-called “old school. This is his confession. “I will e-mail you,” his insurance agent said, “as soon as I get to office.” My friend didn’t understand a thing about e-mail, he is computer illiterate. “May I get you e-mail address?” continued his agent. Still my friend said nothing. “Well, if you don’t remember it now, just text me. Okay?” “How stupid I felt,” my friend confessed to the point of embarrassment. “I guess you need to enroll in a crash program.” I said. He did.

• Opening a Blog on the Internet, is not that easy. But my daughter who was then taking up graduate studies in Information Technology, assured me. “You can do it, Papa.”

I almost gave up. Rather Anna nearly gave up hope teaching a sixty-sixer. Today my Blog is without any added item or two a day. Lately, I realized I haven’t tapped the newer features of the computer. For example, it says, “You can make money in your Blog.” I didn’t know I can compose music and play it on the Blog.” How about if I sing?"

My Blog says, “Certainly.” The next time I knew it, I already had a host of followers. Today I have more than 1,500 posted topics in my School on Blog - in just two years. I requested Anna, “Please unclog my blog.”

“Papa, you are already famous worldwide!” ~

Home, Sweet Home with Nature, AVR (Book Manuscript)


Native genes are our ultimate recourse if "modified" genes fail - and they are likely to fail

Native genes are our ultimate recourse if "modified" genes fail - and they are likely to fail

Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature - School on Blog 

Native pineapple (Ananas comosus) of Thailand. Like our native pineapple,  it is resistant to tropical conditions and it needs little care. Native genes are the ultimate recourse when "modified genes" fail - and are likely to fail because they are detached from the natural biological world, and cannot survive without man's care and attention.   

When we consider a plant - or animal - for that matter as wild, and we want to domesticate it, all we have to do is introduce it to a place, or live where its abounds. We propagate it, "fence" to protect and claim it to be our own. This is the concept of early domestication in the Golden Crescent, somewhere between the Tigris-Euphrates Rivers in Syria - the birth place of agriculture. 

Science and technology did more than that. Other than identifying the useful species, and selecting the best members of those species as stock, we have altered  their genes through controlled breeding, thus creating varieties (plants), breeds (animals), and strains (protists, like bacteria) This is the concept of modern agriculture.

Came commercialization of agriculture to meet market demands - domestic and foreign - which necessitated intensive and extensive farming, using more inputs like fertilizer, pesticide, and irrigation on one hand, and expanding to new horizons covering the whole profile of the landscape on the other.  From lowland, and upland, to hills and mountains, and down to the swamplands, estuaries, and sea.        

Not satisfied, we now combine genes across species, in fact across phyla, divisions and kingdoms, producing GMOs (genetically Modified Organisms), like Bt Corn (corn with spliced gene of Bacillus thuringiensis bacteria.  There are thousands and thousands of genetic engineering applied experiments among organisms today, including cloning of animals, including the human being. This is the concept of genetic engineering, the controversial and most recent green revolution.

The trend today is to go back to the original concept.  Save the native genes because they are attuned to evolution through which they successfully passed, and in fact, have been shaped by evolution itself. 


Thai native corn.  The Philippines has been importing corn from Thailand rather than producing it for our needs.  Thailand does not produce BtCorn, unlike us. Our average corn production is among the lowest in the world, in most cases, less than one ton per hectare.   

The native vegetables need no chemicals, energy cost. They are geared to meet the food and nutritional needs of the producer, his family and community. Malunggay, saluyot, amaranth, alukong, katuray, native squash, ampalaya and the like - they grow with the seasons spontaneously.  No seeding, no cultivation - virtually no human intervention.

Native rice is grown over a wide range from mountain terraces to marshes, requiring little care and attention, in hundred of varieties and cultivars from which we select according to our needs and taste, and sufficiency to fill our home granaries. No, not with the IRRI varieties, the japonica, the long grain varieties - they are too expensive to grow, and very susceptible to pest and environmental factors.  

Why pineapple is expensive is because we changed the native with imported 
ones which are dependent on pesticides, fertilizers, tractors, airplanes and railroads. Why chicken is expensive is because we have vastly changed its genes, its feeds, its housing, and they way it is is eaten.  A whole chicken per person, deprives the food supply of one hundred poor people.

Why we have tungro disease of rice, virus of papaya, galls in santol, borer of atis, rust of coffee, mosaic of tobacco, anthracnose of mango, and many more.  We have introduced foreign varieties susceptible to unfavorable local conditions. Worst we have introduced their pests and diseases to attack our local varieties,
We have crossed their genes with our local gene pool, thereby transmitting their
susceptibility genetically.     

I still prefer tinola cooked with native chicken, "solo" or native green papaya, siling labuyo or native red pepper tops, native luya or ginger, with native black pepper or paminta.  And cooked in clay pot, on clay stove and with firewood. A fine idea that fits into the concept of Small is Beautiful ("Economics as if People Mattered.") by EC Schumacher)
Thailand's native cassava (Manihot utilissima) a source of biogas, an alternative fuel to replace gradually fossil fuel. Brazil is the top alcogas producer from sugarcane and cassava.

The native gene pool is human's ultimate recourse for survival, as imagined in "The Day After Tomorrow", in the aftermath of super typhoons Yolanda, Pablo and Ondoy in the Philippines, super hurricanes Katrina and Sandy in the US.  After another 9-11 attack (this time nuclear, God forbid), in the event that deadly diseases become epidemic - and pandemic. 

And in dealing with the biggest problem of postmodern living  - how to live with life.~  


Thursday, June 29, 2017

Big Bang - the Origin of Life

Dr Abe V Rotor
Big Bang (19" x 23") painting by the author 2012


Once upon a distant past, a proto mass 
     of converging gases, too huge 
to hold on in space exploded -
     the Big Bang like a centrifuge.  

Born the universe and galaxies
     in countless numbers expanding,
countless more, orphans in space,
     our known world but a sibling.

Were this true - life so little do we know
     today from its very spawn; 
move over Oparin, move over Darwin, 
     theories past and our own  ~

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Wild Pigeon

Dr Abe V Rotor

Marlo, Tikob Lake, Tiaong Quezon

You cannot be free if man is your master,
even if he feeds you and shelters you,
for you belong to a flock and the sky;
be a friend then to a young heart, fill it 
with joy and link your world with his own.

Light in the Woods 1995, Megabooks

Giant Cranefly


Dr Abe V Rotor

Crane Fly (Tipula sp), Family Tipulidae, Order Diptera


This is a rare specimen I caught at home. It is a very curious one, although it a relative of the mosquito. It has the size several times bigger than the ordinary cranefly we often called daddy-long-legs.

The cranefly undergoes four stages - egg, larva called maggot, pupa and adult. The maggot feeds on crops and pasture grass but it inflicts little damage. The adults emerge and swarm in the evening. They have queer body structure and movement. Craneflies are clumsy fliers, mainly because they have only one pair of wings. That is why they are classified Diptera - two wings. The pair of hindwings are reduced into halteres or balancers which look like stubs or knobs.

When at rest, craneflies shake continuously in all directions that they become virtually invisible to their enemies. This unique mechanism has not been fully studied.

If you can detect a cranefly, you must have a third eye.~

How to catch frogs

Dr Abe V Rotor 
Palakang Bukid (Rana vitigera)

It was fun to trap frogs when I was a kid. At harvest time I would dig holes in the ricefield around one and one-half feet deep. The frogs seek shelter in these holes because they need water and a cool place. Insects that fall into the hole attract them and become their prey.

Early in the morning I would make my rounds, harvesting the trapped frogs in each hole. The frog is skinned, its entrails removed, and cooked with tomato, onion, and achuete (Bixa orellana). Frogs make a favorite dish, especially among Ilocanos.

x x x

Traces of Art Movements are Alive in Today's Paintings

Dr Abe V Rotor 
Living with Nature School on Blog [avrotor.blogspot.com]

These representative paintings are the works of amateurs at the University of Santo Tomas. They provide a keyhole view on the trend of painting with reference to certain schools or movements in the midst of computer art and advertisements. They are footprints of Monet's Impressionism, Van Gogh's Expressionism, Salvador Dali's Surrealism, Picasso's Abstractionism, among others, but the question remains, "Quo vbadis?" (Where is the art of painting heading for?)
                        
Impressionistic autumn in the stillness of Monet;
where have all the creatures gone, pray.


Nature and Nurture are but one,
unity and harmony under the sun;
naturalism of Amorsolo,
Seurat and Cezanne


  
Quartet annonymous, music unknown,
artists incognito in the silence of song. 
impressionism with a touch of surrealism.  

 

Likeness of Van Gogh,
tortured soul seeking 
escape from the self; 
Oh, art, let go, let go.


Matisse, Chagall, Joya,
masters of abstract art
and countless sworn -
artists and zealots as well.

                       
Paul Cezanne's cubism,
light and shadow
and colors in prism.

Speak of friendship or loneliness,
boredom or eagerness,
captured best with the brush
more than the lens. 
                    

Artists insist in their art and craft,
little for a living, fullest in the heart.


Acknowledgement: The author failed to include the identities of the artists who made these paintings. Sincere gratitude is accorded them for sharing their talents in the readers of this article.

Mimicking Nature by Means of Transforms


Dr Abe V Rotor 
Living with Nature School on Blog 

Anna at the Museum of Natural History, UPLB Mt Makiling, Laguna

If I were given wings, 
I would rather be a butterfly,
and flutter from flower to flower;
sipping the nectar of youth, 
the Pierian Spring,
'til it runs dry.  


When does smoking begin, when does it end?
with the young and the old, and in between,
a lifetime, or a life deserted at the bend,
pleasurable, insatiable it could have been.  


Author at the Museum of Natural History

Anatomy of a tree Joyce Kilmer failed to see,
in his Only God can Make a Tree;
faith we embrace and not probe its mystery
keeps the peace of the world and thee. 





Arthropods - highest in diversity:
if appendages are survival trends,
why did human become a biped
and left his four-legged friends?

Reptiles, descendants of giants, 
annelids lost their appendages;
limbs to fins in fish, wings in birds,
by unseen hand through the ages.


Plate-like structure made of chitin in Arthropods, hence, "joined legs"

Sunday, June 25, 2017

50 Kinds of Phobia - A Checklist for Self-Analysis

We are Living in Parallel Worlds:  The World of Phobia
Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature - School on Blog

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It's a different world you enter into when you are gripped by anxiety, tension and fear, sometimes to the point of panic.  You find yourself surrounded by walls.  You don't only feel as prisoner, you are in a coffin. You must  escape!  You must get out! You are suffering of claustrophobia

The world of phobias is virtually endless. A beautiful place may turn out to be a torture chamber (ecclesiophobia - fear of the church), a beautiful relationship becomes a bondage (gamophobia or fear of marriage).  Persistent phobias may graduate into syndrome.  Imagine yourself in a world where you are in constant fear of anything, everything, without any  known cause (panphobia), and worst, if that constant fear is the fear of death (thanatophobia)  
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Imagine yourself being surrounded by different kinds of merchandise like in this sari-sari store, and people milling around plus the typical irritating noise typical in a market . Is this a case of claustrophobia? Or much more? And yet vendors get used to it - and even love their work and make it a lifetime livelihood. So what is phobia?

Everyone of us has phobias, a term that has become very common nowadays. 

The truth is that many of our fears are not actually phobias. Thus a phobia may be regarded as a psychological phenomenonpersonality problem, or simply anxiety, shynessdistraught. It could be the result of discrimination, prejudiceafter-effect of say, a horror movie, and inability to adjust to a new situation.

Actually there are 1001 cause-and-effect cases that are attributed to phobias, and many of them are just invented terms. There is no end to the list which in the first place are not all supported by scientific evidences. 


If our world is full of phobias how come we still can manage to go on with life? And find it beautiful? Psychologists say we have the ability to rise above uncertainties and fears associated with things and events unfamiliar and strange. Our rationality and high intelligence help us in facing and overcoming them - and even forget them afterwards. This is the wonder of human will and determination.


Is there a term for phobia to cats? Cats are second to the dog as man's best friend. It is ironical that these animals are the cause of phobia, something parents and our values have to correct early with our children.

In the scientific aspect a phobia (from the Greek for fear or morbid fear) is an irrational, intense and persistent fear of certain situations, activities, things, animals, or people. The main symptom of this disorder is the excessive and unreasonable desire to avoid the feared stimulus. Phobias are generally caused by an event recorded and labeled in the brain as deadly or dangerous. Thus whenever a specific situation is approached again (and again) the body reacts as if the event were happening repeatedly afterward. In which case there is need of medical, psychiatric, or spiritual advise.

Go over this list and mark those that are applicable to you, and rate them as mild or serious. In this way you will be able to assess your fears and overcome them, on your own effort, or with professional help. There are really many phobias beyond this list. No one knows really, and if alleged phobia is an accepted term and condition. This is the consequence of living in a postmodern world.

  1. acrophobia – heights
  2. agarophobia – open space
  3. agyrophobia or dromophobia – crossing the street
  4. amaxophobia – riding in a car
  5. ambulophobia – walking
  6. aviophobia – fear of flying
  7. androphobia – men
  8. gamophobia – marriage
  9. ecclesiophobia – church
  10. gerascophobia – growing old
  11. thanatophobia – fear of death.
  12. thermophobia – fear of heat.
  13. tokophobia – fear of childbirth.
  14. hagiophobia – saints and holy things
  15. anthophobia - flowers
  16. aviophobia, aviatophobia – fear of flying.
  17. hydrophobia - water (a positive sign of a mad dog)Below are some examples:
  18. chemophobia – prejudice against artificial substances in favor of "natural" substances.
  19. ephebiphobia – fear or dislike of youth or adolescents.
  20. homophobia – fear or dislike of homosexuals or homosexuality.
  21. xenophobia – fear or dislike of strangers or the unknown.
  22. agoraphobia – fear of places or events where escape is impossible
  23. agraphobia – fear of sexual abuse.
  24. algophobia – fear of pain.
  25. agyrophobia – fear of crossing roads.
  26. anthropophobia – fear of people or being in a company, a form of social phobia.
  27. arachnophobia – fear of spiders.
  28. atychiphobia – fear of failure
  29. claustrophobia – fear of having no escape and being closed in.
  30. dentophobia, odontophobia – fear of dentists and dental procedures
  31. disposophobia, better known as "compulsive hoarding" – the fear of getting rid of or losing things.
  32. dysmorphophobia, or body dysmorphic disorder – a phobic obsession with a real or imaginary body defect.
  33. genophobia, coitophobia – fear of sexual intercourse.
  34. gerascophobia – fear of growing old or aging.
  35. gerontophobia – fear of growing old, or a hatred or fear of the elderly
  36. glossophobia – fear of speaking in public or of trying to speak.
  37. gynophobia – fear of women.
  38. hemophobia, haemophobia – fear of blood.
  39. spectrophobia – fear of mirrors and one's own reflections.
  40. nostophobia - fear of returning home
  41. nyctophobia, achluophobia -   fear of darkness.
  42. lygophobia, scotophobia – also fear of darkness.
  43. paraskavedekatriaphobia, paraskevidekatriaphobia, friggatriskaidekaphobia – fear of Friday the 13th.
  44. scolionophobia – fear of school.
  45. phasmophobia – fear of ghosts, spectres or phantasms.
  46. philophobia - fear of love
  47. phobophobia – fear of having a phobia.
  48. pyrophobia – fear of fire.
  49. sociophobia – fear of people or social situations.
  50. Panphobia – fear of everything or constant fear of an unknown cause. ~
After finishing this exercise, proceed to the next post: Anxiety, Phobia and Depression

NOTE: The terms mentioned here are not all recognized scientifically.  Many are not found in the dictionary. Most of these are classified psychological. Other phobias are non-psychological, fictional, jocular, biological, or simply arising from our relationships with the environment, animals and the like. Pause and reflect. Make a list of the phobias you have identified from this list and from other sources. Resolve to overcome them and live a happier and healthier life. You can do it!

References: Time magazine, Wikipedia

Thursday, June 22, 2017

Return of Balloon Frog Symbolizes Nature's Victory

The Return of Balloon Frog Symbolizes 
Nature's Victory 

But Nature’s victory does not mean man’s defeat; rather it humbles man to be obedient to Nature’s laws and rules which is the key to his very own survival, and preservation of the living world as a whole. 


Dr Abe V Rotor

 
 

Views of the Balloon Frog - Uperodon globulosus (U. systoma?)

The first time I saw tukak bat’og was when I was a young farmhand. Its name is familiar because bat’og, battog or battobattog, in Ilocano means pot bellied. At that time anyone who exhibited a bulging waistline was associated with this amphibian. But there were very few of this kind then. The war had just ended and people had to work hard.

Hardship tightens the belt automatically, but peacetime and the Good Life opens a new war - the “battle of the bulge.” Today two out of five Americans are obese and Europeans are not far behind. Asians are following the same trend, as more and more people have changed to the Western lifestyle that accompanies overweight condition, whether one is male or female.

But actually Bat’og is all air. It’s like balloon short of taking off. But once it wedges itself in its tight abode not even bird or snake can dislodge it. Not only that. It feigns dead and its attacker would simply walk away to find a live and kicking prey.

Nature’s sweet lies are tools of survival. When it faces danger Bat’og engulfs air and becomes pressurized and distended, reducing the size of its head and appendages to appear like mere rudiments. And with its coloration that blends with the surroundings, and its body spots becoming monstrous eyes, who would dare to attack this master of camouflage.

Not enough to drive away its foe, Bat’og uses another strategy by producing deep booming sounds coming from its hollow body as resonator. I remember the story of Monico and the Giant by Camilo Osias when I was in the grades. The cruel giant got scared and rushed out of his dark hiding when Monico boomed like Bat’og . Actually it was the unique design of the cave’s chamber that created the special sound effect and ventriloquism. The vaults of old churches were similarly designed this way so that the faithful can clearly hear the sermon.

The exhausted Bat’og deflates and returns to its chores, feeding, roaming around and calling for mate – and rain, so old folks say. Well, frogs become noisy when it rains. Biologically, egg laying is induced by rain. Eggs are fertilized in water and hatched into tadpoles that live in water until they become frogs. Bat’og has relatives that live in trees and their tadpoles inhabit trapped water in the axils of bromeliads, bananas and palms. Or it could be a pool inside the hollow of a tree.

After I left the farm for my studies in Manila, I never saw any Tukak Bat’og again. Only a trace of that childhood memory was left of this enigmatic creature.

Then one day, in my disbelief Bat’og resurrected! For a long time it has long been in the requiem list of species, ironically even before it was accorded scientific details of its existence. Well, there are living things that may not even reach the first rung of the research ladder, either they are insignificant or new to science. Who would take a look at Bat’og?

I believe a lot of people now do. People have become environment-conscious after the publication of Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, the emergence of Greenpeace movement, and birth of "heroes for the environment". Who is not aware now of global warming, especially after viewing Al Gore's documentary film, An Inconvenient Truth? Who have not experienced calamities brought about by our changing climate? 

What changed the thinking of the world - a revolution in our concept of survival - is that all livings are interconnected and that the world is one systemic order, that the survival of one spells the survival of all creatures and the preservation of the integrity of the biosphere and therefore, of Planet Earth, and that there is no living thing that is too small to be insignificant or useless.

Of all places I found Bat’og one early morning in my residence in Quezon City. I would say it instead found me. There in my backyard, ensconced in a gaping crack in the soil covered with a thick layer of dead leaves lay my long lost friend - very much alive.

Hello! And it looked at me motionless with steady eyes. It was aestivating, a state of torpor, which is a biological phenomenon for survival in dry and hot summer, the counterpart of hibernation when organisms sleep in winter and wait for the coming of spring. My friend was waiting nature's clock to signal the Habagat to bring rain from across the Pacific come June to September, a condition necessary for its amphibious life.

Slowly I lifted my friend and cradled it of sort on my palm. And we rolled time back seventy years ago. And before any question was asked, it was already answered. It is like that when two old friends meet after a long time. I remember when journalist Stanley found the great explorer Dr. David Livingstone in the heart of Africa in the 19th century, Stanley simply greeted, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" and the old man lifted his hat and gave Stanley a firm handshake. This became one of the most famous meetings in the world.

You see an event earns a place in history, or in the heart, when it permeates into the primordial reason of existence, which is Reverence of Life.

Reverence – this is the principal bond between man and nature. It is more than friendship. It is the also the bonds of the trilogies of human society – equality, fraternity and liberty. It is the bridge of all relationships in the complex web and pyramid of life. It towers over equations and formulas in science. It links earth and heaven, in fact the whole universe – and finally, the bridge of understanding between creature and Creator.

Bat’og is back. How easy it is to understand a creature however small it is, if it is your friend. Yet how difficult it is to define the role of a friend. The fox in Antoine de Saint-Exupery’ novel, The Little Prince, warned the little prince, “If you tame me you are responsible to me.” The little prince simply touched the wild beast.

Taming is the ultimate submission to humility. And the greater a person who humbles himself, the truer a friend he is.

How do we relate this principle to our being the only rational creature? The dominant species over millions of species? The God-anointed guardian of the Earth? The custodian of creation?

Allow me to have some time with my long lost friend. Either one of us is the Prodigal Son, but that does not matter now. Let me join Darwin and Linnaeus and Villadolid et al.

That was a long time ago by the pond that had dried in summer. As a kid on the farm I have known the ways of my friend. Bat’og would stake its prey - termites, ants, beetles and other insects. Like all frogs – and toads – the adults and tadpoles are important in controlling pests and diseases.

One of its relatives belonging to genus Kaloula was found to subsist mainly on hoppers and beetles that destroy rice, including leafhoppers that transmit tungro, a viral disease of rice that may lead to total crop failure. Such insectivorous habit though is universal to amphibians, reptiles, birds and other organisms. If only we can protect these Nature’s biological agents we would not be using chemicals on the farm and home, chemicals that pollute the environment and destroy wildlife.

Bat'og and its kind protect man from hunger and disease. They are an important link in the food chain. No pond or ricefield or forest or grassland is without frogs. There would be no herons and snakes and hawks and eagles. No biological laboratory is without the frog as a blue print of human anatomy. And The Frog and the Princess would certainly vanish from the imagination of children - if ever the fairytale was written at all.

Bat’og is a survivor of chemical genocide. It is the timely age of enlightenment of people returning to natural food and the spread of environmental consciousness on all walks of life and ages that has come to its rescue in the last minute. So with many threatened species.

Who does not rejoice at finding again native kuhol, martiniko, ulang and gurami in the rice field? Oriole, pandangeratarat and pipit in the trees? Tarsier, mouse deer and pangolin in the wild? And the return of ipil-ipil, kamagong and narra in the forest? And of course, Haribon the symbol of Philippine wildlife and biodiversity.

It is indeed a challenge for us to practice being the Good Shepherd, but this time it is not only a lost lamb that we have to save, it’s the whole flock.

Tukak Bat’og symbolizes the victory of Nature. But Nature’s victory does not mean man’s defeat; rather it is man’s humility and obedience to Nature’s laws and rules and therefore, the restoration of order on Planet Earth - our only spaceship on which we journey into the vastness of the universe and the unknown. ~