Now Is The Time For All Good Men To Come To The Active Aid Of Their Country!

With the problematic realities in farms and with families, I say PH Agriculture is the new zone of war, and I am an independent mind committed to inclusive development journalism. Science is my weapon of choice, as I have been writing in the last 12 years, beginning with The American Chronicle – that platform is long gone, but this year I am starting anew, because we have a new Secretary of Agriculture, William Dar, who is a man of "Science with a human face" – that Vision/Slogan adopted by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, when he was Director General from 2000 to 2014. That Vision was not simply a well-turned phrase – it catapulted ICRISAT from dead last to first among 15 international centers of the CGIAR Group that includes the famous IRRI. The ICRISAT Strategy adopted was inclusive market-oriented development. As the new Secretary of Agriculture and as he puts it now, the PH Agriculture slogan is "Ani at Kita" (Grains & Gains, my translation). Inclusivemeans you include the poor farmers as actors for their own development; market-oriented means producers get their fair share of the values added to the produce from soil to sell; and development means the good of all.

For the Philippines, to those who are simply watching in the sidelines, I now shout: "Science, not Silence!"

People, what's your contribution to the advancement of PH agriculture? As for me, my activism is Science, not Silence – the image above is American (image from Riverkeeper, 2018,  google.com); "Serve the People" is Filipino, the cover of a book about activism at the University of the Philippines (from The Philippine Reporter,  2009,  philippinereporter.com). I am a UP alumnus, Filipino, but my language is American – and I am not apologizing! What is the heart of your activism is paramount to me, not what is its tongue.

I'm almost 79; as long as I live, I will blog for my country the Philippines in the arts and sciences in the name of Agriculture and the Future of the Filipino People. I believe that agriculture alone can reboot the entire Philippine economy! (For this, see my essay, "New Challenge To Agriculture Team Captain William Dar – Why Not Reboot PH Economy?!" 09 August 2019, Creativity Works! icreativityworks.blogspot.com.)

Instead of merely criticizing, even instead of merely pointing out what needs to be done by the new Secretary of Agriculture William Dar, what are you doing or are planning to do in terms of your family, your organization, your company, your church or your barkada? If you truly love your country, stop being negative and contribute to the positive!

Or, for some, stop just watching, simply waiting for something to happen! Nation-building, in this case, nation-rebuilding, is by the nation, not only by the notion of one. A team does not win the championship  by the Captain alone.

Me, I do not relish politics; I will fight where I know I am good, or better, or best:

Inclusive development journalism it is!@517