DoST, Together We Can Teach On Terra Firma, Via Outer Space!

Via Facebook, I read the sad news, "DoST Gets Lower Budget For 2020" by RG Cruz (02 September 2019, ABS-CBN News, news.abs-cbn.com). And, methinks, the very short news item reflects the reduced budget! 

Here is the 2nd sentence of that report:

The Department of Budget and Management approved a budget of P20.1 billion for 2020 for the DoST, which is P79.85 million lower than its P20.26 billion budget for 2019.

You, Department of Science & Technology, DoST, are getting a budget P80 million lower for next year. Meanwhile your head is above the clouds, up in outer space! On 31 January 2019, your head Fortunato De La Peña said, "We are proud to say that we are capable and ready for a Philippine Space Agency" ("Philippines Ready For Own Space Agency: DoST" (ANN, 31 January 2019, ABS-CBN News, news.abs-cbn.com).

I am thinking of the possibilities of empty space versus the realities of much populated terra firma:

Such as the reality that the merchants of malice are buying the palays of farmers at murderous prices.

So, the new Department of Agriculture, DA, under new Secretary of Agriculture William Dar must be a realist, while the old DoST under Fortunato T De La Peña must be a dreamer? Mr Dar is a scientist and an agriculturist; Mr De La Peña is a scientist and an engineer. The agriculturist thinks of barefoot farmers out there in the countryside; the engineer thinks of winged engines up there in the sky?

Our new Secretary of Agriculture brought into the DA, on his very first day of office on Monday, 05 August, what I call The Gospel of The Eight Paradigms (read my essay, "Critics Of William Dar & The New PH Agriculture – How About Some Honesty & Humor!" 03 September 2019, Ani Kitá, ianikita.blogspot.com). Another dreamer, as I see it, those Eight Paradigms written are not unlike the Ten Commandments written by God on 2 tablets of stone that Moses received on Mt Sinai – they spell out the constructs out of which national initiatives will be based. Moses came down from that mountain to lead a new humanity; Mr Dar comes down from his high office to personally lead the farmers to prosperity. Shared dreams.

Back to Earth, DoST, and the rice crisis. I have an intellectual project in mind we can work out together – since science means knowledge – why don't you and I build from scratch a digital science library on climate change-smart agriculture constructed into packages of options that the farmers themselves can choose from, so they can blame nobody but themselves!? Accessible via tablets, in high school language. I am a UPLB alumnus; actually, I have already written the idea ebook: The Geography Of Knowledge. Yes, Sir, two iVirtual Gurus are better than one!

Meanwhile, read my ebook Paradigms Lost, Paradigms Regained, as it covers Mr Dar's tablets of paradigms in 79 short essays. My ebook is free; email me: frankahilario@gmail.com.. After 17 September 2019, pay US$17 or P900/copy.

DoST, come down from the mountain! I mean sky.@517