Thinking Farming, Farmers, Partners - A Hidden Lesson From Noel Cabangon

I woke up this morning, Wednesday, 23 October 2019, at about 6 AM, with a pleasant thought about PH Agriculture – and I was thinking of music maestro Noel Cabangon. Because yesterday, as I translated the hymn he has written for the Department of Agriculture, DA, I saw a sign that PH Agriculture will be fine, just you wait!

No, Noel Cabangon is neither a prophet nor a seer, but he is an artist many times over, and his DA hymn reminds me of what beloved American poet Ezra Pound said, "Artists are the antennae of the race."

The image above is from the website of PhilRice, on which I have superimposed the headshot of Noel Cabangon, music maker from Rosario, La Union. I identify because my grandfather Graciano Hilario came from that town, and I am an FBI, full-blooded Ilocano. Also, I have become the relentless writer for the new agriculture of my country.

The new Secretary of Agriculture, William Dar/Manong Willie, is from Santa Maria, Ilocos Sur, next door to La Union. If the Ilocanos are ascendant, as the Spanish colonizers found and brought them to Isabela, PH Agriculture will get better and better – until it is the best!

But how? I will give you just one glimpse that the genius of Noel Cabangon as artist has seen from "The New Thinking for Agriculture" that Manong Willie has brought out to guide him in his secretaryship. I saw it when I was translating the original Filipino (Tagalog) "DA Hymn" of 30 lines:

The lesson for today is beyond supporting our rice farmers!

And that is how I found out that truly, as in the case of Noel Cabangon, the artists are the antennae of the race. Marshall McLuhan said:

I think of art, at its most significant, as a DEW line, a Distant Early Warning system that can always be relied on to tell the old culture what is beginning to happen to it.

And here are the very first 5 lines of the DA Hymn that foretell the future of PH Agriculture:

Dito sa Kagawaran ng Pagsasaka
Dito magmumula ang tunay na paglilingkod sa bansa
Katuwang ng mga magsasaka
Katuwang ng mga mangingisda
Kasama tungo sa pag-unlad ng bansa.

My free translation is this:

Here at the Department of Agriculture
Here will begin true service to the country
Partnering with farmers
Partnering with fishers
Together towards the progress of the nation.

The Philippines is agricultural; if you want to truly serve your country, your service must be agricultural.

In the 3rd and 6th (and last) stanza of the DA Hymn, the last 3 lines above are repeated. The artist is emphasizing 1 word:

Partnership.

The DA is not going to do it alone; the farmers and fishers are not going to do it alone – they will do it as partners. "Partnering with the farmers. Partnering with the fishers. Together towards the progress of the nation." Progress is a partnership.

So, in this case, the Ilocano artists are the delightful antennae of the Filipino race!@517