In The Midst Of Chaos, Frank A Hilario, Blogfather Will Help You Discover Your Heart, Not Hurt, For Writing!

With Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie as Head of the Department of Agriculture since 05 August 2019, with the challenges of Covid-19 and poverty, with the absence of deeply supportive Philippine media, and with thousands of essays I have blogged, I have decided to be The Blogfather of Philippine Media. 

Today, 18 March 2020, inspiration strikes. Yes! Today is extra-special, on 3 counts:

(1)   1^st Walk on Outer Space:
18 March 1965: Soviet cosmonaut Lt Col Alexei Leonov becomes the first man to walk in space[1]; He completes a somersault, and then proceeds to take pictures of space. Today, I hereby become the first blogger to walk on the outer space of the New PH Agriculture.

(2)   53^rd Walk on Marriage Space:
18 March 1967: Amparo Medina Reynoso and Frank Agapito Hilario are secretly married by the municipal judge of Bay, Laguna. Honeymoon begins in Lucena City. Thank God for secrets – thank God also for a century of marriage and family.

(3)   1^st Walk on Blog Space:
18 March 2020: I am announcing today, Wednesday, that I am starting a campaign for blogging among Filipinos who have the urge to write and contribute to their country’s wellbeing.

On top of that, look at the above image of my desktop setup: The date is 17 September (2019), a Tuesday; the significance of that is, I was born on Tuesday, 17 September 1940 – so, everything clicks for this Blogfather Announcement!  Above, image is of today: Green left hand with green cut of a rose – Green Hope in a Gray World.

Yes, as Blogfather I want to cultivate blogging among the youth and seniors who wish to contribute their talents to the realization of a new PH Agriculture of Gross Domestic Prosperity, GDP² – prosperity for the haves and have-nots.

The field of battle is blogging. Blogging is free, and under your control. I began blogging earnestly in 2007 and have written thousands (6) of essays since then – and I never paid a single centavo to create a blog. (If you want to register your own domain, a minor expense.)

Surprise!
I will teach online absolutely free
for 18 days the first 18 to email me
– frankahilario@gmail.com –

young or old, who wish to learn to write and support the new PH Agriculture. Categorically no obligations.

(Otherwise: It’s P1,800 for 18 days of online lessons.)

Yes, it’s in (American) English.

Why is learning digital creative writing A-OK? It’s:

(1) very personal

(2) not location-specific

(3) not time-bound

(4) learner-paced

(5) individualized

(6) independent of what you know.

(7) And with me you cannot run out of ideas.

I will teach you my original 7 Ex’s to Creative Writing:
Explore.
Extract.
Exploit.
Express.
Examine.
Excel.
Expel.

How good am I? Browse the 300+ essays in this blog – Ammom, Pilipinas – and you will see the depth and height of my writing.

Bragging, nobody can beat me blogging even as I am almost 80, thank God! Yes, I am Ilocano, an original aboriginal.@517

---

[1] http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/march18th.html

UP System Can Learn Much From Coronavirus Lockdown – If UP People Are Paying Digital Attention!

University of the Philippines Los Baños, UPLB, is my alma mater, so I’m always interested in things UPLB, especially now that the new PH Agriculture under Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie needs extra digital instruction, research & extension supports.

In the Facebook account, “University of the Philippines Los Baños;” the above Advisory appeared 16 March; on 17 March, even online classes were suspended. That was the intelligent thing to do.

Actually, the UP System instructing concerned units to teach online during the lockdown was a kneejerk reaction. The whole System is as prepared as a turtle running a race with a rabbit!

The online teaching idea must have come from those who are not digital nomads themselves. This is a self-taught digital whiz speaking.

I UP alumnus am not surprised. I know that by example:

UP teaches Protesting, not Programming.
UP teaches Finger-Pointing, not PowerPointing.
UP teaches Word Protesting, not Word Processing.
UP teaches Image Unmake, not Image Remake.
UP teaches Creative Writing but encourages Critical Writing more!

It’s time UP learned its lessons – digitally. With the lockdown, today UP has all the time in the world!

Learning should not stop; this time, the professors should be the ones learning! This is/was a UPLB professor speaking.

So, since I am a UPLB graduate, I ask: “How do you teach agriculture online? I answer: “Teacher, teach thyself!”

First, look at the top image above. Correction: You do not “deliver” classes – you “deliver” a sermon but you either “hold” or “conduct” classes. Lower image is my shot off my PC setup – Subtle is the way to go!

Subtle: In digital teaching, it should be “Learner’s Choice.” That is the first thing a teacher should learn!

So how do you teach, for instance: 

Transplanting rice?

First, you collect images of seedlings being transplanted, by hand and by device; with and without specified planting distances such as 20 cm by 20 cm. “Without” is the actual practice of Filipino transplanters, what I call the Bahay-Kubo spacing – seedlings go where they may, and any number per hill!

Teaching lesson: You compare images with direct seeding of rice – no transplanting.

You want to teach your students to think for themselves.

And you explain, again with images, how valuable that you follow square planting and stick only a single seedling on each corner of each square marked on the wet or moist ricefield. If you don’t know why yourself, go surf the Web!

And how many online class meetings will you teach “Transplanting Rice”? Don’t count! Here are my session suggestions:

(1) Compare the processes of transplanting and direct seeding of rice. Use plenty of images.

(2) Show images of a field transplanted with square distances of seedlings.

(3) Show closeups of single seedlings standing on their specific corners, square to each other.

(4) Show roots of single seedling transplants and Bahay-Kubo (variable) spacings. You yourself will be surprised!

(5) Show harvests: From single-seedling fields vs from Bahay-Kubo fields.

Done! Above all, don’t forget to? Enjoy your teaching!@517

“What If I Fall?” “Oh But My Darling, What If You Fly?”

Covid-19 is now wrecking havoc country by country. Example: Here’s Australia’s concern: “Thousands Of Australian Doctors Call On Government To Ramp Up Coronavirus Response[1].”

Don’t panic! Above image, Enn Hanson speaking, Poetic Underground, Pinterest by Girl Named Michael[2]. Instead, meditate, contemplate, ponder, deliberate, ruminate.

Below, long text, with editing: “WHAT IF” is Gurpreet K Gill speaking, Dallas, Texas lady internist, on Facebook, cited by Milwida Reyes saying, “The best take on COVID 19 I've read so far.”

WHAT IF…

There is so much fear, and perhaps rightfully so, about COVID-19.
And, what if…
If we subscribe to the philosophy that life is always working out for us, that there is an intelligence far greater than humans at work…
That all is interconnected.

What if…
The virus is here to help us?
To reset.
To remember.
What is truly important.
Reconnecting with family and community.
Reducing travel so that the environment… skies… air, our lungs all get a break.
(Parts of China are seeing blue sky and clouds for the first time in forever with the factories being shut down.)
Working from home rather than commuting to work (less pollution, more personal time).
Reconnecting with family as there is more time at home.
An invitation to turn inwards – a deep meditation – rather than the usual extroverted going out to self-soothe.
To reconnect with self…
To reset economically.
The working poor. The lack of healthcare access for over 30 million in the US. The need for paid sick leave.
How hard does one need to work to be able to live, to have a life outside of work?
To face our mortality – check back into “living” life rather than simply working, working, working.
To reconnect with our elders, who are so susceptible to this virus.
And, to wash our hands – how did that become a “new” thing that we needed to remember. But, yes, we did.
The presence of Grace for all.
There is a shift underway in our society – what if it is one that is favorable to us?

What if this virus is an ally in our evolution?
To remember what it means to be connected, humane, living a simpler life, to be less impactful/more kind to our environment.

An offering from my heart this morning.
Offered as another perspective.
Another way of relating to this virus, this unfolding, this evolution.

It was time for a change, we all knew that.
And, change has arrived.***

Here are more What Ifs:

“Never Kill your What Ifs, But first be Grateful for What Is” – Wordions

From Pinterest[3]:

“Be the change you wish to see in the world” – Bernie Cooper

“Risking is better than regretting” – Kimberly Ann Jimenez

“Maybe it won’t work out. But maybe seeing it if it does will be the best adventure ever.” – thefunnybeaver.com

“Everything is going to be OK. In the end, if it’s not OK, it’s not the end.” – Mari Michell Bournazaki

So, I fly!
“What if I flail?”
“Oh but my darling, what if you fly?”@517

---

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/17/thousands-of-australian-doctors-call-on-government-to-ramp-up-coronavirus-response

[2] https://www.pinterest.ph/pin/16395986118986036/

[3] https://www.pinterest.ph/braciable/what-if-quotes/

Obstacles Vs Opportunities To PH Agriculture – Fictionist F Sionil Jose Sees One, Science Writer Frank A Hilario Sees The Other

F Sionil Jose and Frank A Hilario are only 1 town apart in origin, fictionist from Rosales and science writer from Asingan in Eastern Pangasinan. And yet looking at the same scene, one sees a sunset, the other sees a sunrise!

It’s in the perspective. Mr Jose writes, “William Dar And Our Food Insecurity[1],” looking at such as “actually this country’s most serious (problem).”

He equates our failure to produce enough rice for the Filipinos as “food insecurity” – which is incorrect. While we may be the #1 importer of rice in the world, food security means we just have to produce enough income to import the food that we lack.

Thus the new PH Agriculture slogan, “Masaganang Ani at Mataas na Kita” (Bountiful Harvests and Bounteous Income, my translation). Public & private partners are to help Filipino farmers produce rice at the least cost, and sell at the best price.

Mr Jose makes 5 specific points:

1) Our arable land… is about twice that of Japan but we produce less rice than the Japanese.

That is why, my dear Mr Jose, Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie has come up with his “New Thinking for Agriculture” with 8 converging paradigms designed to bring prosperity to farmers and fishers; and these are:

(1) Modernization

(2) Industrialization

(3) Promotion of exports

(4) Consolidation of small- and medium-sized farms

(5) Infrastructure development

(6) Higher budget & investment

(7) Legislative support

(8) Roadmap development.

We continue with Mr Jose’s list:

2) There is not enough land now to distribute…

The incontrovertible fact is that land ownership has never guaranteed economic use of land. That is why Manong Willie has in his list #4: “Consolidation of small- and medium-sized farms.” And the most dramatic proof that farm consolidation favors all participants is the world-renown success of Dalisay Rice in Leyte, of which I have written: “Dalisay Rice Revolution – PH Rice Farmer Leaders Raising Hell, Brave Lady Raising Hopes[2]” (19 November 2019, Ammom, Pilipinas).

3) Farm work is still tedious and the children of farmers leave the farm for more comfortable and financially profitable jobs.

Not anymore Sir, with so many farm tools and equipment, from seeder to combine harvester. Our farmers never had it so good when it comes to technologies & systems that minimize costs and maximize returns!

4) Irrigation: In so many countries in the world farm production improves only with massive irrigation projects.

Sir, where it is available, there is so much wasted irrigation water in the Philippines! And yes, we can raise rice and other crops with hardly any irrigation water at all.

5) And finally, although this is beyond William Dar’s responsibility, the undiminished poverty in the rural areas has been the primary recruiting appeal for the rebel movement.

Exactly why public & private partnerships in the new PH Agriculture are encouraged to work out with farmers good entrepreneurship to receive their just rewards.

The Ultimate Sunrise?
Poverty Emancipation!@517

---

[1] https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2020/03/16/2001207/william-dar-and-our-food-insecurity?fbclid=IwAR2--SICXySM9f_ih23XbE7m6vZUVkoi5JWxJ8uRO90IcSzVIzxlZ2ftkso

[2] https://ammompilipinas.blogspot.com/2019/11/dalisay-rice-revolution-ph-rice-farmer.html

UP System Going Digital Is Asking For The Moon! Ask Me

Today, Saturday, 14 March 2020, on Facebook I read the UP Los Baños, UPLB, memo from the Chancellor’s Office that starting Monday, 16 March, UPLB, including UP Rural High School, will be shifting to online classes. Citing Corollary Community Coronavirus Clampdown Concerning Close Contact Communication. 

Online teaching? Ah, UP, teach yourself first! (Other SCUs likewise.)

This teacher’s prediction:
The Coronavirus Curse is forever changing
the educational scene, thank God!

Where is UP now? I am very disappointed with what I see. Above images: Moon shot by me 08 March 2020, 10 PM: moving target. Lower image from UPLB[1] –

Walang kabuhay-buhay! Still life.

UPLB, your community is only inside the campus?

In this Digital Age? My alma mater UPLB, and the whole UP System:

Actually, the whole PH educational system is not prepared to go digital!

Why? Simple – It has not been teaching itself digitally. In UP, teachers and students have been preoccupied with protesting, nationalism – not learning to learn.

Digital is the ultimate lesson!
But you have to learn how it can teach you.

Ask me. I became digital on Innocents’ Day 35 years ago! Not bragging: I could do a one-night-stand all-digital lecture-demo at UP Diliman Sunken Gardens if they ask me, frankahilario@gmail.com.

Nonetheless, what I’m most interested in as a teacher are neither materials nor manners of presentation.

I’m most interested in the process of learning.

I started teaching myself digital when I was already 45 years old – the process of learning is crux.

Remember, Teacher, when going digital, you don’t have the class-roomed attention of your students – remember, they all have cellphones!

So, Teacher, you should be Challenging Learners to Think!

Think Critical thinking, and think Creative thinking. Critical is logical, so you have to follow rules – sequential, numerical, alphabetical, chronological, whatever. Creative is illogical – out of the blue, “a happy thing happening when you’re not looking for it,” intuition, “a little bird told me.” Think. And think again. (I can teach you both.)

There is no excuse for not going digital, especially if you are from UP, the National University of the Philippines. I am UP ’65 with a BSA in Ag Education. I must be a good teacher because I taught myself personal computing. Today, at 79 I blog everyday, thank God; from 2007, I have blogged some 6,000 essays, 7 million words plus.

How to be intelligent about it? Be original: Like, reverse roles – it should be fun – students ask questions to test teacher! Now, teacher will really have to study. Students will study even more because they want to ask the hardest question(s) – and what happens? You have already taught them even before you meet in your class online!

The secret of teaching is learning –
the best way to learn is to teach digital,
with some words, plenty of images.
This is a Facebook hound speaking!

When the learner studies to teach, he learns best. Not only that – he enjoys doing it!

Where did you learn all that? From this teacher
who has been ambidextrously digital since 1985.@517

---

[1] https://uplb.edu.ph/all-news/uplb-dti-laguna-open-facility-for-start-ups-small-businesses/

Coronavirus Has Lessons For Medicine – Exact Same Lessons For Agriculture!

Dr Farrah Agustin-Bunch, MD, shares on Facebook her “Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) Resources” and says[1]: 

As far as Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) is concerned, we need to focus on prevention and strengthening our immune systems.

Same as in crops & livestock!
This is a UPLB Agriculturist speaking.

Thus, the USDA unit Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education, SARE, says, “Healthy Soils Produce Healthy Crops[2].” Here are 2 knowledge bits from SARE:

By adding cover crops and switching to no-till, Junior Upton drastically improved his habitually compacted soil. Photo by Dan Anderson, University of Illinois

Nitrogen-fixing symbiotic bacteria flourish in healthy soil. Photo by David Nance, USDA ARS

Note that Mr Upton has “cover crops” – plural, meaning the soil in his field is not exposed directly to sunlight. Plus he practices “no-till” – he does not cultivate his soil in any manner, which leaves the soil micro and macro organisms to contribute what they will to enriching the soil with moisture and plant nutrients.

The soil is “healthy” in terms of being able to provide for the nutrient needs of the crops to the fullest extent possible, without chemicals added in any way. “It contains favorable biological, physical and chemical properties.” When you have a soil rich in organic matter like that, your habitually compacted soil is habitually friable now.

As to the nitrogen-fixing symbiotic bacteria as observed by the USDA, they thrive in a healthy soil – and that means plenty of natural N for any crop that needs it when it needs it. Those bacteria are perpetually fixing that nitrogen!

And so, SARE says:

A healthy soil produces healthy crops with minimal amounts of external inputs and few to no adverse ecological effects. It contains favorable biological, physical and chemical properties.

Why does the soil need such organisms as bacteria, fungi, amoebae, paramecia, nematodes, springtails, insects, ants, earthworms and beetles among other creatures of the earth? SARE says they:

(1) Break down litter and recycle nutrients.

(2) Convert atmospheric nitrogen into organic form and then reconvert into inorganic for crops.

(3) Synthesize enzymes, vitamins, hormones and other important substances.

(4) Decompose weed seeds.

(5) Suppress and/or prey on soil-borne plant pathogens and parasitic nematodes – good food!

A soil’s physical condition – its degree of compaction, capacity for water storage and ease of drainage – is also critical to soil and plant health. Good soil tilth promotes rainfall infiltration, thereby reducing runoff and allowing moisture to be stored for later plant use. It also encourages proper root development.

What is usually thought of is that the irrigation canal does both – it carries the water for wetting the field and carries the water for drying the field. Note what is being neglected by aggie professors and farm technicians alike: A good soil serves as storage for water needed and drainage for excess.

Note also that SARE says that a good soil “encourages proper root development.” The root nourishes the shoot – the shoot produces and nourishes the grains.

A good soil is hard to find – you have to cultivate it!@517

---

[1] https://www.facebook.com/pg/DrFarrahBunch/posts/?ref=page_internal

[2] https://www.sare.org/Learning-Center/Books/Manage-Insects-on-Your-Farm/Text-Version/Managing-Soils-to-Minimize-Crop-Pests/Healthy-Soils-Produce-Healthy-Crops

Binhi Awards For Agricultural Journalism: Relevance To The “New Thinking For Agriculture”

This is the 2020 journalism contest based on 2019 outputs; the title of the Facebook sharing on the Binhi Awards is: 

Excellence In Agriculture Journalism

with the subtitle

The future takes roots
in the binhi of ideas
that you plant today.

The Tagalog “binhi” (Ilocano bin-i) means seeds for sowing.

The 3 Major Categories for the 2019-2020 winners are:

(1)   Agricultural Journalist Of The Year

(2)   Agri Beat Reporter Of The Year

(3)   Environment Journalist Of The Year.

The Minor Categories are 12, including newspaper, magazine, radio, TV, and photojournalism. There are 5 new special categories: SL Agritech Best In Rice Reporting (new), Best Agri Tourism Reporting (new), Young Agri-Vlogger Of The Year (new) – 18 & below, college student; Agri-Vlogger Of The Year (new) – 19 and above; and Best In Agri-Finance Reporting.

At the webpage of the Philippine Agricultural Journalists, PAJ – https://www.pajofficial.com/ – I cannot find any rules or guidelines for judging the reportage. I don’t know why. The Binhi Awards is itself a prize to me, even after 40+ years, because as Chair of the PAJ committee on awards in 1976, the whole package was my idea, including the name. (Binhi also means germ, the beginning of anything[1].)

Today, Friday The 13^th, March 2020, there is no PAJ webpage dedicated to Binhi, and that tells me 2 things:

One: They have not written some sort of a Bible for Binhi Awards for all those 44 years. No, not that the PAJ members do not care – just that they have no digital hands! In contrast, my essays are all over the Internet, thousands of them. I graduated with a BSA major in Ag Education, so I must be a good teacher because I taught myself!

Two: Something is missing in the PAJ website about the “New Thinking for Agriculture” with its embedded 8 paradigms to backstop it, all coming from the head of Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie outed since he took over the Department of Agriculture, DA, on 05 August 2019. Journalists should be always up-to-date, right?

The deadline for submission of Binhi entries is March 20 – for more relevant judging, it’s not too late to require the authors of any of the entries to declare the following:

(1)  New Thinking: How are they directly relevant to the “New Thinking for Agriculture”?

(2)  The Paradigms: Which one(s) of the 8 paradigms supporting the “New Thinking for Agriculture” is/are directly involved in the story: Modernization? Industrialization? Promotion of exports? Consolidation of small- and medium-sized farms? Infrastructure development? Higher budget & investment? Legislative support? Roadmap development? Explain in a sentence or two.

Necessarily, the Binhi Awards Committee should be aware of all of the above so that each of them can criticize each entry and justify their vote: Yes, No, Yes + comments. Why not invite PAJ insiders and outsiders to the committee for their knowledge of the “New Thinking for Agriculture”?

Why? The relevance of aggie journalism should now be to the new PH Agriculture in the leadership and headship of Manong Willie!@517

---

[1] https://www.tagalog-dictionary.com/search?word=binhi