“The Prince & The Pauper” – My Maria Makiling As Metaphor For Vanishing Species In UP

Today, I am going to relate the Prince with the President – the one being British with the other being Filipino. And the Pauper with the UP President!

“The Prince & The Pauper” –
In the above image, my photograph of my desktop 18 May 2018, external monitor showing Prince Henry of Walesbeing married to Commoner Meghan Markle at the St George’s Chapel in England.

Caroline Davissays (“Meghan Markle And Prince Harry Marry As Millions Watch,” (The Guardian, theguardian.com), it was “a wedding ceremony that dusted down royal tradition and injected gospel energy.”

Here I am dusting down “UP tradition” and injecting “Climate Change” gospel energy! UP is all “academic freedom” and nothing about “creative freedom.” Zero UP loud voices about the Climate Crisis that is enveloping the world! UP has not been paying attention to Climate Change and what humans can do about it!

The bride’s African-American roots were referred to throughout a service that put diversity at its heart. There was gospel music. There was the energy of the Chicago-born preacher, the Most Rev Bishop Michael Curry, who delivered his memorable address on the power of love with fist-pumping vitality, invoking Martin Luther King Jr and the resilience of faith during slavery.

In UP, there is always unity in academic freedom, never diversity. The gospel music is always “Oblation.” The energy of preachers with fist-pumping vitality always invokes freedom of opposition.

“Maria Makiling” & The Vanishing Species

The image above is among 19 photographs I took of that royal wedding. At the right, right half shown, is a “Maria Makiling” trophy – the one I received from the UP Los Baños Alumni Association as the “Outstanding Alumnus For Creative Writing 2011.” In the 100+ years of all of UP, I am the first and the only recipient of that honor.

With Prince Henry, I am the pauper. With that Maria Makiling trophy, I feel like a prince!

At the Science City of Los Baños, Laguna, Maria Makiling is the symbol of conservation of nature, of agriculture & forest species. Now then, because of the global challenge of Climate Change, I say my half-image of Maria Makiling is a symbol of vanishing species – and the University of the Philippines (UP) System is not talking about it, not even on Facebook!

Amidst a would-be global crisis, all UP people want to do is criticize, counter, contradict –Critical Thinking. Where is creative thinking? This UP alumnus can’t find any!

This time, the vanishing species is that of UP Presidents who care for UP professors and students who are taught creative thinking!

Now then, as gospeler, I do say, “All roads must lead to home. Home is where the heart is.” My heart is with UP with a heart!

Climate Change is a global crisis that confronts all today, nobody excempted. With the above image, I want to say that the UP Board of Regents should select a thinking head with a feeling heart as the next UP President – ex-UPLB Chancellor Fernando C Sanchez Jr!@517