Media Is In The Wrong Media Class Struggle – Media Should Be A Force For Good!

Writing in Rappler, Juju Z Baluyot says, “The Media Is Struggling. Are Trolls Winning The Info War[1]?” (12 July 2021, Rappler.com). There are 3 wrongs there, let me count the ways:

One: The media was the one that started “The Info War.”
Two: The media is struggling in The Wrong War.
Three: Also short-sighted to look at it as “The Truth War.”

You want to bring someone down by your Truth Journalism? That is a legitimate exercise. But do not complain if that someone tries to bring you down first! Tit for tat is bad as part of waging The Media Class Struggle.

Mr Baluyot writes about trolls and their business of countering, or counter-attacking, bad news, whomsoever it is referred to. There is plenty of bad news, which makes for plenty of business for trolls – Mr Baluyot reports one troll manager making P210,000 at any one time!

Mr Baluyot insinuates how trolls are hired and paid. He writes:

On Friday, July 9, Presidential Communications Operations Office Undersecretary Kris Ablan responded to the Commission on Audit's flagging of their hiring of more than 370 contractual workers last year, which cost them a whopping P70.6 million. These questioned contractual workers, according to Ablan, are videographers, editors, directors, and social media specialists who "upload our socmed cards, our infographics explaining our programs.”

What are the trolls doing? One example, Mr Baluyot says: “Duterte’s troll armies drown out Covid-19 dissent in the Philippines.” My question: Why does it have to be dissent?

More to the point:

Yes, as absurd as it sounds, there is a thriving economy in spreading spurious news and false information, in corrupting the public’s knowledge and opinions to achieve a desired political outcome..

Mr Baluyot blames politicians and their trolls for the currently bad business of media – if it were a wound, he does not see the wound as self-inflicted.

Hence, the wrong Media Class Struggle continues! Here as well as abroad, media people have not seen the best single social role that media can play in the life of a society:

Media should be A Force For Good!
(“A Force For Good” image[2] from EWTN.com)

And this is how to carry out the Media Class Struggle – through what I call iTHINK Journalism. Ta-da!

i for investigations. First, investigate if
True. Then investigate if
Helpful. Then investigate if
Inspiring. Then investigate if
Necessary. Then investigate if
Kind. THiNK!
Then, by all means, spread the news!

The target should be any sectoral growth based on a national development agenda. If not, it is all selfish agenda. (Learn from my “PH Agriculture – Change Is Coming! But We Must All Be Heroes[3]!” 10 July 2021, Brave New World PH.)

“The Info War” is the cross-eyed way of describing journalists’ struggles against trolls. The journalists themselves are to blame – journalism is not the art of bringing a person down but bringing a society up! Construction rather than Destruction. If journalists do not appreciate that, they are going to destroy themselves!@517

---

[1]https://www.rappler.com/voices/ispeak/opinion-media-struggling-trolls-winning-info-war?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR0VOJhwBQuQSPs8nPew6mS9WCmi5e46ZKL7HXCwR1CybXe__JRGapbxz2I#Echobox=1626067799-1

[2]https://www.ewtn.com/tv/shows/force-for-good

[3]https://bravenewworldph.blogspot.com/2021/07/ph-agriculture-change-is-coming-but-we.html

For PH’s Farmers – Comparing DoST’s “High Tech” With SEARCA’s “Affordable Tech”

This farmer’s son keeps dreaming of millions of Filipino farmers rising from their poverty and staying up there, mostly on OneDA partnerships, partly via their own initiative, and with our little encouragements.

So, the news that Charissa Luci-Atienza shares, “DOST, UP Harvest Vegetables From PH’s First ‘Smart Farm'[1]” (11 July 2021, Manila Bulletin) I have read and re-read, in terms of its potentials for our small farmers.

Green leafy vegetables have been harvested from the Philippines’ first “smart farm,” as according to Secretary of Science Fortunato T de la Peña, from the P128-million Smart Plant Production in Controlled Environments (SPICE) Laboratory at the UP Diliman campus in Quezon City, on Tuesday, 06 July 2021.

The high total cost is because everything is controlled, all high tech. Mr De La Peña said, “The project has also developed a centralized control system for its farm operations complete with technical documentation of its system design, installation manual, and farm operations.” Not only that. Mr De La Peña said, “Prediction models were also developed to ascertain the plant growth and optimum harvesting of the produce.”

Sounds expensive! I am Ilocano, so I must look for the inexpensive. And I’m in luck as the news from Madelaine B Miraflor says (12 July 2021, “PH Farmers Seek Affordable Technologies[2],” Manila Bulletin, MB.com.ph):

Farmer-leaders from the Philippines joined (those from) other countries in an international dialogue where they urged countries to transform food systems by giving farmers access to affordable and sustainable technologies.

This was during a virtual dialogue on “Transforming Pathways: Working With Farmers In The Agri-Food Systems” jointly convened by the Philippine-based Southeast Asian Regional Center on Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) and Singapore-based CropLife Asia (CLA). More than 30 farmer-leaders from Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam took part in the 3-hour virtual dialogue. The dialogue was a lead-up to the UN Food Systems Summit this September:

It was discussed that in the process of transforming food systems, smallholder farmers need access to appropriate, affordable, profit-enhancing technologies, and crop systems that are sustainable and do not cause ecological degradation or (adverse) social conditions.

Glenn B Gregorio, SEARCA Director said, “Let us understand where our farmers are in terms of policy, technology, and industry development and of course, their integrated phases to have more action points and effective strategies in programs that benefit them the most.”

Siang Hee Tan, CLA Executive Director said, “We look forward to continuing our work together to ensure that our (poor) farmers are enabled and empowered to meet the challenges of a growing world.”

Finally, I go back to DoST’s Smart Farm, which belongs in the city, where vacant lots are expensive but otherwise unused rooftops and vertical walls can provide spaces for the growing of crops for food.

Above, the Smart Farm in the SPICE Lab in UP Diliman is actually a high-tech setup to generate model farms, plural, for different vegetable setups. Right now, I can only imagine how that will help cultivate affordable gardening in the city.@517

---

[1]https://mb.com.ph/2021/07/11/dost-up-harvest-vegetables-from-phs-first-smart-farm/?fbclid=IwAR3lk96RqahjMRYapUj7QHYpbLlUw1DubR4QwUO9pwkC5B8VTxB9GwKBzwE

[2]https://mb.com.ph/2021/07/12/ph-farmers-seek-affordable-technologies/?fbclid=IwAR2Wjf7ngl2BdtNeHNtAWNks_IFqc7Jb9JeIPAaEnQiA3pbST7xwytxts-0

Adobo, Likeliest Dish Of Filipinos – How You Cook Must Be Like How You Love!

Our Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) is acting like a teacher in a cooking class and warning the students to cook adobo following strict instructions – or else. That takes the joy out of cooking. And eating!

Steph Arnaldobrings us the sad news: “Moves To Set National Standards For Cooking Adobo, Other PH Dishes[1],” 10 July 2021, Rappler.com). “Sad” is my opinion, not hers. The DTI has created a new technical committee on Filipino dishes who “aims to standardize how adobo and other popular Philippine dishes are prepared.” The committee “will develop Philippine National Standards (PNS) when it comes to preparing and cooking adobo, sinigang, sisig, lechon, and other popular native dishes. In fact, the PNS started setting the standards for cooking adobo already in May.

Thereby, the DTI is taking the art out of cookingfavorite Filipino dishes!

Ms Steph says:

The DTI said the committee was formed to standardize the cooking technique of adobo, amid the "various cooking methods published online by food writers, bloggers, and vloggers." They aim to determine the "common denominator among all the known ways of cooking it," to help "preserve the country’s cultural identity despite the variations made to it."

That declares that the variations Filipino cooks bring to their cooking of adobo do not constitute cultural identity. That is preposterous!

Chair of the PNS is Glenda Barretto, founder of Via Mare Corporation; Co-Vice Chairs are Myrna Segismundo of the Food Writers Association of the Philippines and Raoul Roberto Goco of the Hotel & Restaurant Association of the Philippines.

The committee members are representatives of UP Diliman College of Home Economics, Philippine Chamber of Food Manufacturers Inc, Philippine Association of Meat Processors Inc, Philippine Association of Food Technologists Inc, LTB Chefs Association, Asia Society Philippines, Industrial Technology Development Institute, National Commission for Culture and the Arts, and the Philippine Inquirer.

Now, look again at the topmost image above: “A recipe has no soul,” says Thomas Keller, American Restaurateur; “You, as the cook, must bring soul to the recipe.” You standardize the cooking of the adobo and you standardize the taste – what’s an adobo cook for but to excite you with the soul he brings to his recipe?!
(image[2] from Quote Fancy)

In the lower image above, American newspaper columnist and film & TV critic Harriet Van Horne[3] is quoted as saying: “Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon, or not at all.”
(image[4] from Brainy Quote)

With your favorite adobo, you eat with gusto as you make love with gusto!

Thereby, DTI will dampen demands for PH meats and, thereby, productions of such – adobo standardization at the expense of the Filipino livestock raisers! This is the practice of Science at the expense of Art – when it comes to cooking of food, give me art anytime.

No to any PH national committee standardizing the cooking of adobo from Aparri to Jolo. Leave those many local adobo variations alone. Never ever forget: Variety is the spice of life!@517

---

[1]https://www.rappler.com/life-and-style/food-drinks/dti-set-national-standards-cooking-adobo-philippine-dishes?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR07P3apTJwpMOghs_ZzKnwOlpgBIqpRbNbrpM0kvrs6JuhxMQgM1HfAq-U

[2]https://quotefancy.com/quote/1267309/Thomas-Keller-A-recipe-has-no-soul-You-as-the-cook-must-bring-soul-to-the-recipe

[3]https://artsandculture.google.com/entity/harriet-van-horne/m027wcwv?hl=en

[4]https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/cooking-quotes

Bangsamoro Regional R&D Agenda – They Forgot Entrepreneurship & Credit?

Initially, since Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) is culturally different from the rest of the Philippines, they should have thought of these: clear BARMM Vision and Mission.

Towards harnessing the energies of science, ANN says the BARMM conducted a 2-day consultation workshop on the way to crafting the BARMM R&D agenda (Author Not Named, 01-02 July 2021, “Bangsamoro Crafts First BARMM Research And Development Agenda[1],” NRCP.dos.gov.ph):

The National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP) joined forces with the Ministry of Science and Technology-BARMM (MoST-BARMM) in holding the two-day multisectoral consultative workshop as a primary stepping stone in the formulation of the R&D agenda (for) the region.

As the above multiple-face image indicates, consultation was virtual. ANN says:

Bangsamoro leaders, researchers, scientists, and artists joined hands in crafting the first… research and development (R&D) agenda to strengthen research culture, capacity, and ethos in the region.

Sorry, ANN’s headline is misleading – “Bangsamoro Crafts First BARMM Research And Development Agenda” – it was a consultation for the crafting and not the crafting itself of the R&D Agenda.

And thus, the consultative workshop was designed to craft the agenda “to strengthen research culture, capacity, and ethos in the region.” That reminds me; in fact, the strengthening of culture, capacity and ethos must be carried out in all regions of the Philippines.

The workshop was led by NRCP Mindanao Regional Cluster Chair Ephrime Metillo, who “provided an inclusive environment that facilitated local and scientific collaborations among six (6) core groups in BARMM: (1) academe, (2) local government units (LGUs), (3) the business and industries, (4) national government agencies and civil society organizations (CSOs), (5) ministries and top offices, and (6) the Ulamas and Alimas, the male and female Bangsamoro scholars in Islam and Islamic law.”

Cristine D Villagonzalo, Vice President of the NRCP, said that via the workshop, the Bangsamoro people were going to raise the status of scientific disciplines and related professions in BARMM (edited):

We are in a country (that), although we have rich human resources, we have limited funding resources, (yet) we can overcome this, (which is) what we are doing today by (pooling) expertise and resources and cultivating the spirit of commitment, enthusiasm, and volunteerism.

We have rich human resources, Ms Cristine said, but we have limited funding resources; so, even as they pool expertises, they must pool funds.

Based on Ms Cristine’s remarks, even as the R&D Agenda is yet to be crafted, refined and finalized, as a loyal practitioner of my own theory of communication for development (ComDev), circa 1980, I can see that the BARMM Agenda needs to add the “Cultivation of Entrepreneurship” with “Provision of Credit” because:

The combined experience of R&D agencies in the non-BARMM regions has neglected the cultivation of entrepreneurship accompanied with immeasurable support of credit from government agencies! Let not BARMM make that huge mistake.

It is only now, with the advent of the servant leadership of Secretary of Agriculture William Dar, that entrepreneurship with credit is being pursued with vigor in the many regions of the Philippines.@517

[1]https://nrcp.dost.gov.ph/latest-news/745-bangsamoro-crafts-first-barmm-research-and-development-agenda?fbclid=IwAR2gTLmI0wH_YK3UBgs_2vF_yiVdmnZ_v8k_sfxrOB2TayGFBav2eaJcVpI

PH Agriculture – Change Is Coming! But We Must All Be Heroes!

Vision: “Science with a village face.”

That is based on the above Facebook sharing of Secretary of Agriculture William Dar titled “The 'OneDA' Reform Agenda: Key Strategies to Transforming Philippine Agriculture” I see we all have to contribute to. When Mr Dar was Director General of ICRISAT, 2000-2014, the ICRISAT Vision was “Science with a human face.”

Now, anyone connected with the Department of Agriculture (DA) – and any critic of the ways things are not/going and not/moving – should always go back to the DA key strategies listed above.

Don’t ever think Mr Dar is leading the DA off-the cuff! And do appreciate much-desired change(s) cannot be achieved overnight.

As shared above, the DA has 4 major goals targeted via 17 key strategies (with my thoughts):

Consolidation:

(1)     Bayanihan Agri Clusters – Clustering is for efficient operations, for both farmers and DA bureaus and attached agencies serving them.

(2)     Province-led Agriculture and Fisheries Extension Systems  – This is the “new normal” – the provinces leading extension activities.

(3)     Collective Action/Cooperative Development  – Cooperatives are a must to help achieve sustainability in terms of economic viability, technical feasibility, environmental soundness, and social acceptability.

(4)     Mobilization and Empowerment of Partners  – The private and business sectors are necessary partners for development.

(5)     Diversification  – Multiple cropping is economically and environmentally better. Crop & livestock have their places.

(6)     Credit Support  – This will stop the Five-Six System that is borrower-friendly but keeps farmers poor.

Modernization

(7)     Technology and Innovation including Digital Agriculture  – Knowledge can help the farmer anytime and anywhere once it becomes digitally available.

(8)     Farm Mechanization and Infrastructure Investments  – Farmers must mechanize; government must invest in irrigation and such.

(9)     Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Measures  – Everyone must adapt to climate change; we must help the farmers mitigate climate-related damages.

(10)  Food Safety and Regulations  – DA’s coordinated actions on the Asian swine flu incident show what Mr Dar’s Servant Leadership can accomplish.

Industrialization

(11)  Agri Industrial Business Corridors  – These are necessary for business, especially for exports.

(12)  Global Trade, Export Development and Promotion  – We must consider other countries even as we consider local production of crops & livestock.

(13)  Postharvest, Processing, Logistics and Marketing Support  – These have always been little emphasized by farmers – and by government!

Professionalization

(14)  Agriculture Career System  – We must strengthen the current educational system for agriculturists.

(15)  Education and Training: Agribusiness Management  – Emphasis must be made on entrepreneurship.

(16)  Youth and Women Engagement  – We must now empower the youth outside the traditional educational system, and the women.

(17)  Ease of Doing Business and Transparent Procurement  – No corruption in government, please!

The strategies will guide the DA in pursuing major programs and activities for the current year and pave the way to attain a modest agriculture sector growth of 2.5 percent.

(Cutting) across all these strategies is Strategic Communications leading to a consolidated, modernized, industrialized, and professionalized agri-fishery sector.

Note: The list is not by priority; they are all priorities, depending on the current givens. We must all be heroes for our country – today!@517

PH Department Of Agriculture Helping Cook A Favorite Dish – The Ilocano Pinakbet!

The Philippine Department of Agriculture (DA) is cooking up recipes for farmer enrichment & delight all over the country, and one of the programs for the purpose is the Special Area for Agricultural Development (SAAD).

I am Ilocano, hence the attraction of the headline shared by Jennifer Valcobero on Facebook 06 July 2021: “50 Midsayap Farmers Receive Pinakbet Seeds From SAAD[1].” Pinakbet, short for pinakebbet or cooked until shriveled, is a favorite dish of mine – and my father Lakay Disiong (bless his soul) always cooked it perfect.

Ms Jennifer omits the list of pinakbet vegetables. Panlasang Pinoy says[2] (undated, “Pinakbet Ilocano Recipe,” Panlasangpinoy.com, with editing):

Pakbet or pinakbet is a popular vegetable dish… The vegetables used on this dish are usually grown in the back yard of every villager and are available almost all-year long. Bitter melon, eggplant, okra, and string beans are just some of the vegetables that make up this delightful dish. Pakbet is cooked in a clay pot called “palayok” and anchovy sauce (bagoong isda) is used to add flavor.

Yes, this is an Ilocano dish. Yes, mostly the vegetables that go into the pinakbet are available throughout the year – whether you are Ilocano or not, that makes pinakbet a perfect dish!

No, the dishes shown above do not reflect a true pinakbet. I googled for “pinakbet” (including the double quotes), and looked at each of the 484 images displayed by Google.com – and not a single one implied the correct way of cooking pinakbet!

So, I’m challenging all the would-be-ethnic cooks in the world. I repeat: pinakbet, short for pinakebbet – caused to shrivel by cooking. All pinakbet vegetables should show little lines of mountains and valleys.

Here’s how to cook an authentic pinakbet:

(1)   Don’t slice! Never ever. No quartering, no cubing!

(2)   Cut off the ends of the eggplant, bitter melon and string beans, but only a little, so that the cut will help drain out the water inside the vegetables while cooking. This preserves the natural flavors.

(3)   It’s the method, not the attractive color. Adding squash makes it more eye-catching, but it makes it less pinakbet.

(4)   Palayok is perfect. But it must be emphasized that you cook the pinakbet slowly, and never ever open the covered pot – except once towards the end just to be sure.

(5)   Pork in first. That’s how my father did it, and his pinakbet was always perfect!

You don’t quarrel with perfect! What happens when your pinakbet is perfect? Out comes the real taste of each of the vegetables – that is the magic of pinakbet.

Back to the news. Ms Jennifer says:

The inputs include 100 bags of complete fertilizer, 100 bags of urea, 250 packs of pinakbet seeds, 50 hand trowels, and 50 shovels. The farmers are now preparing their 2,500 square meters for this purpose.

Well, if I were the pinakbet farmer, I will use instead organic fertilizer. Thereby, each of my pinakbet vegetables will sell as health food, and each time I will have a healthier pocket!@517

---

[1]http://saad.da.gov.ph/2021/07/50-midsayap-farmers-receive-pinakbet-seeds-from-saad/?fbclid=IwAR2eAOGI-vu0IlOiQiI4th8gUpMLsSgldmcrY_ss-LAi2WNK0ycJn-gPGs0

[2]https://panlasangpinoy.com/pakbet/

Want Your Book, Newsletter Or Magazine Out Fast? Print-On-Demand!

After Edit-On-Demand. I am saying the best way to come out with a publication nowadays is Print-On-Demand. Unbelievably fast! You email your edited book manuscript to the printer today, you get 50 copies the next day ready for business.
(Above, original print-on-demand image[1] by designhill.com)

For your book, newsletter or magazine, you need a digital Editor-on-Demand! You need Me. In digital-editing a book, with revisions where I feel necessary, I can finish in 24 days. Ready-to-print – that is after desktop publishing (DTP), where I format texts, format columns, format sections, format & position images.

Yes, I am a one-man-band when it comes to editing and desktop publishing – even including writing in the first place.

I have been doing my version of editing-on-demand (although I did not call it that) since 1997, or 34 years almost.

So: If you have any of these: a newsletter or a journal to publish, book to write and publish – if you want the best writer or editor or layout artist or desktop publisher, call me!

If you want your lessons free, just read the essays in my blog, just browse, and I’m sure you will get lots of ideas you can use: how to think differently, how to express disagreement without being disagreeable, how to tell an old story in a new way…..

Now, read about me:

During those typewriter-writing & paper-printing press years starting 1975:

Even as I am an Agriculturist (BSA major in Ag Edu, UP '65), and with a 1964 Civil Service Professional license, officially, I began as a writer for Forestry, working from 1975 to 1981 as the founder & Editor in Chief of all 3 major publications of the Forest Research Institute (FORI): monthly newsletter Canopy, quarterly technical journal Sylvatrop, and quarterly color magazine Habitat. How good was I? Those publications made FORI popular nationally and internationally.

During these digital writing & publishing years starting 1985:

I began learning word processing (worping, my coinage) with WordStar1 on Innocents Day, 28 December 1985. In 1987, I began learning by myself Microsoft Word 4 – and I tried all subsequent versions, and now I’m using Word 2016.

I learned to blog sometime in 2005. I have blogged at least 6,000 essays with a total of at least 6 million words. My topics are mostly agriculture, communication for development – including the application of the Internet for advancing farmer knowledge.

The books I have authored and desktop published myself include 7 books printed commercially by the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) based in India. My latest book is Jose Rizal As First Thinking Filipino (159 pages, published 19 June 2021, available free in pdf, just email me: frankahilario@gmail.com).

In other words, whatever is your need in working with books, journals, newsletters and other kinds of publications, if you want a worry-free and fast worker for any of those, call me. You’ll be glad you did!@517

---

[1]https://www.designhill.com/design-blog/what-is-print-on-demand-how-to-start-a-print-on-demand-business/