Don't be a Victim of Heart Disease, the Number One Killer

New Year's Resolution Number 1 

Dr Abe V Rotor

I have known people - a number of them relatives, 

co-workers and former classmates - who died of heart disease. 

If you have positive family history, you are a potential candidate to heart attack and its complications. Like Damocles Sword, you know the rules to live a long and happy life. There are ten factors you should be able to manage.

First,  Don't smoke.  Just don't. 

Second, Exercise.  Be active physically.  Get out of your comfort zone. 

Third, Reduce cholesterol level. Take less of meat and more fruits and vegetables.  

Fourth, Never indulge in drinking.                       

 Healthy heart angiogram (National Geographic)

Fifth, Live on healthy diet. Watch out your glucose level.

Sixth,  Maintain normal blood pressure always. 

  

Seventh, Don't be overweight.  Reduce. 

Eighth, Have regular medical checkup.

Ninth, Set a goal for your career and family.

Tenth, Have a positive outlook in life always. Reach out for life's meaning.  

Why don't you download this article, print and pin it as a daily reminder?

Live Healthier and Longer with Natural Food

Your New Year's Resolution Number 3
Eat foods grown under natural conditions, rather than those grown and processed with the use of chemicals. And no Frankenfood (GMO), please. Dr Abe V Rotor

 Vegetarian's barbecue - all naturally grown.

It is not enough that we produce food. We must produce food that ensure good health, reduce risks to diseases and ailments, and prolong life. We must produce food that also insures the health of our environment and the stability of the ecological system.

While science and technology continue to explore new ways to increase food supply with genetic engineering, people are yearning for organic food – or naturally grown food.

Here are issues raised by the proponents of organic farming.

1. Many ailments and abnormalities are traced to the food we take. Cancer for instance, is often related to carcinogenic substances. High uric acid leads to kidney trouble. High choles¬terol and high sugar levels are associated with high blood pressure and diabetes. Aftatoxin causes cirrhosis of the liver. Ulcers are food-related, as are many allergies.

2. Proper nutrition and balanced diet can be attained by eating the right kind and amount of natural food without fortification with vitamins and minerals, and other forms of altering food value. Thus there is no need to process food unless it is really necessary. Fresh foods – vegetables, fish, and the like – are still the best. And why modify the genetic composition of crops and animals? Leave that to nature. Nature knows best.

3. Taking excess foods rich in animal fat and protein, and foods high in calories foods has predisposed many people to overweight conditions. Gaining unnecessary weight leads obesity now an epidemic sweeping many countries today particularly in cities where there is a proliferation of fast foods and junk foods. Or simply there is too much of the  “good life” – excess in food and pleasure. In the US today one out of five Americans is an obese.

4. There are natural substances that keep our body always alert to fend off stress due to overwork and diseases. They are known as probiotics. We get probiotics from fruits and   vegetables. We also get them from seaweeds, mushrooms, yoghurt, algae such as Chlorella, and cyanobacteria such as Spirulina. And there are many more sources that occur in nature. We are beginning to realize that eating foods rich in probiotics and antibiotics (substances that directly kill germs) makes us healthier and live longer.

These are the rules set by the advocates of natural farming.

1. It is always better to eat foods grown under natural conditions than those developed with the use of chemicals.

This statement can be captured with one term "natural food". All over the world this is a label found in food grown without chemicals. People are afraid of becoming ill because of chemicals introduced into the food. There are banned pesticides still in used such as methyl parathion, endosulfan, DDT, BHC, among others. These are also harmful to all living organisms and to the environment.

2. People are avoiding harmful residues of antibiotics and pesticides.

Poultry, hogs and cattle are given high levels of antibiotics to safeguard the animals from diseases. As a result the antibiotics are passed on to the consumers. Unless we are ill, the body does not need supplemental antibiotics. We have adequate natural sources. Every time we eat commercial eggs, chicken, pork chop, steak, and the like, we are taking in antibiotics which accumulate in our body, shutting off our immune systems, punishing our kidney and liver. To many people, antibiotics cause allergic reactions.

3. People are getting scared of food contaminated by radiation. Nuclear reactors are being built in many countries as a fallback to fossil fuel. After the Chernobyl nuclear plant meltdown in Russia, and that of the Three-Miles Island nuclear plant in the US, people have become wary about the consequences of fallout. A trace of radiation can be absorbed by grass in the pasture, finds its way to milk, then to infants. Radiation can remain active for hundreds of years. People are still dying today in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, more than fifty years since the bombing of the two cities with the first atomic bomb.

4. Be aware of the deleterious effects of toxic metals, such as lead, mercury and cadmium. These find their way through the food chain and ultimately reach humans. They escape to the air and enter our lungs, as in the case of dusts from old paints. Since they are in soluble compounds, they are easily absorbed by plants and animals. Kangkong for example absorbs lead. Tuna has high mercury in its tissues and liver. Cadmium from batteries is absorbed by crops.

 The simpler your food is cooked, the better.

5. People are becoming more conscious of the nutritional value of food rather than its packaging and presentation.

More and more people are shunning away from junk foods, in spite of their attractive packaging. Soft drinks have taken the backseat, courtesy of fruit juices and mineral water. People have even learned that different plant varieties have different levels of food value. Beans grown on naturally fertile soil have higher calorie and protein content than those grown on poor soil, or with chemical fertilizers. This is also true with animals. Animals raised with proper nutrition give meat, milk and eggs with higher protein, minerals notwithstanding.

6. Freshness is the primordial rule in choosing a perishable food.

There is no substitute to freshness. While freshness is a function of efficient handling and marketing, the farmer must enhance farm-to-market freshness. By keeping his standing plants healthy, his produce will stay longer on the shelf life. Products that are free from pest and diseases also stay fresher and longer. Too much water or fertilizer reduces shelf life of the commodity.

 Eat fresh fruits - avoid processed ones.

7. Food processing must be efficient and safe.

Food processing, such as drying, milling and manufacturing is key to higher profits. Whenever feasible, food must reach the table fresh. But processing is designed to lengthen the shelf life of perishable commodities. There are products that require processing before they are used. These food items include vanilla, coffee, cacao, wine and vinegar, soya, fish sauce and the like. Profits generated through processing are value-added to production.

8. Food must be free from pest and diseases.

By all means, food must be free from insects and pathogens. There are cases of food poisoning as a result of food deterioration, or contamination. Take salmonella and E. coli. Khapra beetle in grains may even cause death to animals. Weevils hasten the deterioration of the food.

9. Food preservation must ensure quality, and above all, safety.

Be aware of the fish that is stiff, yet looks fresh. It is easy to detect the odor of formalin. Salitre is harmful, so with vetsin or MSG (Monosodium glutamate). Too much salt (sodium) is not good to the body. Some puto makers add lye or sodium hydroxide to aid coagulation of the starch. We wary of sampaloc candies enticingly made red with shoe dye. The same diluted dye is used with ube manufacture to make it look like the real violet-colored tuber.

 

Watch out. the utensils you are using may contain lead, mercury, plastic compounds, aluminum oxide and other harmful substances.    

10. Beware of Frankenfood - Food derived from GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms). Many countries warn of the potential dangers of genetically modified food and food products. This move is not only to safeguard health, but also the environment. Genetically modified plants and animals – as well as bacteria, protists and even viruses – are now a threat to the natural gene pool, giving rise to a new kind of pollution - genetic pollution. Once a gene pool of a certain species is contaminated with a GMO genetic material Genetic pollution cannot be eliminated, even in subsequent generations. Thus, it also disturbs natural evolution.

Next time you go to market, remember these guidelines. Why not convert that idle lot to raise food that is safe to your health and the environment? That little corner could be the start of a new green revolution.~

Caulerpa or lato is now cultivated in fishponds where
conditions can be controlled, unlike in the open sea.

Green mussel or tahong absorbs toxic metals like lead

in polluted water. It is also dangerous to eat tahong

during red tide period. It may cause paralytic poisoning.

From cigarette to pipe smoking – then I stopped. A personal saga

I reeked tobacco. People avoided me, but how did I know, if I couldn’t even smell myself? 
Your New Year's Resolution Number 2
Dr Abe V Rotor

I did not only smoke cigarettes, I graduated to pipe tobacco smoking. When you have tasted Half-and-Half or Captain Black, believe me Marlboro and Philip Morris taste flat. That’s how one gets addicted to more and stronger nicotine. And having a pipe on a Monday, and a dozen more to fit each day or occasion, and dress code, makes you stand out of the crowd, so to speak. Wow! Sikat! And you feel a special person. For in the seventies, up to now, pipe smoking people have either the British or American accent. I even tried Australian but settled poorly with Ilocano, my native tongue. Now compare pipe tobacco with pinadis (hand rolled cigar) tobacco, exaggeratedly foot-long. I almost forgot my origin.

So you see smoking is air, it is high society, it is macho, it is advertising something you do not really have, or have to. I wore coat and tie once in a while with Sherlock Holmes’ “S” pipe, or wore khaki jacket and denim pants and had MacArthur’s corn cob pipe. I also had pipes with the bowl covered with genuine leather from camel, kangaroo and anaconda, and made people believe I have gone all over the world including the Amazon. Which actually I hadn’t except a stopover once in Europe which introduced me to the idea of shifting to pipe smoking.

And I had a friend, Sel, who shared the same idea. So after finishing our doctorate, we started scouting for the best pipe in town. Definitely it should be briar wood because it’s the only wood that does not burn, and its nesting weight on the palm of the hand is assuring. I suspect that it’s being a briar is not the species but the age of the wood, perhaps as old as the Redwood or the Bristle Cone, estimated two to three thousand years old. Imagine holding a piece of time as early as BC. And history! Just like what the great English poet William Blake said, “Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour.” You hold too, time and space. Pipe smoking leads you to hallucination.

I tell you what the substance is – the filler tobacco - that rouses the olfactory more than grandma's pie? It must come from a combination of selected tobacco varieties, cured with the best liqueur, and hermetically sealed to greet the user as fresh as it was blended. In Europe a blend is highly personalized, like wine. This is top secret of connoisseurs. For us here, I for one settled for two brands, American and European pipe tobacco in can, then the only available ones. Believe me the difference between the two is indistinguishable. It’s still Nicotiana tabacum, the same tobacco of Fidel Ramos, Deng Hsiao Ping, Fidel Castro, et al.

More about the art of pipe smoking. I lit my pipe with a special lighter whose flame goes downward into the bowl, and witnessed in the process of huff-and puff a Krakatau in the making. I peered into the glowing crater. Then I would savor the maiden smoke as fresh as morning air, blowing it in a series of “O’s” which takes skill to perfect it. You don’t inhale, unlike cigarette. The smoke runs through the oral to the nasal cavity and out through the nostril, gently fuming a cloud of smoke that surrounds the face, with your eyes half close in dreamy relaxation. It was really thrilling, exhilarating. What on a Sunday morning with brewed black coffee and newspaper and elevated feet?. Ah, and ahs….

Some high-chin and easy-chair years passed. I was in my middle thirties, still a bachelor. I wondered if pipe smoking attracted women of my liking. Or did I drive them to safe distance? On the mirror I didn’t change, not a bit American or European. Not even with sparse moustache which I jokingly tell my barber it is insured like that of Clark Gable. My lips were a little deformed now, and being right handed the pipe tended to settle rightward, with some teeth bearing the weight giving up. My lips lost their natural curve and color, and my teeth permanently stained no toothpaste would dare clean it in advertisement. My fingers could be mistaken for pellagra. If only they had the Midas touch!

I reeked tobacco. People avoided me, but how did I know, if I couldn’t even smell myself? It’s true. Smokers are immune to the smell of tobacco, and it is stale odor – breath, sweat, clothes, books, bed, and the like - so whom would they trust to tell them so? And my skin became dull and dry, and episodes of feeling down became frequent – so with refilling and caressing my pipe. In short I was already addicted to the nicotine and the pipe is now only secondary to it.

Nicotine is a poison, a very strong one. The extract of one stick of cigarette when directly injected into the blood stream will immediately kill the person. So why don’t we die with packs and packs of cigarette or can after can of mixed tobacco?

Doctors tell us that it’s not the nicotine per se that kills, it’s tar its carrier and medium of a dozen other poisonous substances. The tar deposits into the alveoli, the countless air sacs in the lungs, constricts blood vessels, and stains teeth and clothes. The alkaloids pile up in the kidneys and liver, and restrict natural elimination of other toxins. Elevated heart and pulse rate is our body’s coping mechanism, but like a car running uphill it loses steam fast and soon and conks out. Eyesight blurs, sense of taste deadens, so with sensation to touch, pain and pleasure. Alertness slows down, sex urge decreases and staying power shortens.

And it is not the tobacco plant itself that's the enemy; it is how it is grown. The plant picks up the arsenic dusted or sprayed, the lead and mercury in contaminated soil, so with cadmium from batteries today. Systemic pesticides that kill insects, nematodes and mites ensconced in the plant body, unreached by ordinary spraying, persist as residue of high dosage.

By the way, there’s something in the tobacco that changed biology on the concept of what realy makes athing living?. It is the tobacco mosaic virus, Marmor tabaci. The rod shaped virus infects tobacco on the field just by rubbing or mere touch of a diseased to healthy plants. And it infects as well all members of the tobacco family - Solanaceae , to which Irish potato, pepper, eggplant, tomato belong. The virus remains domant in as long as twenty years in the cigarette or filler.  And when you touch any of the host plants, it resurrects into virulence. Luckily, scientists assures us the virus has no effect on humans.

But with millions all over the world dying from smoking and its many complications, I believe the virus has mutated - even if biologically it is not considered a true organism. Mutation is still governed by error in DNA replication. And the virus basically has the DNA structure like all other things considered as living.

Really there’s nothing good about smoking, contrary to advertisements. I wonder how one can go a mile for a Camel when he is already exhausted at the start. Didn’t the cowboy in Marlboro retire too soon? Salem doesn’t make a beautiful landscape. Fortune isn’t something one expects. Fighter did not make us in our time as brave as Buccaneer.

Take the economic side. Our DOH says the government spends every year some P235 billion a year to treat illnesses caused or related to smoking like heart diseases, stroke, emphysema and lung cancer. And what does the government get in return from the tobacco industry? Only P23 billion, a measly 10 percent of the cost. PDI’s editorial The Puff that Kills, June 1, 2011, reported smoking kills 10 Filipinos every hour, or 243 a day. That’s 87,600 a year – and that’s a conservative estimate. Here is a case of an “old” goose laying the golden eggs, not worth it.

One day I was diagnosed of ulcer in the mouth, a wound that doesn’t heal. If you can’t eat, imagine the rapid decline in body weight and the various ailments you fall to. My clothes became oversized. I likened myself to a POW in a concentration camp in WWII.

“If you don’t stop smoking, you will die,” my doctor warned. “And soon!” he admonished.

Period. My pipes became museum pieces. A beautiful girl came. We got married, and have three children. We are now living happily.

Smoking changed my life – when I stopped it completely. ~ 

Harvesting Rainwater: The Art and Practice

Dr Abe V Rotor 

 

A bountiful harvest of rainwater cuts down water bill; it is environment-friendly and 
a source of enjoyment.  At home, Lagro QC.

1. Join downspouts together to maximize harvest of rainwater in one place.
2. Keep roof, gutter and downspout regularly cleaned and declogged of any debris.   
3. Avoid using red lead paint, use epoxy paint instead, to avoid lead contaminant.  
4. Filter rainwater with fine screen or cloth before transferring to container.
5. Plastic containers are convenient but they serve only as temporary storage.
6. Wide mouth containers may cause accident. They are not designed as bath tubs.
7. Use water within five days, otherwise it breeds mosquitoes and other vermin. 
8. Clean and expose containers under the sun for an hour or two to disinfect. 
9. Invert and be ready for the next rain to come. Store only clean rainwater.      
10. Final storage is ideally a garden pond. It is multipurpose: fish culture, water for cleaning, watering and for use in case of fire. 

A garden pond adds aesthetic beauty to the place, adds coolness and tranquility, cum a gentle sound of a fountain and running stream.Garden Pond at home in Lagro, QC. Take Nature Home mural painting by the author.

 
Catfish and pako fish raised in a garden pond.

The Mysterious World of the Pagoda Bagworm Cryptothelea heckmeyeri Hubn.

Dr Abe V Rotor

    

                            

Pagoda bagworm, Crypothelea hekmeyeri Heyl., in pseudo colony 

on duhat leaf; below, enlarged side view of the pagoda-shaped insect. 

Sheepishly she peeps from under a pagoda she built;

Like the turtle she hides, creeps ‘til finally ceases to eat.

A Venus de Milo she emerges, sans wings she must wait,

Love scent in the air she urges a winged groom her mate.

She lays her eggs in the tent, broods them ‘til they hatch,

With heart’s content; leaves and dies after the dispatch.

To the Great Maker, life’s full of sacrifice and obligation;

Mother keeps young and home, the species’ bastion.

- AV Rotor, Bagworm

Light in the Woods, 1995

My pastime reading under a spreading duhat tree standing at the backyard of our old house was disturbed one summer. This favorite shady spot almost disappeared as the tree my father planted before I was born completely shed its leaves. Our yard turned into a litter of leaves. Our tree appeared lifeless.

Summer is when this tree is a deep green canopy, loaded with flowers and luscious, sweet fruits, and laughing children, their tongues and hands bearing the stain of its black berries.

The culprit cannot be the drought spurred by El Nino, I thought. Duhat is highly tolerant to prolonged dry spell, because its tap roots can reach deep seated ground water.

Even before I discovered the culprit - a shy insect protected by a pagoda-like bag - my children had already set up a field laboratory in their a tent, complete with basic research tools, and books of Karganilla, Doyle and Attenborough. For days our backyard became a workshop with the touch of Scotland Yard, Mt Makiling and Jules Verne.

My children called the insect living pagoda because of the semblance of its house with the Chinese temple, and because of its turtle-like habit of retreating into its bag. Leo, our youngest fondly called it Ipi, contracted from “insect na parang pagong at pagodang intsik”.

Ipi belongs to the least known family of insects, Psychidae, which in French means mysterious. Yet its relatives, the moth and the butterfly, are perhaps the most popular and expressive members of the insect world.

Curious about the unique bag and how it was built by such a lowly insect, Matt and Chris Ann worked as research partners. They entered their data in a field notebook as follows:

1. Base diameter - 2 cm

2. Height of bag - 2 cm

3. No. of shingles on the bag - 20

4. Size ratio of shingles from base to tip – 10:1

5. Basic design – Overlap-spiral

We examined the specimen in detail with a hand lens and found that the bag has several outstanding features. My children continued their data entry, as follows:

1. Water-resistant (shingle roof principle)

2. Stress-resistant (pyramid principle)

3. Good ventilation (radiator principle)

4. Light yet strong (fibrous structure)

5. Camouflage efficient (mimicry and color blending)

6. Structural foundation - None

The pagoda bag has no structural foundation, I explained. It is carried from place to place by a sturdy insect which is a caterpillar, larva of a moth. Beneath its pagoda tent, it gnaws the leaf on the fleshy portion, prying off the epidermal layer to become circular shingles. Using its saliva, it cements the new shingles to enlarge its bag, then moves to a fresh leaf and repeats the whole operation. As

the larva grows, the shingle it cuts gets bigger,

This is a very rare case where construction starts at the tip and culminates at the base, noted my wife. Remember that the structure is supposed to be upside down because Ipi feeds from the underside of the leaf, I said. “An upside pagoda,” our children chorused.

As Ipi grows, the shingles progressively increase in size and number, thus the bag assumes the shape of a storied pagoda. Thus there are small

Pagodas and larger ones, and varied intermediate sizes, depending on the age of the caterpillar which continuously feeds for almost the whole summer during which it molts five times.

If there are no longer new shingles added to the bag it is presumed that the insect had stopped growing. It then prepares to pupate and permanently attaches its bag on a branch or twig, and there inside it goes into slumber. The attached bag appears like thorn as if it were a part of the tree, and indeed a clever camouflage on the part of the insect. Here suddenly is a parasite becoming a symbiont, arming the host tree with false thorns!

My children's curiosity seemed endless. I explained that like all living things, bagworms have self-preserving mechanisms. They must move away from the food leaf before it falls off. They must secure themselves properly as they tide up with their pupal stage. After a week later they metamorphose into adults. Here on the twigs and branches they escape potential predators. Here too, the next generation of newly hatched larvae will wait for new shoots on which they feed.

Matt picked one bag after another to find out what stage the insect is undergoing. I recalled my research on Cryptothelea fuscescens Heyl, a relative of C. heckmeyeri, the pagoda species. Chris Ann took down notes

1. Specimen 1 - Bag is less than 1 cm in diameter, caterpillar in third instar (molting), voracious feeder.

2. Specimen 2 - Bag large, construction complete, insect in fifth or sixth instar, morphological parts highly distinct, head and thorax thick, three pairs of powerful legs.

3. Specimen 3 - Insect in pupal stage, expected to emerge in one week, chrysalis (skin) full, dark and shiny. Feeding had completely stopped.

4. Specimen 4 - flag empty, opening clear, chrysalis empty.

5. Specimen 5 - Bag contains eggs laid on cottony mass, chrysalis empty.

The last specimen is intriguing. Where is the insect? Why did it abandon its lifelong home? A puzzle was painted on the face of our young Leo. So I explained.

Let us trace the life history of Ipi and its kind. Both male and female bagworms mature into moths. The winged male upon emerging from his bag is soon attracted by love scent emitted by a waiting female moth still ensconced in her bag. The scent is an attractant scientists call pheromone. Then in the stillness of summer night, her Romeo comes knocking. Without leaving her bag she receives him at an opening at the tip of the pagoda bag. A long honeymoon follows, but signaling an ephemeral life of the couple.

The fertilized female lay her eggs inside the bag, seals it with her saliva, then wiggles out to the outside world but only to fall to the ground - and die, because Nature did not provide her wings!

“Poor little thing,” muttered Cecille apparently in defense of the female species. “Nature did it for a reason,” I countered, “otherwise we would not have bagworms today.” The wingless condition of the female bagworm is the key to the survival of the species.

The sun had set, the litter of leaves had been cleaned up. And the silhouette of our leafless duhat tree against the reddening sky painted gloom on our subject. As dusk set in, I noticed nocturnal insects circling the veranda lamp. A moth paused, then passed over our heads and disappeared into a tree. “Bye, bye,", cried Leo Carlo.

Summer was short, the rains came early and our duhat tree developed robust foliage. Cicadas chirped at the upper branches and an early May beetle hang peacefully gnawing on young a leaf. I was reading Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring when a gust of wind brought down a dozen tiny bagworms hanging on their own invisible spinnerets. My children were aroused from their reading of The Living Planet.

We had unveiled the mystery of the pagoda bagworm, but above anything else, we found love and appreciation on the wonders of Nature and the unity of life itself. ~~

Another species of bagworm (Crypthothela fuscescens Heylerts),  Family Psychidae. Photos taken at Angels' Hills, Tagaytay. The larva builds a bag of dried twig of the same diameter and length and attaches on the host plant until it reaches maturity.  The spent bag simply remains hanging. Lower photo shows an exposed larva purposely for study.

Phosphorescent Caterpillars

Dr Abe V Rotor

Caterpillars eating the leaves of ilang-ilang (Cananga odorata), at home near La Mesa watershed. 

They came - an army of hungry glowing worms,
on a sunset on a tall ilang-ilang tree;
there they hang like lanterns or neon far away,
and in crepuscular light there I could see 
a familiar tree traced by its essence in the air,
and now by the phosphorescence from this tree -
Christmas ahead and beyond yet here at hand,
by the glow of these worms reminds of Thee;
through nature's ways to guard the frail and lowly
through the secret of ephemeral beauty. ~   

Nature's Recyclers

Dr Abe V Rotor

Foliose lichen grows and breaks down the lignin of wood.
Parks and Wildlife Nature Center, QC

Moss builds soil from rock, an example of biological weathering.
Calaruega Retreat Center, Alfonso, Cavite

Termites eat wood with the aid of protozoa that live in
their stomach, an ideal example of symbiosis.

Termite mound covers a tree stump. Parks and Wildlife
Nature Center, Quezon City.

Mushrooms grow on plant residues, and convert them into
humus which fertilizes the crop. Antipolo, Rizal

Shelf mushrooms grow on dead wood, eventually converting
it into soil that piles up on the forest floor. Mt. Makiling, Laguna

Rot fungi blanket the dead limb of Ficus tree.

UST Manila.

A host of soil insects, principally crickets and grubs, was
responsible in toppling this tree. Caliraya Lake, Laguna.
Rhizobium bacteria convert atmospheric Nitrogen into nitrate
for the use of plants. Note tubercles in lower photo where the
beneficial bacteria reside.

Florence Nightingale - The Lady with a Lamp

Dr Abe V Rotor

Light a Candle

In the dark look at the sky and the stars

They’re living gems, a thousand eyes;

They soothe the soul, heal wounds into scars –

They come to mingle with fireflies.

Short is life; man is but a living dust,

But many great things come to pass.

Someday you shall learn from the sages,

Those who live through the ages.

Not for glory, they fill the emptiness;

Go light a candle in gladness.

Fireflies and stars in the night are one,

Like flowers that bear the sun.

Who is Florence Nightingale? She is one of the most famous women of the world. She is the founder of the nursing profession

Her first patient was a dog. And this is the story.

One day when she was a girl she happened to pass by a wounded sheep-dog on the roadside.  The shepherd told her that his dog met an accident and broke a leg. The wound was so bad that the dog would have to be killed since this was the custom in those days.

She did not delay; she made splints and bandaged the wound, and not for long the dog was running about again. The shepherd was very thankful to Florence, and when she became famous he would tell people that her first patient had been his dog, Cap.

In 1854 war broke in Crimea in the southern part of Russia. It was fought between Russia on one side and Turkey, helped by Britain and France, on the other. Florence was then 34 years old, and had convinced her rich parents to let her become a nurse.

The conditions prevailing in the Crimean War were getting worse. There were no hospitals, or if there were, they were poorly managed. There were few doctors and nurses were more of housekeepers of hospitals. It is not like the hospitals we know today. There were as many wounded soldiers dying due to lack of proper medical attention, as there were in the battlefield, a condition the British soldiers were experiencing.

On receiving this news the Minister of War in England wrote a letter to Florence requesting her to organize a team of nurses to go to Crimea, which is more than a thousand miles away, and would take weeks to reach through poor roads and rough seas.

She accepted the challenge and immediately set forth with 38 women volunteers, most were devoted nurses from religious hospitals. They braved the stormy sea, and when they were on the way, the Battle of Balaclava was being fought. This is the famous battle in British history known as The Charge of the Light Brigade.

This is how a survivor described the battle.

“Because of the mistake about what they were supposed to do, these six hundred men galloped along a valley more than a mile long, with Russian cannon shooting at them from all sides. Many of them were killed and wounded, but they never stopped until they had ridden right up to the cannon and captured them.”

The wounded soldiers from the Battle of Balaclava were among the first patients of Florence and her volunteers.

The life of nurses was very hard in those days. They attended to many household and kitchen works. There was very little time to rest. What made the condition worse was because women in those days were not equally treated with men. There was discrimination, especially by the doctors who were all males.

But Florence persevered, so with the remaining volunteers and new nurses she trained. The hospitals became very clean and orderly. She established a system of management. There were enough supplies. Gardens were cultivated to supply the hospitals with fresh fruits and vegetables. There were fewer patients dying than before and they were recovering much faster.

Florence would be holding a lamp in the middle of the night, or into the wee hours in the morning, just to check the conditions of the patients. This scene became the symbol of the modern nursing profession.

Here in our country we have many battles to be fought. But these battles are not those in Crimea many years back. The enemy is different yet the objective is the same – the welfare of the people. We need fighters against poverty, disease and hopelessness. We need fighters who give themselves unselfishly, voluntarily without fear.

We have leaders in the Philippines in the like of Florence Nightingale. One of them is Dr. Fe del Mundo, a medical doctor who founded the hospitals for children. These hospitals are among the best managed government hospitals in the Philippines today. Because of these hospitals thousands and thousands of children have been saved. Many more patients were given proper medical attention in the last fifty years or so. Many doctors and nurses have been trained to follow the example set by Dr. Del Mundo.

People who have apparently lost hope find the lamp in the middle of the night burning bright. Florence Nightingale and Fe del Mundo are making their rounds. ~

Philippine Literature features Leona Florentino:

"The mother of Philippine women's literature" and the "bridge from oral to literary tradition."
Dr Abe V Rotor

 Original plaza and monument of the greatest Filipina literary icon in Vigan at the gateway to the future UNESCO Heritage City in the 1950's

Leona Florentino's monument today with new historical 
marker has lost much of its original solemnity.  

Leona Florentino is one of the four pillars of Philippine literature, with Jose Rizal, Balagtas and Severino Reyes (Lola Basyang). These four pillars have provided the foundation of Philippine literature that links it with the literature of the world.  The four pillars steered the course of Philippine Literature into the postmodern era, which is the theme of a new textbook, Philippine Literature Today (C&E Publishing Co.,) written jointly by the author and Dr Kristine Molina-Doria.  

Philippine Literature Today featuring the four  pillars of Philippine Literature:
Jose Rizal, Francisco Balagtas, Severino Reyes (Lola Basyang) and Leona Florentino the doyen of Philippine poetry in Spanish, Ilokano (Samtoy), and other regional dialects. 

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Leona Florentino (19 April 1849 - 4 October 1884) was a Filipino poet in the Spanish and Ilocano languages. She is considered as the "mother of Philippine women's literature" and the "bridge from oral to literary tradition".

Born to a wealthy and prominent family in Vigan, Ilocos Sur, Florentino began to write her first verses in Ilocano at a young age. Despite her potential, she was not allowed to receive a university education because of her gender. Florentino was instead tutored by her mother, and then a series of private teachers. An educated Ilocano priest taught her advanced Spanish and encouraged her to develop her voice in poetry.

Florentino married a politician named Elias de los Reyes at the age of 14. They had five children together. Their son Isabelo de los Reyes later became a Filipino writer, activist and senator. Due to the feminist nature of her writings, Florentino was shunned by her husband and son; she lived alone in exile and separately from her family. She died at the age of 35.

Her lyrical poetry in Spanish, and especially that in Ilocano, gained attention in various international forums in Spain, Paris and St. Louis, Missouri. Her literary contributions - particularly 22 preserved poems - were recognized when she was included in the Encyclopedia Internationale des Oeuvres des Femmes (International Encyclopedia of Women’s Works) in 1889. She is believed to be the first Filipina to receive this international recognition, an homage that occurred after her death at a young age. 


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Blasted Hopes

What gladness and what joy
are endowed to one who is loved
for truly there is one to share
all his sufferings and his pain.

My fate is dim, my stars so low
perhaps nothing to it can compare,
for truly I do not doubt
for presently I suffer so.

For even I did love,
the beauty whom I desired
never do I fully realize
that I am worthy of her.

Shall I curse the hour
when first I saw the light of day
would it not have been better a thousand times
I had died when I was born.

Would I want to explain
but my tongue remains powerless
for now do I clearly see
to be spurned is my lot.

But would it be my greatest joy
to know that it is you I love,
for to you do I vow and a promise I make
it’s you alone for whom I would lay my life.

Mga Tula ni Leona Florentino
(Salin mula sa Samtoy ni Josie Clausen; 
isinaayos ni Ruth Elynia S. Mabanglo)

ANG PAGPAPAALAM(Panagpakada) 
O Mutya ng pag-ibig, ako’y dinggin
Nasadlak sa hirap at dumaraing;
O Puso, maanong amutan ng tingin,
Ang kaawa-awa’y iyong pansinin.  

Tunay ngang kaawa-awa
Itong inulila ng yumao
Nguni gumagaang ang pakiramdam
Pagkat alaala mo’y laging kaakbay.

At bilang pamamaalam
Sa iyong piling ako’y lilisan
Pagkat nalasap ko ang tuwa at ligaya
Na hindi mawawala sa aking alaala.  

Malungkot akong magpapaalam--
Adyos, Liyag, mabangong asucena;
Sa aking masamyong dibdib itatago kita,
Nang ang bango mo’y di na maglaho pa.

Ngayo’y lagi nang kalong ng katahimikan
At kasa-kasama ng mapait na lumbay
Pagkat sa diwa ko’y umiibis ang kalungkutan
Nagbibigay-wari ng kahabagan.  

Samahan ka ng Diyos, O punong-puno ng sigla
Gayundin yaong sa pag-ibig nagnanasa,
Samahan ka ng Diyos, ikaw na nagtatago ng pag-irog
Ang puri mo’t dangal kailanma’y di madudurog.

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MGA HINANAKIT NG ISANG NABIGO 
(As-Asug Ti Maysa A Napaay)  

O Pag-ibig, sa makikirot na hibik ako’y natitigmak
Sapagkat ayaw pumayapa ng dusa at hirap;
O maanong tumigil ka na sa pananalasa
Pagkat walang alinlangang buhay ko’y papanaw na.  

O Pag-ibig,  anong hapdi,  anong sakit,
Kamatayan kang sumasanib
Dahil ang umiibig na hindi iniibig
Napakasakit, napakakirot sa pangmasid.

Kay lupit, kay lupit ng kilos mo’t sigla,
Iniiwan akong nagdurusa;
Nalinlang na ganap ang aking mata
Winasak ang tiwala at aking pag-asa.  

Ngunit ang umasa’y walang katuturan
Hindi ko akalaing ito ang kahihinatnan
Bangkay ako ngayong naturingan
Pagkat wala nang halaga ang aking katawan.  

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*Original poems in Ilokano

PANAGPAKADA  
Timudem man! O Imnas ni ayat,
ti un-unnoy toy seknan ni rigat;
imatangam, O puso ket imutektekannak
anusem a paliiwen toy daksanggasat.
Daksanggasat konak a ta maipusay
toy naldaang unay a bangkay;
ngem ni lagip dinto met bumalakday,
agnanayonto laeng a sitatarabay.
Kas panagpakada dagitoy nga innak baliksen,
ta toy bagik maipanaw kadagita taeng; 
taeng ni ragsak, liwliwa nga innak lak-amen,
dinto met mapunas nga innak pampanunoten.
Silaladingit toy puso nga agpakada,
Adios laing, napusaksak nga asusena;
Iti sayamusom ti barukongko ipenpennaka,
tapno dinto maumag ti agdaplay a banglona.
Siaaddaakto laeng, ti taeng ni alinaay,
ta ditoy panunot salemseman ni tarumpingay;
tarabayennakto ni napait a liday,
ket isunto kaniak ti mangay-ay-ay.
Dios ti kumuyog, O napnuan sayaksak,
nga esmanto dagiti agay-ayat;
Dios ti kumuyog, salimetmetmo mangalasag,
ta tapno dayta sudim, taknengmo ti di marakrak.

AS-ASUG TI MAYSA A NAPAAY Nasnebanak ti nasaem a sasainnek, ay ayat!
ta diman la agtanak ti lak-amen a tuok ken rigat;
isuna kadin isunan; ala isunan yantangay detoy biag,
diak duaduaenen a suminan itoy bagik a daksanggasat.  
Ay, ayat, ayaunayen ti sanaang
ni patay sumken nakalkaldaang
ta iti maysa nga agayat a dida pagayatan,
nakasaksakit nakem a maimatangan.
Narangas dagiti laingmo ken sayaksakmo naulpit,
nadawel, kitaem man toy silaladingit;
ta naallilaw man dagitoy matak idi a buybuyaek,
ta iti inanama ken talek isuda kaniak ti namatalged.  
Ngem eppes man dagidi nga inanama,
ta diak impapan a kastoy ti tungpalna,
tungpal tanem ket itan ti nagbanaganna,
datoy bagik ta isu ti kaikarianna. 

RUKRUKNOY*

Dimteng itay, kakabsatko a kaingungotak

ti aldaw a tinudingan ti Dios a puon ti imbag

nga inkay panagassawa panagkaysa siaayat

iti natan-ok a Sakramento nga inkay inawat.

Natungpal itayen ti tinartarigagayanyo

a panagkallaysa dagiti puspusoyo;

ti napateg a bandisionna inawatyo

iti Santa Iglesia nga inatayo.

Itan ' ti kababalinto panagbiagyo

nupay dua maymaysa ti bagiyo

a mangipakita mangipatalged kadakayo

ti rebbengyo a panagayan-ayat panagdungngo-dungngo.

Ti kawar a namagsinggalot kadagiti pusoyo

dinto mawarwaren ingganat' tungpal biagyo

rosasto laeng ti arigna no tungpalenyo

ti panagayan-ayat nga inkariyo.

Anansata no ragsak ti maysa ragsakyo a dua

no rigat ti maysa, rigatyo met a dua

adaywanyo ti ilem ken panagduadua

a mangirurumen ti sudi ti panagtinnalek ti agassawa.

Ala Severino awatem ti kapatgan a saniata

nga ited ti Apotayo aDios nga isagut kenka

salimetmetam kas napateg unay a perla

ita nagmumotan ti pusom ti concha a pakaidulinanna.

Isu dayta daydi sabong nga inka nakita

ti sidong asi ken dungngo ti maysa nga ina

a naiduma ti lasbang ken rangpayana

iti panagdungngo; panag tarakenna.

Nupay kasano ti sakit ti nakemna

amangisina, mangyadayo iti dennana

maipapilit itayen ~ purosenna

a yawat tapno sika pay met ti manapaya.

Tapno di rralaylay ti rangpayana

ti ayat ken dungngom dikanto isina

ta isunto ti kas linnaaw a pagbiaganna

ken mangted ti nakaay-ayat a lasbangna.

Ti nadungngo a panangtaripatom kenkuana

isunto ti kas balsamo a mangserra

iti sugat a gapuanan ti pannakaisinana

kadagiti ima a nakasapsapuyotanna.

Ket sika kaingungotko a Vicenta

ti sudi ken dalusna inka ipakita

ti panagayatmo ita pinilim nga asawa

a nangyawatam ta pusom ken ima.

Anansata amin a panagtignaymo inka ipakita

ti tarigagaymo nga agserbi kenkuana;

ammuem amin a pagayayatanna

isu ti aramidem uray dina ibaga kenka.

No ti Apotayo aDios ta ikkannakayto

ti bunga ti panagassawayo

ipakitamto ti dakkel a salukagmo

iti pannakaaywanda pannakasursuro.

Panunotem ngaisuda ti kapatgan a saniata

a mabalin nga iparabur ti Dios kenka

a ragsak ken liwliwam ditoy rabaw ti daga

n~a ingganat' biagyo sumina.

No ubingda pay a maladaga

agawaamton nga imaldit iti pusoda

ti panagayat ken panagbutengda

iti Apotayo a Dios a namarsua kadakuada.

Amin met a tao a kadendennam

. nang runa dagiti nakaikamangam

naragsak a rupa ti ipakitam

agraemka ket inka ida padayawan.

Ket tapno matungpalmo ken masarkedam

amin dagitoy a pagrebbengan

ti Apotayo aDios ti inka pagdawatan

ti tulong ti grasiana a nadiosan.

Mayarig kama ti panagbiagyo nga agassawa

kada San Jose ken ni Blrhen Maria

ti dakkel nga urnos ken talnada

ken nasam-it unay ngaayan-ayatda.

Kas koma agayus a maysa a karayan

ti litnaw ti danumna a pagsarmingan

di koma mariribok ken mapitakan.

kadagiti rigat ditoy daga a pagluluaan.

Jti kamaudiananna dawatek iti Dios nga Apotayo

nga ikkannakay' ti nanam-ay a panagbiagyo,

dakkel ken saan a marakrak nga urnosyo

ingganat' patay ti magtenganyo.

Agawaanyo nga iburik iti uneg tl puspusoyo

day toy a balakad nga itedko kadakayo

napateg a gameng nga idatonko

itoy nagasat unay aldaw ti panagbodayo.

(Insagut ni Leona Florentino daytoy a daniw

kadagiti kakanakanna a Severino ken Vicenta.

iti panagkallaysa dagitoy idiay Vigan idi

Mayo 9, 1877.)

Isabelo de los Reyes, Sr. y Florentino

      -  Following the footsteps of his illustrious mother 

Isabelo de los Reyes, Sr. y Florentino, also known as Don Belong, was a prominent Filipino politician, writer and labor activist in the 19th and 20th centuries. Wikipedia
Born: July 7, 1864, Vigan
Died: October 10, 1938, Manila
Parents: Leona Florentino, Elias de los Reyes
Education: University of Santo Tomas, Colegio de San Juan de Letran 

Isabelo de los Reyes, Sr. y Florentino, also known as Don Belong (July 7, 1864 – October 10, 1938), was a prominent Filipino politician, writer and labor activist in the 19th and 20th centuries. He was the original founder of the Aglipayan Church, an independent Christian Protestant church in the catholic tradition. Due to his widespread Anti-Catholic writings and activism with labor unions, he is sometimes dubbed as the "Father of Filipino Socialism". Pope Leo XIII formally excommunicated Reyes in 1903 as a schismatic apostate.

As a young man, Reyes followed his mother's footsteps by initially turning to writing as a career; he won a prize at the age of 23 for his first written book. He later became a journalist, editor, and publisher in Manila, and was imprisoned in 1897 for revolutionary activities. He was deported to the Kingdom of Spain, where he was jailed for his activities until 1898. While living and working in Madrid, he was influenced by the writings of European socialists and Marxists.

Returning to the Philippines in 1901, Reyes founded the first labor union in the country. He also was active in seeking independence from the United States. After serving in the Philippine Senate in the 1920s, he settled into private life and religious writing. He had a total of 27 children with three successive wives; he survived all his wives and 12 of his children. (Wikipedia)