Guava - Tree of Happy Childhood

Where have all the kids gone?

Native guava (Psidium guajava) Family Myrtaceae

Where have all the happy children gone

Perched on the spreading branches bowing,

Their faces and clothes with fruit stain over

Heeding no care, time and parents calling.

Doldrums, doldrums, how hard it is to bear,

In the school like Huckleberry Finn;

The tree's image on the blackboard seen,

With the hours in countdown to the scene.

The clock strikes five and the tree is alive again;

Make haste for childhood comes back never.

And the guava tree does not stay long neither,

'Cept in sweet memory where it lives forever. ~

  

If there is a ninth or tenth wonder of the world, it is the guava tree. For me it is the first wonder - the wonder of childhood.

Have you seen a tree bearing “fruits” bigger – and heavier - than its whole structure?

And here is one for the Book of Guinness. Have you heard the guava tree talk, laugh and shout, sing beautifully or grunt, make echolocation signals? Parents remind their children not to miss their siesta or classes. Then doldrums reigns but briefly. But soon the children are back to their favorite tree.

Take the backseat London Bridge, Golden Gate or Eiffel Tower. The guava tree can bend and touch the ground, and become upright again – not once, not twice but many times in its lifetime - and in a child's lifetime. And every branch equally obliges to the 180-degree weight and pull of children. No wonder the best spinning top and the best frame for slingshot are made from guava wood, and is perfect "Y", too.

It is a living Christmas tree, sort of. Birds come frequently. The perperoka and panal - migratory birds from the North, come with the Amihan and eat on the berries, while combing the place of worms, and gleaning on anything left by harvesters. The pandangera bird (fan-tailed) dances on the branches, while the house sparrow perches, picking on ripe fruits and small crawlers. And if you wake up very early, meet the butterflies and bees gathering nectar and pollen from the flowers. Take a deep breathe of the morning air spiced with the fragrance of both flowers and ripe fruits.

And the tree has eyes. True. Round and luminescent in the dark, mingle with the fireflies and the stars – and a waning moon. It is romantic, scary and sacred. Fruit bats come at night and pick the ripe fruits. Rodents and wild pigs scavenged at night. Moths and skippers, relatives of the butterfly, are nocturnal in their search for food and mate. Old folks would warn us kids never to go near the tree at night. In my career as biologist I had the experience to see in the middle of a field guava trees lighted with fireflies. This scene was in Sablayan in Mindoro island. What a sight - Christmas in another time and in another place. What a magnificent sight!

Would a child go hungry where guava trees abound? I don’t think so. Because the fruits are packed with sugar, vitamins and minerals. The fruits are made into jelly, pickled and cooked as vegetable. It is perfect for sinigang. Have you heard of guava wine? It is the most aromatic of all table wines made from tropical fruits, and it displays a rare pinkish glow. Nutritionists say guava is rich in Vitamin C, richer than most fruits, local and imported. I came to learn later of the cancer-preventing substance derived from Psidium guajava,its scientific name, and its miraculous healing attributes.

Name the ailments commonly encountered, and the guava offers a dozen home remedies. Chew the tops and make a poultice to relieve toothache. The village dentist tells you to first make a poultice the size of a marble, then after he has extracted your tooth, he tells you to seal the wound with it to prevent bleeding and infection. Pronto you can go back to your usual chore.

Guava stem is the first toothbrush, try it. Soften the smaller end and you can also use it as toothpick. This is practical when traveling in a remote area. Chew a leaf or two for astringent and tooth paste. Crushed leaves serve as aromatherapy, a new term today. And for an unconscious person, burn some dried leaves, fan the smoke toward the patient while pressing his large toe with your thumb nail. The patient senses both pain and smoke and soon takes a deep breathe - another, and another, until he gets enough oxygen and he wakes up.

Decoction of guava leaves for bath is practical in eliminating body odor. Guava soap is effective against skin disorders like pimples and eczema.

My daughter Anna Christina developed in her college thesis Guava Ointment, an all-natural antibacterial solution of the plant’s anti-inflammatory and therapeutically active properties against wounds or burns. Extract from the leaves contains 5 to 10 percent tannin, and fixed oils that have antibacterial and inhibitory effects against microorganisms that cause infection.

Here are the main ingredients of Anna’s Guava Ointment.

• Tannin, a non-crystallizable complex polyhydroxylphenolic compound is present in the leaves and stems.

• Fixed Oil which is frequently found in the roots, stems, branches, flowers and fruits. It exists as oil globules in special cells.

• Volatile Oil is an odorous compound found in various plant parts. It usually evaporates when exposed to the air at ordinary temperature. It is obtained by stem distillation, solvent extraction or absorption into purified fats.

• Petrolatum is the ointment base used, sometimes called “Petroleum Jelly”. It is a purified mixture of semi-solid hydrocarbons obtained from petroleum.

You can make your own Petrolatum with castor oil, coconut oil, beeswax, sorbitan tristearate, silica, tocopherol (vitamin E), and natural flavor. You may consult your local pharmacist about these ingredients. Petrolatum is thoroughly mixed with the extract and kept for use in a typical ointment container.

When I was a kid my auntie-yaya would gather succulent green guava fruits as remedy for LBM. Tannin regulates the digestive enzymes and stabilizes the digestive flora. She would also make guava leaf tea as a follow-up treatment.

As an offshoot of all these experiences, I asked my students to look into the potential value of guava seeds. The seeds contain 14 percent oil, 15 percent proteins, and 13 percent starch. And study also the bark and leaves in the development of drugs against diarrhea, and as astringent.

At one time I was isolating yeasts that occur in nature which I needed in preparing bubod – yeasts complex for basi wine fermentation. I stumbled upon two kinds of yeasts - Saccharomyces elipsoides and Brettanomyces - the second, I discovered is the secret of French wine quality. This French yeast resides in our home yard, in the flower of the native guava!

 

Preparing guava jelly at home; closeup of ripe fruits. 

 

Guava bird; closeup of flowers, source of wild yeast strain for wine making.

Later I found out, the same yeast naturally occurs in the flowers of macopa (Eugenia jambalana) and duhat (Syzygium cumini), both members of the guava family - Myrtaceae. I am very grateful to the Food Development Center (FDC) under the National Food Authority for helping me in the isolation and identification of these specimens.

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Guava is the tree of happy childhood. The tree bears fruits and children. Look at all the children climbing, swinging on its branches, some armed with bamboo poles, others with small stones, still others with slingshots aiming at one thing: the ripe fruits on the tree. The tree builds sweet childhood memories.

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Nature has a way of preserving the guava species through seed dormancy. Dormancy is a temporary delay of seeds to germinate for a few days to several years. This is important as a survival mechanism. Guava seeds are not destroyed by gastric juice and peristalsis of the digestive system of animals that eat the fruits, whether they are cold or warm blooded. It is because of their thick and hard pericarp. This biological process enhances not only germination but dissemination in a new territory.

You can’t crack guava seeds. If you do, especially with a decayed tooth you’ll end up going to your dentist. Oh, how I would wince and hold on anything. Either the old tooth is forced out of its place or the seed has lodged in a cavity.

Old folks also believe that guava seeds can cause appendicitis. Well, its seed is too large to enter this rudimentary organ. I believe though that it is its abrasive nature that makes way for bacteria to enter and cause infection. And subsequently inflammation. Well, if this is true, then it’s a risk one takes in eating guava. You really can’t remove all the seeds, and if you succeed you take away the fun and quaintness of eating guava.

We have introduced foreign varieties of guava which really don’t grow into a tree. The fruits are very much bigger, but far from being as sweet as those of our native variety. In a few years the guapple, as it is called, becomes senile then dies, while the native guava lasts for a lifetime, a generation, perhaps longer, and reach several feet high.

Today when I see children climbing guava trees it reminds me of my childhood. It reminds me of its many friends – birds, ground fowls like ducks, chicken, bato-bato (wild pigeons), goats and self-supporting native pigs. I imagine butterflies, dragonflies and Drosphila flies attracted by the ripening fruit. And frogs and toads patiently waiting for these flies to become their prey. Finches and sparrows, the quick and dainty La Golondrina (swift), the pandangera, panal andperperroka – I miss them.

Yes, the fruit bats, they are the source of children stories, among them is about clumsy bats dropping their load of ripe fruits accidentally falling of rooftops. In the dead of the night what would you imagine? “It’s the manananggal! (half-bodied female vampire).” Our folks at home would even make their voice tremble. And we would cling to each other in bed we kids in our time. Our elders would take advantage of the situation and whisper, “If you don’t sleep, it will come back.”

In the morning who would care about the mannanaggal? Or seeds causing appendicitis? Or the danger of falling from the tree. Or chased by wild boar? Or challenged by billy goat or brooding hen? As usual we would search for ripe berries and have our fill. Then we would hurry down and run to relieve ourselves, too loaded we simply take comfort in some thickets. In time guava trees would be found growing in these places.

Years after, I will see children climbing these trees and having their fill of the fruits, joyous in this adventure of childhood, making the guava tree the greatest wonder of the world. ~

Return of the Blackbird Martinez

The return of the once thought extinct Martinez is a manifestation of Nature's triumph. It is triumph to mankind and the living world. 
Dr Abe V Rotor

Blackbird Martinez (Turdus merula), Drynaria fern and towering acacia tree make an 
ecological sanctuary, together with a host of other organisms that depend on them.
Tagudin, Ilocos Sur.

This is one for the biologist and ecologist. I say, it's one for the Book of Guinness record.

Up high in a dozen centuries old acacia trees, reaching up to 10 storeys high, their boughs and branches clothed with epiphytic ferns, I found the long lost blackbirds, we call martinez in Ilocano.

I was then in the grade school in San Vicente (Ilocos Sur) when I saw the last martines bird. But here on a Black Friday on top of these towering trees, there is the lost bird, in fact several of them in pairs and families. It is like the Coelacanth, a primitive fish thought to have long been extinct, suddenly rising from the depth of the craggy Madagascar sea. Its fossil in rock tells us it is 40 million years old. And here it is - alive and has not changed! The fossil fish is alive! So with the Martinez!

The blackbirds have made the towering acacia trees their home and natural habitat, building their nests on the Drynaria fern. The fern grows on the branches, reaching the peak of its growth during the rainy season when the host tree sheds its leaves, in effect allowing sunlight to nurture the fern.

The fern has dimorphic leaves. The primary ones are long and shaped like stag horn and bear sori or spore sacs, while the other kind is shaped and arranged like shingles, enclosing the fern's rhizome. Like all ferns, Drynaria undergoes alternation of generations - the spore-forming phase and gamete-forming phase. It is the sporophytic or asexual generation that the fern plant is familiar to us. It is typically made of roots, stems and leaves - but never flowers and fruits. It is for this that ferns are classified separately from seed-forming and flowering plants. They belong to Division Pterophyta.

Blackbird Martinez (Turdus merula)

In the dry season, the fern becomes dormant, appearing dry and lifeless from the outside, but shielded by the shingles the fleshy rhizome waits for the rain and sunlight - and the shedding of the host tree. Then almost at an instant the fern springs to life, carpeting entire boughs and branches.

Now it's the tree's turn. In summer, while the fern is dormant, it builds a new crown, and together with those of the adjoining trees form a huge canopy that makes a perfect shade. This could be one reason the friars in the 15th century thought of introducing the acacia (Samanea saman) from Mexico to be planted around churches and convents.

Not only that the acacia is the biggest legume in the world; it is self-fertilizing and self supporting, and sharing its resources to countless organisms from earthworm to humans. How is this possible?

The acacia harbors in its roots symbionts - Rhizobium bacteria that convert the element Nitrogen (N) into Nitrate (NO3). Only then can N that comprises 78 percent of the air we breathe can be used by plants to manufacture food by photosynthesis.

And with the deciduous character of the tree, dead leaves form a litter on the ground that makes a good mulch and later becomes compost - a natural fertilizer for the tree, surrounding plants, microorganisms and animals. Then as the pods of the tree ripen and drop to the ground, animals like goats come around to feed on them and in effect enrich the ground. The tree's efficient physiology and symbiotic potential with other organisms make it not only one of the most self-reliant trees in the world, but a miniature ecosystem in itself.

We see today very old acacia trees in these places, just like those around the old St Agustine church in Tagudin built in the 16th century where I found the blackbirds among the Drynaria ferns at their tops. Tagudin is the southernmost town of Ilocos Sur, some 330 kilometers north of Manila - a good five-hour drive. It continues to attract northbound tourists to have a stopover and see this spectacle, among other attractions of this old town, such as its native handicrafts, pristine seashore and progressive upland agriculture.

Going back to the blackbirds, why do we give much importance to them? Well, the blackbirds protect both tree and fern from insects and other pests, and fertilize them with their droppings. They too, are gleaners and help keep the environment clean. Unlike the house sparrow, ground fowls and the crow, they are not nuisance to the place; their presence is barely felt except for their occasional calls which sound quite sonorous but nonetheless pleasant, and their display during flight of a queer pair of white spots on their wings. I developed the liking to watch them for hours - their gentle movement, familial ways, although they do not as gregarious as pigeons, and their glossy black bodies distinct from the surrounding and against the sky. They make a good specimen for bird watching and photography.

Beyond the aesthetics about the bird, I learned from my good friend Dr. Anselmo Set Cabigan, a fellow biologist and science professor, that the martinez was introduced from Guam on instruction of a Spanish Governor General to control locust infestation in the Philippines. This is the first case of applying the principle of biological control in the Philippines - and perhaps elsewhere - which was then too advance in its time. Today, biological control is practiced worldwide as part of Integrated Pest Management (IPM), a holistic approach in dealing with all kinds of pests which include pathogens.

Locust (Locusta migratoria manilensis) is a scourge to agriculture in many countries since prehistoric times. I have witnessed how a swarm of locust devour complete fields of rice and corn, and other crops overnight. During swarming the sky darkens as sheer numbers of these flying insects block the sky. And as they ride on the wind they produce a deafening hissing sound that adds terror to farmers and inhabitants.

And why was the martinez bird the chosen nemesis of the locust? It clearly shows the efficiency of this predator. Actually predation is most effective when the locust is still in its non-migratory phase, specifically during the congegans - more so when it is in the solitaria phase. The bird immediately checks the pest before it develops into enormous population - and reach its swarming stage.

I believe that the triad formed by the acacia tree, Drynaria fern and the blackbirds is the beginning of an emerging ecosystem where wildlife and human settlement meet in cooperation and harmony. It is a zone where Nature re-builds spent environments and creates intermediate types, in which the role of man is basically to let nature's laws and rules to prevail. For example, doves and pigeons in public squares and plazas in many parts of the world are learning to trust people, and many people are just too happy to share their homes and other resources with them. They are planting trees and setting up more and wider parks for the wildlife.

For one, Japan now requires the greening of rooftops of buildings through gardening dubbed aeroponics, and by putting up ecological sanctuaries to attract wildlife to settle in them. In Europe on the other hand, miles and miles of hedges have evolved into a unique ecosystem, that one can no longer differentiate a well-established hedge from a natural vegetation. Also in Europe, woodlands which are actually broad strips that serve as boundaries of fields and pastures, are gaining through time higher biodiversity levels, and moving towards dynamic stability, called in ecology as homeostasis.

The Philippines is not behind. We have multi-storey orchards in Cavite, Batangas and Laguna that simulate the structure of a tropical rain forest long before the term ecology was coined. And  many basins of ricefields and sumps of irrigation systems have become natural ponds.

The 38th parallel dividing the whole length of warring North Korea and South Korea – a strip of no man’s land, twenty kilometers at its widest – has developed, since the armistice in 1958, into a natural wildlife sanctuary. Today it has a very high level of biodiversity and distinct from any reservation on either side of this highly restricted boundary.

These neo-ecological zones are sprouting from backyards, parks, submerged coastlines, denuded mountains, and the like. Even contiguous idle lots – and abandoned fishponds, farms and settlements - are slowly but steadily becoming bastions of wildlife.

Truly, the case of the centuries old acacia trees where the Drynaria and the martinez birds, and man living with them in peace and in harmony - is a manifestation of Nature's triumph. It is triumph to us and the living world. ~

Grotesque looking acacia tree clothed with Drynaria fern
towers over church and convent in Tagudin, Ilocos Sur.

Photographs taken with an SLR Digital Camera with 300 mm telephoto lens.

“I can lift the huge universe.”

Literature’s Unending Charm and Challenge: Postwar to Cyber Age Transition
Dr Abe V Rotor

Our school principal, Mr. Sebastian Ruelos, visited our classroom and wrote on the board, I can lift the huge universe, and asked us, “What does this mean.  Anyone?”

Silence fell in our brick walled classroom which still bore the scars of war. No one dared to recite.There was total silence like anticipating another air raid.  But the war was already over.  It was already peace time.

“This is what you will face in life.” He continued, this time in our dialect - Ilokano.We were about to graduate in elementary in a small town, San Vicente, west of Vigan. War had taught us survival in the midst of danger and uncertainty. It erased much of the joy of childhood, and instead tempered us early to take over the role of adults.

When one is focused on responsibility and meeting daily needs, unsure of what lies beyond,  dreams are just wishes and prayers like passing wind. When fear has numbed the mind to learn, how can it go beyond the three Rs of education - the fundamentals of literacy?

That was 60 years ago.

This time I asked my students in the university to interpret the same statement. It was the opposite of silence that filled our air-conditioned room. Atlas! came a ready answer - the mythical figure holding the sky from falling.  Discussionproceeded as my students consulted their electronic notebooks, laptops, tablets, smart phones and i-Pods, and came up with different versions of “lifting the huge universe” through cyberspace. It was like picking up fragments of information from the sky, so to speak. But how can knowledge condense into philosophy from fleeting cirrus and stratus clouds? Shortcut to knowledge seldom leads to wisdom.   

These contrasting scenarios and the yearsthat separate them raise questions presenting themselves into a thesis. Indeed it is.

These questions have been raised before.  They are traced as far back as Aristotle advising the young Alexander the Great, to establish peace soon after winning a war. To Washington Irving’s Rip van Winkle who slept for twenty long years and found himself a stranger in his own village. To the Charles Dickens’ story of Oliver Twist, an orphan who at the end found his lineage to a rich family.To a boy herowho plugged a hole in the dike with his arm and saved Holland from deluge.  To Tarzan who inspired adventure in childrenand kindness toanimals. To sages on the question of who is more civilized – the primitive or the educated, in The Gods Must be Crazy.  To Lola Basyang’s melodrama, Walang Sugat, played on the town’ entablado during fiesta.

I remember Camilo Osias’s books for school children, which are rich in lessons for growing up, but never moralistic in approach. It has the touch of Aesop, Grimm Brothers, Hans Anderson, and our own folklores. One story is about a Golden Lion. Impatient of getting a gold coin each day, a greedy boy inserted his hand into the lion’s mouth to scoop all the coinslike forcing a slot machine to release the jackpot’s prize.Poor boy, the lion never let go his arm. It has the same theme as Aesop’s goose that lays golden eggs.

We kids in our time imagined the legendary Angalo moved mountains. It is no different from Superman,Lam-ang, Achilles and Beowolf.  They reside in fantasy and live forever in cliddren.

We also loved to go into the bottom of the sea, or into a deep crevice below the earth, or to go around the world in eighty days, for the love of adventure. Thanks to Jules Verne.  And lo!  Science and technology has succeeded in turning fiction into reality.  They made us grow into real men.

And for girls, Heidi, the orphan in Spyri’s novel who did not only survive ordeal but also help otherssucceed as well, has lasting impressionsto these girls who someday will raise families of their own. What greater test of love can one find in Balagtas’ Florante at Laura? Man’s chilvalry for a woman in Lorna Doone? Or a mother’s utmost devotion to her children in The Railway Children? Or a child’s surprise in opening an old forgotten garden locked by painful memory,
bringing forth new life, and rekindling the love of a father and daughter in The Secret Garden?

The Great Books are now on the Internet
The Great Books of the Western World is a series of books originally published in the United States by Encyclopædia Britannica in 1952 presented in a package of 54 volumes. The Great Books of the Western World cover the categories of fiction, history, poetry, natural science, mathematics, philosophy, politics, religion, drama ethics, and economics.The original editors of the series chose three criteria for inclusion:

1. a book must be relevant to contemporary issues, not only in its historical context;
2. it must reward rereading; and
3. it must be a part of "the great ideas," identified by the editors;

Each year from 1961 to 1998 the editors published The Great Ideas of Today, an annual update on the applicability of the Great Books to current issues.With the advent of the Internet and the proliferation of E-book readers, many of these texts became available online. Today Encyclopedia Britannica has phased out the printing of the Encyclopedia proper and has limited the printing of other publications, giving way to online publication, and the various forms of presentation on the Internet. 
I remember dad’s books he brought home after finishing his studies at De Paul University in the US during the Great Depression. One particular book is Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. It was about the French Revolution. “Be like Jean Valjean, the hero.” He told us, his three children then in our elementary schooling. It was many years later that we understood him.

Another book is Evangeline or Tale of Acadieby Henry Wadsworth Longfellow written in romantic hexameter and patterned after Homer’s epics. Longfellow listened to Nathaniel Hawthorne relate the story. It’s not my style the latter confessed. So Longfellow re-created the forcible separation and exile of two young lovers on their wedding day only to see each other again in their very old age. It was a sweet parting, their torn lives coming back in one piece, but only for a moment as Gabriel died in the arms of Evangeline.

      

 

 And the epilogue goes –

“Still stands the forest primeval; but far away from its shadow,

Side by side, in the nameless grave, the lovers were sleeping

… In the heart of a city, they lie, unknown and un-noticed.

Daily the tides of life go ebbing and flowing…”

That was a long time ago. Things have greatly changed. Cable TV is bringing into the home whole theaters, the Internet whole libraries. And with palm-size gadgets, any information is virtually at fingertip’s access. Why many universities no longer have walls!

And the audience has not only increased by leaps and bounds; their profile now includes infants to senior citizens whose longevity is ever increasing. Interestingly as the world walks on two feet – communication and transportation – people are losing their cultural identity and original domicile.  One-half of the world’s population of 7.7 billion lives in big towns and cities, and cities are ballooning into metropolises and megapolises. Ironically one-half live below the poverty line, while the other half have simply more than what they need and the control of the world’s resources isvirtually at their disposal.

Literature seems to be far out. It is one of the uninteresting subjects in school.  It is a topic we encounter everyday and yet at the end ask, “Literature ba yan?”  (Is that literature?) Or one distinct from other disciplines and confined in its own quarters. It is literature, if it wears a laurel or olive leaf. And written by well-known writers whose authority is unquestionable.

I have yet to read Filipino versions of An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore, and Thoreau Legacy published by Penguin Classics that warn of the harmful consequences of global warming. Of a local treatise between man and nature as in Walden Pond, of the Origin of Species that broke a the age-old church’s dogma of creation, of Small is Beautiful that warns of dinosaur syndrome when man’s dream goes beyond control. Of Silent Spring that challenged the excesses of modern agriculture, chemicals that destroy the very base of production. Of Genetic engineering which created Dolly the sheep, the gateway to stemcell technology and cloning, with the human being coming next in line.

Many people are asking where does literature begin and end. What does it set its boundaries?What is its stand on issues like pornographic art, euthanasia or mercy killing, same sex marriage? This prompted me do my own share of research.

Literature and our fast changing world today

Among the ideas of our fast changing world are

1. Common Wealth’s new concept. National interests aren't what they used to be. Our survival requires global solutions.The defining challenge of the 21st century will be to face the reality that humanity shares a common fate on a crowded planet.

2. Runaway world population will reach 8 billion, and will double in 50 years. By 2050 stabilization is  believed to be manageable under a sustainable development system.

3. Geo-engineering . Messing with Nature caused global warming. Messing with it more might fix it.One solution to global warming is induced volcanic eruption.  (Mt. Pinatubo’s eruption in 1991 cooled the Planet Earth. Ash and sulfur actually lowered the atmosphere’s temperature)

4. Aging gracefully . Forget conventional wisdom; gray-haired societies aren't a problem.Aging gracefully means  productive retirement and longer life span. Some 5 billion people in 120 countries will live to 60 years old and over not far from now.

5.Women's Work. Tapping the female entrepreneurial spirit can pay big dividends.The role of women may soon equal that of men, and may even surpass them in many fields.

6. Beyond the Olympics. New games and sports, constant TV coverage of local and global sporting events, are outshining the Olympic games.

7. Jobs are the New Assets. A sampling of fast-growing occupations - actuaries, financial analyst, computer programmer, fitness trainer, biophysicists, translators, maniucurists, marriage counselors, radiologists.

8. Recycling the Suburbs. Environmentalists will celebrate the demise of sprawling suburbs, which left national addiction to cars. Infrastructures will be converted in favor of "green", town centers, public libraries, museums, sports centers, parks.

9. The New Calvinism. More moderate evangelicals are exploring cures for doctrinal drift, offering some assurance to " a lot of young people growing up in sub-cultures of brokenness, divorce, drugs, sexual temptations, etc."

10. Amortality. Amortality - "non-moral sensitive" or "neutral morality' - whatever you may call it, this thinking has revolutionized our attitudes toward age. There are people who "refuse to grow old," people who wish to be resurrected from his cryonized corpse.

11. Biobanks. Safe deposits - freezers full of tissues for transplants, cryotude for blood samples, liquid nitrogen storage for sperms and eggs, test-tube baby laboratories and clinics. Welcome, surrogate motherhood, post-menopausal technology, in-situ cloning, multiple;e birth technology, and the like.

12. Ecological Intelligence. There are guidelines now available to judge products on their social and environmental impact. This is new culture characterized by environment-consciousness, environment-friendliness. Here life-cycle assessment and clean-up corporate ecology become an obligation. We are going back - happily and beautifully to a simple and natural lifestyle.

Friendly TV Program for Growing Up – A NeoRenaissance 

When my grand daughter was less than one year old I was advised to keep her away from TV because of the bad reputation of TV programs to very young children, much more to infants.  But I discovered something that convinced her mom - my daughter, and everyone at home.  

  

               Barney and Friends in Jim Jam; bugs orchestra in Baby TV

There is a TV channel (21) that features Jim Jam Everyday which consists of two dozen children-designed programs, and recently Baby TV (Channel 122), and Nick Junior (Channel 103) which are indeed a baby-friendly programs.

These TV programs, among emerging ones that skillfully combine healthy entertainment and formative age values offer an alternative to reduce exposure to arrogance, violence, sex, sensationalism, and overbearing format which characterize many programs. Another important feature is that there is no interruption of advertisements and programs that would negate their child-friendly nature. Episodes may be replayed from time to time, but this is advantageous in the learning process.

The richness of TV programs can be explored on channels like Discovery (3 versions, one for kids), National Geographics in two versions, History, and other channels of the same category, accessible in armchair travelogue thus bringing into the sala nature, whole novels, history and live shows.

The big challenge to other channels is do away with violence, real or cartoon, frivolities and wastefulness, and to run stories that present ways to live by as good children and citizens. – without prozelitizing unless shown with good examples. Under the heap of cheap dramas, features, shows, and the like, true literature is difficult to appreciate. So with the tremendous daily output of social media and digital photography all the more mask what literature is and should be, thus requiring a redefinition and continuing education regarding the subject. Are diaries considered literature?  Homilies and speeches? Office memoranda, legal opinions and court decisions? How about advertisements?

I was watching State of the Nation of Jessica Soho, and found out how well researched her topics are. I would say the same to SOCO, Matang Lawin, Asia Network and similar programs. I can only guess how many view regularly Discovery, History and National Geographic.  A million copies of printed literature would be a far cry from the power of the Radio, Television TV and the Internet whose total audiences  at present reaches millions and millions worldwide via Satellite and worldwide networks. The power of media can never be underestimated, for which reason literature should be able to harness it like riding a strong and beautiful horse. 

As a professor I find my students becoming more and more informed than in our time. They are wired  to the world practically all the time. They carry more subjects than we did before. The information highway includes inter university library service, fellowship, student exchange, congress and symposium. There is never a dull moment for the dedicated student of today. . 

On the part of the professor, he uses the computer to facilitate his work.  Now and then he attends in his home broadcast programs in some kind of refresher course or simply to keep abreast with events. Every semester my classes view selected movies and documentaries, like in Humanities, The Little Prince, The Fourth Wise Man, Dead Poet Society, Oliver, and in Mass Communication, Shattered Glass, Reporters at War, Mother Teresa, Gandhi, Count of Monte Cristo, Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Finding Nemo (photo), the Land before Time, Babe are few of  the recommended cartoon movies that keep our world young, so to speak. While literature is tested by timelessness, it is also measuredby its success when young and old share together their time, thoughts and feelings, their dreams and hopes for a better world and brighter tomorrow.

Through literature we can lift the huge universe. ~

Takong - the Nest-Building Sow

Dr Abe V. Rotor

Crossbred offspring shows traces of its native parent - the domesticated wild pig

When I was a farmhand I watched Takong – mother pig, build a nest. She gathered dry banana stalks, rice straw, leaves, and if there were clothes or blanket on a sagging clothesline, they would likely end up as nesting materials.

Takong was a native pig and carried much of the features of baboy damo or wild pig. Her fangs were long, protruding and curved outward, resembling amulets. Her snout was long, her skin dark gray and loose, her hair wiry. She was seldom without caked mud over her body because she loved to wallow. She strayed on the farm, subsisting on rice bran, fruits and vegetables, or whatever leftovers there were after threshing or milling.

“Our sow is ready to give birth,” my dad announced. Takong had been in her nest and if it were not for her gray color, heaving and grunting, you would dismiss her nest as a mere pile of rubbish. That night I heard grunting and squeaking. Our sow was giving birth. The piglets came out at intervals.

As the first rays of the sun peep through the den, I cautiously searched how many piglets our   sow had delivered. There were ten piglets in all! But none was wholly black like the mother. They had shades of white and gray, their snouts were shorter and upturned. Their father was of a foreign breed, stocky and bigger than Takong with snub nose and flappy ears. Takong laid on one side and obediently nursed her litter, each taking possession of a teat. "Just don't get too close." my father warned.

Father knows that even if animals have been domesticated, they still carry the evolutionary gene designed to protect their young against any enemy they perceive - which may include their own masters. Animals are most dangerous at nesting time and after giving birth until the young are ready to be weaned. Another warning my dad emphasized is that never touch the young, more so to take them away from the nest or litter.

We can't resist picking up newly born animals, like kittens and puppies, because they are lovable. Their mother can easily sense our intrusion. She may abandon the poor cute thing, or even kill or eat it. Or she takes the whole litter away to a safe place.

In the wild, animals can sense danger that may threaten the whole litter, if not the whole herd. According to sociobiology as proposed by Dr EO Wilson, altruism and sacrifice are actually part of behavioral instinct which is important to the survival of the species, to the extent of sacrificing its individual members. Murder and cannibalism among animals may be explained with this theory. So with sudden attacks on people by pets, by animals in zoo and circus.

Takong's offspring soon reached weaning time. Dad sold them as growers, leaving one to become our next sow. It bore less features of the mother than the father. " It got more blood from her father," said Anding, our caretaker. I named our future sow Turik, meaning multiple spots. We built a pen for Turik to protect her from the sun and rain, and from other animals. Feeding and watering troughs were made for easier work. Twice the local veterinarian came to give Turik immunization.

I miss Takong, I never saw a sow build a nest again. ~

A Boy and a Frog: A Case of Miseducation

Dr Abe V Rotor

   Green pond frog, UPLB Laguna 

A boy was caught by surprise when a frog leaped and landed at his feet. He could have either trampled on the helpless creature or he himself jumped into the water.

As I was by chance a witness to the incident I asked the boy why he was so afraid.

"It’s a harmless little fellow," I said. "Maybe he just wanted to play with you."

"Do you remember the story, The Princess and Frog Prince?" I continued. "The frog was a disguised prince. The spell was broken by the kindness of a princess. And they lived happily ever after."

He was silent. On recovering from fright, he hesitantly asked. “Di ba ang palaka, nakakahawa ng sipon.” (Isn't the frog the cause of colds?)

I was dumbfounded. Then I remembered the advertisement about a liquid decongestant showing a frog tenaciously clinging like phlegm.

Poor boy - another case of miseducation of advertisement. Poor frog - now in the list of endangered species.

But long after I had written this anecdote I pondered  what has a fairy tale to do with correct education on one hand, and conservation of a threatened species on the other. I felt sorry for the innocent victim - and doubted myself a good mentor. ~

La Golondrina, the Grandest Kite of All

To us kids in our time, Amihan is the season of kite flying.  It is a season of games and laughter in the field.

But time has changed. Kite flying has become an endangered art. Kids are more interested with other playthings. 

Dr. Abe V. Rotor

  

      Kites always fascinate me, thanks to Manong Bansiong, nephew of Basang my auntie-yaya.  He made the most beautiful, often the biggest kite in town.  His name was very popular, especially to us kids in our time.  Remote and small a town San Vicente is, we had the reputation in the neighboring towns for our best kites, best pieces of furniture and wooden saints.

 Kite flying winning team, UST with Leo, youngest son of the author (right) as team leader. 

    Manong Bansiong made different kites: sinang gola, agila, kayyang, golondrina  – in the likes of bull, bird with outstretched wings, maiden in colorful, flowing dress, and many other designs.  His kites were known for their strength, stability, beauty, and height in the sky.  In competitions he would always bring home the trophy, so to speak.

      “Can you make me a La Golondrina?” I found myself asking Manong Bansiong one afternoon.

        La Golondrina or the swallow has slender streamlined body, and long pointed wings, which allow great maneuverability and endurance, as well as frequent periods of gliding. Her  body shape allows for very efficient flight.  Her wings have nine primary feathers each, while the tail has 12 feathers and may be deeply forked, somewhat indented, or square-ended. A long tail increases maneuverability, and may also function as adornment.
     
As a child, I love to watch swallows in flight. And there is something special about them  because I discovered their nesting ground in Caniao, the source of  water for our faucet. Caniao is a spring on the edge of Cordillera facing the South China Sea, some 20 kilometers away. The swallows would perch of a nearby tree and one particular bird came close and posed to us picnickers. She seemed unafraid and even sang a beautiful melody. I wanted to get closer to have a good look at her, but on sensing my closeness, she took off into the sky and soared like a kite in the wind. 
   

     Actually La Golondrina is a difficult design of a kite to make. But Manang Basiong was a real expert.  He won’t back out at any kind of kite especially if it is for a kite flying contest. He always wanted his kite to win.

      “When will the contest be?” He asked in our dialect.

      With that statement and a kindly smile I knew Manong Bansiong would make me one. “Yehay!” I could not help keep it a secret, especially to my classmates.  

      The day of the contest came. There were many kites from our  town and nearby towns. Vigan, the capital of the province had the most entries and the biggest kites at that. When I saw kites with designs of castle, airplane, and dragon, my confidence sagged a little. These kites were huge and colorful, and they dominated the sky.  

      Manong Bansiong and I were the next to fly our kite.  La Golondrina indeed was unique. She was not really very big.  I asked my brother Eugene to help me carry her across the field while Manong Bansiong held the string at the other end.

   

“Farther … some more,” he signaled. “Stop.”  He paused and whistled with friendly notes calling for the wind to come.  It is a technique in kite flying.  Release the kite at the moment a strong breeze comes.  We waited for the precious wind.

     Then it came.  It was a gust that came from the North.  It is called Siberian High, the wind that brings in the chills in October, lasting until the end of the Christmas Season.  It is the wind of Amihan, the season we harvest our ricefields, when the grains have turned to gold in the sun.  It is the season farmers build haystacks (mandala) that look like giant mushrooms. But to us kids, Amihan is the season of kite flying.  It is a season of games and laughter in the field.

      “Steady now,” Manong Bansiong shouted, and Eugene and I raised La Golondrina up and waited for the signal.  “Now!”  We tossed her up and there she soared above our heads, above the nearby trees, above the church steeple. Our town mates and my classmates rallied. They followed her ascent, and clapped, coaching her to the top of their voices.  “Up, up. Go up some more! More! More!”  She mingled with the other kites, bowing here and there, and sometimes flying close to the castle or dragon, and to the airplane kite in some kind of courteous greeting.   

     Manong Bansiong let the string glide on his hand.  It made a crispy whistling sound as the kite continued to rise.  Now it was higher than any of the kites.  It appeared as if it were the smallest of them,  and one won’t recognize her if he did not see her first on the ground Beyond lies the blue Cordillera the home where this beautiful bird.  I could see Caniao in the back of my mind.  There in the blue sky she hovered steadily, like the lord of the sky.  I wondered at how she looked at us down below.  I had not flown on an airplane yet.  I just imagined we were also just specks on the ground, and if my T-shirt were not red, she would most likely mistake me for any spectator.    

       Then the unexpected happened.  The string broke! La Golondrina  was adrift.  She was flying free, and she was not coming down.  Instead she went farther up riding on some wind current. Everyone was silent.  All eyes were focused on the ill-fated kite. Soon it was but a dot in the sky.  No one could tell what was going to happen to her. 

      Manong Bansiong rolled the remaining string back into its cage.  “She didn’t get much string.” He muttered.  My first impulse was to run to where she would most likely land.  “No,” he said, catching me on the shoulder, even if most of the children had gone for the chase. 

      I remained dumbfounded, staring agape at the wide, wide sky.  Time stood still. There was a deafening silence. Nothing seemed to move. Not even the kites.

       La Golondrina was swallowed up by a dark cloud and the cloud was heading for the mountains, as it often does, momentarily becoming part of its top like a veil or a blanket. In the Amihan season the cloud is thin and high because the wind is cool and dry. It is also time for birds in the North to go down South, and return in the dry season, but for birds of  La Golondrina’s kind, it is time to go home to nest and rear their young. 

     With that thought, I said, “She’s going home.”  Manong Bansiong nodded in submission to the fate of his masterpiece. Eugene had just come back panting, brushing away weeds and dusts.  He had given up the chase together with our town mates. Everyone talked about how they crossed the fields, climbed over fences, forge streams and even climbed trees to get better view of the route of the lost kite.

 

      No one reached where La Golondrina landed.  

      We soon forgot all about the contest as we sadly prepared to go home. The plaza was empty now. It was already dark.

     That night I dreamt I found La Golondrina in Caniao, hanging on a branch where I once saw her as a bird. How different she was as the once beautiful  La Golondrina.

 Author as kite maker, pupil of Manong Bansiong

       Manong Bansiong did not make kites anymore since then. But because of him I became a kite maker, too

.      

But time has changed. Kite flying has become an endangered art. Kids are more interested with other playthings. They would rather stay indoor in front of the TV and the Computer. And they seem to be more serious in their studies than we were then. They seldom go out to the fields.  Rivers and forests to them are full of danger.  No, their parents won’t allow them to go to these places.   In fact many of them have moved to the city. And flying kites in open spaces, is very dangerous, what if the string touches a live wire!

      It consoles me to see a kite flying around, whether it is made of simple T-frame or plastic. Or one made in China. How different kites are today from the kites we had before - skillfully crafted bamboo frame covered with colorful delicate papel de Japon, and bearing the imprimatur of the expert maker. 

     When I had grown old as Manong Bansiong was then, I made kites for children. Of course, I am not as good as him.  When Leo Carlo, my youngest son, took part in kite flying at the University of Santo Tomas, I helped him re-create La Golondrina. It was turning back the hands of time. He carried her across the football field with Marlo, his brother helping him, and I, at the other end, held the string. We waited for the old friendly wind.

     Then it came, it came all the way from the North, and La Golondrina rode on it, flew above our heads, above the trees, above the grandstand and the chapel and the tall buildings, and up into the blue sky.

      La Golondrina is the grandest kite of all.

x x x

Kite-Flying Free

Kite flying season mural by the author

 Dr. Abe V. Rotor

If freedom were kites flying

And clouds in summer free;

Lilting sounds across the fields,

Rolling on the hills like sea; 

If freedom were the empty fields,

The harvest now stacked asleep,

To wake up little by little

To satiate a craving deep;

If freedom were a wooden bridge

In the idleness of time,

A little bird perched singing

The song of a distant chime;

If freedom were the carefree,

Let the sky clap and the rain to fall;

For summer is for boys designed,

To men they’ll grow after all.

AVR 6-19-08