Real Sustainability

Last sunday, the family visited the base of Ministries without Borders in Gen. Trias, Cavite. This is a faith based NGO doing educational and health care work in areas of the Philippines. They have a child care program covering abandoned child care and child nutrition. They also have maternity care and work with indigenous communities in Mindoro and Mindanao.

What impressed me this this group was that while they are engaged in the social aspect of development, they are heavily environmental. The buildings in their facility had the proper orientation which allowed for daylighting without heat coming in. They had high ceilings which also alleviated heat. It was surprising to be cool in a building in the middle of rice fields without airconditioning.

Another thing that impressed me was that they segregate. They had big bins for recyclables (tins, bottles). I felt ashamed because I myself don't do it! I agree that this is the right thing to do but I never saw this done in simplicity and dedication as these folks do. They also mentioned that social benefit in that their local workers could get extra money when they sold the recyclables to junk shops.

I guess, there really is something when Christians take something to heart and do it. There is definitely something transformational when a cause is adapted into Christian work ethic which cannot be seen in secular organizations. More power to Ministries without Borders!

A lament for Boracay

My family recently went to Boracay for vacation. While Boracay certainly hasn't lost its charm, it is disheartening that its pristine state has been lost. When we went to this place in the '80s, it had the Gilligan's Island feel to it. There were no roads. You can buy a fisherman's catch of squid for PHP14. THERE WAS NO ELECTRICITY!

Today, a road runs through the middle of the island. Prices higher. There's even a mall! What grieves me is that progress on the island is irresponsible. We were making sand castles in Station 1 (high end area of the island) and found what a appeared to be sewage leachate. While the most station 1 resorts are responsible some just don't connect to the sewage system. In the middle of the island you also found "lakes" of stagnant run-off water. As stated in a movie my kids watch "take care of our island and it will take care of us". This appears to be an example of how not to do it.

On May 2006, Pres Arroyo declared Boracay as public land. Recently the Supreme Court upheld her right to do this. WOW! I guess when you are in power you can do what you want. Don't know what the implacation would be to titled properties on the island. The largest land holding was a sugar estate owned by Lola Soping Tirol. My grand father, Josefino Tirol, titled the land for her. It has since then been passed on to descendants, sold to relatives and other parties. This property wasn't of much value until the 80's when European backpackers discovered it. It would be quite frustrating that something that has been in your family for generations is suddenly taken away. But why should I complain, our goverment did the same thing to the Muslims. It has also done the same to rice lands in its ever failing land reform schemes.

I am quite warry of our government suddenly declaring lands alienable and disposable. If the government claims lands really for the redevelopment of pristine forests then I'm all for it.But if our properties are taken over by other private entities, then is another proof that we are in an Oligarchic society. Looking at 3rd Republic, the Marcos Era and the current Republic, no socialist venture of the government ever succeeded. The 3rd republic homestead project led to the Mindanao rebellion. Masagana 99, CARP and other incarnations of land reform led to the massive conversion of farms to residential land. In a true democracy, the Goverment's role is to regulate and provide incentives. If it wants to reforest Boracay, then it should provide the regulations and incentives for people to do so.

It is safe to say our country has never been free. We have always been either ruled by foreign powers or by the interests of specific parties. When will our society be founded on justice, fairness and equality. Our government probably the most un-Filipino institution of all. It denies our God given values of Damayan, Bayanihan and Palabra de Honor. At the end of the day, the poor remains poor and the rich become richer in the guise of helping the poor.

Boracay is threatened by those within who don't care about her health as an island and by external forces who wan't to take her away in the guise of being concerned for her health.

I'd like to end this blog with a very short story.

There once was a noble princess who lived in the south seas. She was descended from a noble line of malay datus. She belonged to the race that brought forth the civilization and rule of law in our islands. At the right age, she was wed to a noble king from Aklan. They had children and a wonderful kingdom. Their fame spread across the seas and nobles and princes from other lands came to visit them. The old king died and our queen, who was much younger, was left with her children. The children, however, lacked the nobility of their parents. The lived drunken lives. They allowed rough men into their domain. Many times did their mother get raped by these brutes. From afar, a cunning king saw what was happening. He wanted the beautiful kingdom now in distress. His plan was to propose a treaty of protection but in reality he wanted to exploit the kingdom and its queen all from himself. No one has heard of the kingdom since his proposal was accepted by the queen.

This will be Boracay's fate if we let it.

Visual Talk

If you haven't tried this, now is your chance

Book Review: Discipling Nations by Darrow Miller

I read Darrow Miller's book, Discipling Nations yesterday. I found it engaging that I finished it in about 3 hours ( thanks to Tony Buzan's speed reading). In this work, Miller states that developmental strategies are based on worldviews taken on by agencies. The book clearly compares between the materialistic view of the secular west, the animistic view of the mystical east and the theistic view of the Christians. An stirring example was when a Christian aid worker encountered a dying baby in Africa. The worker took the baby but the mother wanted it to die. The worker had the view that God loves this little child. The mother thought that it was the will of the spirits that he would die. The book also highlights the Malthusian view on population and how it differs with Biblical truth.

As I was reading, I was reflecting on my work as an advocate for sustainable living. I used to swallow American Evangelical thought, hook, line and sinker. It was when I was made aware of the Climate Crisis that I began to question this world view. The Bible says we ought to be like the Bereans and test what we hear. We are also told that we shall know them by their fruits. It is against my conscience to ignore the Climate phenomenon, demonstrated by numerical models, empirical observations and anecdotal experiences of specific individuals. It is against my conscience to ignore a call to live a simple, consciencious, content lifestyle and reject a lifestyle of consumerism, indulgence and hedonism. It is against my conscience to ignore the families affected in Bicol and Panay because of extreme weather.

Miller drives the point that a key difference between theism and materialism is that the former assumes an open resource system while the later a closed one. This just means one considers unlimited resources (open) the other having a "when its gone, its gone mentality" (closed). As a physicist, I'd say the law of conservation of matter remains but what can change is our attitude about it. An open system mentality would think " Land is running out but we can grow food in the ocean or we can use hydroponics" . A closed system mentality thinks "Land is running out lets reduce the number of people". While I'm for responsible parenthood, a mind set like this may lead you away from a culture of life. An open system encourages the evolution of technology to meet a growing population and ensure harmony with the planet.

The Bible says a righteous man avoids all extremes. A lot of folks think its a choice between Liberal or Conservative. Or Saducee or Pharisee. I chose neither...I follow JESUS!

Reforestation Efforts of Napocor

Our whole family went to Caliraya,Laguna today to plant trees in denuded portions of the Napocor's (National Power Corp of the Philippines) Watershed. Caliraya is a man-made lake, home to about 600MW of hydro-electric power. A couple of decades ago, Napocor started selling lands in the lake area which have become the location of popular resorts in this locale. It was a fresh look at Caliraya, coming here not to enjoy ourselves but to do our part in fulfilling the Edenic mandate. With about 600 volunteers, we were able to plant 7000 trees in about 2 hours. WOW!!! Can't wait to see happens when the other planting sessions in October and Novemer are done.

Napocor, has been very active in conserving watersheds in their areas because of their direct relationship to hydro power output. In Angat dam (Norzagaray, Bulacan), we saw Napocor's well maintained secondary growth forest, having an 84% cover and sightings of the Philippine Eagle. This is a stark and ironic contrast to the neighboring Ipo dam managed by the DENR (Dept of Natural Resources) and the MWSS (Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System). The Angat watershed was the source of all the seedlings we used in today's session. A couple of months back, our whole family helped out in preparing seedlings by bagging saplings in Angat. There was some fulfilment to see our seedlings finally put to the ground.

It is very important that each one of us realize the importance of the water cycle. Only ~2% of the world's water supply is potable and accessible. The advent of climate change, makes forests vulnerable to fires and heat damage. If the forests die, the ability of watersheds to collect and retain water will be destroyed. This means water will be come more inaccessible, leading to problems such as rice production drops and digestive tract diseases. (If you live in Paranaque or Las Pinas, you may have an idea of what this means.) It is therefore our responsibility to ensure that unnecessary forest damage is avoided.

To end today's blog, I would like to congratulate Noel Umali, Head of Napocor's Watershed Mgmt group, for consistently doing a great job in maintaining Napocor's forests. I would aslo congratulate Liesl Lim and Garrie David, of the Presidential Task Force on Climate Change (PTFCC), for the successful tree planting activity they organized today. Thanks guys!!!

If anyone wants to join the next tree planting activies on October 11 and November 8, send a mail to ptfcc.mail@gmail.com to express your interest.

The Sustainability of Ubuntu

I recently converted by laptop from an XP machine to one double booting with Ubuntu (Linux). I initially intended to make Ubuntu my back-up OS in case I had problems with XP. When I finally got to boot and install, I fell in love with look. I had the "hardy heron" desktop and the nice font to match it. As I was setting it up (i.e. getting my wireless card to work,etc.) I came across a video file of Nelson Mandela talking about the essence of Ubuntu.

What is Ubuntu anyway? This is a Zulu word meaning "a person is a person through other people" It involves an open community sharing resources. When asked about ubuntu, Mandela says for him, it is about people entertaining passing travellers even if they don't ask for it. It is the value of community and sharing. It is so much close to our Filipino concept of Bayanihan, where you care for others in your community. It somehow also reflects, the sense of community of heartland America.

It is quite ironic that modern software technology could be used to advocate a traditional human value. Ubuntu Linux claims it is "Linux for humans". Why? Because somehow it goes against the dehumanization of our man resulting from industrialization and urbanization. Ubuntu also makes software accessible. I see it as an enabling tool for the sustainable development of indigenous people. Where they can keep their culture yet be in touch with the world. With wider access of software, we can also reduce the need for transportation and be more efficient in our fossil fuel use.

Using open source software, catalyzes development, that is economically, socially and ecologically balanced.

Mandela talking about ubuntu

The Role of IT in Climate Change

Apart from all the sophisticated modeling of the climate, IT plays a key role in mitigating the crisis. I was talking today to a friend about his connectivity problems. He was still using dial up because he could'nt get cable internet or DSL. I suggested that he use get a USB cable for this phone and get an Edge or GPRS connection. (With your SMART Buddy prepaid phone, you can get a connection for PHP10/ 30mins. ) Later that day, I asked him if all the remote mission stations he was serving had cell phones. When he said yes, I said that we can connect them to the Web. I also realised that my work in participative energy planning could be made more efficient with collaborative technologies like gtalk or skype.

The importance of collaborative technologies is the possibility of avoiding travel, thus reducing cost and carbon of any endeavor. At Intel, we greatly reduced cost by having frequent teleconferences supported by filesharing and chatting. We even had worldwide training sessions using netmeeting. At Sunpower, we aslo used video conferencing and skype. Using these technologies we could pass files if the connection bandwidth permitted. Otherwise, we could post files on web locations for retrieval by anyone in the group interested.

With the emergence of the open source movement more technology options are accessible to developing countries. We improve the lives of the rural folk by linking them to the world and by reducing their need to travel. We can also equip them with real time tools for adaptation and emergency response. IT is indeed a comprehensive strategy for mitigating and adapting to climate change.