awww...
Too bad polar bears will soon lose their icy home.Where would they go?
Sunday, March 25, 2007
I've Seen It All
This is from Sheilah's TV ad. (nothing to do with our blog assignment)
Bjork
I've seen it all
I have seen the trees
I have seen the willow leaves dancing in the breeze
Thom:
I've seen a man killed by his best friend
And lives that were over before they were spent
Thom and Bjork:
I've seen what I was and I know what I'll be
I've seen it all there is no more to see
Bjork:
You haven't seen elephants, kings or Peru
Thom:
I'm happy to say I had better to do
Bjork:
What about China? Have you seen the Great Wall?
Thom:
All walls are great if the roof doesn't fall
The man you will marry, the home you will share
Bjork:
To be honest, I really don't care
??
Thom:
You've never been to Niagara Falls?
Bjork:
I have seen water
It's water, that's all
Thom:
The Eiffel Tower
And the Empire State
Bjork:
What else was a sigh
and what ails the state
Thom:
Your grandson's hand
As he plays with your hair
Bjork:
To be honest, I really don't care
Thom and Bjork:
I've seen it all
I've seen the dark
I've seen the brightness in one little spark
I've seen what I choose and I've seen what I need
And that is enough
To want more would be greed
I've seen what I was and I know what I'll be
I've seen it all there is no more to see
Thom:
You've seen it all and all you have seen
You can always review on your own little screen
The light and the dark the big and the small
Just keep in mind you need no more at all
Thom and Bjork:
You've seen what you were and know what you'll be
You've seen it all there is no more to see
Friday, March 23, 2007
The Concentration Camp
It was a Sabbath day. I awake into consciousness probably around 8AM. I didn’t really know or care. I was resting. I was half asleep thinking, believing that there’s nothing to rush, no deadlines, no meetings and no classes. You get the picture – it was a sweet Sunday morning. Then I heard it. At first I thought the neighbors were up early and ready to party with the Pussy Cat Dolls and Ciara. But then a jingle was next in the play list. It’s the one you hear when you’re in the blue-and-white-department store: “…HERE AT SM, WE’VE GOT IT ALL FOR YOU!”
This is what I wake up to every Sunday morning. A hypnotic relay of dance music that cycles in the atmosphere even before the mall opens and stops only when the lights are out. It’s the new “get ‘em while they’re dreaming” marketing strategy of SM Southmall. Even before people start thinking about going to church the SM jingle’s already nailed in their head. It’s as if playing the songs inside the mall wasn’t enough. They had to set-up pillars of speakers at the entrance purposely facing the quite villages of Las Piñas. People walking through the main entrance are practically blown off by the sound waves.
Gone are the days when we woke up at the sound of church bells calling people into service, or put some of us into deeper sleep. Now the BF Home Owners are awakened by the tormenting chant of Henry C’s medley calling them to spend their money. What troubles me is that SM did not start this morning get-your-body-moving craze. Some of our neighbors actually enjoy it. Some of us like to wake up in the morning, turn the radio on and pump up the volume in “WWR 101.9”. But I don’t enjoy hearing “For Life,” “Alam mo na yan” or “Kailangan pa bang i-memorize yan?” at the break of dawn. I’m sure I don’t feel like bumpin’ and grindin’ and singing Celine Dion’s “I’ll be waiting for you…” ballad before breakfast. Last year it was the kindergarten “spaghetti” and “basketball” jingles from the big-boob girl groups that drove my family mad. Sometimes its Mariah Carey singing in her dolphin pitches. No wonder a lot of Filipino children have speech defects.
Every day we are bombarded with information, stress and challenged by the insanity of pop culture. We are living in a concentration camp environment where everything we do, buy, and even how we act is directed if not influenced by the media. Whether we like it or not it sinks into our subconscious. The people behind all these things know how to use sublime temptation. They know how to get into our heads without us even knowing it. There is no escaping it but with a few moments between the time we open our eyes and the time the caffeine reaches our blood stream. It is what we have before we are flooded with all the things we need to do and finish. It is the time our mind is at peace, 100% percent receptive, from a good night’s sleep, that is. Let us use that time in peace.
COMMENT
This is supposed to be related to noise pollution. I hope the readers see the connection.
I Won’t Even Dare To.
It was October of 2006. I remember the month because the passenger sitting in front of me was eating lazones. We were inside a jeepney stationed at the Alabang Market, when he started peeling his fruits. After finishing on one, he casually tossed the skin outside the vehicle.
The jeepney started moving and I furiously watched the passenger eat his lanzones one by one and throw skins outside the road. Peel, eat, and throw, the cycle went on until he finished his bunch. He was like Hansel leaving bread crumbs behind to create a pathway back home.
Littering is never a normal activity to me. I don’t get used to seeing people flip away scraps of garbage as if it were a natural thing to do. I am appalled every time I find someone doing this outrageous act. What is it with people and littering? What is the psychology behind the act of intentionally throwing waste outside a garbage can? Is it a form of rebellion? Is it an outlet of pent up emotion and frustration towards life or nature? What’s with Rommel that he flipped his C2 bottle out on the open field? Why can’t call center smokers throw their cigarette butts in a trash can?
Apparently it is a Filipino mind set, especially those in the provinces, that condones littering in the reason that what comes out of earth, should return to earth. What the earth produces can be destroyed also by the earth. So anybody can toss whatever wherever without guilt. Take note that this argument covers only biodegradable materials and decomposition only works if the material is thrown in a healthy soil.
Such a mind set is no longer fits the ways of our time. Our civilization has developed chemically processed materials with complex compositions. The byproducts of our industrialization are seldom biodegradable and most of the time toxic and hazardous to animal health. When was the last time you held a 100% biodegradable material? When was the last time you walked on fresh soil? Fine, lanzones skin is purely natural, but you’re throwing it on cemented road. What are the chances of it finding its way to soil?
The progress of technology is alongside with the progress of our culture and one of their products is the trash can. It’s the place where we put materials we no longer need. Things deemed to be ‘garbage’. The act of throwing inside a trash can is part of the garbage disposal system humans have invented so that we won’t be like animals recklessly and unknowingly scattering our surroundings.
I have this new project (sana matuloy :D) called “Handa Ka Na Ba Maging Tao?” It’s an exhibition of photographs capturing everyday human beings doing things you thought humans would never dare do in the 21st century. Things like sticking gum on the wall and underneath chairs, vandalizing walls with lewd images of the human reproductive system, and the most common would be littering plastic.
What has become of our society? Have we progressed or regressed? The actions we dare do will be the defining factor of our future.
COMMENT:
The scope of my piece broadened as it developed. I began inserting points coming from different angles that I wasn’t able to achieve total coherence of thought. If I would rewrite this, I would probably come up with two essays. It seems that I have produced a Venn diagram of ideas and reflections. It was fun writing it though.
The jeepney started moving and I furiously watched the passenger eat his lanzones one by one and throw skins outside the road. Peel, eat, and throw, the cycle went on until he finished his bunch. He was like Hansel leaving bread crumbs behind to create a pathway back home.
Littering is never a normal activity to me. I don’t get used to seeing people flip away scraps of garbage as if it were a natural thing to do. I am appalled every time I find someone doing this outrageous act. What is it with people and littering? What is the psychology behind the act of intentionally throwing waste outside a garbage can? Is it a form of rebellion? Is it an outlet of pent up emotion and frustration towards life or nature? What’s with Rommel that he flipped his C2 bottle out on the open field? Why can’t call center smokers throw their cigarette butts in a trash can?Apparently it is a Filipino mind set, especially those in the provinces, that condones littering in the reason that what comes out of earth, should return to earth. What the earth produces can be destroyed also by the earth. So anybody can toss whatever wherever without guilt. Take note that this argument covers only biodegradable materials and decomposition only works if the material is thrown in a healthy soil.
Such a mind set is no longer fits the ways of our time. Our civilization has developed chemically processed materials with complex compositions. The byproducts of our industrialization are seldom biodegradable and most of the time toxic and hazardous to animal health. When was the last time you held a 100% biodegradable material? When was the last time you walked on fresh soil? Fine, lanzones skin is purely natural, but you’re throwing it on cemented road. What are the chances of it finding its way to soil?
The progress of technology is alongside with the progress of our culture and one of their products is the trash can. It’s the place where we put materials we no longer need. Things deemed to be ‘garbage’. The act of throwing inside a trash can is part of the garbage disposal system humans have invented so that we won’t be like animals recklessly and unknowingly scattering our surroundings.
I have this new project (sana matuloy :D) called “Handa Ka Na Ba Maging Tao?” It’s an exhibition of photographs capturing everyday human beings doing things you thought humans would never dare do in the 21st century. Things like sticking gum on the wall and underneath chairs, vandalizing walls with lewd images of the human reproductive system, and the most common would be littering plastic.
What has become of our society? Have we progressed or regressed? The actions we dare do will be the defining factor of our future.
COMMENT:
The scope of my piece broadened as it developed. I began inserting points coming from different angles that I wasn’t able to achieve total coherence of thought. If I would rewrite this, I would probably come up with two essays. It seems that I have produced a Venn diagram of ideas and reflections. It was fun writing it though.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
A Call to Go Veggie
Beef in mushroom sauce, BigMac hamburgers, beef steak, beefsilog, bulalo especial - food that now must be banned from our dining tables, that is, if you’re an activist for nature. Scientists have narrowed down into three C’s nature’s most deadly enemies: chainsaws, combustion and cattle, being the main contributor. But how does a black and white spotted mammal moo nature to destruction? It doesn’t, but our appetite can.
Human consumption of meat has risen to levels that demand more cattle butchering and slaughtering. To maintain the population of cattle needed to feed the flesh-hungry masses, we pamper the steak animals with lush green fields to roam in. I am not aware of any activities involving genetically produced cattle like the rumored KFC secret. So unless we are artificially producing fat headless cattle meat, we beef-up the beef the old fashion way. The price: forest land area.
Hectares of high rise trees are converted to flat grass lands for cattle frolicking. A habitat of many species is easily converted into a playground of one. It is biodiversity sacrificed for human carnality. The funny thing is, according to dentists our teeth are not of a carnivore. Doctors say that our intestines have a difficult time digesting meat and that meat eating is one of the causes of colon cancer. So why not go veggie?
Human consumption of meat has risen to levels that demand more cattle butchering and slaughtering. To maintain the population of cattle needed to feed the flesh-hungry masses, we pamper the steak animals with lush green fields to roam in. I am not aware of any activities involving genetically produced cattle like the rumored KFC secret. So unless we are artificially producing fat headless cattle meat, we beef-up the beef the old fashion way. The price: forest land area.
Hectares of high rise trees are converted to flat grass lands for cattle frolicking. A habitat of many species is easily converted into a playground of one. It is biodiversity sacrificed for human carnality. The funny thing is, according to dentists our teeth are not of a carnivore. Doctors say that our intestines have a difficult time digesting meat and that meat eating is one of the causes of colon cancer. So why not go veggie?
Refuse to use. Promote reuse
I remember I was in my third year high school chemistry class when my teacher asked “Can we live without plastic?” I automatically and radically raised my hand and voiced out a ‘yes’. She looked at me with objection and defended that we couldn’t. She began speaking about the wonders of chemistry and how mixing this compound with this compound can produce polysaccharides for plastic. A week ago, I read an article in Inquirer’s Young Blood column entitled “Refuse to Reuse”. It was written by an activist for nature, who was encouraging people stop using plastic. HA!
Plastic has indeed invaded our daily activities. From umbrellas, to shopping bags to tumblers to food packaging, there is never a day when we our hands don’t touch plastic. In correlation to this fact, plastic makes-up one-third of our daily garbage. Furthermore, plastic is a main pollutant (picture right now a pawikan choking with a McDonald’s plastic bag stuck on its throat). So plastic, as much as it has been part of our life, also has found its place in the ecosystem. The ecosystem has no problem with accepting new members but plastic doesn’t have a cycle. Every member of the ecosystem is part of a particular cycle but plastic is non-biodegradable; it doesn’t want to cease to exist. Unless to my high school teacher (and all the other plastic aficionados) is offering her backyard as a plastic dumpsite, we need to stop using plastic.
Here are the suggested actions from the article plus some from me:
Plastic has indeed invaded our daily activities. From umbrellas, to shopping bags to tumblers to food packaging, there is never a day when we our hands don’t touch plastic. In correlation to this fact, plastic makes-up one-third of our daily garbage. Furthermore, plastic is a main pollutant (picture right now a pawikan choking with a McDonald’s plastic bag stuck on its throat). So plastic, as much as it has been part of our life, also has found its place in the ecosystem. The ecosystem has no problem with accepting new members but plastic doesn’t have a cycle. Every member of the ecosystem is part of a particular cycle but plastic is non-biodegradable; it doesn’t want to cease to exist. Unless to my high school teacher (and all the other plastic aficionados) is offering her backyard as a plastic dumpsite, we need to stop using plastic.
Here are the suggested actions from the article plus some from me:
- Refuse to accept plastic bags from supermarkets especially if the items you bought can be stored in your bag or held by your hand. You can bring your own plastic bag, preferably a bag made from other materials.
- When buying items from stores like 7-11 and bookstores, refuse the plastic bag. It’s really not necessary most of the time.
- Refuse to use straw. You want me to show you how it feels to have a straw shoved down your throat? A lot of animals know.
- If you can’t refuse to use plastic, recycle.
- For businessmen, avoid plastic as food packages.
- Can I ask you to stop buying food found inside a plastic? I didn’t think so.
Sunday, March 11, 2007
The Sixth Extinction
"We can continue on the path towards our own extinction,
or we can modify our behavior…"
The Sixth Extinction
by Niles Eldredge
PROLOGUE:
Some 100,000 years ago, the earth gave birth to a new specie in Africa, labeled by our scientists as the “homo sapiens”. A few years later, they began migrating out of their place of origin. Since then, they have encountered other species of animals, which they found to be less intelligent than them. Because of this advantage, the new breed of animals easily gained their position on the top of the food chain beating the rest in hunting and killing.
The homo sapiens had great skill for they easily butchered mammoths, mastodons, and elephant birds into extinction. They beat the Neanderthal men, who were earlier versions of the homo sapiens specie, in the ecological competition and sent them into hiding. All animals unprepared of their presence were easily sent to oblivion, while others learned to adapt and survived the massacre. Humans have made themselves known to the plant and animal kingdom.
This animal, who walks on two feet, found himself to be creative and innovative. He later invented the process of agriculture to benefit no other than himself. He decided what plants were considered “useful” and what plants where considered a “weed”. He also decided what animals were “helpful” and what were “pests”. This paradigm of thinking, of deciding what was useful and what was not, was a decision to be above the rules of ecology, to stay outside the ecosystem. Humans have realized their power over nature.
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There earth has actually gone through five global biotic turnovers. These turnovers involve one of the following: drastic climate and global temperature changes, extinction and evolution of existing species, birth of new species, tectonic movement and volcanic mayhem. It’s as if the earth continuously renews and evolves itself. This fact is consistent with the premise that nature is, indeed, in a flux of constant change and movement. And the pressing matter is the change the earth is heading towards in 10 to 20 years.
In 1993 Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson discovered that the earth has been loosing three species every hour. That is 30,000 different kinds of species every year. The mass extinction heightened as industrialization and human population continued to increase. Now, because of climate and temperature changes, the extinction has reached an alarming level as it began affecting animals in the upper levels of the food chain. This only means that the earth’s biodiversity is under threat. Without biodiversity, the ecosystem is unstable, vulnerable to a collapse.
Scientists are pointing the fact that we are heading towards another global turnover. This “change” is said to exceed the magnitude of events of its predecessors. They also say that it is the first time in the earth’s life history that a global turnover will be caused by a single animal specie.
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Sources:
THE SIXTH GREAT EXTINCTION: A Status Report
http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/Update35.htm
Janet Larsen
The Sixth Extinction
http://www.actionbioscience.org/newfrontiers/eldredge2.html
By Niles Eldredge