The scent of coconuts

One should indulge in life’s little pleasures even while the world goes berserk and the ugly side of politics is constantly spoiling the landscape of our lives. Food is comfort and we look to so-called comfort food, the food that brings back pleasant memories and feelings, when things go awry.

It was good to savor the flavors and scents of the food of Bicolandia last Monday at the EDSA Shangri-la where the two-week (Oct. 23 to Nov. 3) Gayon Food Feast is now going on. This is being co-promoted by the Department of Tourism’s Bicol Regional Division under Maria O. Ravanilla.

Gayon is short for magayon (Bicol for beautiful) and where the name of the awesome Mayon Volcano of Albay is supposed to have come from. Extend the suffix and you have magayunon or very beautiful; magayunonon means very, very beautiful. You could extend the suffix some more to push the meaning to the extreme.

My verdict? The food was not just masiram (delicious), it was masiramon (really delicious). I say this not because my cousin Didette N. Peralta (who co-owns and runs Legazpi City’s Small Talk Café) was one of the guest cooks but because the flavors did Daragang Magayon (the maiden in Bicol legend) proud. And I judged the spread as it was—somewhat fusion cuisine--not as the home cooked, slow-food fare that purists might pine for. There was pasta pinangat, for example, and Bicol express served on tomato halves. Quite neo-, those. But the real pinangat was there in its coconut-y glory.



I am only half-Bicolana (and half Ilongga) so my judgment would not be that of a true-blue Bicolana. Special guest Honesto General, author of “Coconut Cookery” and an excellent cook, would make a better judgment. I only enjoyed what I ate.

Albay congressman Edcel Lagman who delivered the post-prandial speech had fire in his mouth while speaking about the triumvirate of Bicol cuisine—sili (hot pepper), pili and coconut. These, I suspect, are what bring out the oragon (that X factor) in Bicolanos. But more than the other two, I think it is the coconut that really defines Bicol cuisine. Pili nut sweets (for desert) could be absent, and the sili’s fire could be toned down, but the coconut has to be there in the right amount.

Speaking of coconuts, a new book on the wonder tree of all time was recently launched. “Coconut: The Philippines’ Money Tree” by Dr. Renato M. Labadan tells all there is to know—about the coconut. Root, fruit, flower, palm, juice, oil, trunk, husk, shell—and how Filipinos could squeeze and use all of its parts in order to earn from this tree of trees.

Last year, I wrote about Dr. Conrado Dayrit, his coco-discoveries and his book “The Truth About Coconut Oil: The Drugstore in a Bottle”. The book focused on virgin coconut oil (VCO) which is claiming its rightful place as food ingredient and medicine after the decades of badmouthing and blacklisting done by the West in order to promote its own oils.

Labadan’s coffeetable-type book weighs more than two kilos (the case included), or the weight of about two coconuts. It didn’t have to be this heavy and this big, if you ask me. It contains a lot of photographs and information on how the coconut could work wonders for this country and its people. It’s easy to read but, as I said, too heavy to hold on one’s lap.

Here’s peek. Labadan traces the original home of the coconut and then concludes that the weight of evidence points to Southeast Asia. He then goes on to the beginning of the development of a viable industry during the Spanish colonial times.

And what is the original coconut? Alas, no one coconut can claim “genetical purity” because of cross-pollination and hybridization. Labadan does classify the many different types now in existence, the makapuno included.

While many are going loco over coco virgin oil or VCO as food and medicine, little is known about coconut nectar. Labadan introduces the recently discovered uses of this sap. No, it is not the coconut water from the fruit. Coconut nectar is the concentrated sap from the inflorescence or the coconut “flower”. I know the tuba comes from this inflorescence, but the nectar that Labadan talks about is a discovery of Dr. Gerino Macias who invented an apparatus similar to that of a honeybee that processes honey. The resulting viscose coconut nectar is touted to be some kind of wonder food and cure-all too, like the VCO.

The fruit is, of course, the crowning glory of this money tree. The meat or the “white solid endosperm” of the fruit is the part that is most used as food. (The ubod, the nectar and the tuba come from other parts.) By itself, this edible part of the fruit can build an industry, as in the case of VCO, cooking oil, copra, nata de coco, and now, coco-diesel for vehicles.

Now fiber nets from the husk are the rage especially for environmental purposes, that is, to prevent erosion. Recently Justino Arboleda won the BBC’s World Challenge prize and the Global 100 Eco-Tech Award for his coconet.

Labadan does not forget to take up the controversial, coco-levy funds collected in billions from poor coconut farmers during the Marcos regime that, until now, has not been fully accounted for.

There’s more to this book than just the tree, its fruit and its many parts. A whole chapter is devoted to the coconut farmer and another chapter on the coconut industry and the major players. And more importantly how they coconut industry could be improved.

Labadan (rmlabadan@yahoo.com) is an agriculturist. He finished at the University of the Philippines and Cornell University in the US. This 1970 TOYM awardee also has a master’s degree in business administration from the Ateneo University.

Yunus: ‘Poor women are good credit risk’

The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation (RMAF) is on Cloud 9 because 1984 Awardee for Community Leadership, Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh, is this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner. The RMAF was 22 years ahead of the Nobel in recognizing Yunus’ work among the poor.

The Dalai Lama received his RM Award (Asia’s Nobel, so-called) in 1959, 30 years before his Nobel in 1989. Mother Teresa got her RM Award in 1962, 17 years earlier than her Nobel.

This means that Asia, the RMAF of the Philippines in particular, is not behind, it is in fact way ahead, in recognizing its own home-grown heroes and, yes, long before these persons have become familiar names in the world.

Yunus was only 44 when he received the RM Award in 1984, one of the youngest in RMAF’s roster of laureates. Now there is an RM award for Emergent Leadership for those below or on the threshold of 40. Yunus was quite surprised that he was chosen at that time because Grameen banking (microfinance) for the poor was not yet a byword. This is what Yunus said in 1984:

“I still cannot make out how the trustees of this prestigious foundation could notice a small effort such as ours, which has reached only some 100,000 in a population of more than 90 million. (As of July 2006, the population is 147.3 million - Inquirer Research Dept.) I can only admire the foundation for taking a big risk in choosing me…”



Because of the Nobel Peace Prize, Yunus will surely be quoted very often these days, listened to, queried. His words and work will be dissected.

Let’s listen some more to what this economist, said in 1984. Do we recognize a glimmer of the grand possibilities?

“As a student of social science, I could not feel comfortable with what I learned. When it came to applying this knowledge in solving real problems, it appeared toothless. I continued to get a feeling that the knowledge that we present in the discipline of social science is replete with pretensions and make-believe stories…

“Social scientists enjoy being up above in the sky and having a panoramic bird’s-eye view over a wide horizon…The view from the sky without the supportive close-up view from the ground merely encourages you to take recourse to daydreaming.

“Not all people have access to a bird’s-eye view. Poor people don’t. They are too busy eking out a survival for themselves with their worm’s-eye view…Poverty can be better understood if we look at it from the ground level at a very close range. Then, instead of generating billions of words about it, we can find ways to cope with it.

“Poverty is not caused by a person’s unwillingness to work hard or lack of skill. As a matter of fact, a poor person may work very hard—even harder than others—and he has more skill and time than he can use. He languishes in poverty because he does not receive the full worth of his work. Under the existing social and economic institutional arrangements, someone else always comes in between and skims off the income that was due to him. The existing economic machinery is designed in such a way that it allows this process of grabbing to continue and gather strength every day, so that the earnings of others can make a handful of people richer and turn a large number of people into paupers.

“A poor person cannot arrange a larger share or return for his work because his economic base is paper-thin. If he can gradually build up an asset-base, he can command a better share. Land to the landless will help build up this base. There are other forms of assets that will improve his economic situation. Credit, for example; it is a liquid asset. The recipient of credit can decide which particular tangible form he will convert this asset into…With financial resources at his disposal, an individual is free to build his own fate with his own labor. Nothing can match the spirit of a free human being…

“Removal of poverty must be a continuing process of creation of assets by the poor at a steady rate. Poor people know what they must do to get out of the rut. But the people who make decisions refuse to put faith in their ability…”

For more on Asia’s greats like Yunus, read RMAF’s series of books on the RM awardees, “Great Men and Women of Asia”. I found writing some of the stories in the books very inspiring because many of these great men and women were just like you and me when they set off.

I had the chance of listening to Yunus when he was here in 2001 to address “Grameen replicators”. He mentioned then that the RMAF award helped boost the microfinance movement that he started in the 1970s in a small village in Bangladesh through small loans to the poor, especially women. The Grameen way has since taken root in many parts of the world.

When asked why Grameen has a bias for women, Yunus replied: “Because women are good people. Poor women are a good credit risk, even in the most difficult economic times. They are the best judge of their own situation and they know best how to use credit when it is available, especially when supervised and encouraged by their peers. Small business loans pave the way to breaking their poverty cycle. In just one program operating in Southern Luzon, over 1,000 women and their families crossed the poverty line between 1997 and 2000.”

The Grameen-style microfinance movement is growing in the Philippines. In 2001 repayment rate was at 93 percent. Interested in mocrofinancing? Contact Philnet at philnet@mozcom.com.

Microfinance is not in the curriculum of business schools. Maybe it is learned first and best in the school of the heart. And on the ground, like Yunus did.

Sikat

The Catholic Church in the Philippines sets aside the second Sunday of October as Indigenous People’s Sunday and October might as well IP month.

An NGO that has been working for almost 10 years for the education of IPs is Sikat or Schools of Indigenous Knowledge and Tradition or Silungan ng Katututbong Kaalaman at Tradisyon. The Filipino word sikat means shine and when the accent is placed on the second syllable, it means celebrity, a person of note and achievement. Sikat is a non-church, non-profit, non-stock movement that aims to make the IPs find their rightful place, their place of pride, under the sun through education. Not just any education but an education that is attuned to the IP’s way of life—their culture, language, livelihood, habitat, and everything that defines them. This means developing a “culturally responsive education for indigenous peoples”.

Behind Sikat and supporting it every step of the way is the Asian Council for People’s Culture (ACPC).

In December 1997, a group of people from various regions and faiths gathered for the first National Trainers’ Training in order to share and build visions for a national network of cultural workers and community educators. That meeting gave birth to Sikat and the network of schools.

Al Santos, Sikat executive director and founding member says: “In establishing community-owned culturally responsive schools, we create linking pathways for the promotion of indigenous education among various tribes across the country.”



Community-owned means the people build the schools with their hands, run them, staff them and, most of all, help in making a curriculum that is suited for the IP children. This does not mean isolating themselves or setting themselves apart, this means strengthening their children’s rootedness so that they do not become alienated from their origins. Then they could face the rest of the world with pride—pride in their ancestry and everything that nurtured them—even sharing indigenous knowledge and wisdom that many of them had been ashamed of or wished to forget.

There are now dozens of Sikat schools all over the country. These are mostly in the primary level. While there are now schools in the tertiary level (not Sikat’s) that offer specialized curricula for IPs and those planning to work among IPs, there is no way for an interested IP to get to this level without going through the primary level.

But how could IP communities have primary schools in the highlands if there are no trained teachers? Who is the teacher who will walk through forests primeval and across mountains to get to a remote place on earth? Is it worth it? You bet it is, or must be, for I have met teachers who’ve done this. But they are few. And how long could they last?

One of the solutions to the dearth of teachers is to get trainable ones from the communities themselves. They need not be college degree holders or board passers. Training such teachers is what Sikat has done successfully. Why wait forever for someone with a teacher’s diploma to fall from the sky? The children are growing up fast and can’t remain ignorant and illiterate forever.

In Sikat schools the children learn not only the three Rs but also about themselves. The Sikat school is a strong pillar for empowerment. It transmits knowledge crucial to the survival of the tribes. It encourages students to learn their own languages and protects their identity and rights as IPs. It sustains community cycles and events. In others words, the Sikat school is woven into the cultural fabric of the IP community.

Making this work is not an easy task. It involves tri-partite efforts and involvement of the IP community, the NGO and the local government. Local government units (LGUs) have been responsive, Santos says, and why not, it is their constituencies that would benefit from this type of innovative education. Needless to say, they also need to put in local funds to make Sikat happen.

Now the problematic part. While Sikat education could well serve the learning needs of the IPs up to a certain point, how do they move on from there if their teachers have not gone through the regular qualifying exams and their schools aren’t accredited? Although teachers have gone through Sikat training modules and are definitely well equipped to teach, many have not gone beyond elementary or high school. How will their students go to the next level, high school or college, if the Department of Education has not accredited these schools?

This is what is being worked out, Santos points out. The DepEd really needs to address this concern.

There are IP communities that are not so remote, whose children have access to regular schools. Despite their poor and special background, these children have adjusted and made it to the mainstream. But by going mainstream so early, how much of their sense of roots have they lost and exchanged for what is alien?

Sikat does not merely address the problem of education, it is blazing a trail for the IPs to be educated through a rich and meaningful way. I couldn’t help thinking, well, the farther the purer, but then one can’t remain isolated in this day and age. Education and integration is the key, but integration with pride and dignity. But preservation, too, of timeless wisdom and knowledge that are as old as the hills.

Donate old phone books to the women of the Alay Kapwa Christian Community that makes beautiful bags and baskets out of them as a means of livelihood. Pls. drop them at the home of Maring Feria on 3 Taurus Bel-Air 3, Makati. Tel. 8956234.

Billboards from hell(2)

There’s a (2) up there because I used the same title last year when the Anti-Billboard Coalition (ABC) whipped up a storm. Many storms have come and gone since that time and billboards have continued to collapse on highways, vehicles, transport systems, structures and human beings except on those who put them up.

Someone suggested I use the title “Death by billboard”.

The man who instantly died after he was hit by a falling billboard was probably still being embalmed when this outdoor advertising executive said on national TV something like this: Milenyo was a strong typhoon and things standing were expected to fall, among them trees, electric posts and billboards. If we ban billboards, he said, we might as well ban trees and electric posts.

Ano raw? Trees aren’t marijuana. You don’t have to be a true-blue greenie to know the basics about trees. And electric posts? Many have contributed to the ugliness of the metropolis because of the entangled wires they weave around them but they stand there for a purpose. And we expect our power providers to someday do away with unsightly wiring.


But the billboards? The mushrooming thousands of billboards on top of buildings, along roads and superhighways? And throw in the smaller ones that hang on lamposts, columns and street railings. What purpose do they serve?

I do believe in advertising but not in the use of billboards and hangings that litter the landscape. Sure, advertising adds to the vibrancy of the economy, and if well done, informs and educates consumers about product choices, it increases sales volume and helps lower prices, etc. As an industry it also gives jobs to a lot of people. But it could go overboard in content and method and become exploitative, offensive, destructive and dangerous.

The billboard overkill is an example. Now every outdoor ad agency and its clients want a piece of that wall, that roadside, that skyline, even the blue above.

I suspect that if billboards were banned altogether, manufacturers would be happy, equally happy. This would level the playing field, so to speak. Manufacturers, all of them, no longer need to spend for that kind of advertising. Hey, there’s still print, TV, radio, word of mouth, events sponsorship, even charity and social advocacy.

We’d just have a handful of losers—those who invested their money in the uglification of the environment and those who work for them. But there is life down the road when it is all cleaned up just as there should be life after jueteng.

EDSA is not my regular route but when I drove through there a few days ago, I was aghast at how cluttered it has become. No more piece of blue sky in one’s peripheral vision, just the darkening horizon. The whole beyond has been obstructed by rows upon rows of screaming ads that are not just there to be seen but to be read as well. Oh yes, I’ve caught myself reading some of those ads while driving. Careful, those billboards may not flip over but your vehicle might.

This brazen assault on your senses just blows your mind to billboard hell. How have we come to this?

Last year I received a letter from a reader who complained that the letter M (which stands for Mary) on the Antipolo Marian shrine has been obstructed by the giant M or twin arches of McDonald’s. Well now, what do you say to the church officials who run the San Carlos and Guadalupe Seminaries along EDSA who have allowed their haven of green (for the motorists’ eyes) to be taken over by the advertisers? How many pieces of silver did they earn?

Billboards were once made of hand-painted metal sheets. Now they are made of plastic sheets that come out of giant printing machines. I once saw a team preparing to hoist up a billboard. The sheets flowed like a river and covered the whole sidewalk.

This reminded me of the European artist Kristo who covered entire structures with canvas and then had them photographed. He mummified entire landscapes for the duration of his outdoor exhibition. He was making a statement while the population watched in awe and puzzlement. Our advertising and billboard industries leave nothing for the imagination.

Someone should do a Kristo and use discarded tarpaulin from billboards and wrap an entire landscape. That would be a statement.

The issue now against billboards is not just their content. It is their proliferation. It is the inconsiderate, wanton, crude, rude desire to call attention and to sell. Manufacturers plaster giant pictures of their products everywhere. Cell phones, garments and accessories, food, health and beauty products, real estate, accessories, hardware. Just as guilty are the self-styled evangelists, politicians, movie promoters and TV stations.

The bucolic and beautiful landscape in the provinces that beckon people home—it too is now groaning under the weight of billboards. We have become a billboard wasteland.

Once upon a time billboards stood parallel to the highway. Now they are placed on a diagonal position or on a right angle to the road so that they can face, overwhelm and distract motorists.

The billboard disease has spread to the rest of society. Now, everybody just hangs or nails anything on an empty space. ``Tubero’’, ``room 4 rent’’, ``lady bedspacer’’ and ``manghihilot’’ announcements have been around for a long time but now you have ``Happy Fiesta’’ and ``Congratulations graduates’’ from councilor so-and-so.

As of last year, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago already had two bills pending. Senate Bill 1714, the ``Anti-Billboard Act’’ seeks to regulate the placement of billboard signs. SB 1668 is ``an act prohibiting officers from claiming credit through signage announcing a public works project.’’

Billboard advertising—big or small—should be banned altogether.