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How to think win-win. Covey’s 7 effective habits, people

2010-07-28T22:41:00.001+08:00

First published 28 July at 2200 hours with the title
“7 must-have-its. Sean Covey’s book for teenagers”

A good book is for sharing. At home, we have a good-size collection of about 1,000 books. I have read at least 500 of them, not to mention some other 500 I don’t see around anymore. At 69, either you have lost your books, or your balls.

I do book reviews every now and then when I’m able, or when I’m eager, whichever comes first. It sharpens the mind, not to mention it relaxes it. You’re never too old to read and appreciate what now you know and what yet you don’t. As a writer, I find reading productive if not also enjoyable. I have always been a wide reader. Often, I buy second-hand books to read, to add to what I already know, to gain new insights.

Not only our books. If your book happens to visit our house and I like it, I will review it too. When I review, I don’t consider the state of the book, or the year of publication, or the author. If I see that it can contribute to knowledge, revises current understanding, or challenges what we think we are sure of, I’ll review it.

Habits are for cultivating. A good habit is a must-have-it, but it’s hard to cultivate; a bad habit is easier. Consider 7 good habits and you’ll probably give up trying if you’re a teenager.

Not Sean Covey. His father Stephen Covey published one of the bestsellers’ bestsellers of all time, the self-help book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People in 1989 that has since sold 15 million copies (Wikipedia). Based on Stephen’s book and Sean’s own experiences, the son’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, came out in 1998 and has since sold 3 million copies (barnesandnoble.com). I like the father; I like the son.

I read the father’s book a few years ago, at least 2 times; I read the son’s book recently, also at least 2 times. There’s exactly no difference in the 7 habits earlier proposed and propounded by the father and presented by the son (page 5):

1 - Be proactive. Take responsibility for your life.
2 - Begin with the end in mind. Define your mission and goals in life.
3 - Put first things first. Prioritize, and do the most important things first.
4 - Think win-win. Have an everyone-can-win attitude.
5 - Seek first to understand, then to be understood. Listen to people sincerely.
6 - Synergize. Work together to achieve more.
7 - Sharpen the saw. Renew yourself regularly.

The difference lies in the presentation, Sean’s book being peppered and plastered with cartoons, anecdotes, quotes, quips and fun. Here are 3 examples of how deep and delightful Sean’s book is:

(1) Isn’t all-you-can-eat a win-win situation?
(2) Sean reproduces on page 17 the cartoon from FRANK & ERNEST by Bob Thayes that shows a newly cracked egg and the chick exclaiming, “Oh wow! Paradigm shift!”
(3) Baby Steps (page 242): Body - Eat breakfast. Mind - Subscribe to a magazine that has some educational value, such as Popular Mechanics or National Geographic. Heart - Go on a one-on-one outing with a family member like your mom or your brother. Soul - Take time each day to meditate, reflect upon your life, or pray. Do what works for you.

Title revised and this text added the next morning, 29 July starting at 0706 hours

On second thought, 7 is too many habits for me! Whether I’m speaking of the father’s or the son’s list (they’re the same actually), I like to simplify. So, if I were to choose which habit I like best to cultivate, and it’s also I like to cultivate 1st, it’s

Think Win-Win.

This must be the most difficult habit to cultivate, and so if I start here, the rest will be easy. In fact, I think the rest of the good habits will follow naturally once I have the win-win habit automatic in my heart, mind and spirit.

I have just realized that the win-win habit is a brilliant, very practical mode of applying the 2nd cardinal commandment of Jesus: “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” “Think win-win” is the first step towards the journey of a thousand miles called “love.” And of course, it’s the most violated commandment of all, a sin against your fellowman. How can I think win-win when I hate the fellow?

Think win-win – you can apply it anywhere for anything at all as long as there are 2 people involved in a would-be transaction. Remember that hate is loss-loss situation – you lose a friend, and you lose your peace.

Think win-win is certainly Christian. Ask God. But don’t ask like this: “Lord, give me an idea of a win-win in this one. Just don’t ask me to forgive him.” It won’t work. Not forgiving is a loss, on both sides of the equation.

Now I know why God doesn’t answer some prayers – those who are praying are not thinking win-win. Like, if you pray for a new car and not work for it, not save for it, only beg for it, God knows you’re thinking win-lose – your win is God’s loss, because you’re withdrawing from the bank when you don’t have a bank account, except on account of God. “God, please give me patience, and I want it now!” You’re thinking win-lose. Miracles don’t happen that way. God doesn’t play games. Thinking win-win is not a game; it’s a habit, and in the end it’s all about love.

Technorati Tags: Be proactive,Begin with the end in mind,Put first things first,Think win-win,Seek first to understand,Synergize,Sharpen the saw

Search, Sex & Google’s Boolean smut

2010-02-07T14:04:00.001+08:00

MANILA - 7 February 2010 at 1115 hours, I googled for this entry exactly as you see the line below:
philippines “sugarcane smut”
and Google gave me, in 0.48 seconds, 2,020,000 webpages, thank you very much.

But Google also had this note below the Search box (my italics):
The word “smut” has been filtered from the search because Google SafeSearch is active. And I’m supposed to rejoice?

I’m very sensitive. Of course SafeSearch is active! Don’t tell me that; I know. You see, since many years ago, I have always been setting my Google Search Preferences to English only, Google’s SafeSearch - “Use strict filtering” meaning filter out both explicit text and explicit images, display 100 results per page, and open search results in a new browser window. Google is supposed to follow my instructions to the letter.

Today, in those 2,020,000 webpages, I see separate webpages on “Philippines” and “sugarcane” and not “sugarcane smut” like I want to. What good is a fast 0.48 seconds search for millions of webpages if I can’t use any of them? Like somebody said long ago, the PC does not improve on your making mistakes; it only makes your mistakes happen faster. My search experience today proves the point. I’m unhappier faster.

My mistake? I believe it’s Google’s. My Google smut experience tells me now:

Google is not searching like I tell it to. When I search for “sugarcane smut” I mean “sugarcane smut” and not any other kind of smut; my smut is described as sugarcane, not somebody else’s smut. Why am I on my desktop PC 24/7? Not for smut. Did Google consider that?

For Google to look in separate ways “sugarcane” apart from “smut” means Google is not looking for my exact phrase “sugarcane smut” - which is what those double quotes stand for as I used them - exact phrase within those quotes - that to me indicates that Google’s vocabulary (thesaurus) is limited. Or its search programming is. How would I feel if Google searched separately the words, even if I put the double quotes “I love you” - that would be like splitting hairs.

“Smut” means “obscene” and “speck of dirt” and “plant disease” - but I wasn’t searching for “smut” only or “sugarcane” only - so why expand my search when I’m trying to do the exact opposite: limit it? I don’t want to have anything to do with your sex filth or her ground dirt; I want my sweet disease!

When I say “sugarcane smut” I mean “sugarcane smut” and not AND/OR, not either or both “sugarcane” and “smut” - does this mean that Google has changed the rules of Internet search without telling me? My double quote means I want the exact phrase, so don’t give me any Boolean smart, or smut.

Technorati Tags: Google Search is Boolean smart,Google Search is not smart enough for me,sugarcane smut vs smut

Maxwell's Failing Forward

2010-01-25T08:12:00.002+08:00

This John C Maxwell book has this as subtitle: Turning Mistakes Into Stepping Stones For Success (amazon.com has copies). This is getting personal. So, how do I like this book? Frankly speaking, I have to tell you I fail to appreciate the book's worth, and that's what I'm forwarding to you.

But if you want to fail forward yourself, here are the chapters:

(1) What's the main difference between people who achieve and people who are average?

(2) Get a new definition of failure and success.

(3) If you've failed, are you a failure?

(4) You're too old to cry, but it hurts too much to laugh.

(5) Find the exit off the failure freeway.

(6) No matter what happens to you, failure is an inside job.

(7) Is the past holding your life hostage?

(8) Who is the person making these mistakes?

(9) Get over yourself - Everyone else has.

(10) Group the positive benefits of negative experiences.

(11) Take a risk - There's no other way to fail forward.

(12) Make failure your best friend.

(13) Avoid the Top Ten Reasons People Fail.

(14) The little difference between failure and success make a big difference.

(15) It's what you do after you get back up that counts.

(16) Now you're ready to fail forward.

Am I ready to fail forward? Well, as a creative thinker, I always start with failure - chaos, clutter, confusion, hodgepodge - then, I go forward and create order out of disorder. As a creative writer, I never fail. Forward, creativity!

Technorati Tags: John Maxwell fails forward,I start and stays for a while with failure,as a creative writer I work with chaos,as a creative writer I never fail

Maxwell's 17 Indisputable Laws Of Teamwork, Annotated by Frank A Hilario (2010)

2010-01-25T07:25:00.005+08:00

Revised 16 August 2010 at 1707 hours Manila

The subtitle of this John C Maxwell book is Embrace Them And Empower Your Team (2002,published by Thomas Nelson, 265 pages. amazon.com has copies). The 17 laws are:

(1) The Law of Significance: One is too small a number to achieve greatness. Einstein did!

(2) The Law of the Big Picture: The goal is more important than the role. The roles are all important if they help achieve the goal.

(3) The Law of the Niche: All players have a place where they add the most value. The niche may add a small value at the beginning, but that is a great value in itself.

(4) The Law of Mount Everest: As the challenge escalates, the need for teamwork elevates. Climbing Mt Everest is not that demanding in terms of creativity. Above all, a team must be creative.

(5) The Law of the Chain: The strength of the Team is impacted by its weakest link. A chain is a weak metaphor for a team – a link is fixed, unyielding, inflexible.

(6) The Law of the Catalyst: Winning teams have players who make things happen. All players should make things happen, but any player at any time may make things happen for the first time.

(7) The Law of the Compass: Vision gives team members direction and confidence. Vision gives Mission; Mission gives Direction. You cannot miss Mission. Confidence is not a quality of Vision but a product of Leadership.

(8) The Law of the Bad Apple: Rotten attitudes ruin a team. Only if the team is weak in the first place. One Robin doesn’t make a bummer.

(9) The Law of Countability: Teammates must be able to count on each other when it counts. They have to be able to count on each other all the time, not just some of the time.

(10) The Law of the Price Tag: The Team fails to reach its potential when it fails to pay the price. Why can’t the team learn from the mistakes of others instead?

(11) The Law of the Scoreboard: The Team can make adjustments when it knows where it stands. Where it stands is a given; flexibility is not.

(12) The Law of the Bench: Great teams have great depth. And width and length and height.

(13) The Law of Identity: Shared values define the Team. The Vision defines the Mission; the Mission defines the Team. Shared values connects the Team.

(14) The Law of Communication: Interaction fuels action. Understanding fuels action; misunderstanding foils it..

(15) The Law of the Edge: The difference between two equally talented teams is leadership. Too much emphasis on leadership. There is no leader without the rest of the team.

(16) The Law of High Morale: When you're winning, nothing hurts. When you’re losing, all the more reason to cultivate high morale!

(17) The Law of Dividends: Investing in the Team compounds over time. For once I agree.

Them, 17 of them. How did Maxwell come up with 17 Laws of Teamwork and not 16, 15, 14, or just 10? In "Acknowledgements," he gives thanks to "the people who helped me to create The 17 Indisputable Laws Of Teamwork." It's the INJOY Team, "who helped me to think through and refine the laws."

So, he did not conduct a 3-year study along with his INJOY Team to find out the Laws of Teamwork - they simply worked them out among themselves. The Team created the Laws of the Team! So, how good is this Team? So, how good are these laws? How irrefutable are they? Maxwell doesn't introduce his INJOY Team; he just assumes the reader knows.

Maxwell doesn't explain what he means by "laws" - he assumes you know. There must be Vision and Mission somewhere, even if you don't call them by those names. He doesn't start with Vision until Law 7! So, I'll stick to the Law of Supply and Demand: If the demand for this book is high, the supply will be high. And the Law of Countability: As a believer of John C Maxwell, count me out!

Technorati Tags: Alone Einstein was great,roles are important to achieve goal,the niche is a great value itself,a team must be creative,a chain is a weak metaphor for a team,any player can make things happen for the team,mission and not vision gives direction,rotten attitudes ruin only a weak team,the team must be able to count on each other all the time,learn from mistakes of others at no cost,flexibility is not a given,great teams have depth & width & length & height,mission and not shared values define the team,understanding and not interaction fuels action,there is no leader without the rest of the team,losing is the time to cultivate high morale,investing in the team pays in the long term I agree

Maxwell's 21 Irrefutable Laws Of Leadership

2010-01-24T12:02:00.009+08:00

Published by Thomas Nelson, this John C Maxwell's 1998 book has this as a subtitle: Follow Them And People Will Follow You. It is dedicated "to the thousands of people to whom I've taught leadership over the years through conferences and books." (If you want a copy, visit amazon.com right away.) It has a Foreword by Zig Ziglar. But is it as good as it looks?

The 21 irrefutable laws of Maxwell are:

(1) The Law of the Lid - Leadership ability determines a person's level of effectiveness.

(2) The Law of Influence - The true measure of leadership is influence - nothing more, nothing less.

(3) The Law of Process - Leadership develops daily, not in a day.

(4) The Law of Navigation - Anyone can steer the ship, but it takes a leader to chart the course.

(5) The Law of EF Hutton - When the real leader speaks, people listen.

(6) The Law of Solid Ground - Trust is the foundation of leadership.

(7) The Law of Respect - People naturally follow leaders stronger than themselves.

(8) The Law of Intuition - Leaders evaluate everything with a leadership bias.

(9) The Law of Magnetism - Who you are is who you attract.

(10)The Law of Connection - Leaders touch a heart before they ask for a hand.

(11)The Law of the Inner Circle - A leader's potential is determined by those closest to him.

(12)The Law of Empowerment - Only secure leaders give power to others.

(13)The Law of Reproduction - It takes a leader to raise up a leader.

(14)The Law of Buy-In - People buy into the leader, then the vision.

(15)The Law of Victory - Leaders find a way for the Team to win.

(16)The Law of the Big Mo - Momentum is a leader's best friend.

(17)The Law of Priorities - Leaders understand that activity is not necessarily accomplishment.

(18)The Law of Sacrifice - A leader must give up to go up.

(19)The Law of Timing - When to lead is as important as what to do and where to go.

(20)The Law of Explosive Growth - Add growth, lead followers - to multiply, lead leaders.

(21)The Law of Legacy - A leader's lasting value is measured by succession.

What is glaring to me in that long list is what are missing. How do you lead people to get to where you all want (Vision) if you don't know what to do (Mission) because you don't know where you are (perhaps you don't know SWOT)?

Another thing: How did John C Maxwell, a top expert with more than 30 years of leadership successes (and mistakes), determine that each of the 21 is a law, and that each is irrefutable? These are just insights; anyone can add to them, or subtract; and so it is not erudition to call them laws - it is error.

Maxwell & Dornan: Becoming A Person Of Influence

2010-01-24T11:15:00.002+08:00

John C Maxwell & Jim Dornan's book Becoming A Person Of Influence has the promising subtitle How To Positively Impact The Lives Of Others and is published by Thomas Nelson (1997, 214 pages). "We know the power of influence," they say, "and we want to share it with you." (For your copy, visit amazon.com.)

Their main point is that everyone has influence. But if you want to exert more influence, you have to learn to be an INFLUENCER:

Integrity with people.

Nurtures other people,

Faith in people,

Listens to people,

Understands people,

Enlarges people

Navigates other people,

Connects with people,

Empowers people,

Reproduces other influencers

I can see that the acrostic was forced, because, for one, the grammar is not consistent: Integrity with people (noun) is followed by Nurtures other people (verb).

Not only that. The authors come up with what they call the 4 levels of influence within which they distribute the steps in becoming a person of more influence:

1: Model - Integrity
2: Motivate - Nurture, Faith, Listen, Understand
3: Mentor - Enlarge, Navigate, Connect
4: Multiply. Empower, Reproduce

The 4 levels of influence are also stages. Note that they want to empower you (never mind what they mean) only at the 4th and highest level: Why not at the beginning of helping a person become one of greater influence? Empowering last, not first, is a selfish way of empowering people - empowering is what this is all about. I would rather not be a person of influence influencing other people that way.

Fraser & Estrada: Communicating For Development

2010-01-24T09:37:00.005+08:00

Authors are Colin Fraser & Sonia Restrepo-Estrada. The subtitle of the book is Human Change For Survival (for your copy, visit ibtauris.com). The very brief Authors' Note can very well describe this volume:

In this book we envision how communication could help societies engender the changes and development necessary for a better and more secure future on Earth. We do admit to a certain professional bias, but this is probably a natural consequence of our combined total of more than fifty years of work in development, and in communication for it.

Perhaps some readers may find our views Utopian, but we believe that they should be put forward because we are convinced of the need for radical change by people at all levels and in various walks of life. We trust that these views will at least provide food for thought; if they also lead to action, especially among some influential people so much the better. In hoping this, we quote the memorable words of Margaret Mead: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

The book presents successful communication cases: societies mobilized for immunization, rural development in Mexico, 2 educational radio programs, condoms for family planning, and the "electronic carabao horn" (small radio station). It's not interesting reading because it's too technical in language.

I was looking for the authors' synthesis or one overall insight into communication for development, but there isn't any. The authors simply decided to "identify common elements" in the successful cases and "suggest some possible guidelines for applying communication to change and development" (page 219). Not good enough for me. Their promise in the subtitle that the book would tackle "Human change for survival" requires that they also should have come up with one communication formula or paradigm for development, not simply guidelines or strategies (page 221-235), and policies (236-265, and a framework for action (266-283). All that is mere enumeration, more elaboration, not synthesis, not gaining one great insight into all those success stories. They could have started with the experience of Louie Tabing's Tambuli, the electronic carabao horn (190-218): that Tambuli brought about social awareness of the true nature and social unacceptability of gambling in Camarines Sur, and that killed it. It is a social problem, so it has a social solution - and that is where communication must be put to work.

Before I forget, for this copy, I thank Louie Tabing, whose heart continues to be in radio. His "Sa Kabukiran" airs Saturday and Sunday mornings (0415 to 0600 hours at Radyo Patrol 630 (DZMM), where he talks about agriculture in relation to business. It's in Filipino (Tagalog). Louie is from Tanauan, Batangas, some 50 km south of Manila. He is Tagalog, I'm Ilocano, but we can talk. We have been talking about a certain publication we could both contribute our talents to. He has been a voice in radio since 1969 when he started an aggie program for Radyo Veritas, where he eventually became the Program Director. He is into his own now. And I have been writing about agriculture and forestry officially since I joined the Forest Research Institute in Los Baños, Laguna in 1975; I'm now freelance. Before he came up with his concept of radio as Tambuli (in Filipino, cattle horn used for calling people to a meeting in rural areas), he was saying, "What we need are new public media structures that are owned and controlled by the people." I say, why not a magazine, with the modification that this one is owned and controlled for the people, not the elite. I think that that applies for any of the mass media, including books for development like this one.

Shepherd's Voice Sabbath 2007

2010-01-24T08:00:00.002+08:00

These are Catholic meditations. I have Sabbath 2007, the latest I have of the series; if you're interested in Sabbath 2010, you can visit Shepherd's Voice website (shepherdsvoice.com.ph) or the religious bookstore near you.

Yes, I now have a 3-year old collection of Scripture Meditation(s) For Daily Life - isn't it completely out-of-date? No, not if the meditations are really good only for the specific days of 2007 they were assigned to. A meditation is a meditation, old or new.

They refer to their Sabbath as a magazine. It is, except that it is printed the size of a book and not a magazine, I wonder why.

From inside Sabbath, we have this description:

SABBATH is a study guide for the Scripture readings of each day. Its purpose is to encourage Catholics to understand with greater depth the Word of God and thereby apply it in their personal lives.

"Scripture readings" - what that probably means is that they follow the readings assigned by the Church, not their personal inclination or inspiration. I ask why not?

I see also that the meditations in Sabbath are unabashedly patterned after those in the long-time favorite Our Daily Bread booklet, except that Sabbath is good for the whole year. (If you like, you can visit Our Daily Bread here at Facebook.)

I'm Catholic, but I used to read Our Daily Bread avidly during the 1970s or 1980s. The daily meditations are superb; they are Bible-based, to the point, and either helpful, thought-provoking, or comforting. I got tired of them because they are endless; note that the Radio Bible Class has been publishing Our Daily Bread for the last 54 years, or since 1956.

The meditations in Sabbath are not that different from the meditations in Our Daily Bread, but they are better for me, the Filipino that I am. When you read the day's meditation, you are inspired. But personally, I want more than just to be inspired; I want that the inspiration has a direction; I want that it shows me that I am traveling the journey I should be taking not only for today but for at least the whole year. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single meditation, but I want to know which one is my journey?

Sabbath, as is Our Daily Bread, is a one-size-fits all creation - OSFA is a paradigm that went away when the New International Version of the Bible became creative and invented what turned out to be bestselling other versions. What I'm driving at is that Sabbath can transform itself by the renewing of its mind and come up with versions, following but unlike the NIV versions. Along this line, each Sabbath meditation can be imitative of the stories that appear in the bestselling Chicken Soup for the Soul Series (chickensoup.com), so that we will have something like:

Chicken Soup Sabbath for Students (College)
Chicken Soup Sabbath for Students (High School)
Chicken Soup Sabbath for Teachers
Chicken Soup Sabbath for Writers
Chicken Soup Sabbath for Preachers
Chicken Soup Sabbath for Charity Workers
Chicken Soup Sabbath for Housewives
Chicken Soup Sabbath for Families
Chicken Soup Sabbath for Married Couples
Chicken Soup Sabbath for Speakers
Chicken Soup Sabbath for Managers.

I pray that I soon will be able to experience a meditation that not simply makes me feel that it is an obligation but more so serves as a guide to a certain direction of my life as a particular person, professional or private. With Chicken Soup Sabbath, I'm sure Shepherd's Voice will have several bestsellers in no time at all. And I'm sure I will buy all versions, and enjoy the blessings that each one of them will give me if I meditate sincerely and with faith.

AIM Leader leads!

2010-01-23T16:43:00.003+08:00

The latest issue I have of the AIM Leader, courtesy of JAQ, the magazine of the Asian Institute of Management, AIM, 3rd Q of 2009, is a great leap forward, to borrow from Chairman Mao. The cover is handsome; the design is well-thought of; the layout inside commands your attention.

It is really the alumni of AIM who are, collectively and individually, very important parts of the Institute. In earlier issues, I noted that AIM Leader was merely and mainly "accommodating" brief class notes from alumni, and my impression, I who am not an alumnus but a writer and editor, was that AIM Leader did not give enough attention to the AIM graduates. I knew they have great stories to tell; if they were not given enough space in the magazine, the world will never know. I'm glad that has changed in this issue.

Many of the articles inside make very attractive reading, especially the ones written by alumni of AIM, who come from many countries in Asia. Just reading the titles of the articles should convince you:

Leadership, Peace and Development by Major Gen Roland Detabali (MDM 2004)
The Impersonal Society by Jerry A Quibilan (MM 1976)
Confessions of an MBA Blogger by Regnard Raquedan (MBA 2008)
The Age of Wood Will Be Back by Oscar A Gendrano (MBM 1974)
In Support of Entrepreneurship by Alejandro Z Gaston (MBM 1970)
Providing Platforms for Growth by Jesse Edep (LOB 2008)
Serving with Gratitude by Ofelia Odilao-Bisnar (MBM 1988)
In His Own Words by Ramon Farolan (MM 1975)
Getting the Job Done by Rose Cheryl Orbigo (BMP 2005)
Gastronomic Experience at Makansutra by Sherbet Katigbak-Manalili (BMP 2008)
Celebration through "Atan" by Shaikh Mohammed Ali (MBM 1995)
Upholding my MDM Torch by Sultan Mohammed Giasuddin

Caplans' The Second Twelve Months Of Life

2010-01-23T14:41:00.002+08:00

This is Frank Caplan & Theresa Caplan's baby book, with the subtitle Your Baby's Growth Month By Month; it was published in 1977 Grosset & Dunlap; the Hilarios' copy is the Bantam Book edition published in 1980. (Amazon.com has it; it also has The First Twelve Months Of Life.)

Is it any good today, 2010, or 30 years later? My wife should be an authority on it. It was my wife who "resurrected" this pocketbook. She says she bought the book when she had 2 children, Cristina and Jomar. Eventually, we had 13 children (1 died when he was about 10), and she would tell you that this book helped her tremendously. Experience is the best teacher - but a medical book of this sort is a good guide, ally, comforter. It doesn't proclaim, "Mother's milk is best for babies!" but on page 3 you'll find a full-page photograph of baby sucking from a mother's breast, right on the nipple, holding on to the mother's breast. Lucky child.

The book has these chapters:

13th month: Beginning Of The Second Year. Gross motor development, fine-motor development, language acquisition, nonverbal communication etc

14th month: Challenge & Practice. Gaining confidence via body control, critical periods, trial & error in gross-motor development, patterns of physical development etc

15th month: Explorer Of The Senses. Gross motor progress, developmental milestones, trial & error learning, urge to climb, games toddlers play, imagination etc

16th month: Up, Up And Away! Drive for autonomy, child-proofing the house, socialization, mutuality and social bonds, building self-esteem etc

17th month: A Period Of Consolidation. Rituals & routines, discovering daddy, climbing, restraints, exploring textures, struggle for autonomy, self-awareness, self-help etc

18th month: Growing Up All Of A Sudden. Language acquisition, two-word sentences, thought symbols, scribbling & drawing, exploring, the play group, ambivalence, fears, toilet training etc

19th month: Motor-Driven. Labeling or naming, sensory powers, learning by imitation, putting things together, discipline, self-help routines, outdoor play etc

20th month: Doing What Comes Naturally. "No" and "Yes," naming body parts, talking on the telephone, language games, sensory learning, scribbler par excellence etc

21st month: Power Struggle. Joining two words, finger plays, shape discrimination, sense of smell, parental sex typing, dawdling, disobedience etc

22nd month: Zigzagging Ahead. Storybooks and pictures, compromising, origins of social reactions, sibling rivalry, cooperation etc

23rd month: Busy, Busy, Busy. Psychological separation, fear of abandonment, relations with siblings, beginnings of conscience, messing around etc

24th month: "Walkee-Talkee." Bilingualism, nursery rhymes, reading books, words to express sense of space, concept of time, sense of trust etc

Microsoft's Getting Results With Microsoft Office 97

2010-01-21T21:48:00.004+08:00

This is more for learning from history than from learning from the wisdom of Microsoft.

The book is 703 pages thick; I don't know how in the world Microsoft thought that anyone would bother to consult all those pages just to get some results with Microsoft Office 97. (Available at Amazon.com.)

The subtitle is: Real World Solutions For The Work You Do. The user manual includes instructions for using Outlook 97, Word 97, Excel 97, PowerPoint 97, and Access 97. And that's the problem! The book overwhelms you, especially if you're new to this - it still overwhelms you, after 12 years. The book is not organized according the work you do, like I work only with Word 97, so didn't Microsoft put everything about Word 97 into one separate section?

The Office Suite mentality. It stays even with us today. You would think that the OpenOffice team know better, but they don't. I think it started with IBM. I never liked IBM or Microsoft bundling their software as one suite and jacking up their price. I never ever use Outlook, never Excel, never PowerPoint, and never Access - why do I have to buy them also just to get Word?

The very first page that you get opening the book (no page number) is "Microsoft AnswerPoint" and the very first sentence is this: "In the event you cannot install Microsoft Office for Windows, please refer to the telephone support offerings below." Very funny. They start by assuming you immediately have a problem. Indeed,Windows and Microsoft Office Suites have always been known to crash.

Office 97 was when Microsoft introduced Office Assistant, and everyone hated it. It was ubiquitously obtrusive. It also was embarrassing to have it suddenly appear, because it meant you didn't know what you were doing!

Frank A Hilario's Focus On The Small Farmer

2010-01-21T18:54:00.001+08:00

Towards the end of 1985, I edited the proceedings of the seminar-workshop on coconut-based farming systems research and development thrusts for the Farming Systems & Soil Resources Institute, FSSRI, of the University of the Philippines Los Baños; it came out as a book Focus On The Small Farmer (138 pages). The idea of the cover was mine - the head of a farmer in subdued color as background for the title and subtitle. The title was also mine.

Among other things, I said in my Editor's Introduction:

It was pointed out that, ultimately, it is the famer's choice that prevails when it comes to crops. However, that should not negate the duty of the researcher-developer-extensionist to provide the farmer adequate and comprehensive information on which to base a farm decision. (page 11)

I like what FSSRI Director Elpidio Rosario told those attending the workshop in Cebu:

As we deliberate in this particular workshop, let's not forget that in practice … the perspective is the FS (farming systems) approach. What I'm trying to say is that let's not get carried away by the technologies we discuss. It is not enough that we share what are the these special technology packages; equally important is that we put emphasis to the FS perspective as to how these technologies are developed and eventually utilized. Part of this perspective is the farmer himself. We all know the problem-solving approach, so that when we deliberate I hope we also try to see how these technologies are being fed to and accepted by the very client we are trying to serve.

You have to be holistic.

Max Indolos' The Economics Of People Power

2010-01-21T18:22:00.002+08:00

In 1995, New Day published The Economics Of People Power with the subtitle Economic Democracy Through The Parliament Of The Marketplace (324 pages); my copy is watersoaked from some forgotten rain, but the pages are loose as they should be and don't stick together.

There are 4 parts of the book:

One: The Dynamics Of Wealth Concentration And Mass Poverty - How the poor get poorer and the rich get richer;
Two: The Macroeconomics Of Private Socialism - Building The Foundations Of A Welfare Economy
Three: Social Credit From Social Savings - Free Enterprise For The People By The People
Four: Participatory Democracy Through Social Consumerism - Economic Sovereignty Resides In The People From Whose Collective Purchasing Power Emanate The Profits Of Enterprise

Max Indolos makes sense to me.

The book was finished almost at the same time as the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio De Janeiro was concluded. "The conference was designed," says Indolos, "to save a dying planet Earth, a planet that is being killed by pollution and economic exploitation" (page 300).

He also writes that the Keynesians don't understand Keynes at all (page vii):

It is my firm belief that economic policymakers need to understand Keynesian analysis, as Keynes postulated it in his General Theory, before they can formulate solutions to economic problems. But how could they understand any of it when the so-called Keynesians themselves have never really understood Keynes?

Indolos makes it clear to the reader that Keynes himself said that capitalism as system of unbridled free enterprise "cannot solve the economic problems of the actual world." The financial crisis that hit the United States is a case in point. "Laissez-faire capitalism has failed," Nouriel Roubini said (19 February 2009, forbes.com). It's time to rethink our kind of capitalism.

New Day's William Henry Scott Reader

2010-01-21T17:01:00.004+08:00

One of my prized possessions of a book is Great Scott! a collection of Scotty's writings, edited by Bezalie Bautista Uc-Kung (New Day Publishers, Quezon City). The best description of this book is written on the back cover, written by Orli Ochosa, and it is this:

Scotty
By ORLI OCHOSA

"GOOD GRIEF!" That would be if he were alive today William Henry Scott's response to this book's title. Scotty, after all, was himself a comics strip cognoscente, his all-time favorite being Charles Schulz's "Peanuts" from whose character Charlie Brown he had "swiped" his own habitual Good Grief! every time he was amused by some news, or shocked at some people, or scornful of some talk. One of Scotty's own Sagada sons, Victor Ananayo, he affectionately nicknamed Charlie Brown, and myself he christened SnOOpy (the double O for my initials), himself being the Head Beagle, and Giraffe's Gloria Rodriguez being the Head Beagless. But Scotty always made a distinction between the "Sagada Beagle" (him) and the "Faura Beagle" (the National Artist F Sionil Jose).

Anyway, Great Scott! as the book's title is also meant for its literal sense, and that's aptly describing in two words the true worth of William Henry Scott. He was really that great in everything he wrote. Simple truths, after all, are great, great truths. And those are all manifest in the pieces compiled here from the ten of his books published by New Day.

No wonder my old friend Frank Hilario, who is always frank as much as he is always hilarious, considered it one of his life's mishaps that he never personally met Scotty in this lifetime. Still, reading his great works as truly good works, in the biblical sense, frank pays the great Scott just tribute as "the white Filipino nationalist historian nonpareil and scholar extraordinaire."

Chris Anderson's The Long Tail

2010-01-21T16:23:00.006+08:00

According to Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, "Anderson's insights influences Google's strategic thinking in a profound way" (front cover of book, but which I cropped off, to make a long book short). Is that a fact? (Amazon.com has it.)

Anderson himself explains The Long Tail this way (page 5):

There's still demand for big cultural buckets, but they're no longer the only market. The hits now compete with an infinite number of niche markets, of any size. And consumers are increasingly favoring the one with the most choice. The era of one-size-fits-all is ending, and in its place is something new, a market of multitudes.

This book is about that market.

The future of any market is choice. I don't know if it is correct to say that consumers really do favor the one with the most choice. That is quantity, not quality - unless of course the choices are products of true innovation, not simply variations of the same theme.

If Anderson is correct on page 5, and I think he is, then he is wrong on the front cover of his book, specifically his subtitle: Why The Future Of Business Is Selling Less Of More. To revise Chris Anderson, i now offer Frank A Hilario's Theory of the Long Tail: The future of business is selling more of more, and selling more of less. There is no tail without a head - more is the head, less is the long tail.

Application of my theory of the long tail? Google's strategy cannot be only on the long tail, and Eric Schmidt should know, if he doesn't already. I think he does; that's why we have Google Chrome.

BM Villegas' Guide to Economics in the Philippines

2010-01-21T14:05:00.004+08:00

My copy is the 1991 (4th ed) of Bernardo Malvar Villegas' reference book Guide To Economics For Filipinos (Manila: Sinag-Tala Publishers, 699 pages). I studied my college economics in 1959 at the University of the Philippines Los Baños, and I'm sure our textbook was that one by Paul Samuelson, a scholarly treatise, as it were, on economics - and the design was attractive and above all user-friendly, as I remember. Learner-friendly. BM Villegas' textbook is technical, as all textbooks are, except Samuelson's, if I remember right. No wonder students have a hard time studying Economics, and that is only one subject!

Is Villegas' book dated? No. What it is saying is relevant today, 20 years later. That is why I like Villegas' Guide to Economics, especially where it says (p502) that "development is a total process, which includes economic, social, political, cultural and spiritual aspects." (Sulit.com.ph has a newer book, Economics: An Introduction, Villegas and Abola.)

I like also that Villegas has a chapter (33) on the environment and sustainable development. He says the call is for all in protecting the physical environment.

And we must start with the present generation, the children who will inherit the earth. They should not be allowed to replicate the errors of their elders, and the time to act is now. (p689)

Given all that, I do not subscribe to the solution proposed by Villegas that "to eradicate poverty" we must assign "the bulk of generating employment and spreading the benefits of wealth" to the private sector (p626). This implies that the cause of poverty is the lack of employment. It is definitely not! This also implies that the distribution of wealth is the province of the private sector. This is dictatorship of the bourgeoisie - so what else is new?

Paradoxical Commandments Of Leadership? Anyway!

2010-01-15T10:18:00.014+08:00

I continue digging out books in the Hilario library, and here's another one with its own list of ten principles of living. Cyber-Church.com presents them as the "Paradoxical Commandments Of Leadership." Yes, for the cultivation of leadership. But the author of these commandments himself, a graduate of Harvard U, Kent M Keith, merely presents them as "The Paradoxical Commandments" (Anyway, paradoxicalcommandments.com). I don't think they have to do with leadership at all; while a leader can make good use of them, so can a follower.

In 2001, Keith wrote a book, Anyway where on the covers (front and back) are reproduced The Ten Paradoxical Commandments. He copyrighted the commandments in 1968, and then again in 2008 - why be selfish with an idea that could transform the world? The subtitle of his book is what these commandments are all about: Finding Personal Meaning In A Crazy World.

Anyway

By Kent M Keith

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down
by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.

My Parker ball pen

2010-01-15T09:44:00.003+08:00

I love my Parker ball pen like I love my Core i7 desktop computer with its 3 GB of RAM running at 2.67 GHz and showing on my 19-inch Hanns-G LCD monitor, if you know what I mean. I have always had a Parker ball pen since about 10 years ago. I have probably bought 30 Parkers since. You are looking at my 10-day old pen under a plastic wrap (Photoshopped, if you have to ask). Of course, it's always more expensive than I can afford, but I just love the smooth write, no pressure on paper. It's always the roller ball model. Why should I spend energy pushing on paper when I can just glide?

I write my notes, bits of thoughts that come to mind anywhere, including while sitting on the toilet contemplating nothing. Sometimes I can't read my own notes; it happens to the best.
I never ever learn. (Finally, I can read my scratch): I have ruined many of my favorite shirts from forgetting to cap the pen before putting it on my pocket.

I like any polo shirt with a pocket, especially a wide pocket. That's where my cell phone pouch goes in, the pouch being where my 2-year old black Nokia 5310 XpressMusic goes in as well as serving as my purse. Not to forget - the pocket is for my Parker.

I have had blue, black, and maroon Parkers. The one I miss is the plump model, the one with a rubber hold. I loved it! Parker discontinued it. For years, I thought I was the only one buying that model at the National Book Store beside SM at Ayala Center. I miss that model. They don't make them they used to anymore.

Letters from mademoiselles, 1972-1978

2010-01-07T10:45:00.002+08:00

My note says I bought the book on 29 September 2005; this is the Letters to Ms. (edited by Mary Thom, with an Introduction by Gloria Steinem, published in New York by Henry Holt and Company, 264 pages; amazon.com has a copy). Here are excerpts from the insides of the book jacket:

In 1972, the premier issue of Ms. Magazine elicited an astonishing 20,000 letters from readers. Fifteen years later, Ms. Still receives more mail each month than magazines ten times its size. Readers share their personal stories, helpful facts, political alerts, "clicks" of recognition, voices of support and criticism. Perhaps because the content of the magazine has such a profound connection to readers' most basic life choices and beliefs, these letters - from men as well as women - are strikingly open, passionate, and thoughtful.

Taken together, these letters are more than individual responses to a particular magazine, however; they are unique historical documents of the 1970s and '80s.

Organized chronologically around such topics as love, sex, parenting, health, the workplace, sexist language, and milestone events, Letters To Ms. charts the course of the women's movement as nothing else has. These reports from the front lines are less concerned with rhetoric than with real life, whether it's sharing a clever comeback to a wolf whistler or detailing a struggle to get equal treatment from a credit card company.

Poignant, funny, angry, joyous, these letters convey history at its most intimate. Reading them, we discover a portrait of ourselves during a volatile and creative era.

Gloria Steinem was, of course, the well-known political activist and the Founder, Editor and Publisher of Ms. (Wikipedia). Women's Lib became the battle cry of the 1970s and 1980s, The Libbers, female and male, fought for the Equal Rights Amendment and never succeeded. I was an activist but I never supported it. There is logic to the defeat of the ERA (although they are trying to resuscitate it now). "The ERA advocates," according to the Eagle Forum, "were unable to show any way that ERA would benefit women or end any discrimination against them" and even that "women already enjoy every constitutional right that men enjoy and have enjoyed equal employment opportunity since 1964" (Wikipedia). The US women are favored for alimony, custody, and are protected in heavy industries; they are never drafted for combat. The women are crazy to ask for more!

Gary Gach's Pocket Guide To The Internet?

2010-01-07T07:09:00.003+08:00

I'm writing this for the history of it.

On 26 April 2001, or 9 years ago, I bought this pocketbook on the Internet that was published in 1996, or 14 years ago now: The Pocket Guide To The Internet - The No-Sweat Guide To The Information Superhighway, by Gary Gach (New York: Pocket Books, 347 pages). I live in the Philippines; if I had lived in the US, if I bought the book early enough, I would have gotten, as it says on the cover itself, "one month of free, unlimited Internet connect time from Pipeline" - the inside back of the book has a jacket for a 3.5-inch disk - remember Drive A? (goodreads has a copy of the book.)

I'm picking it up now because I'm intrigued to find out if it really was a "no-sweat guide" to the Internet that I didn't notice? Nope. After my own 4 years of having our Internet connection at home, one of the earliest SmartBro connections in town, after countless hours, days and nights in front of the PC monitor, even I find the book bewildering, nowhere near being a no-sweat guide to the most important connection you can ever have in your life. I might as well think of writing a good guide to the Internet for Seniors - I'm 70 this year.

After the preliminaries, here is half of the content of the first guide page (3):

The Internet: What Is It?

What is the Internet?

Let's define it in two ways: first, using a (hypothetical) real-life example involving networking, and second, with a bit of history.

Everyday Networking and
Telecommunications

Let's begin with what we can all relate to: everyday life. Let's imagine that, instead of a writer, I'm a researcher at my local branch of Local Global Information Inc.

This is not a guide book - this is a boring lecture! And what do you mean hypothetical but real-life example?

The back of the book says this is "the first cyberspace guide to abandon techno-speak for plain English" and is "your complete sourcebook" - both of which it may be, but why do you have to give me a lecture on what is the Internet when (a) all I want is to connect or (b) I need some specific instructions about browsing. Ah, the book doesn't have an index entry on browsing!

Email is on page 46. The World Wide Web is on page 137. The book says the World Wide Web is "the fastest-growing area of cyberspace" and it puts it in the middle of the book! Yahoo (with the interjection) is mentioned on page 182, separated from the Web by 45 pages. Apparently, Yahoo is not connected to the World Wide Web.

This book is history.

Fighting Fire: A Personal Story

2010-01-06T23:28:00.006+08:00

Caroline Paul has written a hot, inflaming story in her book Fighting Fire: A Personal Story (1998, New York: St Martin's Press, 172 pages). This is superb writing, as it takes you by the hand into the thick of the action and describes to you what you should be doing and feeling and fearing. (Caroline Paul has a website: carolinepaul.com.)

Here is the entire Preface:

IT ALWAYS BEGINS the same way. First the fire coat, one arm at a time. It is snapped - usually only three of the snaps - and clipped. From here, the fingers slide upward to the collar, feeling the rough Nomex cloth and the hard, chipped paint of the name that lines the back of it.

I flip up the collar so that it hits my chin and the soft underside of my ears. Then the belt is cinched tight, the buckle jingling almost daintily against the small crash axe, which I spin to a precise place against my right thigh where it will not tangle with the air pack. Thick leather gloves, often stiff with ash, are put on, and each hand is flexed - one, two, three times - to loosen them.

Finally, there is the fire helmet. It is picked up in one quick motion with the palm outstretched. Fingers crook around the front shield - mine says Rescue 3 - and lift it to eye level. Then the head is bent, as if in prayer, and some sweep a hand across the hair to smooth it down. I do. I push back my bangs in one quick movement. Then I lean the leather against my forehead. All our helmets are leather. This is a source of pride in an era of high-tech plastics. Finally, the head is brought up and the helmet slid back, simultaneously. Most of the men leave the chin straps to dangle, but I cinch mine up with one quick pull. The helmet has yet to fit well over my array of bobby pins and hair ties.

Today is no exception. Despite the chaos as we race to the incident - the siren is at full wail and the air horn blasts angrily at each street intersection - I have reenacted these small, precise movements.

MY CREW HAS done the same. Alberto is the one exception - as the rest of us jump quickly out of the rig, which has pulled to an abrupt and bumpy stop on the sidewalk, he stops and drops his helmet on from above as if it were any other old hat, and wriggles it from side to side to snare it onto his head. Then he starts a careful, deliberate walk.

I run - an odd run, with legs barely lifting off the ground to save energy - toward a crowd that has gathered in a large, fragmented half circle. I smell the smoke before I see it; it is a sour, acrid smell that conjures up false images of fireplaces and marshmallows. Then I see it. Heavy and dark gray, it pumps in round, angry thrusts out of the two upper side windows of an old Victorian-style house. It spews toward the midday sky. Over the sound of burning wood - a belching, crackling roar - I hear the collective gasp of the crowd.

Two engines are already parked in the busy intersection ahead. Flames leap from the front second-floor windows. Even on the sidewalk, it has grown hot. Momentarily we stare, mesmerized like the onlookers. Above me, flames reach out into the day. In front of me, burning wood drops into the stairwell. For a millisecond, there is nothing but this power and beauty.

Another window blows out from the force of the heat. I feel the adrenaline start to leak behind my ears and down my throat. My heart pounds. Not from fear, but from something else. Wonder. Awe. And a little bit of disbelief. There is something about fire that touches our soul and moves us in a profound, primal way. In the face of it, we want to ask the bigger questions, the why's of existence - lofty, inappropriate questions like Why am I here on this earth? and smaller ones like How did I get here, to this place of being a firefighter?

My lieutenant brushes by me. All our small rituals of certainty - coat buttoned, helmet on, air pack tight - are over. Now come the vast possibilities, the meeting of chance, fate, and luck with skill and choice. How comes the unknown of fire. There is no time for existential philosophy; I follow him into the roaring building.

This is excellent writing. For action, it's almost perfect writing, except that Caroline uses the passive voice once in a while: "Then the belt is cinched tight." It would have been more powerful to have written: "I cinch the belt tight." Look at the last sentence: "I follow him into the roaring building." The action lingers with you, and you like to savor it before you turn to the next page.

10 Outstanding Filipino Scientists?

2010-01-06T22:33:00.006+08:00

10 outstanding scientists, sure. But not 1 outstanding book, sorry. I see in it the passion of detail, but not the passion of science as a primary tool in the pursuit of knowledge, of advancement. I see in it the talent for explaining science, but not of the captivating type. It doesn't immerse me into the subject; I don't "get lost" in any page. It's still dry science to me.

In 2000, Queena N Lee-Chua came out with her book 10 Outstanding Filipino Scientists (Pasig City: Anvil Publishing, 256 pages), and here they are listed in alphabetical order:

Barba, Ramon Cabanos
Comiso, Josefino Cacas
Cruz Jr, Jose Bejar
Cruz, Lourdes Jansuy
Dayrit, Fabrian Millar
Guerrero III, Rafael Dineros
Ostrea Jr, Enrique Mapua
Pateña, Lilian Formalejo
Ruiz, Mari-Jo Panganiban
Tangonan, Gregory Ligot

I have nothing personal against Queena's outstanding 10; they are worthy scientists such as they are, and I happen to know two of them.

But since Queena's list is not "The Top 10 Filipino Scientists," why did she limit to only 10 scientists and to only 8 different scientific disciplines (her list): agriculture, mathematics, physics, medicine, marine science, chemistry, engineering, and biology; and where did she get her list?

Aside from those 10 being, according to her, "well-known here and abroad," as well as those 10 "have made substantial contributions to their field of expertise," what were her criteria in selecting the 3 ladies and 7 gentlemen? Since she made her personal list of 10 public, she should also make her criteria for selecting them public, not to mention each criterion explained in detail. This is necessary because the 10 outstanding Filipino scientists were selected by a Committee of One. I would have selected a different set of 10, but still it would be a Committee of One.

I am puzzled when Queena says her book is "intended for high school and college students in particular, and the public in general." That's like saying she's targeting everybody as her reader. That is not what I learned when I started to teach myself creative writing using as my models inspiring articles in the Reader's Digest starting 1957 and the many pieces of helpful advice of Rudolf Flesch in his book How To Write, Speak And Think More Effectively starting in 1965. It is also not what I learned when I worked as a copywriter in Pacific Publicity Bureau in 1974. Some faraway 36 to 53 years ago, you say. But whether you are in writing, copywriting or marketing, whether you are old or young, there is one rule you can't break: Know your target client (individuals or groups). You can't have more than one client for an article, flyer, brochure, or marketing campaign. You can't have one selling point for the average person either - there is no such thing as an average person. In the same token, the needs of high school students are entirely different from those of college students that are still entirely different from the needs of "the general public," a concept that will make a writer, copywriter, or marketing man throw up his arms in surrender: there is no such thing as the general public.

Is Masipag the savior of small farmers?

2010-01-05T22:27:00.009+08:00

In 2009, Lorenz Bachmann, Elizabeth Cruzada & Sarah Wright wrote a report which was published with the support of the German MISEREOR as a book with the uninviting title Food Security And Farmer Empowerment - A Study Of The Impacts Of Farmer-Led Sustainable Agriculture In The Philippines (Los Baños: Masipag, 152 pages). According to the inside back cover of the book:

Masipag is a network of farmers' groups, scientists and non-government organizations in the Philippines seeking to improve farmers' quality of life through their control over genetic resources, agricultural technology and associated knowledge.

It just so happens that in the Foreword to the book itself, by Martin Brocklemann-Simon, Managing Director for International Cooperation of MISEREOR, one can find an unintentional but good summary of the findings of the study, of the book itself, and I quote (pages xii-xiii):

The impacts of Masipag's work clearly show that farmers can take the lead in developing an agriculture which is highly productive and improves the food security, income, and, importantly, the sovereignty of farmers. Masipag farmers breed their own varieties of rice which compete with the high-yielding varieties of international research institutions in yield, and at lower cost, lower risk and in a shorter time. Masipag farmers, most of them belonging to the poorest sector of society, have better food security, better incomes, better health, and a positive view on their future. Masipag farmers take their responsibility for God's creation seriously and hold their solidarity and spirituality against the global consumerism which is still gaining ground even if the financial crisis and climate change indicate the unsustainability of the current development path.

Seeds are at the center of Masipag's work. For these farmers, seeds are respected as a common good and heritage, not as commodity. With the help of innovative farmer breeders, the Masipag network has developed an impressive number of rice varieties well adapted to local conditions which have the potential to adapt to future challenges. The promotion of diversity on farmer helps farmers to reduce production risks. Furthermore, the sustainable agriculture promoted by Masipag avoids CO2 emissions since it relies on local resources, avoids the use of fossil energy and prioritizes local markets. With such strategies, farmers prepare themselves to challenge the impacts of climate change and give a convincing example of what agriculture should look like in times of climate change.

The biggest share of the hungry people worldwide live in rural areas and belong to farming families or landless farm labor. Most do not get support from their governments. They do not have an equitable access to education and health services. In most cases, insurances or credit facilities are not accessible. They are the ones suffering most from volatile world market prices for commodities, and they are the ones who already suffer from climate change impacts while the powerful governments of the world half-heartedly discuss the topic of CO2 emissions. Small farmers produce the larger part of food for local markets while going hungry themselves.

Yet, as this book shows, small farmers using sustainable agriculture also have the solutions. It is time to draw all the attention to their work and support the farmer-led sustainable agriculture as it is presented in this book!

My considered advice is 3-pronged. (1) Since Masipag has come a long way, let it continue its current work and report more achievements from the field. (2) Also, let it continue to ask support from government for more projects and project areas. (3) Meantime, while not waiting for government to react, let it expand its work and seek external assistance for projects. Just because the government isn't paying attention is not an excuse for doing the right thing with the poor farmers.

Antonio C Oposa, doctor extraordinaire

2010-01-04T21:46:00.001+08:00

MANILA - Give The Flowers … Now! Memoirs of Antonio C Oposa (2003, self-published, 200 pages, plus photo inserts), is the autobiography of this doctor from Cebu City, one of the best surgeons we have had in this country. Born 01 April 1924, a graduate of the University of the Philippines College of Medicine, his being an outstanding surgeon had been acknowledged by his fellow doctors by making him President of the Philippine College of Surgeons (1972), President of the Philippine Medical Association (1975), Governor of the American College of Surgeons Philippine Chapter (1976-1981), not to mention serving as a member of the Board of Medicine of the Professional Regulations Commission (1975-1986).

Two things struck me most in his story. One is that he was accepted to the residency program of the University of California - San Francisco Medical Center, where he served from March 1955 to July 1960, reaching the zenith of the residency program by becoming the First and Only Filipino Chief Resident in General Vascular and Thoracic Surgery in that medical facility (pages 40 & 184). Two is that Dr Edwin J "Jack" Wylie, Chief of Vascular Surgery Service of the UC-SFMC, invited him to stay and be part of the service. On his part, Dr Leon Goldman, Chair of the Department of Surgery of the Center, offered him an Assistant Professor position if he stayed, but he chose to go back to the Philippines. "I told him politely," he writes, "I preferred to come home to use the skills I acquired in America for the benefit of my countrymen" (pages 73-74). Filipino first! One of the more important brain gains of this country.

The Greatest Thing In The World

2010-01-04T20:43:00.002+08:00

My late sister-in-law Nitz Reynoso was also fond of reading, and one of the little books she left behind was a gift to her by Sister Mathilde of Senden Home, where Nitz was helping out; the booklet is by Henry Drummond, the inspirational The Greatest Thing In The World (London: RHS Publications, 58 pages). (amazon.com has a copy.)

What is the greatest thing in the world? The Christians (excluding the Catholics) will tell you: Faith. Sola fide. Faith alone. And what is the source of that faith in faith? The Scriptures. Sola Scriptura. The Bible alone.

Let's assume that the Bible is our only reference for wisdom. What does it say now about the greatest thing in the world, about faith? Are those who swear that the Bible alone is right? We go to 1 Corinthians 13 (I quote from the NRSV):

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body to be burned, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.

For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.

And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

After quoting 1 Corinthians 13, Henry Drummond writes in his booklet (page 9):

We are accustomed to being told that the greatest thing in the religious world is Faith. That great word has been the keynote for centuries of the popular religion; and we have easily learned to look upon it as the greatest thing in the world. Well, we are wrong. I take you to Christianity at its source; and there we see, "The greatest of these is love."

I say: You say, Sola Scriptura? The Sola Scriptura tells you that the greatest of these is love, not faith. So, Sola fide is wrong. And you have the Bible to prove it!