BBM Sir, As Interim Agriculture Secretary, I Hope You Will See That, Among Other Things, PH Agriculture Needs A Digital Library That Encourages Learning About Intelligent Farming To Fight Poverty Alongside Climate Change!
Thank you Evelyn P Antonio for sharing this quote from an American hero of sociology,
history, civil rights activism, and writing (Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org): WEB Du Bois; I identify with his
determination to fight for the “Prosperity Of A Nation,” even for his race, the
American Black:
We should measure the prosperity of a nation not
by the number of millionaires, but by the absence of poverty, the prevalence of
health, the efficiency of the public schools, and the number of people who can
and do read worthwhile books.
BBM Sir, as
a BSA graduate major in Agricultural Education from UP Los Baños (1965), I am
with you in agriculture even as I have been writing and fighting for our race,
the Filipino people, blogging since 2000. I want you to know also that I am a
self-taught blogger.
In 1975, non-digitally
I began this fight when I was employed by the Forest
Research Institute (FORI) – now the Ecosystems
Research & Development Bureau (ERDB) – where I would become Founder &
Editor in Chief of the 3 FORI publications: the monthly newsletter Canopy, quarterly technical journal Sylvatrop, and quarterly color magazine
Habitat that I patterned after the American National
Geographic.
In January
2000, I was engaged as WFH (Writer From Home) by the India-based International
Crops Research Institute (ICRISAT) that was then headed by now-PH Secretary of
Agriculture William Dar. From Mr Dar,
the hopeful slogan of ICRISAT was “Science with a human face.”
Along
with Mr Dar, my desire is that, with science applied, the poor we shall not
always have with us!
In 2011, I
received from UPLB Alumni Association (UPLBAA) the “Outstanding Alumnus for
Creative Writing.” I was the first to receive such award, and the only one up
to now. I cannot thank Elpidio “Pids” L
Rosario as UPLBAA head enough! Already, at that time, ICRISAT had
published 3 of my science books; I cannot thank ICRISAT enough!
Why am I telling you all this? To help the
Secretary of Agriculture fight poverty as well as climate change. Via an
Agriculture Digital Library that needs to be set up. BBM, Sir, you could easily
assign a multi-billion-peso budget to it!
“Ang Bagong BBM” is that new digital library, my suggestion
to you, BBM Sir – but I must acknowledge an intellectual debt from the former
Director General of ICRISAT, Mr Dar. He called the digital library “Open Academy
for Philippine Agriculture” (OpAPA); I borrowed from OpAPA, which I now call “Ang
Bagong BBM” – to which everyone can share their intellectualizations.
So,
BBM, Sir? When do we start building this new cellphone-ready knowledge library?
Ready when you are!@517
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