Once upon a trail-ride dreary

Last month I hit the road (mountain trail or halsema highway) to visit my highland hometown. I was hoping to get refreshed and to find good lazy rest for a couple of weeks.
But soon as my bus got to the outskirts i knew it was not the green grass of home that awaited. Already i was dreading what i would find if the burning or burned hills of Benguet in the southern part of the cordillera ranges was any indication.

I kept shaking my head every time i looked around and saw smoke. Smoke and brushfires were everywhere. Even the highway was enveloped in the thick choking aerial invasion and often darkened the daylight like in an eclipse. Damaged and destroyed forests and mountains have smeared the mountain range stretching the length of the bus trip from urban center to rural town.

Many of the towns and villages were surrounded by fields not of green, but by ugly dark brown areas from the recent fires. Still other villages are threatened by fires that keep burning for days and even weeks.

I have noted the parched and dry mountains and waterways previously.
musing and whingeing
The extent of drought is more apparent as we approached the ricefields of the towns of Mountain Province. The number of dry fields is a lot more than i have seen before. And these were not just dried and thirsty – they were cracked and dusty. Seeing this dryness jolted my brain to remember what my eyes saw earlier that day passing through the vegetable terraces – those too were parched and sere – and only a few were planted.

The irrigation dikes and canals that snake around the hillsides are also mostly dry and laying wasted. The few ditches that carry water do so in precious trickles.

Towards dusk we descended down from the peaks. As the bus slowly wound its way down along the tight bends, we approached a town on a river. Across the river was a fire with its flame rings on the bottom of its scythe-shaped firefront. (It was the grim reaper's hook as far as the withered trees were concerned). From its scorched wake this fire looks to have descended down from the mountains where obviously it started days ago. It is now threatening some houses adjoining the ricefields. As the bus continued on, the passengers were all showing signs of concern yet somehow we all knew that the fire will be put out IF it reached the houses.

The homeward stretch of the journey was thus in glum silence as we pondered why - or why not? These towns have produced many people in high office in the provincial, regional and in the national level of government. Where are they? Why are they silent? Busy campaigning? Perhaps. So what are they saying about these fires?

As with any disease – and burning is arson is a crime is a sin is a disease – prevention is better than cure. Maybe the pine trees don’t vote.

In conflict, a scorched earth policy has been banned under the 1977 Geneva Conventions.
Why then is this practise allowed to persist, and perenially in a 'peaceful' Philippines? This is a country that suffers from drought and lack of water during its dry season.
Article 54 of Protocol 1 (1977 Geneva Conventions) states:

It is prohibited to ...destroy ... or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as foodstuffs, agricultural areas for the production of foodstuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies, and irrigation works ...for any ... motive.

And this is exactly what malefactors who light brushfires do. These arsonists should be tracked down and burned at the stake!

Ever wondered why the mountains of your childhood still look the same many years on? Because forests and mountains take not years but decades to regenerate. A short two- or three-year respite from fires is not sufficient. The young pines and undergrowth may survive 2 or 3 years but die in their 4th or 5th when the fires visit their homes once again. Only the mature ones (20 years or more) manage to survive, and they’re the only ones you see every time you visit the land of your ancestors.

There's a song (tum balalaika) from my childhood:

Maiden, maiden, tell me true. What can cry and shed no tears?

Not just a heart, silly lad.

A mountain too can cry, when it sheds no tears. And just like you and me - it can be heart-broken.

I’ll be posting some photos...

musing and whingeing

whinge. intransitive verb Chiefly Brit (and Aussie) To complain or protest, especially in an annoying or persistent manner.

Some random notes. there's no rhyme nor reason here...
 
Where I come from...
Traffic is still at a crawl from NAIA to NLEx.
 
I am generally an optimistic bastard. But I am cynical with regard to a couple of things.

Global warming

It is the hot dry season and early mornings are not as chilly or as crisp, but global warming is very apparent. The dryness is manifest in the fallen dried brown pine needles, as i discovered while walking under a grove of remnant pines – in the city of pines! There was so much more fallen pine needles and and so much drier.

Parched dry earth- cracks schisms fissures on most surfaces fields roads and building walls and floors.
Some pine trees still standing though are very dead.

Smog and haze now a feature.

Brush fires, forest fires

grim and dim realities
Infrastructure projects are supposedly through the efforts of a politician from the president down to the barangay official - meaning there would not have been that patch of bitumen there if not for them. Wow!
The cost of the project is somehow never mentioned. I suppose if a project is worth billions and the result is only worth thousands...

Politics in the air. News commentaries, ads, endorsements disguised as journalistic pieces.

Politicians or high-ranking officials in unmarked and dark-tinted luxury vehicles with at least two police escorts on some kind of mission – to stop corruption perhaps or maybe to mitigate the choking brushfires.

Disparity between haves and have nots – beggars outside fancy dining places which cost as much as in the west.

to get away from this madness - i took off to my highland home...

Congestion is still a feature of the main road in La Trinidad.
The mountains are on fire and the air is thick not just with smoke - but with something very fishy.

Along the mountain roads on the way home, there is erosion, cut roads, sinking roads, unsignalised unattended single lane roads – all with a very high risk of accident.

Past the dry dusty fields, past gullies now merely with stains from where water used to flow and rush down and gather into rivulets. Clear mountain springwater that used to be plentiful and used to form beautiful waterfalls as they wind and wend their way down from the mountainsides to the sea - they are no more!

The mountain has ran out of tears – it cries no more.
I can feel its sadness as i ride along its dry and dusty roads shorn of significant vegetation. i shiver as i stare at the burnt scarred slopes as dark and black as the evil wreaked on it.

Yes the mountains are no longer gaily and lazily nourishing the rivers that flow down the valleys - down to the once rich lowland agricultural farmlands - and thence farther down to the fishfarms in the deltas. After these many years of conflagration and degradation, they are slowly but surely being washed down to the sea.

But no it’s not just the annual fires that’s caused this defilement. Blame part of it on climate change.

Who’s causing climate change? It’s all of us.
We have rendered the mountain fields bare and sterile with chemicals and such toxic weapons. The hiss is the curse of the parso-ot. The pestilence, the evil influence of pesticides.

Can we blame the farmer? Can we blame the consumer? Can we blame anyone? Can we blame ourselves?

Maybe there’s too many of us.
There is too many of us!
What programs are in place for a sustainable population? a sustainable family? community? society?
Never mind what our political leaders say.
But what do our religious leaders say? Go ye and multiply? Go breed and compete for the meagre resources of your mountains. Blessed are you that are poor, for you will be rich in heaven?

There are now 6.8 billion people on earth. Scientists predict there will be up to nearly 10 billion within 40 years.  Where do we source food water medicine now without destroying the planet?

Yeah go ye and multiply!

I can talk but what am i doing? Whingey bastard me. Nada! Nothing. So i had better shut my trap before someone else does. But this is my blog. And i’ll keep saying

Ay ay salidumay

Aye aye polichay
I and I
Polichay.

I was looking at some job ads one time. Some jobs specify that ‘fieldwork’ may be involved.

Is fieldwork some kind of undesirable job description? Seems that anything that involves walking or sweating or getting dirt in one’s hands, getting rained on or working under the sun, is somehow a bad thing.
I must be an evil person for loving ‘fieldwork’.

well i am off to the field - to do fieldwork!
good riddance indeed!

Home sweet home

I wrote somewhere that this blog could be like a palimpsest.

Well i paid a visit to the old homeland this past month. On arrival there i started noting some things in my mind.

Just the other day I tried dredging the depths of my memory for what i can recall of my visit home and came up with a list. It is of course subject to revisions and visions and sights and sighs and -
my power of recall is well and truly vastly diminished.

I call my list thus:
You know you’re home (in the Philippines) when:

• about a half-hour before landing the airplane becomes like a marketplace with noisy chatter from passengers expectant to seeing home and family again. The atmosphere brightens when the pilot announces that the plane’s about to land.
• as the airplane touches down, there’s a burst of applause from the mostly Filipino passengers (i saw this clapping happen at the moviehouses but it’s the first time i see it in an airplane)
• at the baggage claim, the coded padlock on your suitcase has disappeared and unknown items taken from your luggage.
• The number of people (N), who are picking up and/or dropping off at the airport, is an exponential function or multiple factor (F) of the number of people travelling (T). N = FT, where 1≤F≤100.
• Driving along busy night-time roads you see ‘KTV’ signs on the fronts and facades of buildings and somehow know it’s not the popular pay TV channel Kids TV.
• The bus you’re in and all the other vehicles around, transform a 3-lane highway into a 6-lane racecourse. The one with its nose in front claims pole position or right-of-way.
• The in-flight movie in the airplane is 12 months old, but the in-house movie in the bus is the latest blockbuster.
• At a restaurant and in various places and establishments you are addressed as sir or ma’am, but you’re not quite sure if it’s sincere.
• You are expected to know where to go and what to do even though you ain’t ‘been there and done that' yet, since it’s your first time to do and go.
• Campaign posters are everywhere and so now you know there’s an upcoming election without reading or listening to the news.
• You suddenly realise you’re taller than you thought, or at least you’re not smaller than most – for now.
• There’s a sari-sari store at every corner.
• At almost every opportunity, you’re reminded of the glory days of the Philippines – oh about 60 to100 years ago.
• You look at your fellow Filipinos and see such a beautiful and wonderful people. You look at them again and wonder what they’ve done to deserve such great political leaders. You smile in sadness and then look once more at them and are thankful that you’re one of them, and that you wouldn’t have it any other way.
• The crowing of roosters heralds the dawn, even in the city.

I woke up from a strange dream and found myself in a strange place...

There was another list somewhere in my memory. It's called:
you know you're getting old when...

• first on that list is.... right on the tip of my tongue... i know, i know - i must be getting old...

Additions to boths lists above are most welcome!

Some notes on "The New Asian Hemisphere"

The New Asian Hemisphere is a book by Kishore Mahbubani.

Mahbubani gives an Asian viewpoint of the current economic and political balance or imbalance and posits the thesis that Asia has risen to take control of half the globe away from the hold of the West headed by Imperial America. He contends that the struggle between supposedly two main protagonists Asia and the West (America/EU & allies) will shape global relations and policy in this next decade and into a new Age (of Asia).

The book glosses over a few issues such as human rights, political oppression and economic exploitation. It also chooses to ignore the fact that the success of the Asian tigers is owed mainly to the principles of free market and the current economic order effected through globalization.

Mahbubani does advance the positive Asian values of meritocracy, pragmatism and open-mindedness that are the ingredients to global leadership. He is optimistic that these Asian traits will lead them to prevail.
Mahbubani thinks the Asian hemisphere is inevitable, although many consider his arguments debatable.

I have compiled some notes from the book of the positive aspects of the Asian tigers:
• Asian domination in research in science and technology. It is predicted that soon 90% of all PhD scientists and engineers will be based in Asia.
• Massive increases in funding, investments and spending in research and development.
• In India, they are reaping the rewards of decisions made decades ago by Nehru who founded Indian Institutes of Technology. These IITs collect the best talent pool in India and are very successful in churning out very talented and internationally renowned graduates. This fact led a TV host in America (CBS’ 60 Minutes) to state that the status of IITs is comparable to Harvard, MIT and Princeton put together.
• China’s gains in science and technology match that of India.
• The World Bank has reported that from 1983-2003 more than 50% of US PhD degrees (nearly 90,000) in science and engineering were awarded to students from Asia (China, Taiwan, India and South Korea). This is four times more than those from Europe (23,000).
• Japan successfully modernized by applying Western best practices. They learned from the French and American education systems and implemented them. They also adopted Western civil service and jurisprudence systems.
• Singapore has the most meritocratic civil service in the world. Pay scales of senior government officials almost match the private sector. Department heads earn as much as US$1.5M a year, more than President Obama ($400K). Singapore also applied Western techniques in its fledgling years of independence after 1965.
• The principle of meritocracy rigidly applied in Harvard and a few other organisations, has been adapted and applied ruthlessly and systematically in China’s government structures. China also gained from following the success of Singapore after Deng Xiaoping visited there in 1978.
• Malaysian leader Dr Mahathir implemented economic policies by “looking east” and learning from Japan and South Korea.

What of the Philippines? Has it missed the boat?
Mentions of the Philippines in the book highlight Asian non-achievement. The Philippines is noted as an example of where meritocracy has failed:
• The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism PCIJ (2007) shows that two-thirds of congress are traditional politicians (second- and third- generation).
• The Makati Business Club showed that only one-third of 86 bills passed in 2007 were of national import.
• Roger Olivares found that political dynasties control 75% of provinces and 100% of cities. This hold on power by the traditional elite, and by extension their grip on the economic wealth of the Philippines has resulted in what the late Fr Miguel Bernad described in a review of Olivares’ Noli... 2,

the degradation of the Filipino people who must export one million persons every year, because the leaders have neglected to develop the agricultural and the industrial resources which might have provided them with decent jobs at home. A total of eight million Filipinos are now abroad, most of them in menial jobs. ... Government officials gloat over the number of Overseas Workers (OFW) and the amount of dollars coming in from them – not realizing that this situation is an indictment of their neglect: they should have been doing something to improve the economy so that people need not seek a better life abroad (underscoring mine).

Mahbubani states the obvious that the Philippines is still very much crippled by feudal mindset.

The Philippines is an Asian country and yet likes to adopt the Western mindset and cultures of its former colonial masters, including the Christian religion. The Philippines proudly boasts to be the only Christian nation in Asia. It’s motto is: Maka-Diyos, Maka-Tao, Makakalikasan, at Makabansa ("For God, People, Nature, and Country").

The Philippines is indeed a Christian nation. People go to their churches and absorb christian values which inform their politics. Come election time, influential people, including the clergy apparently hear voices from God to endorse this or that candidate. How many Christian gods are there though? How come he endorses so many? Politicians themselves claim to have divine approval. So then may we ask - with God on their side - why have they abandoned their fellow Filipinos by the wayside? I read that the Philippines became a Christian nation in 1521. Being a Christian must be so hard to do. I’ll just be an Igorot, tend to my fields, and thank the anitos for the palay and camote that sustain me. I’d be very afraid to face God in the other life if I were or profess to be a Christian.

And therein lies the paradox. The Philippines is the most professedly Christian of the developing countries in the world, and yet is the most un-Christian in its standing. How does one reconcile that?
The Philippines is going backward because of corruption and all sorts of unchristian practices not least  hypocrisy. And going back to meritocracy - the principle of equality somehow goes against the grain, in the minds of the Filipino ruling class.
The above shows that traditional Politicians are not the solution, they are the problem. The journalist Sheila Coronel also stated an obvious 'known known' (thanks rummy):

“I think our problem is we ask the politicians to save us from our misery when they are the cause of our misery.”

So back to the question: has the Philippines missed the boat?
Well bet your house on it (i would if i owned one) - that the Philippines has missed the boat. The ship has nearly arrived at its destination, and we haven’t even got to the port yet.
Is it too late? Hey we're Christians aren't we? We believe in miracles. But we need to find a catapult to breach that ocean and hope for that divine intervention to delay the ship “The New Asian Hemisphere” so we can swim along in its wash.
Where to start?
First we need to learn to swim or we’ll just sink.
Let us start from the basics: that democracy is best practised in the grassroots and thus must emanate from the grassroots. As the notes above show, it is time for a change. Get rid of the traditional politics that have been an albatross around our necks. The huge majority of Filipinos are morally upright citizens with enough intelligence to run national affairs capably and well.

It is time for us to change our culture of popular politics and look to those acclaimed in the community for leadership. Our tradition of the ato where the Council of elders is formed not through wealth or name or connections, but by virtue of one’s standing, may be the key. This is the egalitarian philosophy at work.
It may be a schoolteacher, a government official, a local Councillor, or just someone with enough experience that the people can entrust their confidence in. If there is someone who combines some of these and is willing to be drafted to serve, that would be ideal.

Wikipedia has attributed part of the success of the Asian tigers to the role of traditional philosophies:

• In Japan the existence of harmonious labor-management relations resulting in an "invented" tradition that has played an important role in the evolution and character of Japanese economic values and behavior of social peace for economic development. Thereaffirmation of ancient Confucian values and native Japanese traditions of harmony, self-sacrifice and non-individualistic group striving in pursuit of a common cause. The emphasis on long-term growth, scrupulous market evaluation, and process engineering are all well regarded as important components of its economic development.
• These "Asian values" are the foundations ("Grund" as it used to be) of "Asian political economy". Abandoning import substitution, the model advocated in the developing world following the two world wars, the Four Asian Tigers pursued an export-driven model of economic development with the exportation of goods to highly-industrialized nations. Domestic consumption was discouraged through government policies such as high tariffs. The Four Asian Tigers singled out education as a means of improving productivity; these territories focused on improving the education system at all levels; heavy emphasis was placed on ensuring that all children attended elementary education and compulsory high school education. Money was also spent on improving the college and university system.
• Since the Four Asian Tigers were relatively poor during the 1960s, these nations had an abundance of cheap labor. Coupled with educational reform, they were able to leverage this combination into a cheap, yet productive workforce. The Four Asian Tigers committed to egalitarianism in the form of land reform, to promote property rights and to ensure that agricultural workers would not become disgruntled. Also, policies of agricultural subsidies and tariffs on agricultural products were implemented as well. (underscoring mine).
• These places had strong industrial economies which set them apart from all other places in Asia.

Indeed we could do worse than to be 'looking East' and learning from our Asian tigers.

who killed the little people?

In the past two weeks we have been bombarded (almost on the hour) with news of the havoc wreaked on the homeland by successive typhoons ondoy (ketsana) and pepeng (parma), resulting in devastation death and destruction. The images of trajedy and helplessness tell so much.
And i am angry!
I want to know a few things and i want some answers. And so do the little people: the victms, the dead, the dispossessed, the sufferers. They are our family our neighbours our friends. They are not people of a lesser God.
We demand answers.
Where are the advance warnings?
Tides can be predicted years in advance
And if huge typhoons are imminent.
Even two hours would suffice to get to higher ground.
Or to seek shelter under more stable buildings.
5-7 day weather forecasts are now possible.
So where are the precautionary warnings?

Who killed the very poor,
Why an' what's the reason for?
"Not I," says la presidente,
"Don't point your finger at me.
I could not stop the typhoon’s fury
Who says i did not lift a finger to aid
I even opened the palace gate
It's too bad they had to die,
No, you can't blame me at all."

Who drownded the very poor,
Why an' what's the reason for?
"Not us," say the newspapers,
editorialising on their high chairs.
and calling for a national commission
To undertake the reconstruction
proposing candidates to the commission
It wasn't us that made them fall.
No, you can't blame us at all."

Who killed the very poor,
Why an' what's the reason for?
"Not us," says the Pagasa,
weather forecasting is an imperfect science you know,
it’s human nature to find someone to blame
our brand new radar was in the testing stage
and we got no support from government
It wasn't us to make the call.
No, you can't find hope with us at all."

Who buried the poor alive
Why an' what's the reason for?
"Not us," say the congress,
We’re worried about the budget
The legislators need their campaigns met
And we should allow for inflation
(or corruption as one reporter wrote),
the ruling coalition has borne the brunt of the disasters,
and has been found terribly wanting
so it’s our turn at the till
It was mother nature, it was God's will.

Who killed the very poor,
Why an' what's the reason for?

(apologies to Bob Dylan and Davey Moore)

time to vent one's spleen - history 101

If you know your history

Then you'd know where you're coming from

Bob Marley, Buffalo Soldier

Much had been made this week in Australia about the lavish praise heaped on PM Kevin Rudd by former US President Bill Clinton. I think this is actually a backhanded compliment, and Australians should really look more to the allusion rather than the flattery.
Clinton commented that Australian politicians know a whole lot more about the US and American history than they know about their own country Australia. This is a sad sorry fact and ultimately a tragic indictment of the stance of Australian governments and policy-makers in relation to indigenous affairs. Australian politicians have generally turned a blind eye on Aboriginal issues.
Clinton related how Rudd “proceeded to describe in excruciating detail Washington's strategy to hold New York in the revolutionary war."
If only politicians including Prime Ministers also study, to enough depth and detail, the plight of Aborigines including: from dispossession through to the doctrine of terra nullius, state-sanctioned violence, stolen generations, the ‘freedom rides’ for indigenous rights, the continuing marginalisation discrimination and disadvantage, to the unacceptable life expectancy and lack of respect and dignity accorded to Aborigines, etc; perhaps they would not be too quick to deny the dark stains in the parchment of modern Australian history, like John Howard did in denying the demand for a national apology and the extensive injustices suffered by Aboriginal people, by dismissively calling it the ‘black armband’ view of history.
By the same token American presidents should know that America is founded on, and earlier blazed a similar path as Australia’s: the massacre of millions of indigenous people, dispossession of their lands, and the enslavement of millions of African people to work that land, etc.

On a similar vein, schoolchildren everywhere should be taught more about their history than anyone else’s. This would put a stop to incidents disparaging the minorities.
The unsavoury episodes in the Philippines involving Carlo Romulo and Cindy Pangilinan would not have occurred with appropriate education. I have not opened a Philippine history book in years, and i stand corrected, but i would like to know that there is a chapter or two, devoted to the heroic deeds of indigenous Filipinos in the Cordilleras in resisting the attempts by various colonisers to conquer them. But until our children know more about the proud Igorot peoples than what they hear from the streets, then i’m afraid that insulting remarks against Igorots will once again rear its ugly head in the future, unwittingly or not. I would like to know also that Filipino children learn more about Bonifacio than Washington, or of Carlos Garcia more than Kennedy, and what they stood for.
We should all know that the concept of freedom is not a Western invention, but is rather inherent in human societies and has deep roots within traditional cultures. In 1521 Lapu-Lapu fought the Spaniard colonisers to uphold Filipino freedom well before any of the great revolutions in the West. That same desire to be free has sustained Igorot identity and the fierce pride in being an Igorot.

Prejudice can never be totally eliminated. Even Barack Obama had to remind Americans, though in a light-hearted manner on the Letterman show on TV, that he was black before he became president. But if efforts are not exerted to educate the masses, including schoolchildren and politicians, the more ignorance and bigotry will prevail resulting in undesirable consequences.

In Australia, some progress has been made with Indigenous peoples. With the Formal Apology to the Stolen Generations or “sorry” speech by Rudd last year, and more recently his (Rudd's) Labor Government's decision to reverse the position of the previous Howard administration and sign the UN declaration of indigenous peoples’ rights, things are seemingly on the right track (Australia, along with Canada, New Zealand and the United States, originally voted against the Declaration in September 2007).
There is optimism that the Obama Administration is also considering a change of policy and direction for the US, though this cannot come soon enough.

So good on ya Kev for some positive results so far. Congratulations on getting Australia in the G20, and in actively pursuing a position on climate change preparatory to Copenhagen. Let’s see you do more for the original Australians. If you can put your head down to learn Mandarin and Washington's strategy in the revolutionary war, then you can knuckle down and do something about our Aboriginal brothers and sisters.
Then we can keep cheering: Aussie Aussie Aussie oi oi oi
Or will it be as Marley wailed: woy yoy yoy, woy yoy-yoy yoy...
M Polichai
26 September 2009

notes and letters home #119

I was skimming through Jeffrey Sachs’ book: Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet (Penguin, 2008), and i thought i should jot down some notes. I've taken liberty with some of the text. Am just glad this is a blog and not an academic paper. :-).

Sachs, like most economists, believes that China, India and Brazil will rise to economic dominance in the world stage. He argues that in particular, the rise of China is causing massive global change. China's demand for raw materials from around the world is huge and rapidly growing. It needs forest products for residential and commercial construction. And this will lead to large-scale deforestation especially in Southeast Asia which supplies China’s demand for tropical hardwood. The environmental consequences are ominous and the Philippines will not be exempt. The Philippine Cordillera is a source of raw timber. The forested mountains of the Cordillera and of Mainit, are not immune from logging, legal or otherwise. (Be wary when those rich magnates or high ranking military or politicians start visiting your local forests to ‘protect’ them).
In addition to the consequences of China’s rise as a major global economic power, are some of the impacts of climate change as cited in the (Nicholas) Stern report, the IPCC AR 4th, etc. Warmer temperatures will lead to increased disease transmission due to widening geographic range eg malaria expanding into highland areas (in Australia tiger mosquitoes that carry dengue fever are expanding down into southern latitudes). Climate change aided by pollution, will cause a decline in agricultural productivity, and availability of water. The threat of natural hazards will be heightened. The Philippines will face threats of extreme weather: more severe typhoons and prolonged droughts. It is also under constant threat of volcanoes and earthquakes.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, Mainit like many a Cordillera village or hamlet, meets many of the criteria of a self-sustaining community. It has moderate temperatures and is ideally situated with access to freshwater all year-round, good soils and fields with means of irrigation. It is relatively safe from tropical diseases but this could all change drastically.

Sachs is a proponent of sustainable development. In the Cordillera the problems posed by climate change and water stress can be countered with sustainable development. Foremost is the need to protect invaluable water resources and thus ensure the supply of potable water. Sanitation and hygiene issues have to be attended and brought to a manageable level or standard. Efficient agriculture and irrigation strategies such as drip irrigation, low-till systems, crop diversification, elimination of pesticides, domestic trade etc, should all be considered. The protection of traditional knowledge, innovations and practices can help conserve biodiversity. And to sustain food resources, people should learn to reduce meat consumption, and stop fully the consumption of endangered species as frogs, snakes, birds etc. Agriculture systems may also be complemented with a blue revolution: sound aquaculture such as fish farming.

The Cordillera is our homeland. Mainit is our home. It is not just where our parents or grandparents and their ancestors come from. To continue to enjoy this privilege, we cannot wait for the world to act. We cannot rely on government, NGOs, or foreign aid. But we can act now. Lobby the local officials and policy makers. As parents, talk to schoolteachers about curriculum development and raise issues such as littering and pollution, and the problems associated with local livelihood activities such as the use of mercury in small-scale mining.

Sachs showed very graphically the huge disparity between US military spending ($600B) and US aid ($20B). The developing world can only thus live in hope that America will come to their aid even in the event of dire crisis. And to live in hope that America will somehow suddenly shift policy and priority is folly. Fighting wars averts leaders' eyes and distracts them from even the basic commitments to the world’s poorest and dying people. America have their destiny- Sachs and others say that the end of the American empire is nigh. And we have ours.

Our geography is not our destiny, i agree with Sachs, rather it shapes our destiny. Respecting our fragile environment is the key. Our geography determines what industry we can have, the type of services we need eg infrastructure roads, schools, medical, and utilities, telecommunications, our agriculture etc. A strategy for sustainable development will take into account our natural resources, local climate and soil types, relations with our neighbours, the integrity of our political institutions etc. These are the variables that need to be balanced for a stable society.

Having lived in Australia for some time now, i can appreciate the paradox of enrichment: that humanity’s success in appropriating the earth’s resources could prove to be its downfall (vide Sachs). This was highlighted during the years of hubris syndrome suffered by the Bush, Blair and Howard governments. Power went to these men's heads. They believed they knew best. The war in Iraq is just one such delusion. Their supreme arrogance in implementing policy favoring the rich at the expense of the poor and disadvantaged, at the expense of the environment, really hit hard. It seemed that their policies were geared to achieving a high standard of living for them and their mates and their families for generations on end, at whatever cost.

I often wonder if this was achieved - that the world is left with billionaires, but if they didn’t have a planet to live in – what’s the point?

ps. 2026 is here, and I'm still wondering.