Steve Jobs’ Single Lesson On Creativity That Made Apple The Biggest Company Ever

I love to write. To write to show my genius in concocting stories or fiction? No, to write so that I help people think better, think of winning ways. That is to say:

Many Things,
Many Thinks,
Winning Ways!

And you? Maybe not write but think of better ways, even brilliant ways out of something or other. If you don’t know it yet, you can learn to do it. We have a simple lesson from Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs was/is my idol of idols – creative, unrelenting, undefeated. Loved the digital world and what he could do to bring out its wonders: Applepersonal computer (PC), music on call at the push of a button (iPod), handy PC-in-1 (iPad), Macintosh– all business with pleasure.

To him, it was pleasure first, business second.

This morning, Tuesday, 25 May 2021 in Manila, I saw the Facebook sharing of VP Alfie (top image): “The only way to do great work is to love what you do – Steve Jobs.” (That’s how he and his great friend Steve Wozniakinvented the PC as we know it: body, monitor, mouse, keyboard, hard disk, floppy disk (now replaced with hard disk & flash drive).

Thank you, Steves! I am now 80+, thank God. Now, let me tell you how, since January 2020, I have been writing and blogging every single day! Including holidays of obligation. (And yes I do everything from blank screen to blog: Google for data & information, type the many drafts onscreen; edit; tighten; revise; and finalize into a short essay of exactly 517 words[1]including title, excluding name of author.)

Above, lower image is my Werk From Home (WFH) Kingdom. Werk, not Work because I love what I’m doing!

My way of creative thinking is from the “Po Technique” of another intellectual genius, Edward De Bono.

In the Po Technique, there are no negatives. Everything has positives, even a negative. (Try it sometime!)

Po explains how since about the year 2005, I have blogged about 5,000 long essays (1,000+ words each), and 1,000 short essays (517 words each, such as this one); that is to say: I have written and blogged thousands of essays, some of them similar or of the same topics, without plagiarizing myself!

I think the best way you can learn from me is notfor me to teach you directly how to think or how to come up with your stories, their twists and turns, but for you to read me and see for yourself those twists and turns!

I love to write, yes – not because I love to brag about how good I am at writing but to show you how good you yourself can be as teacher, persuader, initiator, motivator, follow-upper, cheerer.

Especially when it comes to Philippine Agriculture, which needs all the cheerers it can get!

I want to inspire you to do good, or to do better in what you’re doing, as long as it needs some thinking!@517

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[1]“517” being the number of letters in my byline: Frank A Hilario.

On Extension, PH’s Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) Is Good – How To Make Better!

The Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) of the Department of Agriculture (DA) prides itself as “Home of E-Extension” as far as the Philippine government is concerned (upper image[1], ATI.gov.ph), which it is – except that you have a double limitation: number of courses offered, 18; ergo, number of experts engaged by ATI!

No, neither do you have unlimited subjects nor can you ask that the training be a perfect fit for you, your farm and location. Sorry. Farmers cannot be choosers! If like me you want to choose more than 1 crop or more than 1 location (lower image)? No can do.

As of now, ATI limits you to this list of 18 “e-Learning Technokits” posted by Marianne Antonioon 25 July 2019 at the institute’s website – not alphabetized, not numbered, not updated, not edited:

Cacao Techno Kit
Highland Vegetable Production Kit
Organic Fertilizer Production Kit
Durian Production Kit
Lowland Vegetable Production Kit
Cashew Production Kit
The Philippine Cattle Industry
Broiler Production
Bangus Techno Kit
Hog Finishing Production Information Kit
Meat Processing TechnoKit
Coffee Production Kit
Corn TechnoKit
Citrus Production Kit
Mango 1: Mango Processing Information Guide
Mango 2: A Guide to Mango Production
Total Quality and Productivity for Rice
Banana Production Guide.

As extension stands today, with ATI you have to rely only on the expert. The problem is: What you’re going to be told is what you’re going to be told – you have no choice! Your trainor knows everything and you hardly know anything.

Your favorite crop may already be in the list – but how will your training fit your location, soil, water supply, not to mention market? How will you deal with alternative techniques of growing, like chemical vs organic?

The ATI is not ready to deal with a farmer like you who must deal with local realities. The problem is not the expert but the fact that the ATI has no Knowledge Bank.

With a full-blown Knowledge Bank, the ATI  could adapt an existing e-course for you, or even fashion a new one according to your needs.

Today, what the ATI expert knows is what s/he knows, that’s all.

I cannot point to you an example of a Knowledge Bank existing here or abroad. The ATI Knowledge Bank should contain much of the science and experiences with all the Philippine farm crops, livestock and fisheries you could think of, in order to cater to anyone. Science must be open, not simply possessed by experts with whom you are forced to be trained.

And yes: Science must be democratic – if the farmer doesn’t like your science, such as crop, produce or method, you cannot force it on that poor fellow!

More importantly, the Knowledge Bank must show the farmer how to be a good entrepreneur.

(The Knowledge Bank must be also for those who do not wish to be trained but are interested in learning by themselves so much agriculture or so much fisheries.)

The customer is always right! That goes with farmers too if you want to train them well.@517

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[1]https://ati.da.gov.ph/ati-main/director/09022019-1714/e-learning-technokits

PhilRice, Here Am I Checking How User-Friendly Is Your PalayCheck!?

A not-so-poor farmer’s son from Sanchez, Asingan, Pangasinan, I am an agriculture graduate of the premier agricultural university in the Philippines, UP Los Baños, 1965, BSA major in Ag Edu – I should know much about the growing of rice, right? Well, I don’t!

Right now, I’m thinking of how PH Agriculture with Secretary of Agriculture William Dar can serve the information needs of the 10 million Filipino farmers[1], as counted-reported by Zoilo “Bingo” Dejaresco III (12 September 2019, “The Tragedy Of The Filipino Rice Farmers,” Businessmirror.ph). Our farmers cannot grow enough rice, so we have to import – and the traders take advantage of all of us! We have to help our own farmers grow more rice.

If half of them planted only rice, that would give us 5 million farmers. To do right for everyone, we have to make sure that for those 5 million, their costs are minimum, their harvests are maximum, and their returns optimum.

Are we teaching them well? I will now check not by asking the farmers but by referring to their source of instructions or guide about planting irrigated lowland rice. So, here I am reading out the entries in Pinoy Rice Knowledge Bank[2] (Pinoyrice.com).

This is the first thing that appears on the website:

PalayCheck is a dynamic rice crop management system that:
(1) Presents the best key technology and management practices as Key Checks;
(2) Compares farmer practices with the best practices; and
(3) Learns through farmers’ discussion group to sustain improvement in productivity, profitability, and environment safety.

What is (all) that?! I expected farmer-friendly instructions, but it does not even present examples of “the best key technology and management practices!”

(I checked and, no, not even the IRRI Rice Knowledge Bank is farmer-friendly; likewise, it is only expert-friendly!)

Immediately, we need a Rice Knowledge Bank that even a high school student can understand and appreciate. For the sake of our farmers, ultimately for our sake.

As a lowland rice farmer of Asingan, Pangasinan, immediately I would need instructions or pieces of advice, such as these:

ü How much should I loan from our Nagkaisa Multipurpose Cooperative good for one cropping?
ü Which of the available hybrid rice varieties is best for my farm in barangay Sanchez?
ü How many kilos do I sow for transplanting?
ü How soon should I transplant?
ü What is the best distance for planting? Why?
ü Should I use the transplanter?
ü When is the best time to plant?
ü Where can I buy organic fertilizers? If I want to make my own, how do I do it?
ü What about organic pesticides? Instead, how do I make my own?

All that and more a farmer-friendly Rice Knowledge Bank should contain.

Not to forget – the language should be plain English even a high school student understands. (Later, the translations into Tagalog, Ilocano, Bisaya etc.)

My message to Mr Dar now is this:

Let us create a farmer-friendly Rice Knowledge Bank! (Websites for other crops can come later, when we’re happy with rice.)@517

[1]https://businessmirror.com.ph/2019/09/12/the-tragedy-of-the-filipino-rice-farmers/#:~:text=TODAY%20there%20are%2010%20million,and%20they%20are%20in%20trouble.


[2]https://www.pinoyrice.com/palaycheck/

Searca & Asean Want Access To Big Data – Meanwhile, UPLB Is An Unmoving Giant!

 

On 26 April 2021, based at UP Los Baños, the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) sponsored the “1st Knowledge Sharing Workshop” with Asean member states (AMS). Meanwhile, UPLB was unmoving in the digital front!

Searca’s headquarters is right next to the University Library in the campus of UP Los Baños in Laguna. An alumnus coming in and going out of the campus in the last 61 years, I know UPLB is smart in the science of agriculture but sleepy when it comes to digitization of that science. I know: Digital is taught only to a limited few; and it’s difficult teaching yourself digital. Nonetheless, it is necessary that:

Physician, heal yourself!
Professor, teach yourself!

This is in fact the second such event. ANN says, “SEARCA Holds 2nd Knowledge Sharing Workshop On Digital Technologies In The Agricultural Sector With Asean And ERIA[1]” (Author Not Named, 14 May 2021, Searca.org). Asean is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and ERIA is the Economic Research Institute for Asean and East Asia.

ANN says:

The activity looks further into the experiences of Asean member states…. It (is) also a platform to discuss their inputs and gather suggestions for the development of a set of guidelines to equip the ASEAN region with recommendations and implementation considerations for making informed decisions that will shape the digital transformation of agriculture in the region.

The ultimate goal? “Digital transformation of agriculture in the (Asean) region.” Big Data applied to Agriculture by the Agriculturists. And if UP Los Baños will keep maintaining its digital distance, my alma mater will be The One Left Behind!

Here are a few participants at the knowledge workshop and their knowledge contributions:

Paul Teng of Nanyang Technological University of Singapore:

… discussed the challenges of agricultural digitalization in AMS, including the uncertainty in business viability and scalability, limited freedom (of) farmers to operate with data across multiple data service providers due to prohibitive costs…

I note the “limited freedom (of) farmers to operate with data… due to prohibitive costs” – that is one of the major reasons why Asean must digitize agriculture for the good of Asean peoples. (That is one of the major reasons why UPLB should have digitized PH Agriculture long ago!)

Masao Matsumotoof the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries of Japan …

highlighted (his) country's strategies to promote smart agriculture, including demonstrations and dissemination, support services to farmers, enabling environment, extension services, and overseas promotions.

I note that Japan is promoting support services to farmers – what is UPLB doing as a whole for Filipino farmers?

Nerlita Manalili, Searca technical consultant, “presented the conclusions of the survey on adopting digital technologies as well as the draft guidelines.”

In the discussions, among other things, the group “noted that access to information is crucial in attracting stakeholders' action to support digital transformation in agriculture.”

While all Southeast Asia await for the knowledge sharing guidelines for Asean to be finalized, I see the sunset behind the UPLB library!@517

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[1]https://www.searca.org/news/searca-holds-2nd-knowledge-sharing-workshop-digital-technologies-agricultural-sector-asean-eria?fbclid=IwAR01TSwukka5hncUxQS6wYRkU_jzlbRUaa6RPZd6gaoTcQcIdSWMo7uzMVk

Shortest Cut To High Intelligence And/Or Creativity – Reading!

Here is our good friend Ramon Yedra quoting Washington SyCip on PH public education: “So the emphasis on a good public education so that the poor can use education as an equalizer, that’s essential.”

From the EsquireFebruary 2012 issue[1], here is the more complete paragraph:

My father insisted that the whole family go to public school because public schools could compete. I went to Mapa High School and Burgos Elementary School. I could compete with any La Salle or Ateneo graduate. Nowadays, you cannot. So the emphasis on a good public education so that the poor can use education as an equalizer, that’s essential.

I was thinking of overhauling the whole public school system, but no, let us simplify.

I went to a private institution, attending the high school department of Rizal Junior College(RJC) – which practiced liberal education, even if they did not call it that. The secret? RJC had a welcoming library full of book classics American and British, and American magazines: Look, Newsweek, Reader's Digest, TIME. My best teacher was not a person – it was the Reader's Digest. Some lessons: How to think, how to write, how to enjoy life.

I am a UP Los Baños BS Agriculture graduate major in Ag Edu. Among other things, I taught myself to be a creative as well as a critical writer. Inspired thus by our good friend Ramon:

I am proposing the simplest and fastest change in PH schools – from high school to college – Put up libraries well-stocked with classics (books) and old copies of American magazines, including of course National Geographic.

Who am saying all that? Here is this bold claim of mine that is at least 5 years old and in public, in my blog Creative Thinkering:

“World's creative genius online,
most prolific writer of non-fiction:
Frank A Hilario, Guru”

Thank God, going on 81, since January 2020, I have blogged every single day an essay of a minimum 500 words each – I have created several blogs along the way, the latest being: Asa Ka Pa!, Brave New World, THiNK DiFFERENT, and the latest ToCA: Towards Organic Cooperative Agriculture. (But now I have gone back to Brave New World as you can see the name above what you’re reading.) The blog names themselves will tell you how I think about what I think.

Encourage students to write, yes – but before that, encourage them to read first. They will not be able to appreciate their own writing if they have not read brilliant or creative or inspirational writing from first-rate writers and/or first-rate minds.

Since 2005, I have blogged at least 5,000 long essays of 1,000+ words each – and that is not a joke. And I have published at least 10 books authored by me, subjects from ICRISAT science to Indios Bravos: Jose Rizal As Messiah Of The Revolution.

A good education is on Thinking. A good education in thinking is Reading. Want to write like crazy? Read like crazy! That’s how to open many windows – then you can choose the one(s) you love.@517

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[1]https://www.esquiremag.ph/long-reads/what-ive-learned/we-remember-washington-sycip-through-his-words-of-wisdom-a00011-a1521-a1881-20171008-lfrm

I, The Wizard Of Ws

This is all about those Wonderful “Ws.” What you’re looking at above is a collage created by Windows 10itself on 26 April 2018 in my workroom-bedroom 04:05 in the morning – I took the photograph with my Lumix FZ100 digital zoom (my long shadow I superimposed only yesterday).

Anyway, what exactly did I do to cause Windows 10 to work out a hidden wonder? I don’t know. But I’m glad it did. You never know what you cannot do until it’s done!

What I want to point out is this: A jumble of ideas, that’s how my mind works most of the time. So, if you are an aspiring writer, take heart!

This time, I decided not to give you a formula for writing, simply encouraging words.

At 80 going 81, thank God, how could I have blogged every single day in the last 17 months? Explanation: The “Wonder of Ws” expressed as “WFH.”

WFH:
Windows For Home. Version 10, I have been using for the last 7 years. Happily.

WFH:
Work From Home? No, Werk From Home – it’s not work if you love what you’re doing!

WFH:
Workhorse For Hours. Lenovo ThinkPad laptop, since 2013. Great!

WFH:
Werk From Home Fibr. PLDT, fast.

WFH:
Word From Heaven. No, I never write or rewrite my draft with a ballpen; yes, I always work with Microsoft Word.

WFH:
Word From Hell. A hell of an app, Word has helped me desktop-publish several volumes, including a coffee-table book for the Agricultural Credit Policy Council.

WFH:
Word From Here. When I open Word, automatically and at once it shows a long list of recent files I have been working on. How convenient is that?!

WFH:
Write From Habit. Make it a habit to write; then it becomes easier and easier.

WFH:
Write From Hate? No, Write For Help. I write to help, not hate.

WFH:
Wait For Hints? Sometimes.

WFH:
Wait For Hope? Better: Write From Hope!

WFH:
Write Furniture to Have? I have an executive chair, a 4-compartment computer table, another table for my HP 4-color desktop printer.

WFH:
What Fan to Have. I have a swinging little electric fan on top of the computer table. On the wall, a medium-sized Conduraaircon.

WFH:
What Food to Have. Packets of Milo, Twin Packs Nescafé Brown, an occasional ready-to-cook pork tapa from the variety store a few houses away. Easy to fry – I love it! Often, bananas – lacatanand saba (Ilocano dippig), thanks to my wife Ampy.

WFH:
Wash From Here. My daughter Gracielatakes care of my unclean clothes, brings to the laundry shop a tricycle drive away – or has them washed at our washing machine right outside my room.

WFH:
Watch Fireflies Here. We live in the countryside where a few feet away is Mother Nature. There is also a climbable mountain in the distance.

WFH:
Write From Habit. If you want to be a good writer, you have to cultivate the habit of writing.

WFH:
Write For Hours. Mostly, enjoy!

WFH:
Work for FH? No, Wonderful for FH! I love my Ws!@517

“Happy Mother’s Day!” To Amparo “Ampy” Medina Reynoso-Hilario

 

My wife looks like that most of the time, a caring woman, if strict, passionate. I took that photograph with my Eastman Kodak handy camera, point & shoot, 17 years ago, on Sunday, 13 June 2004. Always a simple lady, born 30 October 1945, she was 59 years old; I was 64. I loved her the first time I saw her!

Got married in Bay, Laguna 18 March 1967, birthday of her father, Gabriel Reynosofrom Tayabas, Quezon; she did nottell me – did not tell her father either, and he was mad! (When you are in love, you do foolish things.) Tagalog, Ilocano – extrovert, introvert. 

Our children:

Cristina Marie (Tina)
Jose Mario (Jomar)
Maria Lorena (Dida)
Paul Benjamin (Jay)
Teresa Leonor (Techie)
Cynthia Mae (Cynthia)
Julio Salvador (Dinggoy)
Jennifer Claire (Jenny)
Ernest Charles (+) (Ernie)
Daphne Cassandra (Daphne)
Neenah Bonafe (Neenah)
Edwin Dante (Edwin)
Graciela Antonia (Ela).

No, I cannot remember the dates of birth. Too many! I have to ask Ela, #13.

Ela was barely 7 months old when Amparo Medina Reynoso and Frank Agapito Hilario joined the New Year’s Day 1991 Marriage Encounter (ME) Seminar sponsored by the Bukás Loób sa Díyos (BLD) Community, now the BLD San Pablo District. I readily joined because I knew I had been not as much a loving husband as I should, and Ampy wasn’t perfect either! (I learned much later she had doubted that I would say “Yes” to the ME invitation – we never talked church or religion! It’s a long story but at that time I was already an agnostic.)

As ME prerequisite, we had to get married in church; we chose the San Antonio Parish Church and got a church wedding 29 December 1990. Note the name “Graciela Antonia” – Ela was born on the feast day of San Antonio De Padua.

The church wedding and ME brought us closer, much closer – I am not a very demonstrative person, unlike my wife. Look at the above photograph again: She is all smiles as she offers the whole bunch of luscious-looking rambutan. (As luscious as those lips!)

Many years ago, I asked her why she chose me among her several suitors, including a Professor of UP Los Baños, and I was only an Instructor. She said it was because I was the only one who made her laugh! Ha, ha. I don’t remember any of the jokes, but they must have come from the pages of the Reader's Digest, my favorite reading matter when I was in high school in Asingan, Pangasinan. And how could I have afforded to buy that magazine when the Dionisio Hilarios were not well-to-do? The library of our school, Rizal Junior College (HS Dept) was well-stocked with reading matter: books of classic English literature, American magazines like Life, Newsweek, and Time. I was a lucky voracious reader.

Differently, Ampy took up Stenography and, as she was good at it, she passed the government exam. She chose Los Baños as first priority of assignment. And that’s how we met. And the rest is our story.@517

Marshall McLuhan Revised: “The Message Is The Message”

My title: That’s what I’m saying as a teacher (University of the Philippines '65, PH Civil Service, Professional Level, year beforegraduation), and as a self-taught digital person: Author’s Editor, Blogger, Digital Publisher, and Technical Editor in Agriculture and Forestry publications & books, plural.

Main image: One of my early-morning photographs of ricefields in my hometown Asingan, Pangasinan, taken early morning during the opening day of the 8^th National Rice Forum held 30 March 2019 and sponsored by the Department of Agriculture (DA): Senior DA Technical Adviser SRO had told me about it. The message of the composite image: “The shadows undermine our geniuses as we are overjoyed by our conduct of webinars” (inset image of a webinar[1] from Better Meetings). As of today, our webinars are in fact worse than our seminars because they overwhelm everyone!

Compared to 2019, if you browse Facebooktoday, you will not miss webinars, or seminars either having been, being, or to be conducted over the Web (Internet). Now, what I can say is that whether in my country the Philippines, or in India or the United States:

All those webinars are not maximizing the powers (plural) of the Internet: aural and textual and visual and mixed – and are ignoring the virtual (pun intended) ease of drama.Not to mention repetition.

I go back to Canadian communication theorist Marshall McLuhan and what he minded in 1964 (in his book Understanding Media: The Extensions Of Man) – “The medium is the message.” If I understand him right, he meant you must use the medium, in its most attractive form, to convey your message.

And what are the presentors in today’s webinars doing with their medium, messages and materials?

If the medium is the message, then a webinar presentation is more than a paper with very readable texts, plenty of data-filled tables, and very pleasing images – it is a single idea that plays on the mind over and over again. Even after the webinar is over.

Ha, ha.

Having come out with that insight, I now revise McLuhan: “The Message is The Message.” Forget the medium! I mean, beginning with a Main Message, the webinar speaker should build up the presentation to expound on that main message – repeating without repeating – the same message but varying in shape, size and signs! The mixed powers of the Internet.

What is happening in webinars today is what has been happening in seminars – the papers presented are manuscripts designed to be published in journals, not to be presented as memorable visual cum textual contents.

We have forgotten that a presentation must be memorable; otherwise, it is forgettable, even if astounding in impact and details – it’s the Message, not the Medium!

So, I am revising Marshall McLuhan: “The message is the message.” If you don’t have a clear, coherent, concrete & concise message, you are wasting everyone’s time.

Whether you have only 5 minutes or 50 minutes for your presentation, your audience will forget your mix of text, audio & video – but not your message: If you got it right!@517

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[1]https://bettermeetings.expert/blog/webinar-best-practices-formats-engaging-interactive-webinars/

Reinventing A.G.R.I.C.U.L.T.U.R.E., Celebrating May As Farmers’ & Fishers’ Month

As a communicator for development (ComDev) in the broad science of Agriculture and related fields, differently I am celebrating May as The Month for Farmers & Fishers. As my photograph above indicates, we must collectively work towards farmers & fishers having happy children, not necessarily feeling rich but feeling happy!

I am celebrating by way of this acronym:

Appropriate ways & means.
Greens.
Research continuing.
Information from practices.
Cooperative.
Unselfish & unsung.
Learning for everyone.
Technical knowledge.
Understanding needs.
Relationships cultivated.
Ecology & economics.

A.G.R.I.C.U.L.T.U.R.E. – 11 letters taken not as separate parts but a whole-in-one, the components making a complete package.

Appropriate ways & means.
Methods or manners must be shown to be technologically feasible as well as economically viable as well as environmentally sound as well as socially acceptable. Climate-smart as well as client-smart. Organic farmingis one such complete package. Some tools and techniques fail to satisfy those 4 requirements that must always come together. There are many breakthroughs but only few great-throughs.

Greens.
Appropriate food crops for humans and animals. They must be grown in environment-friendly ways, not contributing to the pollution of bodies. Organic agriculture is black, but I see it as the one to grow the greens.

Research continuing.
For new or improved ways & means. But in the end, any of those new or improved ways or means must prove to be Appropriate (see above).

Information from practices. Feedback from the field is important, nay necessary.

Cooperative spirit. As we are witnessing today, cooperative agriculture is the Name of the Game where everyone wins! In a cooperative, you compete for people, not against.

Unselfish & unsung. No, the medium is not the message. Yes, the medium and message in one is what is important, not the messenger.

Learning for everyone. There is always room for improvement or advancement in whatever one is doing.

Technical knowledge. What research brings out is technical in language. So that a 3^rd year high schooler can understand and explain to the father farmer who happens to be illiterate, the need for science to be translated into popular language cannot be over-emphasized.

Understanding needs. Everyone concerned must be aware and take to heart Abraham Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs.”

Relationships cultivated. Progress is best achieved when people and positions come together for one common goal. The title of my new blog tells us with whatand how to do – Towards Organic Cooperative Agriculture.

Economics: In the end, it must redound to the good of everyone in society. In agriculture, that especially concerns the poor farmers and fishers whom we must assist to rise from poverty and stay up there!

Yes, ComDev (communication for development) is my extension model, not DevCom (development communication). With acronym sharply contrasting, in 1980 I invented ComDev as a contradistinctive choice for encouraging people to adopt new or improved technologies or systems – while DevCom is content with one or two stories related, ComDev is a series of related stories cultivating belief and acceptance – such as via this blog.

Campaigning for A.G.R.I.C.U.L.T.U.R.E., give me ComDev anytime!@517

Filipino Militant Press Cultivating Apí-Culture And I, Agri-Culture

Yesterday, Monday, 03 May 2021, was “World Press Freedom Day” as declared by UNESCO, and some Filipinos celebrated the day specially because Filipina Maria Ressa, CEO of Rappler, won the “World Press Freedom Prize 2021.” Miss Maria has been practicing “Journalism Without Fear Or Favor.”
(“Without Fear Or Favour” image[1] from Bush Radio)

A journalist myself, with 45 years experience, I did not celebrate because I know the award will attract even more ill-will towards the lady, who believes she is trying hard to do good for her country. Note that the logo-type is rendered such that it shows the opposite of what it is saying: “Journalism with fear or favor.” Ironically, in practice that is what the current journalism is – unfortunately.

Prize or no prize, my journalism is of Agri-Culture – the Science of Agriculture serving the hierarchy of needs of the Filipino people in their varied native cultures, plural, such as Aeta, Bisaya, Ibanag, Ilocano, Isneg, Muslim, Pampango, Pangasinense, and Tagalog.

And so am I trying hard to do good for Miss Maria’s country, which happens to be mine, following the UNESCO slogan: ”Information As A Public Good.” Actually, Miss Maria handles information differently, limiting the public good to exposing the private bad!

Her journalism is what I call “Truth Journalism“ while I call mine “THiNK! Journalism.” And yes, we are pursuing our works in 2 entirely different fields – she in Politics and I in Agriculture. She is cultivating “Api-Culture,” where “apí” is a Filipino word meaning “abused, maltreated or oppressed.” And I am cultivating “Agri-Culture,” where agri is abbreviation for “agriculture” and separately “culture” refers to us Filipinos as a culture within which our practice of agriculture must fit in a sustainable way and help us grow in knowledge and justice as a country.

Inevitably, Miss Maria’s practice of apí-culture leads to a clash of wills and, with politicians, that will is strengthened by position and influence both overt and covert. You can’t win if your “foe” has political power and uses it to the utmost as s/he may think necessary. And s/he is not awed by the power emanating from a World Press Freedom Prize.

In that case, I will never win the UNESCO World Press Freedom Prize or some such thing because I practice my journalism with the voiceless and never will win public attention because I follow the careful steps of Secretary of Agriculture William Dar and not try to find fault with any of the policies and procedures of the Department of Agriculture (DA) emanating from his “Servant Leadership” as he himself terms it. Nobody is perfect!

Yes, my journalism for Agri-Culture is based on the UNESCO slogan, “Information As A Public Good” (image[2] from UNESCO). I call it THiNK! Journalism, where I start with the question, “Is it true?” and proceed thus:

If True, is it Helpful?
If Helpful, is it Inspiring?
If Inspiring, is it Necessary?
If Necessary, is it Kind?
If Kind, go write ahead!

I am always avoiding the private bad and looking for the public good!@517

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[1]https://bushradio.wordpress.com/tag/unesco/

[2]https://en.unesco.org/creativity/news/debating-arts-creativity-public-goods-during-world

Women Journalists, “Access Is The New Civil Right” – The Black Wall Street Times. I say, “THiNK! Before You Access”

03 May 2021 is “World Press Freedom Day[1]” and worldwide, more than the men, women journalists are celebrating. For Filipinas, the big news is our very own Pinay journalist Maria Ressa, CEO of Rappler, received her “World Press Freedom Prize for 2021” yesterday, Sunday.

At the same time, the women journalists are bewailing the fact that they have become victims of harassment of one kind or another, not to mention threatened rape or imprisonment. Actually, sorry to say this, but it’s the women journalists who are endangering themselves!

About my title quote, I say, “Access to what is key.” If you ask Maria Ressa, she will reply, “Access to the facts.” The dream of every journalist – access to the facts. I shall call their practice Truth Journalism.

And Frank A Hilario’s kind he calls THiNK! Journalism. The THiNK! part comes from Zig Ziglar, and I ask a series of questions to myself. The first: “Is it True?”

If True, is it Helpful?
If Helpful, is it Inspiring?
If Inspiring, is it Necessary?
If Necessary, is it Kind?
If Kind, go write ahead!

Let me note that my THiNK! Journalism, though not in name, officially began on 16 April 1975, or 45 years ago, when I was employed by the Forest Research Institute (FORI), where I became the founding and Editor In Chief of 3 FORI publications: monthly newsletter Canopy, quarterly technical journal Sylvatrop, and quarterly color magazine Habitat. Yes, that is all in forestry – but you see, a journalist is a jack of all trades, a master of some.

In 2005, I began contributing to the digital American Chronicle. When that US-based media expired for some reason, I began blogging on my topics of choice. In 2007, I began blogging for the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), which is mainly agriculture – and which fits my background as I am a BS Agriculture graduate of UP Los Baños.

THiNK! Journalism is my brainchild. I invented it 3 years ago, on 22 October 2017 – see my essay “Think! Journalism: Calling For Nobler Kinds Of People In Media[2]” (24 October 2017, Creative Thinkering, blogspot.com).

Why am I discussing my kind of journalism? Because I pity the world’s beautiful lady journalists – they do not realize that they themselves are actually the ones asking for trouble! Because they are just after the Truth and do not think some more.

I shall continue to think & write for Filipino farmers & fishers, especially those below the poverty line. Today I invite journalists all over the world, male & female, to practice THiNK! Journalism, where Truth is only the Start. For Maria Ressaand her Rappler media group, I am prescribing the medicine with the commercial name of THiNK! which is good for the Body, Mind and Spirit.

All for the glory of God and the welfare of the Filipino people, especially in these islands the millions of farmers and fishers whose lives are deprived and destitute!@517

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[1]https://en.unesco.org/commemorations/worldpressfreedomday

[2]http://creativethinkering.blogspot.com/2017/10/think-journalism-calling-for-nobler.html