The ATI Goes After “Smartphones” – I Go After “SmartFarmers”

Is this good news coming from the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI)? “Smartphones, Social Media Become Vital Tools For Farmers Under This Digital Farming Course[1]” (Betheena Unite, 30 July 2021, MB.com.ph):

Farmers Go Digital – A farmer-youth tandem completes the hands-on activity on smartphone familiarization under the Digital Farmers Program (DFP) training conducted by Agricultural Training Institute Region 2. 
(above image from ATI Region 2)

What the ATI is trying is “to build a pool of digitally-adept farmers and agriculturally-involved youth nationwide.” Farmers better at working their smartphones.

The next stage of the ATI training is the DFP to be conducted this August:

The DFP 102 this August will center on in-depth agriculture applications and the utilization of social media and smartphones to improve both farming efficiency and productivity.

After this course, participants should be able to identify and use agri-related applications from both government and private organizations, as well as social media platforms that will enhance their practices.

I can see that all that is for farmers to be good at social media – but not to be good farmers! For the simple reason that social media does not yet present a single Digital Library of Smart Farming.

“Data literacy leads to business results” says the above image quote I found on Facebook (Udemy Business); if that is correct, then it is correct to say, thinking about agriculture, “Science literacy leads to better farming results.”

So we need first to build a science-&-knowledge-filled library of agriculture to help people learn to become better farmers.

Not a single one of the websites of ATI, DA, IRRI, and PhilRice gives you options if you asked for them. For instance, you wanted to plant hybrid rice. Using your smartphone, you type “hybrid rice” (including the double quotes for precision), and none of those websites will show you a list of all hybrid rices available in the Philippines.

I visit the IRRI website (irri.org) and type “hybrid rice,” and it shows me a page with 387 words explaining what “hybrid rice” means, etcetera – nothing else. Still on the website, when I search further for “hybrid rice varieties,” I am shown a countless number of text & image entries but no list of the varieties! Same with the PhilRice website (philrice.gov.ph) and ATI website (ati.da.gov.ph). No list.

All those are old-style websites that keep on adding news & info to the current content but hardly discuss new or improved technology or system in agriculture!

Here are 2 entries in that IRRI webpage:

«Facilitating the development of close partnerships between the public and private sectors to promote hybrid rice research and development

«Carrying out multi-location varietal trials to select the best hybrid rice for different environments.

So, IRRI is still promoting public-private hybrid rice R&D. When will it end?

Instead, IRRI should be promoting the “promising results” of its R&D. That would be a good part of the Digital Library of Smart Farming!

We need a smart library first, and then we can come up with SmartFarmers using their smartphones.@517

---

[1]https://mb.com.ph/2021/07/30/smartphones-social-media-become-vital-tools-for-farmers-under-this-digital-farming-course/?fbclid=IwAR0IUeVjWXLYpuvhdVBLPkdM8zpZldLn2W1CvV0nKHgRMwPuNkFv3wdrmqw

Ms Marguerite Feeling Guilty Spokening English – Me Feeling Gifted

Look at Marguerite De Leon of Rappler – unashamed to display the languages of body & tattoos, ashamed to display the English language at the first sign of casual conversation!

(MDL’s half body[1] from Rappler)

Ms Marguerite has written about her feeling guilty spokening English – “The Guilt Of Being Born And Raised Filipino, But Having English As Your First Language[2]” (18 August 2020, Rappler.com). “Spokening English” in my title above is of course a Filipino corruption of “speaking in English,” either an apology for speaking in that tongue, or attempt to shame someone who is.

We Filipinos are downgrading our own cultural abilities such as by being ashamed of communicating in English at anytime.

Ms Marguerite says:

English is my first language, the one I hear in my head when I think, the one that just rolls right out of me when I need to convey something, anything.

I Frank A Hilario am an FBI, full-blooded Ilocano, but English is my first language when I think, especially when I write – and I blog every single day.

Rappler says Ms Marguerite is head of its Opinion Section:

She is also a fictionist, and came out with her first collection of short stories, People In Panic, in 2015.

English. Instead of being ashamed spokening English, Ms Marguerite should be encouraging people to learn more English than they already know! Because, especially the American version, English is the world’s currency in information, intelligence and insights.

Ms Marguerite says:

I was born and raised in Metro Manila, to fully Filipino parents, in a fully Filipino household, and had never based myself outside of the country. But if you told me to hold a conversation or write an essay in the Filipino language right now, you would be subjecting me to a daunting, maybe even frightening, task.

Miss Marguerite, that’s your story – you cannot rewrite it, so don’t try to! It’s your advantage: claim it.

My story is that I am a farmer’s son, not poor but not rich, and I learned to feel enriched with the English language, British and/or American, when I was in high school, private, with the library full of books (many world classics), westerns and detective stories with legal twists (Perry Mason books by Earl Stanley Gardner) and readables such as LOOK, Newsweek, Reader's Digest – that’s how this introvert learned to love the English language to the death!

That English love turned to writing, that turned to editing, that turned to digital writing, digital editing, digital publishing – and blogging, which I have been doing every single day in the last 19 months.

I blog in Agriculture in favor of the social good of Filipino farmers starting with technology. I search for knowledge and experience via the Internet in mostly spoken in English anywhere in the world. After all, English is the universal language.

I employ my own theory that I call Communication for Development, and I have a blog by that name. Ms Marguerite, I invite you to read me spokening English!@517
https://communicationfordevelopmentphcomdev.blogspot.com).

---

[1]https://www.rappler.com/authorm/arguerite-de-leon

[2]https://www.rappler.com/voices/rappler-blogs/opinion-guilt-being-born-raised-filipino-english-first-language?utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR1ryf6--9a6Yz1Rp2jErk5tIXlyhjuWB3gh1b-xDXAs0Vk8_JUL7c9eHqI#Echobox=1623567095

PH Universities With High World Rankings By QS, What Do They Care About?

“We care!” It’s 4:30 AM, Wednesday, 28 July 2021 in Manila. I just woke up from a dream, and that’s the thought, exact 2 words that woke me up.

Unfortunately, UST and other PH universities don’t care! We have had no Internet since 3 days ago; we paid 1 week ago – on his birthday, I cannot Facebook-greet SRO “Happy 86!” PLDTHomeFibr doesn’t care! (I had to predate this one.)

“We care” is free, something you can find only on Facebook – if you have Internet.

Above image, proudly shared on Facebook via Varsitarian.net: “UST Becomes First PH University With 5-Star QS Rating.” How do UST people rate themselves in terms of National Development? (Don’t answer.)

The article by Jacqueline B Martinez (21 July 2021) says, “UST has become the first and only higher education institution (HEI) in the Philippines with a five-star Quacquarelli-Symonds (QS) rating.” Details:

QS recognized UST’s Doctor of Medicine program as its specialization and gave it a perfect score in graduate employability as well as high scores in completion and student satisfaction and accreditation.

5-Star QS means UST is the perfect university for medical students, especially in employability.

Of the seven other categories on which the rating was based, the University secured five stars in teaching, employability, internationalization and facilities.

What about the awareness on and knowledge of the current realities in the Philippines in Medicine?

I’m sure the answer is: “Hardly any.” So what is there for UST to brag about when the country needs it the most and UST cannot help?

The QS is an international index of prestige, not of patriotism, not of service to country. The QS is a Boy’s Bragging, not a Man’s Measure of Love of Country!

So, how can UST as a whole contribute to the overall good of the country? And I ask of the other higher educational institutions (HEIs) in the Philippines, including my alma mater, the University of the Philippines.

Well, you might argue, we UP students take to the streets every now and then! And I counter, but we only denounce the bad news as we see it – not announce the good news because we don’t see it!

So, is Medicine the 5-Star problem of the country today? No, it’s Lack of Love of fellowmen. All HEIs must help fill it. The solution is already there: The Ten Commandments.

How much of a Christian are you? How many stars out of The Ten Commandments can you boast you deserve?

1.  I am the Lord your God. You shall not have strange gods before me.

2.  You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

3.  You shall keep holy the Sabbath.

4.  Honor your father and your mother.

5.  You shall not kill.

6.  You shall not commit adultery.

7.  You shall not steal.

8.  You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

9.  You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.

10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.

Do you care?@517

Original Conceptually, “Communication For Development” – By Frank A Hilario, Published In 1980

Above, only 6 individual images show in the single photograph, but I say there is a 7^thimage. What!? It’s the whole view, from which to derive a single, overall meaning! (See also my last sentence below.)

The above is that of a providential Windows 10 collage in my extension ViewSonic screen, photograph taken by me with my Lumix FZ100 digital camera on 06 May 2018. As far as I can tell, the included images are all mine, lodged in my Lenovo ThinkPad 500 GB laptop. Those are among my available collection of 10,347 photos (no duplicates) dating back 2004; actually, I have more – I have also lost about 20,000 images by my error in reformatting my hard disk in the previous, smaller laptop (Lenovo IdeaPad).

I selected that photograph when I saw the upper left image is that of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) with its slogan “Science with a human face,” and the lower middle image, that of William Dar, then Director General of ICRISAT (from 2000 to 2014), which is based in India, now the current PH Secretary of Agriculture. Talk about coincidences! (Remember, the collage is Windows’, not mine.)

Above is a lesson in Insight, a necessary component of my Theory of Communication for Development (C4D) that I have been blogging about (old acronym “ComDev”) since 2005. In my current list, those C4D concepts I have blogged or will be blogging about are these:

1. Advice from Age for Development (AA4D). Wisdom with years
2. Education for Development (E4D): Updating knowledge
3. Extension for Development (Ex4D); Media, including digital
4.  Insight for Development (In4D): Intuition, faith
5. Proposal for Development (Pr4D): New projects/concepts
6. Prescription for Development (Rx4D): Given public/private aids
7. Research for Development (R4D): The very first one I thought of, 41 years after! publishing “Communication for Development” (Sylvatrop December 1980). Googling, I find other people’s “Communication for Development” concepts I have to differentiate mine.

From William Dar, “Research for Development.” From Frank A Hilario, “Communication for Development.” Perfect combination!

For me, “Development” means Growth with Sustainability up to National – starting from the Village. After “It takes a village to raise a child.”

The components of my concepts comprising C4D are, alphabetically arranged:

(1)   Demonstrations– technologies & systems

(2)   Digital records of anything & everything related to agriculture & fisheries

(3)   Insights –seeming truths from previous observations

(4)   Interviewswith participants in a program, project, or activity

(5)   Perspectives– opinions/views on anything

(6)   Photographs– digital/digitalized, from anyone

(7)   Theories – new, workable concepts.

Website above all – where any/all the above 7 are accessible, and by which understanding of the C4D components as listed above may be reached. Including theoretical articles about communicationand development in themselves.

Today, I am adopting as slogan for C4D this: “Science with a village face” – which I proudly borrow from the slogan of Mr Dar as head of ICRISAT, based in India (I am based in the Philippines). Now follows a proverb reinvented: “It takes a village to probe science!”@517

Want Your Book, Newsletter Or Magazine Out Fast? Print-On-Demand!

After Edit-On-Demand. I am saying the best way to come out with a publication nowadays is Print-On-Demand. Unbelievably fast! You email your edited book manuscript to the printer today, you get 50 copies the next day ready for business.
(Above, original print-on-demand image[1] by designhill.com)

For your book, newsletter or magazine, you need a digital Editor-on-Demand! You need Me. In digital-editing a book, with revisions where I feel necessary, I can finish in 24 days. Ready-to-print – that is after desktop publishing (DTP), where I format texts, format columns, format sections, format & position images.

Yes, I am a one-man-band when it comes to editing and desktop publishing – even including writing in the first place.

I have been doing my version of editing-on-demand (although I did not call it that) since 1997, or 34 years almost.

So: If you have any of these: a newsletter or a journal to publish, book to write and publish – if you want the best writer or editor or layout artist or desktop publisher, call me!

If you want your lessons free, just read the essays in my blog, just browse, and I’m sure you will get lots of ideas you can use: how to think differently, how to express disagreement without being disagreeable, how to tell an old story in a new way…..

Now, read about me:

During those typewriter-writing & paper-printing press years starting 1975:

Even as I am an Agriculturist (BSA major in Ag Edu, UP '65), and with a 1964 Civil Service Professional license, officially, I began as a writer for Forestry, working from 1975 to 1981 as the founder & Editor in Chief of all 3 major publications of the Forest Research Institute (FORI): monthly newsletter Canopy, quarterly technical journal Sylvatrop, and quarterly color magazine Habitat. How good was I? Those publications made FORI popular nationally and internationally.

During these digital writing & publishing years starting 1985:

I began learning word processing (worping, my coinage) with WordStar1 on Innocents Day, 28 December 1985. In 1987, I began learning by myself Microsoft Word 4 – and I tried all subsequent versions, and now I’m using Word 2016.

I learned to blog sometime in 2005. I have blogged at least 6,000 essays with a total of at least 6 million words. My topics are mostly agriculture, communication for development – including the application of the Internet for advancing farmer knowledge.

The books I have authored and desktop published myself include 7 books printed commercially by the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) based in India. My latest book is Jose Rizal As First Thinking Filipino (159 pages, published 19 June 2021, available free in pdf, just email me: frankahilario@gmail.com).

In other words, whatever is your need in working with books, journals, newsletters and other kinds of publications, if you want a worry-free and fast worker for any of those, call me. You’ll be glad you did!@517

---

[1]https://www.designhill.com/design-blog/what-is-print-on-demand-how-to-start-a-print-on-demand-business/

Knowledge Management – Here’s Microsoft Office Mastered By A Filipino Journalist

Microsoft should be giving me an international award or something. I am a self-made millionaire! when it comes to publishing online – I have so far blogged 6 million+ words from 6 thousand+ essays since 2005 using MS Word. Some subjects: agriculture, forestry, extension, leadership, creativity, blogging.

How can I identify journalists anywhere in the world who have yet to master their app like Word 2016? Easy, as they do not blog – master of your worp (my shortcut for word processor), you want to blog to reach more readers more often, not encumbered by newspaper or magazine media.

I have always been a writer since I discovered my talent for writing, in senior high school yet, in 1959. Taking my BSA at UP Los Baños 1959-1965, I wrote in the student paper Aggie Green & Gold. From 1975 to 1981, I was writer, founder and Editor In Chief of the 3 publications of the Forest Research Institute (FORI): monthly newsletter Canopy, quarterly technical journal Sylvatrop, and quarterly popular magazine Habitat. With dinosaurs (large typewriters), I made FORI internationally known & respected.

My digital world started with WordStar 1 on Innocents Day, 28 December 1985. Since then, my constant companion in writing, editing, layouting, desktop publishing and blogging has been Microsoft’s worp.

I first used Microsoft Word in 1987, version 4, and I never left. That means I have been a Microsoft faithful for 34 years: Word 5, Word 97, Word XP… Word 2013, today Word 2016. I have been using Office 2016since about 3 years ago, and found this app very, very apt in my blogging.
(above, Word 2016 image[1] from My Choice Software)

My son Jomar graciously purchased for me a software license to use Office 365; the problem is I find it confusing, because it presents an entirely uncharted territory! This is a modern app that makes an old hand feel obsolete.
(above, Office 365 image[2] from Computerworld)

Microsoft, what you done to Microsoft Office!?

Going back 1987: Word 97 I used in my first desktop publishing work, a book by a friend, OK Bautistatitled Introduction To Horticulture. No, that version of Word is notdedicated to desktop publishing, but I could already format texts, columns and sections with it.

From 2003 to 2008, I used Word 2002 solely for editing and desktop publishing (DTP) the quarterly Philippine Journal of Crop Science (PJCS). I learned all my DTP studying my worp how to do columns, sections, image positions etcetera. I did not use any DTP software like Aldus PageMaker or Microsoft Publisher – and was happy with the results, and yes, PJCS was happier, being finally accepted in the international elite list called “ISI” after being non-ISI for 25 years since its birth!

I have already desktop published about 20 books using from Word 1997 to Word 2016 in the last 14 years. My next stop? Word2019. Oh yes, at 80+ years of age, I’m as excited as any smart teenager about to receive a smartphone eager to learn to use it!@517

---

[1]https://www.mychoicesoftware.com/blogs/news/10-things-for-beginners-to-know-using-word-2016

[2]https://www.computerworld.com/article/3445216/word-for-office-365-cheat-sheet.html

PH Journalism from PNoy to PDutz – Dissent Or Assent Or Ascent? The Choice Is Yours!

Philippines, my Philippines: Journalism is notsimply a play of words – as a self-styled journalist for national development, to me it is a way of life! For the last 46 years, since 1975.

Journalism of Old:On Facebook, top image, Rapplersays, “Dissent = Duty.” Below (which I hid), it says: “Dissent is not a crime. Stand up for your rights.” Emphasis on Dissent, emphasis on Rights. Journalists as Knights in Shining Armors.

Journalism of New:I agree with Rappler above, but as a journalist, I do not practice “Dissent.” Yet, instead of the practice of the mere opposite, “Assent,” what I practice is “Ascent.” The difference is great! Ascent to lofty ideals.
(image of “assent vs ascent[1]” from Dictionary.com)

Setting aside the continuing Covid-19 pandemic lockdown restrictions, it is easy to dislike the current administration of PDutz because of the politics being played and the policing being parlayed – but I always like to challenge myself, to ascend from the easy Negative to the challenging Positive. That is called Creativity. Challenge yourself with creativity sometime!

You cannot ascend thus if you limit yourself to the happenings that you see & hear around you, or see & hear on TV, or see and hear online. This is a job for Supermind!

No, you do not have to look blindly, as with the lady above with a blinder, and in red yet! There is a Supermind, a Genius within us – if only we dig deeper inside our individual heads. The lady is not a tramp, but she is not a trump either. (A “trump" is a winning suit in a card game; and the word “trump” reminds you of the do-gooder American President Donald J Trump, whom I admire by the way.)

Watch your attitude! Watch your language! Watch your mind!

“What can you do to uphold Human Rights?” is a legitimate question, but I would rather ask and answer another legitimate question: “What can you do to advance Human Good?” And I translate that into a doable question: “What can you do for the good of millions of Filipino farm families?”

Uphold is Assent; Advance is Ascend.

I graduated in 1965 from the University of the Philippines (UP) as an agriculturist and a teacher, BSA major in Ag Edu. I came up with my own theory of journalism that I called “Communication for Development (ComDev)” in 1980, which I published in the technical journal of Forest Research Institute (FORI) called Sylvatrop, of which I was Editor In Chief, and which I founded. Where UPLB’s “Development Communication (DevCom)” is not essentially dedicated to development, ComDev is, by the full name itself.

So, I do not communicate to the Filipino people with my eyes on blindfold!

So I have been helping advance the “New Thinking for Agriculture” William Dar has been promoting even before PDutz appointed him 05 August 2019 Secretary of Agriculture (see his column “The ‘New Thinking’ For Agriculture[2],” 13 June 2019, Manilatimes.net). To the whole idea, I assent!@517

---

[1]https://www.dictionary.com/e/assent-vs-ascent/

[2]https://www.manilatimes.net/2019/06/13/business/agribusiness/the-new-thinking-for-agriculture/568614