The UP Diliman image
above is from Getty (gettyimages.com). I see, “With the dark light of Farmer Poverty, in PH Agriculture, that is all the
brightness that we can see!”
So, there has been
a surge of Latin honors – “that over 60% of UP Diliman’s graduating class were
awarded Latin honors” – and that called for “sashes upon sashes flowing like a
river of gold and crimson across the amphitheater.” All deserved, yes.
And here lies the heart of the matter: UP is being
called to attention not because it has faltered, but
because it leads.
Yes?
But not in
Agriculture!
I must blame the
UP Los Baños economists ever since 19-forgotten for not studying their science
and therefore coming up short in their agriculture!
Is it: “Too Late The
Hero!”?
Remember: UP was
born in Los Baños in March 1908; note that the latest news is that farmers are
among the poorest (31%) in 2024 according to the Philiippine Statistical Authority. As a farmer;s son. I know
you cannot be lazy as the son or farmer himself!
Our alma mater UP
has been no help at all in solving Farmer Poverty!
“When Everyone
Shines: A Personal Reflection on the Surge of Latin Honors” at UP by Rolando Q Mallari – I say: “Some
graduates shine, but none of the farmers do!”
There was a time when to be a cum laude at the
University of the Philippines meant something almost mythic. I remember it
vividly – those grueling years in UP during the late 1970s and early 1980s. We
wore our weariness like a second skin. There was no Internet to search for
quick answers, no mental health breaks, no asynchronous lectures to replay when
we faltered. Just books we had to hunt for in the Main Library, professors who
pushed us to the brink, and long nights when the only light came from the
flicker of a desk lamp and the distant hum of the electric fan.
Today, the
academic honors come – all too easily to too many students and academicians all
too fast?
No, Mr Mallari
says, “Because I know UP. And UP does not give away excellence.”
How
about UP does not give away poverty?!
As a teacher
myself, BSA Ag Ed 1965 and son of a farmer:
“This generation – these young minds – came of age not
in a time of peace and stability, but during a global reckoning. They studied
while the world shut down. They learned while mourning. They kept going amid a
pandemic that redefined human existence. Their classrooms were not shielded
spaces – they were battlegrounds of resilience.
I want not simply
resilience but excellence, not simply high incomes but conquest of
poverty for all farmers!@517
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