HOW IT WAS.

Compiled from my previous Facebook posts. 

“Sailing” toy boats, mostly made of paper or cardboard, by the ditch was a favorite child’s play in my time. Since rains are a perennial nature’s way back home, there’s always a steady stream of mild water on the ditch by the street after a downpour. So while waiting for rain to subside or stop, I’d craft my little “boats” and then hollered at playmate friends for a boat race. We usually wagered toy comic cards or “teks” or rare soda lids. Fun! ⛵️🛶⛵️

Traditional irrigation. Basin, check basin, furrow and strip irrigation. Each of these methods is suited for particular crops and land-types. The Qanats, developed in ancient Persia about 800 BCE, are among the oldest known irrigation methods still in use today. They are now found in Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. When I was a boy, rice fields in the mountain terraces were irrigated via natural waters from the land. I was endlessly perplexed. 🌬💨💦

Long time ago, calculators were banned in school. We were even taught how to use the abacus. Fractions, decimal points, geometric configurations. We had to figure these all out via our innate thinking ability. Poetry, creative writing, journalism. Handwritten words. Fast forward to 21st century as computer technology subverts life. Mathematics, music, literature etc are now handed to AI or aided by “artificial intelligence.” All I see is Matrix-like doom. 🤖🧮🤖

Summer fiestas in the Philippines. “Endless” community parties where everyone is invited to join. Every barrio, town, province, and city have their own fiesta to celebrate. Good times or bad, it's unstoppable. Free foods! Shows, carnivals, sports, games. Fiestas or “pyesta” start right after Lent and end by July or start of rain. Fiestas also strengthen bonds between people and villages, which are tested during natural calamity seasons when rains evolve into typhoons. 🎪🇵🇭🎪

On election season in the Philippines when I was child, it was all fiesta-fun for me. Of course, I was oblivious or unknowing of the “bad stuff” in politics then (I was a child!) I’d collect colorful election paraphernalia: Pamphlets, posters, handbills, buttons, hats, flaglets, shirts etc etcetera. In fact, I read all those campaign literature without really “understanding” what was going on. But then what I read or evolved in time, primed me to pursue journalism. 🧒🇵🇭👧

Street games. Patintero. Luksong tinik. Taguan. Step no. Holen. Teks. Etcetera. Fun! Playtime was after school at 4 to a few minutes before Angelus at 6, when dusk began to fall. On weekends, we had longer play time, after we accomplished our house chores. During summer, in a mining town where we lived, we’d trekked up the hills and gathered guavas. Imagine how we climbed up trees, walked by monkey bridges, and hunted wild spiders! 🧒🇵🇭👧

The Carabao. Water buffalo in English. Called “kalabaw” in the Philippines, the super strong animal represents hard work. Before machines took over ricefield toil or agricultural labor, the carabao plowed the land. Watching them work with human hands was main reason why I spent summers in the barrio when I was young. Human/animal synergy was alive. On rest time, the carabao would take a nap on a puddle and I would sleep on top of him/her. 🐃🇵🇭🐃

Asheville’s Friday drum circle in downtown’s Pritchard Park is a leading community attraction in my home city. For many years, at least since I got here. I haven’t been much in downtown for years now though, apart from passing by it when we do quarterly errands. Not sure if the circle is still active as it was. In fact, the drum circle was a major motivation for our “Bonfires for Peace” concert events that we also held in the same park for years. Till hate took over. 🪘🎼🪘

In those days we (mostly) only called people on the telephone when it was necessary. Not all houses had telephones. In the Philippines, payphones were in stores for 1 peso for 3 minutes use. Or in booths for a quarter or two. These days cellphones are used not simply for communication. Which is a cool improvement. Until we placed “all our life” in this tiny gadget. How am I supposed to take photos of Arrow, Ching and Fizz without my cellphone? ☎️📞☎️

Public transport. Bus, trains, jeepneys etcetera. There are about 1.474 billion vehicles worldwide per 2023 count. In 2015, around 947 million. About 19 percent of those vehicles are in the United States. While we mouth advocacy of “climate change,” transportation continues to contribute to global pollution. Electric vehicles help but what’d help the most is lesser dependence on private vehicles to instead focus on public transport, the way it was. The way I grew up. 🚌🚐🚌

Children and Internet. And Stuff.

Previously posted on my Facebook page. Or written years ago.

HOW do we teach kids and students about internet safety? Can we, really? It was an intense subject of PTA discussion in a Lakewood CA middle school (that I covered years ago). Should parents impose more restrictions, should the school system modify curriculum and introduce a new program to serve the purpose? 

       Meantime, when a child's curiosity gets a bit too zealous, how do we block him/her from the alleged sexual predator, and other kinds of ogres lurking on the e-wall shadow? Put a password barrier, stabilize firewalls, buy some more anti-this/that apps and software? Remember the first time a child learns how to click the TV remote, or when a teenager first ferrets a Budweiser onto the crib, or a youth excitedly maneuvers his first sedan on a city back alley? 

       Should we heighten the Restricted signs or PG advisories, or post more cops on the road, or should parents start checking every little post, selfie, shared video, Instagram, email etc that their kids send and receive 1001 times a day? Crazy, right? 👶📲💻

I HAVE a very old-school, maybe primitive remedy—or inroads to remedies, should I say. Truth of the time is—that  iPad or laptop or iPhone will always be there. There will be a time when all human beings got a Smartphone, plugged in 24/7. Even an infant will be signed into a 5-in-1 Verizon plan, you reckon? So what do we do? 

       I guess, we just have to not get tired of reminding our kids that people are not emoticons or avatars or emojis that they can control, one-click. People can be nice or rude in a playground, flea market, campus grounds, or dog park. That's real, breathing life—learn how to deal with truths afront. Games are not always Super Smash Bros or PvZ Garden Warfare. There are real games like little league baseball, soapbox derby and table tennis—or what about a real acoustic guitar and piccolo in favor of downloaded dubstep? 

       With these, they can sweat funk out, and laugh aloud, and high-five friends, as well. “Surfing” could be something like paddling a boat in a recreational lake, and “texting” could rest on the dinner table and living room in favor of simply savoring the food blessing or speaking and talking with mouths open not heads bowed. Share some future dreams, travel wishes, and what happened in school today? 

       Books were leafed pages, not electronic flashes on a tiny gadget that got lost in an ocean of legos and puzzle pieces in the den. Teach kids to wash dishes with hands, pick up stuff and things on the floor, fold laundried clothes, vacuum the floor on a weekend at least, build a backyard garden and care for it, walk the dog and have the duty to feed them whenever. 👶📲💻

GOOD ole children's chores when oldies like me were kids. Or in case you have extra dough, travel beyond the US—go to cultures where the internet is simply complementary to “offline” life. Or instead of purchasing more online games and Blu-Rays, why not extra money for saxophone tutorials or ballet classes? In this way, we don't have to get neurotic and paranoid that maybe our 12 or 13 year old boy maybe stealing glances at a Pornhub page or our little girl is chatting to a pedophile in the guise of a cool and awesome 12-year old. 

       Children need to learn “internet safety” as they learn life and living taught by parents who are more concerned with the total well-being of a child, or future adult—not just how to wade around the internet. Computer technology could be as important as automobiles and microwaves—but humanity survive life and salvage wisdom without these. There are other aspects and concerns of life, apparently. 

       We need to mold a child's mind, instead of conditioning their brain; we are raising kids who feel with their hearts because they hear, see, feel, and taste life—and not because all these are programmed, ready for the taking (or tapping, clicking). 👶📲💻

HOW IT WAS. Compiled from my previous Facebook posts.

Writers workshops. I must say I learned more poetry and literature in writers workshops than in school or university. I am particularly referring to a writers group Wednesday workshop that Galian sa Arte at Tula (GAT) in Manila used to hold. The best literary personages in the Philippines mentored or started here. I was lucky to be part of it. I also started many writers workshops in Manila, New York City, and Asheville NC. ✍📃✍

Whoever said street dissent is easy? My youth was punctuated by protest moves, as an activist and/or journalist. Dictatorship years. We were hosed down, tear gas’sed, truncheoned, and many simply “disappeared” or shot dead right there. The end justified the means yet we heeded “rules” of civil disobedience. We stayed right where we were, we stood our ground, we delivered the message. Yet it wasn’t an “awareness” picnic. Don’t expect coolness and sweetness in a street protest. ✊👊✊

Moviewatching was a staple household activity when my children were little. Mostly, they chose the movies. On our obligatory weekend trip to the open market, we’d pass by the video rental store and rent 3 or 4 betamax tapes. Movies helped me in my parenting responsibilities. Movies that are aptly suited for young, developing minds. Their favorites were “Stand By Me,” “Hook,” “ET,” lots of dog movies, chimp and dolphin movies, too. These days? PG isn’t really PG. 👧🎥🧒

Summer delight. Fiesta season basketball games in the town plaza. Me and my brothers played, coached, and organized events as well. On regular days, neighbors would gather in one house and loudly enjoy games on TV. Heckling, laughters, and petty wagers. “Ending” means guessing the last two digits of final scores. The “ending” boy (or girl) would scour the village for bets before the nighttime game. They get paid and earn for week’s school allowance. Fun. 🏀🇺🇸🏀

When I was a little boy in a mining town in northern Philippines, 4 PM was an eagerly-awaited time. Our favorite radio fantasy adventure “Simatar” was on. We kids would gather together and listen in total pleasure. Those days when afternoon TV “soap operas” occupied lazy chill moments of mom and aunts. “Tia Dely” and “Kuya Cesar” were popular stuff. I’d pretend to sleep but I was actually listening. My imagination was very active. 📻👦📻

Turntables. Growing up, a Victrola turntable was in constant activity in the house. My dad was a huge fan of Elvis Presley and so he’d be doing the pelvis moves as “Jailhouse Rock” rocked. My mom, Patsy Cline and Doris Day. My uncle Elpidio would play bossa nova LPs by Sergio Mendes, and others by Herb Alpert and Javier Cugat. Santana’s “Abraxas” was in helluva rotation! Then I’d be spinning vinyls myself for family and immediate neighbors. Sweet! 🎼🎼🎼

We call it “poso” in the Philippines, derived from the Spanish “pozo,” an old-style water pump. Pumping of water is a practical technique, better than lifting water in a hand-held bucket from the well. Since water supply as basic utility service wasn’t cheap, poso was a logical means. Conservation was necessary and living imperative. Plus village discipline was observed. We had to line up per “agreed” number of pails for our turn to fetch water from the poso. 🌬💧💦

Open markets in Asia. Produce, meat products, and other goods are not regulated so untaxed although the place is inspected by the health department. While some maintain stalls, most peddle where space is available. No fixed pricing; all depends on negotiation. Community fervor is alive. A general “reuse” vibe is also practiced. Old newspapers are recast as shopping bags, bottles and cans are refurbished as vessels for vinegar, cooking oil etc. 🥦🐟🍆

Walking. Except with my life in New York City (late 1990s to early 2000s) and few meters walk with the dogs in our village each afternoon, walking isn’t my life’s thingy anymore. But not because I don’t want to. America is different from the Philippines or Asia, where people inhabit the streets, 24/7, literally. In the U.S., unless you are walkin’ with a dog, you’d be mistaken as some shady dude. Walk far, you could be hit by a vehicle. No walk lane. 🚶🚶‍♂️🚶

Picnics of my childhood or youth. When we were little, my dad would bring us to the beach a lot or in a camp on summer days. Seafoods royale and rice cooked on firewood, with pure water from a brook nearby. When I was a teenager, I’d constantly travel to my kin’s sylvan village in the barrio. We’d picnic by the river among rice fields. We’d gather escargots and catch cat/mudfish. Corn and veggies were fresh harvests. Cook `em right there. Those days. 🐦🍃🐓