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Erle Frayne Argonza
In the lands of the Semites comes brightening news about medical imaging. This news is particularly great for poorer families of developing economies, who can do their own information gathering and monitoring of health-related problems right in their palm.
Happy reading.
[20 July 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila. Culled via SciDev news.]
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Researchers devise ‘mobile’ medical imaging system
Wagdy Sawahel
16 May 2008 | EN | 中文
The new system transfers medical images via mobile phones
Flickr/johnmuk
Researchers have developed a new system enabling medical images to be transferred via mobile phones, which could make imaging technology cheaper and more accessible to poor countries.
According to the WHO, three quarters of the world’s population does not have access to medical imaging and more than half of available medical equipment in developing countries is not used due to maintenance problems and lack of trained personnel.
To address this, Boris Rubinsky at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, and colleagues separated the components required in a medical imaging system.
A simple device ― one measuring electrical impulses for example ― collects data from the patient in the field. This is transmitted via the mobile phone to a central site where the data is processed, an image produced and sent back to the field, again via the mobile phone.
Using the system, the researchers successfully produced a clear image of a simulated breast cancer tumour.
“The wide availability of cellular phones has suggested that imaging devices do not have to be all in one physical place and that their components can be spread around the world and connected through cellular phones, rather than connected physically with electrical wires,” Rubinsky told SciDev.Net.
“The physicians can use their own cellphones to plug into [the data collection device] and send the raw data, in the form of a text message or email, to a geographically distant central facility — that can serve thousands of users — and within seconds sends back the processed image the way you would send a picture to your cellphone,” he says.
“This system is economical as the cost of [the data collection device] near the patient site is not a major part of the cost of the entire system, making it less expensive and easier to maintain,” he adds.
Rubinsky hopes they can develop a more advanced prototype for the detection of breast cancer within a year.
Morad Ahmed Morad, a professor of medicine at Tanta University, Egypt, says the device is an “ideal example of turning information and communication technology into solutions making a real health impact on lives of poor people in developing countries”.
The study was published in PLoS ONE last month (30 April).
BRIGHTER PROSPECTS FOR RICE CULTIVATION IN CHINA
Erle Frayne Argonza
Good day!
Let me now shift my attention a bit and diversify our BrightWorld updates with news from across the oceans.
Here is a news, culled from the SciDev Forum materials sent to its members. The search for high-yielding varieties of grains is a continuing one, and had definitely not reached a dead end yet in biotech innovations.
Happy reading.
[19 July 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
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Scientists find ‘yield-improving rice gene’
Jia Hepeng
14 May 2008 | EN | 中文
The newly discovered gene may help improve rice yields
Flickr/Cbcastro
[BEIJING] Chinese scientists have identified a rice gene that could simultaneously control the crop’s yield, plant height, and number of days to flowering.
Publishing their study in Nature Genetics online this month (4 May), researchers from Wuhan-based Huazhong Agricultural University (HZAU) say the gene could play a role in improving rice productivity.
The scientists found that in individual rice breeds, the three traits appear strong –– or weak –– simultaneously.
“This fact makes us infer that the three traits were controlled by a single gene,” says Xing Yongzhong, one of the lead authors and a professor at HZAU.
Previous studies have found that a region on chromosome seven of rice can regulate all three traits but the specific gene involved had not been discovered.
The HZAU scientists mapped the relevant gene site on chromosome seven and located the specific gene named Ghd7. They discovered that shorter rice plants with fewer grains per cluster of flowers and earlier flowering do not have the gene Ghd7.
When they transferred Ghd7 into Ghd7-free varieties of rice, they found that time to flowering was increased by 105 per cent, they grew around 70 per cent taller, and the plants had more rice grains per cluster of flowers.
Numerous rice genes have been reported to control such traits alone, but Ghd7 is notable because of its large, multiple effects on an array of traits, write the authors.
Xing told SciDev.Net that the gene could be incorporated into varieties with traditional breeding. “Although we have used the genetically modified method in the study, we need not adopt this method in the practical seeding because the gene is identified from the rice itself.”
The team of scientists also studied the status of Ghd7 in 19 rice varieties from rice growing in a wide geographic range in Asia and found five different versions of the gene.
“We are exploring the subtypes of Ghd7-containing rice that are most suitable to their growing regions, so as to cultivate the most appropriate high-output rice varieties,” Xing adds.
Huang Dafang, former director of the Institute of Biotechnologies of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, welcomes the study as a major scientific breakthrough.
But he says that usually, multiple genes regulate the traits related to rice yields, and whether the Ghd7 could play its claimed role in promoting yields needs further research and seeding tests.
PACQUIAO BEATS DIAZ, RP BOXING SUPREMACY ASSURED
Erle Frayne Argonza
Good afternoon!
Elation and euphoria are back in the Philippines and across the borders today as Manny Paquiao beat David Diaz in the lightweight division of world boxing. Flat on his face in the ring’s floor, Diaz looked like a whacked baby in comatose, ready to face the surgeon for some serious eye and facial injuries sustained during nine (9) rounds of unrelenting offensive from the unbeatable Manny.
From the first through the ninth rounds, Manny Paquiao exhibited superior punching and maneuvering ability and was the clear upper hand points-wise for all of those rounds. His superiority in both speed and power, added to his outstanding maneuvering skill, made him throw every kind of punch on the pathetic Diaz, candidate of America, with ease.
On the 5th round of the game, my compassion as a yogi-mystic began to surface while watching with eyes glued 105% on the TV screen. My compassion was, of course, addressed towards Diaz, whose face already sustained bleeding as early as the 2nd round, and I wished that Manny would knock him out on the 6th round as a matter of compassion. It would be cruel for any professional boxer to go on throwing deadly punches on an enemy who is almost down, and should, in my mind, work out to knock out the opponent early enough so as to minimize heavy injuries that could lead to death at the worse.
That knock out came finally on the 9th round, which made me felt a feeling of relief, and so I exclaimed my jubilation for my compatriot’s victory and compassion. Of course, I thanked God that Diaz is still intact, and was able to stand on his feet at least, thus assuring no further need for surgical operations or whatever. It was just a fight, may this fighter practice more. But like the rest of my kabayans, Manny has warmed our hearts so much again, and on this day he’s the one hero who had united the nation for at least some couples of hours.
Manny is now assured of his Hall of Fame status, with his gaining of a 4th title victory, notwithstanding the awarding to him of the most prestigious World Boxing Council or WBC belt at the 135-lb category. He is also impeccably Asia’s best, as it was the first time that an Asian won four (4) world titles in his career, thus ensuring Asia it’s place in the globe as a continent worth watching for.
Finally, and this is what has given us great pride, Manny’s latest victory has ensured Philippine supremacy in boxing from here on till maybe at least ten (10) years to come. Manny was not just representing himself, but rather he’s the chief icon among couples of others in the middle down to lower weight categories. The coterie of top-gun boxers have made Manila the team to beat, and had swept off Mexico and Thailand as the previous holders of this sports tiara.
For all boxers as a whole, Manny Paquiao’s latest victory had added prestige to the lower boxing weight divisions, and the spotlight of boxing had all the more been focused on these divisions away from the middle-to-heavy weights. He joins the coterie of titans such as De La Joya who earlier gave so much prestige to the lower-to-middle divisions.
Mabuhay si Manny Paquiao! Mabuhay ang mga Filipino boxers! Mabuhay ang Inang Bayan!
[Writ 29 June 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Erle Frayne D. Argonza
[Writ 07 May 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila. Writer was former Livelihood Coordinator of the Ministry of Human Settlements, PAC Gonzaga, from July 1981-June 1982. In Jan. 82 he was designated Acting Deputy Provincial Manager, concurrent with the livelihood post.]
Let me go through with my continuing journey as a young development professional, and transport you this time to the town of coastal town of Ballesteros in Cagayan. This town is famous for its crustaceans, notably crabs and lobsters. Let me stress here that the crabs and lobsters were huge by size compared to the ordinary, making them worth writing.
In the last quarter of 1982 my agency then, the MHS, finally recruited, trained and deployed Municipal Staff Assistants or MSAs. It was a great relief to acquire the “new kids on the block”, as it lifted so many burdens from us provincial staff, both technical and communicative (information dissemination of the KKK). From Ballesteros came this lanky young male staff (name now escapes my memory), with long ‘babalo’ chin. He was a no mean staff, to recall.
Mr. Bubbles (that’s how I jokingly call ‘babalo’ long chin folks) brought to my attention right away the huge potentiality of expanding crustacean production in his town. Unfazed by his rather dynamic explanation, who was almost gyrating like Elvis Presley during his presentation, I arranged for some consultations with fish farmers there (crustacean producers who operated onshore) as well as municipal fishers (who operated offshore). I simply wished to verify what my staff had reported to me then.
I found out that my staff did presented information in as truthful a manner as possible, verifying every millimeter of his report to the dot. I then arranged a visitation to the coastal area to see for myself what things were in there. To my own shock (I do get this feeling in the field at times), I realized that their ‘gears’ for fish farming was appallingly primitive (hmmm this is what I got for being an acculturated Big City boy in Manila: culture shock at local life). They used guava twigs that were planted below the sea level, after which the fish farmers would pick them up, with the ‘victims’ riding on the twigs.
As usual, my team’s task was to conceptualize what innovation to introduce there. That’s why our job is called ‘development’. To recoup from my initial shock (I really had to criticize myself silently), I quickly arranged for consultations with the technical staff of the BFAR (Bureau of Fisheries & Aquatic Resources) who became our constant partners in the area (they were so elated at our arrival there), as well as the professors of the Cagayan State University (CSU) –Gonzaga branch (agriculture & fisheries campus). From the consultations and research of my staff, we pieced up information about the techno-component that would be simple to operate and utilize local resources for inputs.
Since we already had municipal fishing with bagoong making in Gonzaga, my team, with the nod of our BFAR partners, decided to focus crustacean fish farming in Ballesteros. So we had this double task of convincing the municipal fishers in the town to sideline as fish farmers if they wish to benefit from the KKK enterprise finance program there.
Our simple innovation introduced to them was the ‘fish cage’, or ‘crustacean trap’. It was made of wooden and tree branches, with grill-fashioned openings to let the smaller crabs & lobsters get in, where they’d stay and feed. As soon as they grew in size, it was difficult for them to go out if at all (experiments have shown they don’t go out as they acclimatize to the domicile). Simple indeed, but so sensible as it increased the yield of the marine farmers.
We also had to convince the fish farmers to apply as individual proponents. The parameters in the area were different from that of neighbor Gonzaga where offshore fishing was the primary engagement. It was more fruitful if each individual would work on his ‘crustacean yard’ (by the sea), though collectively they would have to secure the area together (there are always thieves everywhere, remember).
Project approval was fast for this one. I don’t recall now the exact figures per project. But my recall is sharp regarding the approval, financing, re-training of fish farmers, take-off, and the most important: taste of the final result. The lobsters and crabs using the traps were even larger than the previous pre-trap days! I’m sure you’d agree with me that these crustaceans warm up the heart and brighten your day when you see, feel and taste them.
Erle Frayne D. Argonza
[Writ 12 April 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila. The author was former community development assistant at the Ministry of Human Settlements, Region II, in early 1981.]
If Bob Marley were alive today and visited Mayoyao in Ifugao, Cordillera region, he might achieve euphoria even without having to smoke pot. And his cause for Dionysiac wonderment would be: a fishpond atop a mountain. And he’d declare wide-eyed, with nary a 2nd thought, that “the Ifugaos are a free people! Hail Ifugaos!”
Free indeed is this sturdy ethnicity of highlanders, who used to be ferocious head-hunters and were dreaded by the Americans. They have since become tame, no longer do head-hunting, and have instead hunted for tons of bright ideas to multiply their survival chances up in the boondocks.
I was then a newly hired program staff for the Ministry of Human Settlements’ Regional Liaison Office in Region II or RLO-2. We covered the whole of Cagayan Valley and the Cordillera provinces of Ifugao, Kalinga and Apayao. As soon as I had a couple of days of briefing as a new staff, I immediately buzzed off for field work to monitor our community services at the town levels where we have deployed community organizers who were dubbed the HSOs (Human Settlements Officers).
Over 250 kilometeres south of Tuguegarao, the location of our liaison office (we were an adjunct of the central office in the region), was Ifugao which had to be traversed via Nueva Vizcaya. Armed with my monitoring sheets, itinerary, cassette recorder with The Police and Sex Pistols playing, and an escort of truly-armed Philippine Constabulary (our regional supervisor was Gen. Olivas of PC Region II), I visited couples of HSOs in Vizcaya for a day first, after which I proceeded to Mayoyao.
Well, the road to Ifugao was narrow, winding and gravel-rough, and only single-lane. And down below was crevice, hard rock, or some cursed dangerous vertical wall that King Kong would hate to scale. And my balls (excuse me) quickly moved from down loin up to past my head, as the goose bumps overwhelmed my being till we reached Mayoyao 40 kilometers from Banawe.
The recompense for the rough and hazardous ride was the beautiful scenery, so grand and beautiful beyond words. The best-looking rice terraces are found here, not in Banawe that is merely the entry point. And, without doubt, the fish pond built atop a mountain whose peak was leveled for the purpose.
How many places on Earth could one find fishponds that are not only impossible to build but also costly? And this one was built from concrete. Rectangular in shape, around it was classy cobble-like stone and cement aisle. Below is the pond, around two (2) meters deep, with the fingerlings just seeded. Covering around one (1) hectare in size or so, it was actually more of an experimental prototype, though the town residents thought of producing at commercial levels. Tilapia was the experimental species, to recall.
The Cordillerans are truly a wonderful people in terms of innovativeness in thriving. They’ve already chiseled out the mountains into productive rice lands. Now they followed through with fish farming, and of all places, atop a mountain.
The project, installed by cooperating agencies (mayor’s office, MHS, Bureau of Fisheries & Aquatic Resources or BFAR), was a success for the duration of my stay then in the MHS (I stayed till 1983). And there were no reputable enterprise financing programs for these types then. They funded it themselves, via local funds and private donors.
So for those who are interested to know the success story, please visit Mayoyao in Ifugao. Enjoy the ride up there. For relaxation, you can choose between bottles of gin or local rice wine (tapoy). And better quaff them, because whether hot or cold days, it is always cold up there. Ride the wave of the moment!
Bro. Erle Frayne D. Argonza
Good day to everyone!
There is great reason to be electrified with joy in the Philippines over the electrification of the islands. For sooner or later, way before 2010 is over, no more town or village shall ever remain darkened by the eons-old absence of electricity. Power development will then move on to its more ambitious tasks, including electrifying the powerless zones of other countries.
As a little boy then who grew up in the entrepot town of Tuguegarao, I knew what it is to have zero electricity. Power generation was weak in the 1960s to mid-70s, and at times power was available only once every three (3) days. I had to use ‘candle power’ to light my way to academic success, but at the cost of ending up in high school with an uncorrectable near-sighted vision and missing out on the military academy that required perfect eye vision for entry.
With my eyes damaged by the weak power generation, I was “compelled” instead to study in the premier state university. After finishing my sociology degree, with some background in industrial engineering, I vowed to plunge my hands in my own boyhood region’s development, vowed “rage against the dying of the light” by coercing stakeholders, where necessary, to electrify the area, or else…
My agency of choice, the Ministry of Human Settlements or MHS, was so powerful we technical staff and execs practically sat and imprinted our hands in all of the interagency committees in any area, down to the grassroots. Cagayan then had the luck of prioritizing electrification, via the CIADP (Cagayan Integrated Area Development Project) that was directly under the country’s president, and so my task of monitoring and seeing to it that the set targets were done on electrification and other goals (irrigation, infrastructures) will be achieved as much as possible. Where bottlenecks will surface, my agency will refer the matter upstairs to quicken the resolution of the gridlocks. By dint of this arrangement, as convenor of the provincial development council here I had a real good chance of “coercing” (well, influencing is better) stakeholders to do their job well.
In Batanes, where I dipped my hands in 1981-82, there was already an advanced plan to electrify Batan and Sabtang islands via the National Electrification Administration’s intervention. Batanes had zero electricity then, save for Basco the provincial hub that was powered by a generator. My task here was more of listening to the local planners and implementers, report the same to my bosses, and to input the progress as a planning item for the forthcoming livelihood program KKK (knowing when power comes allowed us to project what enterprises to plan and support, since refrigeration will be made possible in due time there, thus enabling food preservation).
Those were the days, my friends. Today the national landscape is one where close to 97% of villages are lighted. Grid interface technology had already been perfected and attained ‘over-developed’ status, permitting our experts to help not only ourselves but even the USA perfect its current overflow problems in the east coast. In villages that cannot access to the main grids, hybrid technologies are the option tracks such as solar power. Our engineers design and mass manufacture solar panels right here, just to remind you.
Another source of our joy is the fact that our power sector is one of the most dynamic in the Philippines and in East Asia as a whole. Thanks at least to the brilliance of the development planners and managers in the sector, it had surged way ahead. The challenge for the sector, in light of possible global crisis over oil supply bottlenecks and problems, is to fast-track alternatives to petrol. RP’s dependence on oil is actually down to a mere ¼ of its supply, and is still going down.
But the technological revolutions here aren’t over yet. Solar, geothermal, and wind power are now in their advanced prototype mass production and implementation phases. Meanwhile, ocean power is silently being researched on. While ocean power R&D goes on, biofuels are being mass produced though this energy source is highly politicized and contentious. Biofuel is only a stop-gap, and by 2020 the nation may be on the road to geothermal, wind and ocean power as the chief sources of electricity.
There we go, partners. RP’s power generation, grid interphase leading the way more so, is way high above the clouds. Without doubt the energy sector here deserves accolades. Cheers to RP’s electrification!
Bro. Erle Frayne D. Argonza
[Writ 12 April 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila. The author was former community development assistant at the Ministry of Human Settlements, Region II, in early 1981.]
If Bob Marley were alive today and visited Mayoyao in Ifugao, Cordillera region, he might achieve euphoria even without having to smoke pot. And his cause for Dionysiac wonderment would be: a fishpond atop a mountain. And he’d declare wide-eyed, with nary a 2nd thought, that “the Ifugaos are a free people! Hail Ifugaos!”
Free indeed is this sturdy ethnicity of highlanders, who used to be ferocious head-hunters and were dreaded by the Americans. They have since become tame, no longer do head-hunting, and have instead hunted for tons of bright ideas to multiply their survival chances up in the boondocks.
I was then a newly hired program staff for the Ministry of Human Settlements’ Regional Liaison Office in Region II or RLO-2. We covered the whole of Cagayan Valley and the Cordillera provinces of Ifugao, Kalinga and Apayao. As soon as I had a couple of days of briefing as a new staff, I immediately buzzed off for field work to monitor our community services at the town levels where we have deployed community organizers who were dubbed the HSOs (Human Settlements Officers).
Over 250 kilometeres south of Tuguegarao, the location of our liaison office (we were an adjunct of the central office in the region), was Ifugao which had to be traversed via Nueva Vizcaya. Armed with my monitoring sheets, itinerary, cassette recorder with The Police and Sex Pistols playing, and an escort of truly-armed Philippine Constabulary (our regional supervisor was Gen. Olivas of PC Region II), I visited couples of HSOs in Vizcaya for a day first, after which I proceeded to Mayoyao.
Well, the road to Ifugao was narrow, winding and gravel-rough, and only single-lane. And down below was crevice, hard rock, or some cursed dangerous vertical wall that King Kong would hate to scale. And my balls (excuse me) quickly moved from down loin up to past my head, as the goose bumps overwhelmed my being till we reached Mayoyao 40 kilometers from Banawe.
The recompense for the rough and hazardous ride was the beautiful scenery, so grand and beautiful beyond words. The best-looking rice terraces are found here, not in Banawe that is merely the entry point. And, without doubt, the fish pond built atop a mountain whose peak was leveled for the purpose.
How many places on Earth could one find fishponds that are not only impossible to build but also costly? And this one was built from concrete. Rectangular in shape, around it was classy cobble-like stone and cement aisle. Below is the pond, around two (2) meters deep, with the fingerlings just seeded. Covering around one (1) hectare in size or so, it was actually more of an experimental prototype, though the town residents thought of producing at commercial levels. Tilapia was the experimental species, to recall.
The Cordillerans are truly a wonderful people in terms of innovativeness in thriving. They’ve already chiseled out the mountains into productive rice lands. Now they followed through with fish farming, and of all places, atop a mountain.
The project, installed by cooperating agencies (mayor’s office, MHS, Bureau of Fisheries & Aquatic Resources or BFAR), was a success for the duration of my stay then in the MHS (I stayed till 1983). And there were no reputable enterprise financing programs for these types then. They funded it themselves, via local funds and private donors.
So for those who are interested to know the success story, please visit Mayoyao in Ifugao. Enjoy the ride up there. For relaxation, you can choose between bottles of gin or local rice wine (tapoy). And better quaff them, because whether hot or cold days, it is always cold up there. Ride the wave of the moment!
Bro. Erle Frayne D. Argonza
[Writ 12 April 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila. The author was a former young executive of the Ministry of Human Settlements for Cagayan and Batanes provinces and for Cagayan Valley. ]
Financing micro-enterprise has now come a long way in the Philippines. And there is much cause for jubilation regarding this particular feat.
I myself began my professional career in enterprise finance, as a young livelihood supervisor with the defunct Ministry of Human Settlements. Our funds sources for development financing then were from three sources: (a) Human Settlements Development Corporation or HSDC; (b) Kilusang Kabuhayan at Kaunlaran or KKK (roughly, National Livelihood Movement); and, (c) BLISS Program, for those BLISS housing site-related projects. That was in the early 1980s, and we were quite awash with funds then.
With quite a huge war chest for our projects, we sat down in no time at all around the 2nd quarter of 1981 to plan the compass of operations for the newly launched program, the National Livelihood Movement. It took us around two (2) months to do planning internally, after which we took another couple of months to dialogue with other state agencies and procure their own co-operation and partnering with us regarding the project prototypes and modules.
Among those projects that we identified pronto were those simple micro-enterprises that would easily buy with the folks. Our projects though went beyond the micro-finance, as we were mandated to fund huge projects via the HSDC program. I was with the Cagayan Valley team then, and was transferred from community development to livelihood program just so that I can focus my tasks of taking off the new KKK program in my areas of jurisdiction.
I recall very well how reluctant were the folks in accessing to financing. That was a time when the Philippine economy was still 50% rural, and the psyche of the folks was strongly of the peasant-rural artisan type. They couldn’t easily identify with new ideas, even as they get suspicious over them, as the failures of previous programs (e.g. Masagana 99 for rice) have transmogrified them into shy turtles whenever enterprise financing comes. Besides, they weren’t that confident that they could run their own projects competently.
Given that rural background of the folks, our project teams prioritized food production-related concerns, as well as crafts that were more or less backward or forward linkages of food production. To name a few project modules that we developed and successfully funded via the KKK: garlic production (1-1.5 hectares); citrus orchard (5-10 hectares); goat raising (10-heads); draft carabao (1-head buffalo); onion production; bagoong production (backyard, jar-crucible). The total list of enterprises actually went beyond 100 in Cagayan and Batanes alone, where I was primarily assigned. I’m citing only the micro, individual beneficiary-operated projects here.
Because the program was new, we had to undertake a social marketing campaign by informing not only the people but also our partner agencies. The latter were particularly very helpful in our efforts at capacity-building, both for our development implementers and beneficiaries. The financial delivery system also had to be oiled well, as this involved co-partnering with state banks that acted as fund repositories and co-evaluators. It was a success as a whole, amid the gaps in the initial implementations.
That was a long time ago now. The KKK is still alive as an institution today, many other micro-finance institutions have already cropped up including NGOs, and the central bank already entered the arena for regulatory and wholesale funding purposes. The old informal micro-financing, via the 5/6 scheme now has to retool or repackage their financing, as they have been perceived as economic barnacles and have to compete with the formal institutions for beneficiary loyalty.
The great thing with micro-finance is that not only does it save the petty commodity producer from poverty. As the case of the early 80s had shown, the KKK and related programs were instrumental in cushioning the impact of global recession and the internal shock caused by Dewey Dee scandal that sent down the economy like a sinking boat.
When a strategy such as microfinance can save the boat both on the micro and macro levels, it can indeed be a very strong strategy for national salvation. And this is where our jubilation comes in.
Mabuhay! A toast to micro-finance!
Bro. Erle Frayne D. Argonza
[Writ 11 April 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Most recently, Philippine economic growth reached impressive levels of 7.3% GDP and 8.4% GNP. GNP is measured by adding the Net Factor Income from Abroad or NFIA, comprising largely of remittances from overseas workers and overseas investments. There is surely cause for elation over these developments.
How far has Philippine development progressed? Quite far, to say the least. In 1946, when the USA granted independence on this ‘far-east’ colony, the Philippines was a backward, agrarian economy that was dependent on manufacturing imports to move on. It was also coming out of its war-torn phase, and had to embark on an ambitious recovery program first as part of its development program.
Today that post-colonial past is now a distant epoch of a long by-gone time. The work-force is dominated by the services sector which also contributes to 55% of the GDP, while industry contributes 30% more or less though a measly 16% of the work-force. Agriculture itself had quite modernized, though it now contributes to just around 15% of GDP and 36% of the work-force.
Urban population had already surpassed the 55% mark by the middle of this decades and is still surging ahead as urbanization makes radical, sweeping changes over vast expanses of rural villages and small towns. Manila, the primate city, is as huge as a mega-polis, contributes 1/3 to the national output and is now a highly reputable 1st World city. Philippine investments have been moving out of the country as part of wealth production overseas, aside from overseas labor, and in long run remittances from investments will exceed those from manpower. The domestic banking sector is so awash with cash, that it can fund the most ambitious development projects conceivable, thus cutting off RP’s dependence on foreign debts.
But RP still has a long way to go before reaching a 1st World status. Using the industry cycle—where an industry progresses from ‘take-off’, to ‘growth’ stage, then to ‘maturity’ stage, then to ‘overdeveloped’ or ‘decay’ stage—experts can easily assess that RP is already at the tail end of the ‘growth stage’. It took so long a time for this to happen, as this stage began in the 1970s yet. The ‘take-off’stage likewise took so long a time to conclude, as it started in 1948 yet, more or less, got bogged down for some time in the 1960s, before moving on to the next phase during the technocratic-militaristic order of the 1970s.
But RP had already moved forward, this had to be recognized most of all. It is now a 2nd World economy, still an ‘emerging market’ though already no longer the backward/agrarian ‘carabao economy’ that it used to be, and no longer rural but predominantly urban. And this news is sufficient cause for euphoric jubilation.
If only the late economist & sociologist Joseph Schumpeter were still alive today, the Philippine experience would make him happy. RP authenticates well his theory of cycles, particularly the long-wave Kondratieff cycle. This cycle contends that long-period growth takes place over a period of 55-60 years, with expansion at the beginning half and contraction at the last half.
RP began its ‘take-off’ in 1946 (alongside the war recovery), and the long-cycle period officially ended in December 2006. Using this theory then, I forecast as early as 1999 yet that RP will experience another period of long-term growth beginning in 2007, and I hit the mark so precisely that I am sure the theory of cycles is as valid as ever. Discounting aside the possible effects of external shocks that we have no control over, our long-term expansion will be till 2036.
Which means that RP will reach ‘maturity’ very soon, around 2015, and then attain ‘over-developed’ or 1st world status by the period 2025-2030. No matter how slow the carabao (water buffalo) may work, it will still deliver results. And RP, which is justly signified by the carabao, had demonstrated this to the world.
Bro. Erle Frayne D. Argonza
[Writ 09 April 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila. The author was former convenor, provincial development council of Cagayan, in late 82 till early 83.]
Imagine yourselves as young development planners, managers and implementers, all dreaming of waking up a sleeping province, vastly rich in resources but poor. Representing diverse agencies of state, bonded together by the shared sense of vision and duty, you find yourself confronting a population and a culture that didn’t share your enthusiasm for ambitious projects.
Such was my situation in the early 1980s in Cagayan, Luzon island’s northeastern most province. Already a deputy provincial manater for the Ministry of Human Settlements), at so young an age, I was convenor of the provincial development council there, and so it was my duty to prepare the agenda and call on the participants.
Fresh from my successful stints of handling enterprise development (with micro-finance) and community development, in no time at all did I rise to managerial post and help oversee development for an entire province. I had the luck then of co-partnering with other state officials, both local and national, who were very intelligent, competent, and visionary-type. Being like-minded, we were so happy being together in interagency bodies, and this wonderful social ecology facilitated our production of radical ideas to catapult the status of this province from the backwoods to the center of an emerging global economy.
This was the time when our collective efforts accelerated the installation of electricity, irrigation facilities, water utilities, telephone, new piers and infrastructures, massive financing support for diverse enterprises, and more. All of these were covered by development plans and the master plan for Cagayan.
Within the aegis of such development visions, plans and implementations did we envision a gigantic industrial estate and international trading facility for the pathetically rural province. On my side, I had the privilege of presenting key ideas and consolidating some feedbacks and recommendations from other stakeholders, notably the provincial-level officials and the mayors’ offices.
Each of the interagency groups had their own assignments, and forwarded the results to the Office of the President then, thru the NACIAD and its arm for Cagayan, the CIADP. The Governor’s Office also had its consolidation works, which it likewise forward directly to the presidential palace. Wading through all those committee networks was itself tough, and tougher was it to go through all the outputs and coming out with a final, consolidated plan.
Sensing that my tour-of-duty for Cagayan will be brief, I used the opportunity to refine the framework and rationale for an industrial estate cum trade facility. We then agreed to call it the ‘Port Irene Project’ for simplification, Port Irene being the backward pier in the reclusive town of Sta. Ana. The ideas arising from these were then presented to the mayors and local-level stakeholders who, like some enthused movie viewers, simply stared at me with stony faces during the session meetings at the famed Kamaranan Hall.
I likewise explained to the stakeholders that, for a rural provinces development to be sound at all, no polluting light or heavy industries will ever be established in any town, save for Sta. Ana where such industries will be concentrated. Only cottage industries will be allowed per town.
No matter how energetic were my elucidations then, I only got stony faces. Anyway, our efforts eventually paid, as the project was put into final plan format (mid-80s), enabled with legislation (new Congress), and implemented. I had already moved on to other development concerns since I left Cagayan in late 83, even became a social scientist and professor, but my level of elation and sense of accomplishment over our ambitious deeds then remains till these days.
It pays to dream and envision big visions that are seemingly hard to take off. This I can personally put so much words to substantiate, based on experiences worth narrating to one and all.
Bro. Erle Frayne Argonza
[Writ 09 April 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila. The author was former Acting Deputy Provincial Manager, Ministry of Human Settlements, Batanes & Northern Cagayan, in 1982.]
A BrightWorld day to you all!
In the northernmost corridor of the Philippines is located the idyllic province of Batanes, a province with its own maritime ship. Small and sparsely populated, the province used to be perennially cut off from the rest of the ‘mainland’ (Luzon island) during inclement weather.
In the early 1980s, I had the privilege of serving this province as a development planner & manager for the Ministry of Human Settlements. My unit, the Provincial Action Center of PAC Gonzaga, covered Northern Cagayan and Batanes.
Handling the newly opened livelihood first, then later expanding to other developmental concerns, I immediately immersed in hard work for the province. At that time, there was no electricity, telephone, public transport, and those state of the arts utilities that one can have today. Contrast that with today’s Batanes, where internet facilities are available as far down as all of the rural villages, and essential utilities are present.
Integrated area development was then the in thing, and being from the urban/regional planning arm of government, we agency staff had the privilege of poking our fingers in all development efforts in a province and region. We consolidated the planning outputs into master plans which, for the first time, galvanized in all areas of the country. We state personnel did the same for this small province.
To recall, commerce between the ‘mainland’ and Batanes was quite scarce. Aside from the small ‘flying coffin’ PAL planes that traversed the Manila-Basco route, there was the Philippine Navy flat-bottom ships that were used for the purpose. Only two (2) scheduled trips of navy ships occur per year, once every semester, which brought forth rice, gin, and essential grocery items from Luzon.
Idyllic and paradise-like in its mien, Batanes is pathetic economically. To begin the development efforts there, core agencies got together to plan the installation of electricity, transport facilities and vehicles, warehouse and pier improvements, and development financing for micro family enterprises.
It was really tough and challenging a task to present ideas then to the natives, the Ivatans, who were real charmers but so simple and pretty satisfied in life. During those moments of duty, being a core institution-builder then of the development councils there, I presented the audacious idea of a maritime ship for the province. This will not only improve commerce between Batanes and its mother island Luzon, it will also be a booster to tourism and related development concerns there.
As to the question of who can own the ship, I remember having proposed the idea then of Batanes forming its own corporate unit. The said corporation can then own and manage maritime facilities and ships.
It was too said that I had to leave Batanes before I would ever see the crystallization of the idea. But I was happy to find out that the young development managers of the province, including some staff of mine who later became the dads of the province (today’s governor Castillejos was my part-time community organizer for Basco), developed the idea some more… Till the ship M/V Ivatan saw the light of day.
The locals decided to institute the Batanes Development Foundation that took care of ownership of the ship. It also engaged in other key programs to fast-track development there. I was so happy that my former staff (livelihood coordinator), Ed Puno, became its first CEO. (Mr. Puno later became vice-governor-elect.)
My fellows out there can go ahead and visit this paradise province of the North. The development story of this ‘cinderella’ province is a fairly successful story worth narrating.
Bro. Erle Frayne D. Argonza
Banal, Boomboom, and Penalosa just won their respective fights in boxing stints held in Manila just last Sunday. What an impeccably impressive record!
Add these wins to the strings of victories of other boxers led by the unbeatable Manny Pacquiao, and one can see that this euphoria over boxing triumphs has been a well sustained campaign for nigh close to a decade now. The Philippines had without doubt emerged as a world-class performer in boxing’s lower weight divisions, nay as the top in fact, dethroning Mexico and shaming Thailand that used to be in this class too.
And that’s not the end of the line yet, fellows. PI’s triumph is no ‘bubble victory’ that had reached a dead end and is about to crush back to ground zero, for Christ’s sake that’s a damn faulty perception of the matter. What might emerge from this sustained campaign is that in all the lower weight divisions, from 140 lbs down, Pinoy’s would be champs for at least another decade to come. Mark this well: the world has now shifted its eye on those divisions away from the higher weight divisions.
Should that be the case, then indeed there will be enormous celebrations at the end of this decade and next’s. These victories are simultaneously happening as the economy has been sustaining victories since 2002 yet, with indications that RP might make it to the finish line of ‘developed economies’ by 2015 and ‘1st world’ by 2020 thru 2025.
For the hoi poilloi, professionals, executive and business classes, the boxing ascent of PI comes as an impeccable respite from the dirt coming from out of ceaseless political turmoil here. Just recently, the country has been going through turbulence arising from corruption-related scandals, with the ZTE deal detonating the chain reaction of events. The aggrieved civil society groups want no less than the resignation of the President Gloria Arroyo, and their concerted actions have captured the global media since Valentine’s.
Amid all the sonorous calls for upheavals, boxing triumphs come, easily tilting the balance of public perception back towards optimism from the gloom of the turmoil. And this should be so, as the end of 2007 saw, per result of the Social Weather Stations survey, that over 60% of Pinoys are optimistic about their future. Victories like what we have in boxing bring our psyche aligning back to the good vibes of optimism.
Among those we Filipinos dream optimistically is the final end to insurgency with the permanent muzzling of all guns via political settlements, and sadly, this hasn’t been happening yet. But we are optimistic this will happen. Nothing can darken the prospect of this victory for peace.
But look at the warring forces when boxing fights come, most specially those Pacquiao fights: they completely stop from shooting each other in order to watch boxing. What a spectacle to behold! Not even the United Nations can make our contending forces cease fire, but just one Pacquiao is so powerful a figure enough to make everyone watch the fight including those soldiers and rebels in the boondocks.
Filipinos thirst for victories in many fronts to. After being shamed planet-wise due to failures in the past, even at one time dubbed as ‘sick man of Asia’, we need every victory we can gain and sustain to be able to get us all out of the rut and regain our collective self-esteem as a people with a common vision.
Boxing had been the bridgehead among the competitive sports in providing those victories. Cheers to Philippine boxing!
[Writ 08 April 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Bro. Erle Frayne Argonza
[Writ 04 April 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Good day, Fellows!
This primate city, my beloved Manila, was dubbed as the Pearl of the Orient before the 2nd World War. Reading through accounts of the city during the late President Quezon’s time, and viewing pictures of it during those halcyon days, one’s jaw would surely drop at this jewel of the orient.
I was never that lucky to have witnessed that great past. But I’m lucky enough to bear witness to Manila’s unfolding into a gigantic over-developed metropolis that it is today, which had since expanded into a ‘greater Manila area’ comprising of 17 cities and towns. And it is still growing into a megapolis.
It was simply too tragic a thing that the Philippines, like its sibling nations in Asia, got entangled in a war that was not its own. That catastrophic event fated Manila to be flattened back to the Stone Age by ceaseless carpet bombings, rendering the once jewel city into an apocalyptic wasteland that was 2nd in devastation only to Warsaw.
The city had grown after the war, with the execution of a master plan for a greater Manila that defined development expansions on through the outlying lands. It became the hub of the industrialization efforts started by the Roxas regime, gave birth to a new city called Quezon City (as envisioned by the late president Manuel Quezon) that was to be the administrative and educational center, housed the financial center that was to be Makati, and out came forth every commercial activity without let up across the decades.
True, just like the rest of the primate cities of Asia, Manila attracted vast hordes of migrants from the rural areas. Squatting, pollution, traffic jams, flooding during rainy days, and population congestion calcified as its chief problems. By the 1990s Manila was all but a picture of apocalyptic urban decay, no different from what it was in 1945 after the end of World War II.
That situation had since changed. Manila had surely jettisoned off to the ‘overdeveloped’ or 1st world status. New arterial boulevards have arisen, 17 key mix land-use commercial hubs grew as its model areas, floods have been put under control, light rail systems are rising rapidly around it, and many former polluting industries were disseminated to other regions.
Today Manila is a gigantic metropolis and is fast moving to become a megalopolitan hub or ‘megapolis’. It produces 1/3 of the gross domestic product or GDP and has sufficient resources to build its own ambitious infrastructure projects including international airports. Being so awash with funds, it had been compassionately donating aid to calamity-devastated cities and towns that are less fortunate (i.e. 3rd world communities).
It had also arisen as the fashion and shopping capital of Asia, an esteem that used to be bestowed only on Hong Kong and Tokyo. It boasts of huge shopping malls, most of which are of wonderful architectural designs. Underlying this cultural landscape is the multi-cultural template of a postmodern city, which makes it a natural attractor of culture producers and cosmopolitan bohemians from many parts of the globe.
Now that it had risen to its present state, Manila, this time grown to a megapolis in size and influence, is fast regaining its ‘pearl of the orient’ image of a foregone era. And most likely this image can be surpassed in the coming years and decades ahead.
Bro. Erle Frayne D. Argonza
Hello, dear readers! A sunny day to you all!
I thought all the while that we had only one world on Earth, since we have only one planet. I wish to believe, even as I refuse to hear some alternative versions otherwise, that we are One World, One Planet!
In the 1970s, as I was studying sociology at the premier university in the Philippines, I encountered the 3-Worlds theories for the first time. Brilliant in their expositions, the theories converged on the idea that the planet’s nations are divided into the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd worlds.
Following from the same theories, whether the UN-initiated or the Maoist version, my country supposedly belongs to the 3rd world, this being agrarian-dominated and backward. On the other hand , the advanced industrial economies of the north—the USA and USSR per Mao’s contention, the USA and OECD countries per UN theory—represented the 1st world. Sandwiched in between are developing countries that were dubbed as 2nd world.
By the 1990s, as globalization’s march was heading onwards in powerful tsunamis, it was clear that the 3-worlds theories were crumbling. No longer capable of holding water for long, as the newly-industrializing countries were reaching their zeneath, the theories crumbled.
Globalization made even greater strides around the years 1998-2001. The aegis of borderless economies was in, those of walled or ‘iron curtain’ realities was out. We were all headed towards a one-world reality, as international institutions have been emerging that ushered intensifying cross-border cooperation and collaborations.
Judging by the way that the ‘ borderless discourse’ has been accelerating each year, effecting powerful dents on erstwhile indestructible walled worlds of the older aegis, it won’t be long when a planetary government will also arise. This will cap so many epochs of struggles by humanity to unify and think as a single human family and probably put an end to wars and conflicts among nations.
Today I believe, and this reality I see increasing by the day, that there are two (2) worlds. One is the world gravitating around the ‘Light workers’, a world of hope amid a mindset of positive-optimistic-constructive or POC world outlook. The other one is a world gravitating around ‘Dark workers’, a world of despair and doom, a world founded on negative-pessimistic-destructive or NPD world outlook.
The first world, which I will label as BrightWorld, comprises of a huge web led by POC resonators and their enthusiasts among the folks. The other world, which I will label as DarkWorld, comprises of an equally huge web led by NPD Pied Pipers and their followers among the folks.
The two worlds actually intermesh. Within any given context, the two worlds are almost certainly represented. This reality of intermeshing has semblance to what St. Augustine cogitated then, about a ‘city of man’ and a ‘city of God’. And today I understand Augustine much better.
So be it that we have two worlds, that the clash between these worlds is as real as breathing air every day. I’m very optimistic that, given a little more time, the balance in fellowship will be more towards the BrightWorld as folks get tired of excessive gloom, doom, despair and what have you.
Let the BrightWorld shine and claim its true heritage among you all, sons and daughters of the Sun!
[Writ 03 April 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Bro. Erle Frayne D. Argonza
Welcome to BrightWorld!
In 2006 I copyrighted a social marketing project I dubbed as BrighWorld! At that moment of project conceptualization, my aura was going through some changes which made me extremely sensitive to negative vibrations of whatever kind.
As a yogi and mystic, I already felt such sensitivity to vibrations before. Sometimes, when traversing the Taft Avenue route of Manila at night, I feel weakened by the negative vibrations accumulated in that portion of the city for the day. I feel the vibes everywhere, but most specially on the concrete pavement below.
Way back in the 1990s yet, when my path towards the mystical accelerated, I began to feel weakened whenever the persons I’m talking too stress too much on the negative, keep on recycling gossips and worn-out intrigues about their supposed office nemesis, and engage in limitless braggadocio and arrogant chatter.
But this decade, as my own meditation practice heightened, my sensitivity to negative imaging by the tri-media got added to my list of sensitivities. Wars, pestilence, pandemics, gossips, political intrigues and noise, crimes, drugs and related texts and images were proving to be too much for my chakras particularly my heart and crown chakras.
It was getting clearer to me that I do not belong to those people who thrive on the negative-pessimistic-destructive images. I clearly belong to those people who were attuned to the positive-optimistic-creative vibrations and images, and these were, to my mind, the harbingers of the new world unfolding.
Incidentally, there were people on the mass media, including the internet and book writers, who were conscious of the need to project positive imaging. Just a few minutes of exposure, for instance, to very positive images on TV about wonderful crafts, tour sites, historical sites and ecology tours can brighten the day for the viewer or text reader.
I now strongly opine that there has to be more concerted efforts to project the positive-optimistic-creative or POC images as a powerful current that can offset the psyche-destroying impact of negative-pessimistic-destructive imaging. The convergence of individual ‘social marketeers’ that highlight POC images, or LightWorker groups interconnecting through the internet, all bespeak of these efforts.
As my own version of response to the challenges of the moment, I copyrighted in Manila the BrightWorld! I originally intended this project as POC social marketing centered on Philippine reality, particularly macro-reality. The additional highlight was on the economic life.
In this blogosphere version of the project, the scope will be expanded to micro reality and non-economic life as well. It will also seek to cover positive experiences from other countries and those with an international-global character.
So, dear readers, welcome aboard the BrightWorld ship!
[Writ 03 April 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]