blackshama's commentary on Philippine issues

he untimely deaths of Leonard Co and Professsor Dan Lagunzad within 36 hours of each other (Co was shot in the field and Lagunzad to cancer), both excellent botanists and plant taxonomists from the University of the Philippines should be a wake up call for the Philippine science establishment and scientists. They should not take taxonomy for granted and give more research funding for this important science. Taxonomy is rightly the Queen of the Sciences . Without Aristotle trying to classify things of nature due to their essences and attributes, there would not be any Western Science, Western Thought, Western Theology and Catholic doctrine. I would not go into why this is so, but anyone who got a liberal education will know that Aristotle's works form the basis for Western thought in all its aspects. In the natural sciences,  Taxonomy is the Queen of the Biological Sciences . As Leonard Co told me 6 months ago, without taxonomy no one can really understand biodiversity. Now we kno...

With much sadness and shock I learned from WWF chair Lory Tan that internationally renowned botanist Leonard Co was killed together with a guide and a forest ranger last Monday, 15 November in a firefight in Leyte between Armed Forces of the Philippines soldiers and Communist guerrillas. As the Philippine Daily Inquirer reports it ,  Co and his researchers were surveying a forest plot of the Energy Development Corporation (EDC) for native Philippine trees and plants especially those that are in danger of extinction, like this Rafflesia flower (the picture I got from Dr Julie Barcelona's blog . Thank you Julie) The 41 year old Communist insurgency has again claimed another life of the best and brightest of the Philippines. In Leonard Co's case, a bright life that cannot be replaced. For he was one of if not the last of  the classically trained botanists in plant taxonomy and systematics in the Philippines. While one can learn the basics of these disciplines i...