blackshama's commentary on Philippine issues

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines's (CBCP) Committee on Bioethics chaired by the Bishop of Malolos Jose Oliveros has this statement expressing optimism that the Vatican will endorse genetically modified foods if just to help ensure global food security. The statement also says that unless the Vatican says otherwise the CBCP will remain opposed to genetically modified food! But that doesn't match with the Vatican's neutrality on the issue until scientific data says otherwise. The CBCP has ignored scientific findings and has taken on the politically noisy and media grabbing NGO environmentalist bandwagon! The Vatican has a much better sense of natural phenomenon and reality than the CBCP. Why can't we have a Pinoy bishop as razor sharp as Benedict XVI? Nonetheless the bishops and priests really need to enroll in this coming semester's Biology 10 class. Here they will learn that genetic modification is not a new thing and that nature has been doing ...

The hungry like the drunk are unreasonable. The global rice crisis has claimed its first political victim. The PM of Haiti just resigned over food riots in Port-au-Prince. The Haitian mob also murdered the Nigerian police officer who was driving a UN vehicle. This is a portent of things to come if things get worse. The Philippines is no exception. Here in the Philippines politicians are in self delusion. Palawan Rep. Abraham Mitra says that a food riot is an "alien concept". If being hungry is an alien concept then I would agree,but hunger isn't alien. It is endemic. The politicians and government spin doctors keep on playing the Gloriana mantra that our "macroeconomic fundamentals are good". Philippine Star op ed columnist Cito Beltran today writes that in a crisis you can't eat money . This is only partly true. Of course you can eat money! You have to be 1) a termite or have 2) wood cellulose digesting bacteria in your gut (in that case then you really ...

In the undergrad course I teach "Environment and Society" one of the important environmental issues we take in class is human population growth. And no one can take stock of the issue without bumping into Thomas Robert Malthus and his theory on population. Malthus was an Anglican country parson who wrote one of the most influential works in science "An Essay on the Principle of Population". This essay influenced Darwin and Wallace at a time they were formulating their evolutionary theory. Malthus being a parish priest was able to create his theory from christening, marriage and funeral records. What better place to be a demographer! Malthus' essay has three important concepts. Some environmental science textbooks call these as "prophecies" while some call it "predictions". For the sake of scientific objectivity, I prefer the latter term. The predictions are 1) Population will increase exponentially as long as their is enough food (Malthus ini...

The People Power regiment I hope that the AFP top brass is joking when the Air Force commanding general said that even with the lack of fighter aircraft, we will defend our islands with "warm bodies"! The AFP should now consider drafting People Power stalwarts. After all they have warmer bodies than our soldiers. Maybe we can have a readily mobilized People Power regiment that can be air dropped to PagAsa island. And thay can flash their trademark Laban signs at the invading Red Army. Our armed forces have become so pathetic in its capabilities. The blame really is on the successive Malacanang tenants we have had in the last 20 years or so. Worsening food security and the Communists I suppose the AFP has still more firepower than the New Peoples Army. The communist ideologues really have the gall to intensify attacks during this coming crisis. This will cause more hardship for the masses. Maoism, Leninism and Stalinism all variants of the unscientific ideology of Karl Marx ha...

It seems that most of us and especially the government and the church have overlooked the relationship between environment, geographyt and rice supply. In 2006 in the International Geographic Union conference in Brisbane climate and food geographers have warned about the effects of rainfall shift (presumably due to global warming) and rice supply. In a well attended lecture two Japanese climatologists modelled the effect of the shifting monsoons and listed two countries that will be heavily impacted rain wise and rice wise. These are our beloved Filipinas and Vietnam! Thailand will be hit but not as bad as Vietnam and the Philippines. The two nations are heavily dependent on monsoon flooding to irrigate their paddies. Their rapidly urbanizing societies are converting rice lands (in the coastal regions) and turning these into subdivisions and golf courses. This is related to a rapidly rising population. Socialist Vietnam has slowed down its population growth and reduced poverty. The Chu...