BBM Sir, As Interim Agriculture Secretary, I Hope You Will See That, Among Other Things, PH Agriculture Needs A Digital Library That Encourages Learning About Intelligent Farming To Fight Poverty Alongside Climate Change!
Thank you Evelyn P Antonio for sharing this quote from an American hero of sociology, history, civil rights activism, and writing (Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org): WEB Du Bois; I identify with his determination to fight for the “Prosperity Of A Nation,” even for his race, the American Black:
We should measure the prosperity of a nation not by the number of millionaires, but by the absence of poverty, the prevalence of health, the efficiency of the public schools, and the number of people who can and do read worthwhile books.
BBM Sir, as a BSA graduate major in Agricultural Education from UP Los Baños (1965), I am with you in agriculture even as I have been writing and fighting for our race, the Filipino people, blogging since 2000. I want you to know also that I am a self-taught blogger.
In 1975, non-digitally I began this fight when I was employed by the Forest Research Institute (FORI) – now the Ecosystems Research & Development Bureau (ERDB) – where I would become Founder & Editor in Chief of the 3 FORI publications: the monthly newsletter Canopy, quarterly technical journal Sylvatrop, and quarterly color magazine Habitat that I patterned after the American National Geographic.
In January 2000, I was engaged as WFH (Writer From Home) by the India-based International Crops Research Institute (ICRISAT) that was then headed by now-PH Secretary of Agriculture William Dar. From Mr Dar, the hopeful slogan of ICRISAT was “Science with a human face.”
Along with Mr Dar, my desire is that, with science applied, the poor we shall not always have with us!
In 2011, I received from UPLB Alumni Association (UPLBAA) the “Outstanding Alumnus for Creative Writing.” I was the first to receive such award, and the only one up to now. I cannot thank Elpidio “Pids” L Rosario as UPLBAA head enough! Already, at that time, ICRISAT had published 3 of my science books; I cannot thank ICRISAT enough!
Why am I telling you all this? To help the Secretary of Agriculture fight poverty as well as climate change. Via an Agriculture Digital Library that needs to be set up. BBM, Sir, you could easily assign a multi-billion-peso budget to it!
“Ang Bagong BBM” is that new digital library, my suggestion to you, BBM Sir – but I must acknowledge an intellectual debt from the former Director General of ICRISAT, Mr Dar. He called the digital library “Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture” (OpAPA); I borrowed from OpAPA, which I now call “Ang Bagong BBM” – to which everyone can share their intellectualizations.
So, BBM, Sir? When do we start building this new cellphone-ready knowledge library? Ready when you are!@517
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