METROPOST MARISSA NGAN-DAMES


FOOD FOR THOUGHT


MAKATI CITY -- “Ay, buhi pa diay siya?! Abi nako dugay na na siyang namatay!” was a lady’s comment during a group video chat when she saw someone sign in during a memorial service for my former boss. Her microphone was obviously NOT on mute, and she was oblivious to the horrified reactions of the members in the group.


wracking, stressful, and takes a lot of patience, practice, and some getting used to.


A few months ago, I did an online lecture to a group of law students on the challenges on working from home, and discussed both the advantages and the downside of online meetings.


The faux pax was followed by someone who was expressing his sympathies while wearing a kamiseta and shorts (to the online funeral service). Then another member in the group started playing with his dentures! What was supposedly a solemn service became the venue for gaffes and laughs!


attending video chats UNLESS I absolutely have to and here’s why:


screen strains my eyes, I hate how I look in video calls, I value my privacy, and don’t’ like people peeking into my home like I am a gold fish in a fish tank. But like it or not (or until it is safe to meet face to face again), Zoom meetings, Google Meets, and Microsoft Teams, and variations of these systems are here to stay.


During this pandemic when we have to observe physical distancing, chat groups and online meetings make it possible for us to make presentations to clients, plan for an event, or come to a consensus on a subject. These virtual chats , however, can be nerve-


Staring at a computer To this day, I shirk from


One guiding principle for group chats is RESPECT. Unless you are chatting with members of your immediate family, do take time to dress appropriately, comb your hair, and maintain a respectable posture. During the earlier part of


the pandemic, my staff and I would do video chats as part of our weekly alignment meetings. I have had to remind


some employees to refrain from wearing house clothes when meeting their colleagues. Everyone involved was urged to go to a quiet place, request their spouses or older children to take care of the younger ones during the teleconference, and avoid taking other calls.


all benefit by following some group chat etiquette, making it possible for everybody to enjoy the chat. Here’s why: While we praise the time- saving effort of a group chat, many of us have had bad experiences with overflowing messages or inappropriate content being shared. Group Chat Etiquette 1. Pick your audience.


The number of people you can include in a chat will be dependent on which chat app you’re using. While some chat


PONCIANO LIGUTOM BOW & ARROW pligutom@yahoo.com


media that she has decided to move out of her condo and will live in a house. Her decision, she said, came after having pizza and wine, of all things. A month ago, Kris


O


Aquino made a big move to live away from the city. She decided to live a provincial life in a beach-


ver a week ago, KC Concepcion shared on social


have opted to move out of the City. I have noticed many other affluent people do the same. But on the other hand, many Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW)


are


getting crazy in buying condo units in different cities in the country. Even OFWs from the Visayas and Mindanao are buying condo units on installment in Metro Manila.


indoor plants, aquarium, appliances and personal gadgets. As the song goes, “it takes too long to learn to live alone”. A condo offers some similar aspects of apartment living. If you live in a high rise building your condo maybe located above or below someone else’s home. You have to bear with problematic neighbors or they have to


Metropolis condo or a rustic house front house.


I lived in a condo Andi Eigenmann is


now based in Siargao, Surigao del Norte. She has given up a life of glamour for a simple island life for four years already. She had never looked back after her initial move in 2017. Since her transfer to Siargao, Andi can be seen in her vblogs cooking in simple shacks and posing in front of beachfront “bahay kubos”. She also built a house out of cogon in Siargao island, a symbol of a rural life. Celebrities like the three examples I cited


about four years ago while stationed in Rome, a place with much pizza and red wine. A year later, I moved to Oman and still lived in a condo. I asked myself, “Why do I have to live alone like a prisoner in a condo?” But we were not allowed to live with relatives, friends nor officemates. We had to spend lonely nights alone, unless we were with our family. For more than three years, while on foreign assignments, I did not have a home to go home to.


One thing for sure, we can


The Diocese of Dumaguete appeals to our Honorable Governor, Vice Governor, and the Provincial Board Members of Negros Oriental to NOT REVISE Provincial Ordinance No. 7 (series of 2010) as a non-GMO Province.


marissa.dames@dtcpromos.com.ph


systems can accommodate 20 or 25 people, you are not obliged to do so. Because once you get beyond a certain number, it can get difficult for everyone to communicate effectively. Keep your group to a manageable size. 2. Check your technology.


The Diocese of Dumaguete reiterates its position regarding the introduction of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) in the Province of Negros Oriental, as has been its stand in the Petition submitted to the Provincial Government in March 2020. Food is essential to life. Food gives us


energy. Good and healthy food, in particular, allows us to live and relish life more fully. It is crucial, therefore, that we regard


Tech difficulties are all too common. Be sure to test your sound, video, microphone, and screen sharing in advance of your calls.


to use your hardware and software. Don’t be that person who spends the whole video call asking the others in the chat how to do something technical. It is not up to your team to troubleshoot for you; it’s your responsibility to learn


Quo vadis Group Chats?


how to use your computer. You can do a test call with a co-worker in advance, or sign on 15 minutes early to test it all out. Wasting everyone’s time with technical issues is bad video call etiquette. 3. Be on time. While you


Additionally, know how


with care the food that we find on our table: the rice or the corn on our plate; the fish, the pork, the beef, or the chicken meat on our dish; the vegetables and fruits we see on our bowls.


farms is just as important as the preparation of food in our kitchens.


In our view, the production of food in our


Recently, it has been known that the issue about GMOs has been revived in the sacred halls of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Negros Oriental.


The Diocese of Dumaguete, had made its stand known, and hereby reinforces its position to STAND AGAINST the introduction of GMOs in the Province of Negros Oriental.


Oriental celebrated the “Buglasan Organic Farm Family Congress and Agri-Fair” as “a showcase of the organic ways of producing a crop and underscores the Province’s commitment to sustain organic agricultural practices?”4 In that Buglasan Congress, Gov. Roel


GMOs supposedly increase farm yields and productivity and may, in fact, boost nutrition but, as a study has claimed, “Most GMO crops are glyphosate dependent. Glyphosate is globally subject to massive litigation claims and awards, and is implicated in the causation of multiple cancers.1


may be able to get away with sneaking late into a physical meeting, everything is highly visible in a video call. If you are even a few minutes late, be aware that everyone is probably waiting for you to come online to start.


meetings, arrive five minutes early. This allows everyone to exchange pleasantries before the actual meeting, so it can start on time. 4. Make an agenda and


stick to it. To avoid wasting time, create an agenda ahead of time, and stick to it. This will


TO PAGE 6 As with face-to-face


Certainly, we cannot allow the People of Negros Oriental to be threatened by the food they eat and consequently become cancer victims. Definitely, we cannot allow our People to have their stomachs filled now only to find out that their bodies have become sick later.


”


through PAO will continue to provide for your needs). And no less that “Provincial Agriculturist Nestor Villaflores explained the theme of the affair which is ‘Negros Oriental: The Landscape of Organic Agriculture Opportunities’ that pushes for the diversification among agricultural produce and encourages farmers to adopt latest trends in farming but still adhering to sustainable organic farming practices”.6 If the Province – as represented by the Provincial Governor and the Provincial Agriculturist – is to be faithful to its words in Buglasan, then, it has no choice but to reject the entry of GMOs in Negros Oriental. Otherwise, what is the meaning of the word “commitment”?


Finally, on matters of national policy, we prayerfully remind our Provincial Legislature and Governance that revising Provincial Ordinance No. 7, Series of 2010, to make Negros Oriental friendly and accommodating to GMO, is repugnant to the Organic Agriculture Act of 2010 (RA 10068). Section 2 of the RA provides that:


Degamo promised “Ang kagamhanan probinsya pinaagi sa Provincial Agriculture Office magpadayon sa pagtabang ninyo taman sa among makaya”5


(The Provincial government In October 2019, the Province of Negros


MAY 2 - MAY 8, 2021 OPINION 5


Prof. Jose Graziano da Silva, director general of the Food and Agricultural Organization, wrote: “Genetic selection of a quality of plant may produce impressive results in terms of yield, but have we considered the terrain that loses its productive capacity, farmers who no longer have pasture for their livestock, and water resources that become unusable?”2 As the US Conference of Catholic Bishops


you Gave me Food, the Conference of Bishops wrote that “others are concerned that the benefits of new technologies and genetic engineering will not be made widely available. They fear that farmers will become dependent on seeds patented by a few companies, which could provide returns for investors at the expense of producers”.3 In his encyclical on the environment,


has asked: Who really benefits from the introduction of GMOs? In a statement titled For I was Hungry and


His Holiness, Pope Francis, in a letter to


“It is hereby declared the policy of the State to promote, propagate, develop further and implement the practice of organic agriculture in the Philippines that will cumulatively condition and enrich the fertility of the soil, increase farm productivity, reduce pollution and destruction of the environment, prevent the depletion of natural resources, further protect the health of farmers, consumers, and the general public, and save on important farm inputs.”


We are all stewards of God’s creation. Let us all work, therefore, to preserving and protecting Creation that God himself found pleasing when he ordered them to come into being. Lest we forget the lessons on the cause of CoViD-19, although still under intricate and ongoing investigation, purportedly originating from Wuhan in China, when man become reckless, altered, and tampered with the natural order of God’s creation.


1


Modified Organisms: Resistance, Regulation, and Rejection. AGROFOR International Journal, Vol. 4,


Issue No. 3, 2019. Web. 2


Laudato Si, Pope Francis condemns genetically modified organisms without leaving room for pardon.7 To ensure food security in the Province, then, the Diocese of Dumaguete challenges its provincial and local leaders to work on irrigation, storage and refrigeration, transport, farm-to-market roads network and other common facilities for our farmers, rather than becoming distributors, if not sales agents, of GMO-seeds.


DR. EFREN N. PADILLA iLEARN


SAN FRANCISCO, CAL IFORNIA - -


efren.padilla@csueastbay.edu Fo r


me, framing the City’s development effort as a matter of a moral success or failure is a slippery slope.


put up with you. Twice, I disturbed my neighbors by triggering fire alarms over two unfortunate incidents in my kitchen which filled my unit with smoke.


Just a space with


In a condo one doesn’t have a yard to mow nor can he put a vegetable garden and ornamental plants except when the condo is one of those multimillion units where urban gardening can be done with ease. Some condos are unfunded and don’t have the money to pay for regular maintenance. If a dozen TO PAGE 7


Firstly, it is a slippery slope


because it is easier to reactively criticize or condemn rather than proactively volunteer, donate, or offer planning alternatives, especially the synchronistic ones.


Secondly, it is a slippery


slope because it is prone to hypocrisy when one perches on one’s own moral high chair, thereby, overlording, as well as deflecting one’s own failings against those who are ranked at the bottom of one’s self-invented moral meter. Thirdly, it is a slippery


slope because of the varied and contradicting interests and preferences, as well as the changing goal posts that critics and detractors postulate. Consider for example the following arguments.


There is the version that argues it is not a foe of the reclamation activity but a friend in the battle against poverty, against the tampering of human life, against corruption, against the destruction of our common home.


There is another version that argues the Good, Bad, and Ugly, Clint Eastwood’s Western Spaghetti


fl ick-


like effects of shoreline modification must meet the requirements of legality and morality.


If one is confused with


the non-sequitur and play of words, you’re not alone. I hope I can simplify it with this statement: We are against the reclamation!


If you are still lost in translation, let me assure you we will end up debating this until our faces turn blue—this is the democratic trade-off of someone’s desire to remain relevant, I suppose. And yet,


at some point, the City must decide on its development efforts and priorities. Granting there is such a


legal and moral device, I don’t think legality is an issue that the City has a problem with. In fact, this is a matter that can be checked, verified, or even brought before the bar of justice by anyone who is interested to pursue it, even by those who have axes to grind.


The moral framing of a devt act


And so, we are really left with a morality play.


Well, I am proud to say that despite the hectic demand of planning, raising funds, and implementation, no chief executive in the history of the City has ever shown openness to volunteerism, transparency, accountability, or legal scrutiny like the current one. Now I have my own


questions. Is opposing a development effort a moral issue just because your agenda is not


TO PAGE 6


Pope Francis. Message of His Holiness Pope Francis for the World Food Day 2016. http://www. vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/ food/documents/papa-francesco_20161014_


messaggio-giornata-alimentazione.html 3


A Catholic Agenda for Action - Pursuing a More Just Agricultural System - Part 4.( http://www.usccb. org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/ agriculture-nutrition-rural-issues/for-i-was-


hungry-catholic-agenda-for-action-part-4.cfm) 4-6


pia.gov.ph/news/articles/1028855. 7


USCCB. For I Was Hungry & You Gave Me Food: Paul, John. “The Failures of Genetically


Lomotan, Roi Anthoni. “Buglasan FarmCon 2019 highlights organic agri in NegOr.” https://


Emilio Godoy. TIERRAMERICA. Pope Francis Joins Battle against Transgenic Crops


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