Ode to Environment

When Elizabeth Barret Browning mused many years ago…"The Face of all the World is Changed, I Think," it is as if she was referring to global warming, et al. If the dire threats to the country's staggering natural bounties are anything to go by, the poetry of land, sea and mountain may have already given way to the prosaic.

How aptly another poet Robert Frost wrote "The birds' song will never be the same again." For somewhere in the archipelago, the environment takes a constant beating. We are all too familiar with the litany of ecological devastation: a paltry 800,000 hectares of virgin forest today, compared to over 10 million hectares of sheer abundance and biodiversity before World War II; our coral reefs, once billed as the richest on earth, now down to five percent in pristine state; our topsoil, the very source of food security, severely eroded in over half of our provinces; over half of 450 rivers now declared dead or dying; our urban air quality ranked among the most polluted in the world.

Ours is still an ecology-dependent economy. Forty million people are directly tied to agriculture, to irrigation and watersheds for rice and corn production. Thirty million rely on fisheries and coastal resources for sustenance and livelihood. The environment is the only social security system of our country's vast numbers of poor, but it is the first casualty in the unconcern for the God-given natural resources.

It should not take cursory references to this and that celebration on the Environment to remind us of how much damage we have wrought on our fragile ecosystems - and the pressing need for action on various fronts.

With this year's theme, "Beat the Heat! Let Us Work Towards a Safer Climate," the observance of June as Environment Month is commemorated annually pursuant to Proclamation No. 237 issued by former President Corazon C. Aquino.

As we regularly feel the force of nature like rising sea temperature, floods, drought, depletion of flora and fauna, all triggered by global climate change, we resort to unified action which is the best way to effectively deal with natural disasters.

These program advocacies include land management, forest development, biodiversity, marine and coastal resources management, responsible mining, solid waste management, watershed and river rehabilitation, air quality management and partnerships and social mobilization concerns.

The poetry of the earth, John Keats mused, is never dead. Keats' poetry of land, air and water that Providence has bestowed on this land - that alone will guarantee our country's future and sustainability.

Let each and every Filipino unite and work like passionate environmentalists in their respective communities. Armed with novel and noble initiatives, let every Filipino's initiative to save the environment, serve to inspire and educate.

Empowering Filipino adolescents to make nutritionally-correct decisions

It is the responsibility of the adult Filipinos to enable the Filipino adolescents to attain their full potentials in adulthood by empowering them to make nutritionally-correct decisions in their lives.

There are many things and many different ways of enabling and empowering the youth who are supposed to be the future leaders of the land. The nutrition month pledge says it all.

Talk regularly about the importance of proper nutrition and healthy lifestyle to inspire every adolescent to think and take the right way of nutrition and help move the country to peace and progress. Parents must do these things to their children. Keeping the communication lines open, talking to the adolescents as if they are already adults will help them acquire self confidence and develop the spirit of being responsible and answerable to their own selves.

Adult Filipinos must Ensure and maintain their being models of appropriate behavior for health and nutrition of the children. The children imitate what they see from their elders. The best way of teaching the adolescents healthy lifestyle and proper nutrition, is through example. Adults must show the adolescents the way to healthy living and proper nutrition. One, as it is, can not credibly teach what he or she does not practice.

Adults must Encourage families, schools and communities to engage in productive activities aligned with the promotion of good nutrition. They must Network with health, nutrition and allied workers to be abreast of the developments in nutrition and health.

Finally, adults must Stimulate and steer into action children and adolescents for them to share in their own way, in the task of nation-building for a better and brighter future.

This may be done by sowing in their young hearts and minds that whatever they will become in the future will depend on the lifestyle and nutrition-habits they develop while they are still young. Healthy lifestyle, after all, is the way to a healthy and productive future.

THE LONGINGS OF THE SOUL

Beyond the hassles and bustles of days
Beyond the merry child-like ways
There is an emptiness, no one can fool
Caused by the longings of my soul.

Where one had treaded and ran
Where eyes once met and then began
The mind doth know and the heart is full
With none but the longings of my soul.

Amid the tears and smiles
Amid goodbyes and wait a whiles
Here in the heart there lies a hole
Which bear the longings of my soul.

And yet as sure as the sun rises

Together with the moon and the stars

With Hope, the heart is full

Because God knows you alone

Can fill the longings of my soul.

WELCOME INTO YOUR HOMES THE POPULATION CENSUS ENUMERATORS

Starting August 1, when someone knocks on your door, with a bag on his or her shoulders and papers on his or her hand, you don’t shut the door right away, she or he is not a sales or a promo person!

Wait a while as he or she identifies herself as an enumerator for the 2007 Census of Population. Make sure she or he presents his or her identification card. Welcome him or her into your home. This enumerator is including you and your household members, including overseas workers, in the complete count of all residents, both Filipinos and foreigners who have stayed or are expected to stay for at least a year in the Philippines .

The census enumerators will gather population data through house-to-house visits and personal interview of the household head or any responsible member of the household.

Special areas such as exclusive subdivisions and condominiums shall be enumerated using a self-administered questionnaire to be filled out by the respondent. To make sure that every body is counted, institutional populations such as those living in hospitals, sanitaria, penitentiaries, military camps, convents, seminaries and others, shall also be covered.

Do not worry that the information you will give to the enumerators will be used for other purposes. Section 4 of Commonwealth Act No. 591 guarantees that any information obtained during enumeration shall be held in strict confidentiality and that it must not be communicated to any person except bona fide employees of the National Statistics Office.

Mind you! There is a penalty for refusing to give information or for providing false information to census enumerators. Section 3 of Commonwealth Act No. 591 provides penalty, upon conviction, a fine of not more than P600 or imprisonment for not more than 3 months, or both, to any person who unjustifiably refuses to furnish the information called for in the census questionnaire, or to any person who knowingly gives data or information which shall be proven to be materially untrue.

The 2007 Census of Population shall be undertaken to provide current data on population counts, which shall be the basis for the Internal Revenue Allotment and the creation of new local government units or conversion of some of the existing local government units to higher level, pursuant to the provisions of the 1991 Local Government Code.

The statistics derived from the Census of Population will be used in the formulation of policies, preparation of plans and programs concerning population; restricting and apportionment of congressional seats, allocation of resources and revenues and creation of political and administrative units.

In business and industry, the statistics will be helpful in determining sites for establishing business, determining consumer demands for various goods and services and for determining supply of labor for the production of goods and services.

The statistics derived from the Census of Population will also be useful for research and academic institutions particularly in the conduct of researches on population and other disciplines, study and design of small area statistics and study of population growth and distribution as basis in preparing projections.

The enumeration will start on August 1, 2007 and will last for about 25 days only. So, welcome the enumerators into your homes and be counted.

STRENGTHENING TECH-VOC PROGRAM TO PROVIDE RELEVANT SKILLS DEMANDED BY INDUSTRY

The Department of Education is more resolute than ever to continue pushing for the strengthening of the Department’s Vocational Education Program.

With the belief that there is a need to provide relevant foundation skills for higher learning, employment or entrepreneurship among the youth, the Department of Education has initially targeted some 140 high schools where the strengthened tech-voc education program is currently being implemented. The number is expected to increase to about 261 tech-voc schools nationwide by school year 2009 to 2010.

Among the criteria used to determine which of the 261 technical-vocational schools in the Philippines will pilot the tech-voc curriculum include the existence of community linkages, leadership and advocacy level of the school administrator or principal, existence of a school improvement plan, local government support, quality of manpower and existing facilities. The relevance to the existing industry in the locality of the tech-voc high schools will also guide the department in establishing or strengthening specific skills and programs.

Tech-voc high schools are special schools and are treated differently due to unique needs of its students, academic requirements and curricular offerings, eared or dovetailed to a ladderized education program.

The decision to really put great stress on the technical-vocational program was heightened by the result of this year’s National Career Assessment Exam (NCAE), no less than Secretary Jesli Lapus confirmed.

Secretary Lapus said that part of the plan is to equip Filipino high school students with technical-vocational skills that can empower them to find meaningful employment, whether or not they pursue college education.

Based on the NCAE last January 17, out of the 1.3 million fourth year high school students who took the test, more than half of them have inclinations in courses that require Technical-Vocational (Tech-Voc) aptitude.Right after learning the results of the NCAE, the Department of Education (DepEd) has initiated the profiling of technical-vocational (tech-voc) high schools nationwide in order to assess their capability to implement the Technical-Vocational Education Curriculum for this school year.