Survival in extreme hot and dry environment

Dr Abe V Rotor

Bamboo flowers if threatened by severe drought.

"Take heed of the flowering bamboo," old folks warn.  It foretells El Niño, a cyclical climatic phenomenon every seven to ten years characterized by extreme hot and dry climate. The biblical story of Joseph interpreting the pharaoh's dream of "seven years of plenty followed by seven years of want," is most likely based on this phenomenon. (Note: The inflorescence of bamboo does not develop in open, thus certain species are threatened, so with the animals depending on them such as the Panda in China.)   

Porcupine enconsed itself in a log to beat summer heat 

Organisms become dormant (aestivate to many animals), their metabolism slows down, they stop reproducing temporarily, and they become less visible.  These are part of survival mechanism until normal environmental conditions are restored. Organisms are attuned to the march of seasons as well as the vagaries of weather and harsh effect of force majeure. These are tests of evolution and the basis of Darwin's "survival of the fittest."  

Dwarf frangipani (kalachuchi) stores water in its bulbous stem. 

Many plants, especially cacti, store water for the dry season. Water and nutrients are stored in special cells  that swell when filled up and shrink as the supply gets low. The principle involved is even more complex in the camel, whose humps are the storage organ.     Before embarking for journey, travelers make certain that the humps of this "ship in the desert" is solid and firm.  

Entrepreneurship - what is it really?

Dr Abe V Rotor

Dewitt Wallace, the Reader’s Digest founder and president saw a new challenge in journalism during his time, at the turn of industrialization and age of intellectualism. His invention, a concise compact, entertaining and “ humanizing “ piece of journalism, the Readers Digest became the most read and circulated publication ever. And what made Wallace the legend? Not his invention per se but his ability to sell it to millions of readers in 15 editions and 8 languages. We can only imagine of his genius in business.

The great writer and historian James Michener was once asked by his commanding officer what he can do. “I can write the history of this war in South Pacific, Sir," he said with a dream in his eyes. The same question was asked to an engineer also serving in the military camp. “I can rebuild engines, Sir “ he said confidently. Years after the war, the two persons meet. Michener was then a famous writer, his book South Pacific became a best seller book, a box office 
Dewitt Wallace, founder of the Reader's Digest, and Dewitt Wallace Gallery
movie, a song and a drama. The engineer has been rebuilding old engines ever since and has put up a company that specializes in this field.

In business, initiative imagination is like spice in food, enhances palatability, and hence salability. Often the lack of it spoils the other ingredients and therefore, are laid to waste. We lost opportunities to share our knowledge and resources to others because we fail to organize them well and translate them in packages acceptable to those who are in need. Our professions virtually remain only our own because we keep them for ourselves. Even if our intention is not that selfish, unknowingly we have not had the opportunity to complement people because we do not know how to manage or administer these talents and resources. Thus altruism sometimes is unwittingly missed as a virtue by the one who lacks business sense.

Farmers as Entrepreneurs. I had the rare opportunity to teach farmers the newest technology in Agriculture. For me the New World of technology unfolding before my eyes was like a dream. The new rice varieties, the new chemical fertilizers, the revolutionary cropping systems, radioisotopes in tracing soil nutrients, agricultural cooperative schemes patterned after the best coops in the world, tractors, electron microscope, etc. Technology! But who pays for technology? The farmer of course. Can he afford it?

Today we understand why farmers revert to their old ways of farming. They have realized that the net effect of a new technology may cut them into subsistence despite the benefits directly derived from it. Extension service, I am glad, has finally realized the importance of enterprise. And more than that, the economics of agricultural enterprise. If we introduce an innovation, the first consideration then is, “Will the farmers improve their lives? Will it affect directly their business? Does it have consequences that insure them a better future?"

A new CPA was asked why she chose this career. She said she would like to work as an accountant. And work she found – accountant of a foreign firm. Years later, the lady saw the larger realm of accounting.

Today she is a partner of an auditing firm serving well known government agencies and Makati-based business firms. She has indeed successfully combined the disciplines of accountancy and business administration. ~

Folk Wisdom for Kids: 40 Causes of Allergy - a Checklist (Twelfth of a Series)

Folk Wisdom for Kids:   40 Causes of Allergy - a Checklist (Twelfth  of a Series)
Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog

Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) 
with Ms Melly C Tenorio

738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 Evening Class, Monday to Friday

Cigarette photo credit: Internet

Let me present some cases of allergy often encountered. These were gathered from our radio listeners on Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid, and my students at UST, DLSU-D and SPU-QC.

1. Smoking.  Drivers, office workers, mechanics, farmers, writers, teachers, name it, and the habit is widespread. I know one whose only  bisyo is paninigarillo. He didn’t live long.

2. “Canned entertainment” such as parties in fastfoods predisposes kids to various ailments and psychological trauma, and to certain kinds of allergy. It is devoid of the natural environment that builds resistance to allergy as the children grow up.

3. Some common allergens are flowers of kasoy, Bulacan wonder, kupkupyes, macopa, and tapilan. Lipang Kalabaw, a very itchy plant that grows into a tree.

4. Mushroom Allergy. There are spores of fungi like Auricularia or “tainga ng daga” and wild tree mushroom even when they have dried up.

5. Fowls and wild birds are common causes of allergy, from their feathers and parasites, to their droppings. The filthiest bird second to the vulture is the crow carries vermin from carcasses of animals and garbage.  Allergy from reptiles – from skin casting to vermin attracted by their food and waste.

6. Don’t play with spiders. Spiders cause allergy with the hair coverings of their body, and web or silk of certain species. The Black Widow is one of the few poisonous species.

7. Allergic to trees like ipil-ipil (Leucaena glauca)? It’s due to “plant lice” like Psylla, a minute insect pest that wiped out ipil-ipil plantations in the seventies and eighties. They build dense colonies on a single tree, sapping its vitality until it dies.

8. Mealybugs and scale insects (Order Homoptera) produce waxy covering layer for protection and camouflage, as well as casing of their eggs and young. Cottony mealybug (Pseudococcos) on guava leaf; the insect without waxy covering.

9. Pesticide Residue in fruits. Fruits may carry pesticide residues of dangerous chemicals like Folidol, BHC and Malathion. Pesticide residues on vegetables, particularly on crucifers – cabbage, lettuce, pechay, cauliflower – register above allowable levels. Lack of monitoring may predispose consumers to the effects of pesticides.

11. Kapok or Cotton Tree (Ceiba pentandra L) releases seeds covered with lint from the mature pod The fiber is gathered mainly for pillow. It is cool and preferred over synthetic fills. Dehiscence period is towards the end of the year.

12. Fire Tree (Delonix regia) Both flowers and caterpillars attacking the tree may cause allergy. Higad or the hairy caterpillar of Tussock moth causes irritation of the skin which may last for days. A common remedy is to apply vinegar on the affected skin. If the sharp hairs are embedded, apply candle drops and allow to solidify. Then peel off with the encased hair. 

13. Allergic to Termites? It may be the termite or the mushroom in farms in its chamber - or both - that cause the allergy. Termites work with lignin-breaking fungi that soften the wood. Inside their guts are protozoa that break up cellulose, aiding digestion – a classic case of symbiosis.

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Global Warming and Climate Change increase incidence of Asthma and Allergy cases around the world.

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14. Pesticide Residues. Poisonous hydrocarbon and phosphate compounds find their way through the food chain – in the case of frog from sprayed insects that serve as its prey. Pesticide residues accumulate in its tissues and transferred to the its predators, including man.

15. Are you allergic to native delicacies? Sinanglaw is a favorite Ilocano dish from internal organs of carabao or cattle cooked in slow fire and heavily spiced with hot pepper, paminta and ginger. Pinapaitan and kilawin prepared from goat’s meat are a native delicacy in many parts of the country. Other delicacies include kaldereta and soup “number 5.”

17. Tulingan  and tanggigi  is a common cause of allergy to many people. It is a practice to drain the blood by cutting the tail, and carefully removing the entrails before the fish is cut and served raw or cooked. The danger worsens when the fish is no longer fresh. There are people who are also allergic to tuna.

18. Shellfish – tahong, talaba and halaan may harbor the red tide dinoflagellate is large quantity that may lead to Paralytic Shellfish Poison (PSP) in man. PSP symptoms may first appear as allergy, and may be lethal if not treated immediately.

20. Allergy is caused by insects Banana and mabolo (left) attacked by fruit fly (Dacus orsalis. Dacus cucurbitae). It attacks dozens of popular fruits and vegetables, including mango, citrus, guava, macopa, cucumber, ampalaya.

21. Mosses, algae, ferns and short growing annuals may cause allergy, including their substrates that undergo transformation by weathering.

22. The domesticated honeybee (Apis melifera) normally does not sting unless provoked, unlike the notorious African honeybee which threatens the US honeybee industry today. There are as many deaths due to bee sting as snake bites. People vary in reaction to bee sting, from swelling to difficulty in breathing.

23. Millipedes (Class Diplopods) exude Cyanide gas to stun their prey as well as repel their predators. Thus children should warned not to play with the “diken-diken,” playing possum by curling its body into a tight ring.

24. Avoid obnoxious and annoying insects - all kinds of bugs, plant lice, aggressive Insects such as wasp and hantik ant. Hemipterans - the bugs – exude an obnoxious odor which is caustic to the skin and eyes, a chemical offensive that wards off would-be predators attracted by their brilliant colors and attractive designs.

25. Perfectly camouflaged, these insects lie surreptitious to their prey and predator and people may be unwary of them. 

Stink bug (Nezara viridula); Papillio butterfly pollinates flowers and in effect spreads pollen grains over a wide area.

Lepidopterans – butterflies, moths and skippers – are covered with scales of of chitin, a very resistant cellulose-like compound. The practice of releasing butterflies in place of throwing rice on a newly married couples has been discouraged because of the danger the chitinous scales that cause irritation of the skin and eyes.

26. There are various allergic reactions to fowls and birds, not only for their feathers, but mites and lice belonging to two Orders Anoplura (suckling lice) and Mallophaga (chewing lice) - that reside in their bodies and nests.

27. Ngarusangis is a very small bivalve that occurs in colonies in estuaries. The shells are gathered for food and for ducks in raising balot. Allergy cases have been reported by eating this favorite soup of the Ilocanos.  Increasing lead pollution has forced the shutdown of many salt beds in the country. Salt made near cities and industrial sites may pose danger to health.

28. Does radiation cause allergy? Radiation emitted by radio transmitters have been found to be the cause of a number of ailments from insomnia to sterility. It is also associated with cancer, abnormal blood levels and heart conditions which may be related to allergy or allergy symptoms.

30. Danger lurks in murky water – diseases, vermin, etc. Heavily polluted waterways such as the Pasig River contain high levels of Hydrogen Sulfide, Ammonia, Methane, other gases, and toxic metals.

31. Allergy to plastics and other synthetic materials. Stuffed toys may cause allergy, so with many things put into the mouth.

32. It might be aldelfa or yellow bell flower. The sap may cause paralysis of the pharynx leading to asphyxiation.

34. Aflatoxin in peanut, corn and others go unnoticed with the preserved food.

35. Believe it or not – bad spirits like the kapre lives in old balete tree. Naan-annongan is different from nakasagsagid , but the symptoms are quite similar - profuse sweating and feeling of general weakness.

36. Allergy from yeast and young wine.

37. Are you allergic to fireworks, and on New Year’s Eve?

38. Allergy to dust and dust mites in bedrooms and unkempt dwellings.

39. Milk is the number source of allergy in infants and young children. Peanut is the most common source of energy among legumes.

40. Genetically modified food may contain foreign genetic materials unsuspecting to be the cause of allergy, Example: gene from flounder spliced with tomato gene. Anti-freeze property of flounder makes tomato resistant to frost in the field.

Trivia

Pollen Allergy is often the cause of sneezing fit and asthmatic symptoms.

It is true.  It is called allergy rhinitis There are people who are highly sensitive to pollen grains. And their allergy is specific to certain plants, and at certain seasons these plants are in bloom. Plants belonging to Family Poaceae or Graminae which include rice, corn, wheat, sugarcane, talahib, cogon, and the like generally bloom in the last quarter beginning October when dry season the habagat season is about to end and dry season starts. 

Here are tips to prevent or minimize pollen allergy.

·         Keep away from flowers and flowering plants

·         Stay home to prevent exposure to pollen

·         Avoid touching eyes and skin to prevent spread of allergy.

·         Don’t bring in flowers and plants inside the house.

·         Use mask and proper clothing.

There is a pollen calendar developed by the late Dr. Lolita Bulalacao of the National Museum, a pioneer in palynology (the study of pollen grains) in the Philippines. The calendar warns us people who are susceptible to allergy to keep away from pollen coming from certain flowering plants in season and from specific areas that may cause allergy. The symptoms of allergy rhynitis are generally relieved by antihistamine, which comes in different preparations and brands, as tablet or ointment.~

 

 Top, clockwise: Hantik (green tree ant) nest, web spider, 

termites, aphids, honeybee, a pair of cotton stainer 

Folk Wisdom for Kids: Sleep Paralysis - wiggle your toes, move your fingers – don’t give up! (Eleventh of a Series)

Folk Wisdom for Kids: Sleep Paralysis - wiggle your toes, move your fingers – don’t give up! (Eleventh of a Series)
Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog

Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) 
with Ms Melly C Tenorio

738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 Evening Class, Monday to Friday

1.  Sleep paralysis - wiggle your toes, move your fingers – don’t give up!

People who have experienced sleep paralysis mistake it as bangongot.  It is because of its very nature as a near death experience and it is indeed very scary. I have experienced it myself in a number of times at least in two ways. The most common is when you are dreaming, say of running but you can’t run, box someone but you can’t raise your arm. Imagine you are being chased by a wild animal and you are glued in your place! There’s one thing you can do: panic and talk incoherently or 

Nightmarish dream  

shout. You wake up tired, panting, perspiring, trying to decipher whether the experience is true or just a dream. It is so vivid that when you are back to your senses you can relate perhaps the whole story. 

The other kind of sleep paralysis is more frightening.  It is one that may or may not be preceded by a dream.  On waking up, you can’t move. You feel totally paralyzed with perhaps only your brain is functioning. Panic seizes you, as you attempt to move but cannot.  Frantically you try to move any part of your body. In my experience the first to respond are the fingers and toes, then the limbs, and as blood begins to circulate perked by adrenaline, you find yourself finally “back to the living.”   

Sleep paralysis is nature’s way of protecting us during our unconscious moments.  Otherwise we become another Hercules who killed his wife and children in his sleep.  This safeguard is not absolutely foul proof though.  Take the case of sleepwalking and some cases of violence that occur during sleeping.  Well, whatever way there is to assuage you, sleep paralysis really scares you to death. Just don’t give up. 

2. Beware of food coloring, the case of jubos in tamarind sweet.

All of a sudden when answering the call of nature, I was alarmed to see the color of my urine bright red. I cried, Blood! I tried to compose myself to be able to reach the hospital in the earliest possible time.  But what surprised me at the same time  was that my fingers were also stained red.  I examined the “tamarind sweet” I had just eaten. I found the culprit - jubos, the dye used in dying shoes.  Jubos is used to color the local confectionery. How many food preparations are artificially colored for better presentation? Since that time on I have been very careful with colored foods.  Ube cake, anyone? 

These are things to remember about food dyes, especially if you suspect of a food or drink to be colored artificially.

·         Be familiar with the natural colors of fruits and other food products. There are rare ones though. For example, purple rice cake (puto) comes from a variety pirurutong or purple rice. Ordinary rice flour and ube flour produce the same color. This can be imitated with the use of purple dye.    

·         Processed foods like smoked fish and ham are colored, usually golden yellow, to be attractive.

·         Confectionery products are made to appear like cocoa, coffee, orange, strawberry, grapes and the like, when in fact the ingredients are mainly sugar artificial flavors and food dyes.

·         Fruit juices carry dyes to enhance their natural colors. Example, calamansi juice is made to appear like lemon or orange. Softdrinks would look dull and unattractive without artificial colors.

·         Cakes and other bakery products may deceive the eye and even the palate.  Cake decors are definitely made of food dyes of many colors and different color combinations.

·         Artificial colors are filtered by our excretory system so that they appear in the urine. This is not the case of natural colors such as achuete or anatto (Bixa orellana), pandan (Pandanus odoratissimus), ube (Dioscorea alata), and mango (Mangifera indica).

3. Folks at home warn us never to wade in floodwaters where rats abound.  

Rat are carriers of of the disease called leptospirosis. The first time I heard the word leptospirosis was ten years ago when Manila virtually remained underwater for days as a result of monsoon rains intensified by a series of typhoons. The disease is also called infectious jaundice because one of the advance symptoms is yellow coloration of the skin. The causal organism is a spiral bacterium, hence the name, and is endemic where public 

Flash flood in Manila

sanitation and personal hygiene are neglected.  One can contact the disease through infected urine of rats and mice, and also other animals including dogs and cats. According to reports most of the victims acquired the disease from polluted drinking water and by wading in floodwater. The suspected carrier is the Rattus rattus norvigicus or city rat, counterpart of the field rat, Rattus rattus mindanensis.

How do we know if a person has contacted the disease?  At first the symptoms are like those of an ordinary flu, which may last for a few days or weeks as the pathogen incubates in the body.  If not treated the infection may lead to hemorrhages of the skin and mucus lining and eye inflammation.  Extreme cases may lead to irreversible damage of the liver and kidney.

As floodwater drives the rats out of their subterranean abode - canals, culverts, sewers and the like  - they take refuge in homes, market stalls, restaurants, even high rise buildings and malls,

4. You get Ascaris (bulate) if you eat uncooked rice (du-om Ilk).

During threshing and pounding or milling, particularly in the village where sanitation is poor, rice may become contaminated with this intestinal parasite.  Rice on display in rice boxes may also pick the eggs, what with the common practice of sampling rice by putting a grain or two into the mouth. Ascaris eggs are tough and resistant, they can remain dormant in the rice until such time that they are ingested.  In the intestines, the eggs hatch and grow into maturity. Children are most vulnerable but adults are not spared.  The usual signs of the disease are bulging stomach and skinny condition. Ascaris is prevalent where conditions are unsanitary so that periodic deworming  of children in such areas is recommended

5. Oxalic acid in kamias weakens the bones.

Sinigang with kamias (Averrhoa balimbi) is a favorite dish no Filipino kitchen is without. But too much intake of kamias is not good for the health because of the oxalic acid it contains which doctors and nutritionists found to be a cause of osteoporosis.  The principle is that, acids react with calcium compounds forming a neutral product – salt. In the process, the bone gets thinner and thinner predisposing it to break especially in old age. Thus, we should caution ourselves from taking too much acidic food, and in particular, kamias and balimbing (A. carambola)  which belong to Family Oxalidaceae.

Trivia

Avoid using skin whiteners; they are laced with mercury.

Cases of mercury poisoning among whitener users were reported in Hongkong.  Mercury is injurious to the kidney and liver, and may cause deformity in children as in the case of the Minamata disease.

Folk Wisdom for Kids: Have you seen a Scarecrow lately? (Sixth of a Series)

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog

Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) 
with Ms Melly C Tenorio

738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 Evening Class, Monday to Friday

 1.  Scarecrow – friend and foe.

Love that scarecrow (banbanti Ilk.).  It is folk art on the farm. In the middle of the field it feigns scary to birds, what with those outstretched arms and that mysterious face hidden beneath a wide brim hat. There it stands tall amid maturing grains, keeping finches or maya birds (Lonchura Malacca jagori and L. m. formosana) at bay.   Finches are widely distributed in Asia and the Pacific feeding on rice grains, and alternately on weed seeds, but now and then they also steal from the haystack (mandala) and poultry houses. They are recognized for their chestnut colored compact bodies, and sturdy triangular beak designed for grain picking and husking. The scarecrow also guards against the house sparrow, mayan costa (billit China Ilk.), including the loveable turtle dove or bato-bato (Streptopelia bitorquata dursummieri), all grain feeders. (Photo Credit: Wikipedia)

A scarecrow is usually made of rice hay shaped like a human body wrapped around a T-frame. It is simply dressed up with old shirt and hat.  The idea is to make it look like the farmer that the birds fear.  There is one problem though.  Birds, like the experimental dog of Pavlov (principle of conditional learning), soon  discover the hoax and before the farmer knows it a whole flock of maya is feasting on his ready-to-harvest ricefield.  It is not uncommon to see maya birds bantering around – and even roasting on the scarecrow itself! 

Today the scarecrow is an endangered art.  In its place farmers hang plastic bags, or tie old cassette and video tape along dikes and across the fields.  These create rustling or hissing sound as the wind blows, scaring the birds.  Others use firecrackers and pellet guns. At one time I saw a lone scarecrow in the middle of a field. On examining it closely, I found out that it was made of a mannequin dressed the way the fashion world does. It reminded me of the boy who discovered the statue of Venus de Milo in a remote pasture in Greece. On another occasion I saw balloons and styropore balls hanging in poultry and piggery houses, bearing the faces of Jollibee, Power Puff Girls, Batman, Popeye, Mr. Bean and a host of movie and cartoon characters. Interestingly I noticed that the birds were nowhere to be found.

When I told my friend, an entomologist, that these new versions of the scarecrow seem to be effective, he wryly replied, “Maybe there are no more birds left.”  Suddenly I remembered Silent Spring, a prize winning book by Rachel Carson. The birds that herald spring had died of pesticide poisoning.

2. Old folks talk about living things resurrecting from the dead, and others that have self-healing power. 

They tell us of the magic of lizards growing new tails, crabs regaining lost claws, starfish arising from body pieces.  How can we explain the mystery behind these stories?

The biological phenomenon behind these stories is called regeneration. The male deer grows a new set of anthers each year; sea squirts and hydras are produced from tiny buds; the same way plants grow from cuttings.  New worms may regenerate from just pieces of the body; and some fish can sprout new fins to replace the ones that have been bitten off.

Experiments demonstrated that the forelimb of a salamander severed midway between the elbow and the wrist, can actually grow into a new one exactly the same as the lost parts.  The stump re-forms the missing forelimb, wrist, and digits within a few months.  In biology this is called redifferentiation, which means that the new tissues are capable of reproducing the actual structure and attendant function of the original tissues. 

Curious the kid I was, I examined a twitching piece of tail, without any trace of its owner. I was puzzled at what I saw.  My father explained how the lizard, a skink or bubuli, escaped its would-be predator by leaving its tail twitching to attract its enemy, while its tailless body stealthily went into hiding.  “It will grow a new tail,” father assured me. I have also witnessed tailless house lizards (butiki) growing back their tails at various stages, feeding on insects around a ceiling lamp. During the regeneration period these house lizards were not as agile as those were with normal tails, which led me to conclude how important the tail is.

Regeneration is a survival mechanism of many organisms. Even if you have successfully subdued a live crab you might end up holding only its pinchers and the canny creature has gone back into the water. This is true also to grasshoppers; they escape by pulling away from their captors, leaving their large trapped hind legs behind. But soon, like their crustacean relatives, new appendages will start growing to replace the lost ones. 

Another kind of regeneration is compensatory hypertrophy, a kind of temporary growth response that occurs in such organs as the liver and kidney when they are damaged. If a surgeon removes up to 70 percent of a diseased liver, the remaining liver tissues undergo rapid mitosis (multiplication of cells) until almost the original liver mass is restored.  Similarly, if one kidney is removed, the other enlarges greatly to compensate for its lost partner.

   

3. Animals respond favorably to music, so with plants. 

In a holding pen in Lipa, Batangas, where newly arrived heifers from Australia were kept, the head rancher related to his guests the role of music in calming the animals. “We have to acclimatize them first before dispersing them to the pasture and feedlot.” He pointed at the sound system playing melodious music.  In the duration of touring the place I was able to pick up the music of Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven and Bach. It is like being in a high rise office in Makati where pipe in music is played to add to pleasant ambiance of working.  Scientists believe that the effect of music on humans has some similarity with that of animals, and most probably to plants.

Which brings us to the observation of a winemaker in Vienna.  A certain Carlo Cagnozzi has been piping Mozart music to his grapevines for the last five years.  He claims that playing round the clock to his grapes has a dramatic effect. “It ripens them faster,” he said, adding that it also keeps away parasites and birds.  Scientists are now studying this claim to enlarge the very limited knowledge on the physiological and psychological effects of music.

Once I asked a poultry raiser in Teresa, Rizal, who also believes in music therapy.  “The birds grow faster and more eggs are produced,” he said. “In fact music has stopped cannibalism.”  I got the same positive response from cattle raisers where the animals are tied to their quarters until they are ready for market. “They just doze off, even when they are munching,” he said, adding that tension and unnecessary movement drain the animals wasting feeds that would increase the rate of daily weight gain. In a report from one of the educational TV programs, loud metallic noise stimulates termites to eat faster, and therefore create more havoc.  

There is one warning posed by the proponents of music therapy.  Rough and blaring music agitates the adrenalin in the same way rock music could bring down the house.

4.  You can actually hear death knocking in the night.

It’s like an Edgar Allan Poe’s story of death tapping on “a night dark and dreary”, but in this case it is not a raven. It is the Death-watch Beetle (Xestobium rufovillosum) that is alluded to death. It is an insect with a scary habit all right. The name was derived from the tapping sound it produces, which is frequently heard during mating period, usually in April or May. 

The beetle simply jerks its body forward in rapid succession, and strikes each time with the lower front part of its head against the surface on which it happens to be standing.  It gives eight taps in slightly less than a second; and almost before it stops another beetle of its kind that is within hearing distance will respond by tapping back in the same quick manner.  In woodworks and furniture that have been attacked by the Death-watch Beetle, the worm holes are large and distinguished by the presence of frass and powder around the openings.

The beetles are from one-fourth to one-third of an inch in length, dark brown in color, spotted and banded irregularly with thick patches of short yellow gray hairs. Pairing takes place after the beetles have made their exit from the wood, and they die a few weeks later, the female in the meantime having laid some 70 eggs.  The tapping is of the nature a sexual call, and may be repeated over and over for quite a long time. Grating sound may also be heard as the larvae gnaw on wood inside its tunnel.  It takes three years to complete the insect’s life cycle.  A more familiar beetle, Anobium punctatum, is called powder post or furniture beetle, named after the dust it scatters at the mouth of its tunnel on furniture.  

5. Do you believe in divination?  Take the case of the water diviner – one who can detect the source of ground water by mere perception.

A kindly old man from Baclaran, a foreigner who has been in the country for years, is a known for his special gift as a “water diviner”. He was hired to locate a reliable source of water for a piggery project in Macabebe, Pampanga.  Previous to this there was a newly constructed well which ran dry. This is the story related to me by the project manager. 

First he prayed, then looked from a perfect Y-shape branch of guava and cut it like a big frame of a slingshot (tirador).  Holding the smaller ends in each hand, and pointing the common end to the ground, he scoured the whole area. Then on a spot he stood, the branch vibrating in his hands.  “Dig here,” he said. True, he found an underground stream, which to this day, twenty years after, the well continues to pour out hundreds of gallons of water everyday.  

Can the water diviner detect the vibration of the flow of an underground vein of water (aquifer)?  If so, he must have that special gift of naturalism. ~

Folk Wisdom for Kids: Indigenous Games and Sports (7th of a Series)

Folk Wisdom for Kids: Indigenous Games and Sports (7th of a Series)
Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog

Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) 
with Ms Melly C Tenorio

738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 Evening Class, Monday to Friday

1. Carabao race –  I would tell joke in a puzzle, “What is the first car race?”  The children of my age then would think of Ford or Chevrolet.  Sirit?  “It’s car-abao race.”  It’s a corny joke, moreso today.  But if you haven’t seen one.  Go to Paombong, Bulacan during the fiesta of San Isidro Labrador, patron saint of farmers.  It is like horse race, with the “jockey” riding 

(Carabao race, local sport in celebration of town fiestas, and patron saint of farmers and workers, San Isidro Labrador) Photo credit Images Internet 

without harness.  So there’s a lot of skill needed to stir the animal to the finish line, galloping the carabao way. 

Carabaos are known to be very docile. They say, you won’t be able to reach your destination on time with a carabao even if you use a horse whip.  And don’t ever force the animal cruelly. In Thailand a carabao in the middle of a race broke away and attacked the spectators hurting dozens of them. An animal is still an animal however tame it is.  The biological instinct is unpredictable.

2. Tug-of-war.  It may be a parlor game, but wait until the big boys get hold of the rope. Better an outdoor game then, and be sure the rope is strong. It is a game of strength, but one in unison, so that it needs cooperation and skill.  Here are some hints to win the game. 

Choose the members of the team for strength and stamina.  Distribute the members of the team evenly; the right handed and left handed in their proper positions on either side of the rope they feel most efficient. Keep distance to maximize individual strength with the strongest ones up front and at the rear as anchor. Distribute resistance with both feet solidly anchored on the ground. Do not allow the rope to sway; keep it steady. Anticipate surge and counteract spontaneously.  Be sure you hands are protected, say with gloves or hand towel. Be wary of sudden release by your opponents, you’ll end up into a pile.

3. Catching piglets (bi-ik) in mud.  It takes a day or two to prepare the arena or pen, some 5 by 5 meters square, or bigger in area, and secured with interlink wire or wooden fence.  To make the game exciting the ground is puddled like a rice field ready for planting. A smaller pen is made next to the big pen.  The piglets – some ten are released per batch of contestants. It is a game of two or more contending groups.  It could be a one on one contest in the 

Native piglets are preferred, they are sleeker and "wild" making the game more fun. 

final stage. The rule may be that he who catches the piglet either gets a prize or takes the animal home – like in the movie, Babe, a story of a piglet won from a fair by an elderly farmer who reared it to become a “sheepdog” and earned its place on the farm.

It’s a messy game; it is full of wit and skill.  It is in catching the piglets and putting them into the adjoining pen within the prescribed timeframe that determine the winner. Imagine the winner standing on stage receiving his prize – or piglet.  Can you recognize him?   

4. Sack race.  Open the sack, a 50-kilo jute or plastic sack we used to contain one cavan of rice or corn, put both feet inside it, pull it up and hold the brim tightly with both hands without allowing it to fall as you frog-jump to a designated post, go around it and return.  Now it’s your partner’s turn, and then the next’s, similar to a rally race.  The group that completes the course first gets the prize.  The game is easier to describe than to play it.  Try broad jumping in quick succession with both feet ensconced in the sack. I would rather run for a kilometer instead.  But surprisingly many people are adept to the game; it really needs practice and honing the skill. 

5. Palo de sebo (bamboo pole climbing).  It is tricky – how can you climb a bamboo pole twenty feet tall covered with animal fat or vegetable oil?  Because there was no rule to prevent a participant to devise his own technique, we would coach our contestant to pocket wood ash and applies it as he inched upward until he reaches the top and gets his  prize.  

6. Spin top (trumpo) – Our town is famous for furniture making, so that the lathe machine (pagturnuan Ilk) makes the best tops in town. Everyone could easily recognize a top made in San Vicente, three kilometers west of Vigan, the capital.  There were top tournaments held on certain occasions and we would send our best players to the capital. To be a good player, first you must be accurate at a target.  Then there is the real tournament.  You should be able to demolish your opponent’s top, by puncturing or chopping it into pieces. This is why the wood used in making tops is molave, better still kamagong, the hardest wood. Exhibitions are part of the game. For example whose top makes the loudest humming sound?  How balanced and stable is the spinning of your top?  How long will it keep on spinning before it finally dies out?  Then there is the skill to “capture” a spinning top and continue it spinning in your palm. 

But how do you make a top by hand, that is without a lathe machine?  I’ll tell you how.  Cut a fresh branch of guava or isis or Ficus, the one that produces sandpaper like leaves, around three inches in diameter. With the use of a bolo shape one end into a round peg, and drive a 3-inch nail through it, leaving half of it to become the shank. Smoothen the surface, and make it even and balanced as you rotate it by hand. Shape and severe the upper part of the top with a saw or sharp knife. An immature wood when it dries up has a tendency to crack. That’s why you have to look for a seasoned branch; the harder it is the better, and the more durable is your top. For the spinning rope, get a pure cotton thread, numero cuartro, that is ¼ of an inch, and a meter long. Sometimes we would twist two thinner threads to make the standard spinning rope.

7. Kite dog fight – Gliadator kites fight it out in the sky, but  it’s the string that is the target more than the kite itself.  This is how we did it in our plaza in San Vicente where we used to play kite come harvest time, in the months of October and November.  At that time there was no nylon or monofilament, so it was the good old cotton thread, “numero viente” we used, which is the standard for kite string then.  We would pound glass finely and mix it with egg yolk, then coat it on the kite string.  When it gets dry the string is like sandpaper (papel de liha).  Here we go.  The opponent’s kite and our kite are flown simultaneously. And when both kites are sufficiently stable in the air, we bring the two kites at striking distance, until the strings get entangled.  Now the fight is whose kite falls – or which string breaks. Most often it is the string that spells victory.  You can imagine the loser running after his kite across the fields,  over fences and making sure no one gets first and retrieve it.  A loose kite is everybody’s. 

8. Pabitin  It is a portable trellis around two square meters tied at the corners to a common string, and is laden with many goodies.  The setup is usually attached to the ceiling or a tree branch with a pulley of sort, enabling the game master to pull it up and down. The game is actually for children of the same age and ideally of the same height. The rule of the game is that the one who reaches and grabs the item is his. And he is supposed to leave and give chance to the other participants. It not unusual for a parent to carry a young contestant to reach for the pabitin. Followed by elder children. And if the moderator is not strict, expect something unruly to happen.  The game ends up into a free-for-all, and what remains of the pabitin is but a skeleton of bamboo sticks and crepe paper.  For fiestas and local parties the pabitin is popular even to this day. It is characteristically Filipino.  And why not?  Imagine how attractive it is up there hanging even before the tart of the party.  Every one would be eyeing which item to get.  It’s apple to the eye – and remains so until the game leader declare the start of the game. The string moves and the pabitin slowly goes down, down and meet a pack of contestant shrieking, jumping,  their arms instantly doubling in length. 

9. Puto seko eating - Have you tried eating the powdery stuff without water, then whistle to signal you have won? It is a unique game and if you are not careful enough you will surely choke, so that is discouraged among the very young and the sickly.  Puto seko is made of rice flour, molded and dried.  The contestants line the stage and on signal start eat a prescribed number of pieces.  The first to finish all and produce a clear whistle wins. 

10. Jack-n-poi – It is an old game, possibly originated from China, which is used to resolve conflicts like head or tail.  It is quite an intellectual and witty way.  Here two or more persons play the game.  Stone (clenched fist) defeats scissor (forefinger and middle finger open) but it loses to paper (palm open).  Paper on the other hand submits to scissor.  By law of elimination, the one who survives wins  – or faces the consequence he may not like. We, kids on the farm, resolved work like taking the goat to graze, or cleaning the pig sty – and such chores we would prefer someone doing it for us. 

Other games and Sports

• Foot race (different categories) 
• Stilt race 
• Bao (coconut shell) race 
• Sipa 
• Patintero 
• Hide-and-seek 
• Agawang buko (local rugby with green coconut) 
• Chinese garter jump 
• Spider gladiators 
• Rhinoceros beetle gladiators

These photos show the details of a composite wall mural at the Philippine National Children's Hospital, Diliman Quezon City. The mural, and other paintings about children and Filipino culture, can be viewed at the lobby and along the corridors of the hospital. They are open to the public.

The details of this mural provide a guide for young artists. Note the simplicity of style and colors in capturing the happy moods, and the natural and fleeting actions of children at play.

                                                             NOTE: Distortion of the figures is in the photographs, not in the mural.

Write down the names of these games (and dances) in your local language as shown in these photographs. Describe how each one is played in your country, if applicable. Describe those indigenous to your own country or region. ~