"No More Garbage!" – Association of Young Environmental Journalists

This 517-word essay is my little contribution to the cause of the Association of Young Environmental Journalists, AYEJ, whom I do not know, but I'm interested in the youth, environment, and journalism. Because? One, I'm not young anymore, being 79 years old, and I'm thinking of legacy. Two, I'm interested in the environment that I know has been abused in the Philippines since at least 50 years ago. Three, journalism in these islands is award-winning but destructive, not constructive. That's why I have this dedicated blog, Journalism for Development, Jode. (See my last essay, "ABS-CBN & Maria Ressa, Duterte Is Not Your Enemy – You Are!" 25 May 2019, Journalism for Development, blogspot.com.)

I saw AYEJ's Facebook post Friday, 24 May 2019, checked their Facebook page, and told the young ones that I did not see any written Vision and Mission – "very important points." They replied that they had already "updated their info in the "About" part, and here is what I saw:

Vision
To be a values-oriented environmental news network that engages people on environmental sustainability for a more livable world.

Mission
To provide increased coverage of environmental stories in print and multimedia through the distribution of stories by empowered and trained young environmental journalists.

Well, that Vision of "a more livable world" is vague, unimpressive – and not memorable. And the Mission of "increased coverage" is limiting and not-so-encouraging – come out with one story a day and that already is "increased coverage," you know what I mean.

What I propose for the AYEJ is what I will now call AYE Journalism – Advocacy for Youth Entrepreneurship Journalism. You write to encourage more young ones to become entrepreneurs – even while conscious of the environment.

Here is entrepreneurship of a basic kind. The image above is from Santosh Digal's 13 February 2010 article, "Young Catholics Of Manila Help Disabled By Recycling Garbage" (Asia News,.asianews.it). Mr Digal writes:

To support two schools for the disabled, a group of 100 young people from the parish of Balayan in Lipa (Batangas) collect the waste from the streets and sells the recyclable material to junk dealers. The purpose of the group is to help young people make sense of their lives, starting from the service to the community.

That is thinking about earning from the environment even as you clean it up.

The title of this essay begins with the words "No More Garbage!" I'm thinking like this:

For the AYE journalists to adopt a barangay in Metro Manila, campaign for garbage (biodegradable) to be collected in one or a few places to be turned into compost or organic fertilizer. Connect to a village in the countryside, and you have an advocacy of 2 entrepreneurships: producing organic fertilizer and growing of organic crops!

And the great many stories can begin from Day 1.

Why is that entrepreneurship? You are making money cleaning the unhealthful city, at the same time reducing the cost of growing crops in the countryside; that's organic agriculture minus chemical agriculture.

That's triple entrepreneurship – you are hitting 3 birds with 1 stone!517