THiNK Journalism

As Pinoy painter Paul Hilario shares today, Saturday, 29 June 2019, on Facebook: So a big company, (Dreamer Z), used an old work of mine for an event in Manila last night. I didn't know anything about this until I saw a post by a fellow painter. The image is just projected. Is this copyright infringement? Above: Paul's original painting is shown on the lower half of the image while the Copycat is shown on the upper half with The Man in the Middle whose face is covered with the image of a heart. So, I ask, where is the heart of the Copycat? "I dream my painting and I paint my dream," said Vincent van Gogh. Dreamers all, we must paint our own dreams. Paul's dream is extraordinary. Dreamer Z has stolen Paul's dream: Should Paul go to court? These were the first responders on Facebook: Adam Sparks, Angie Galon Maghuyop, Dave Leprozo Jr, Dennis Mariano, Edsel Africa Latorza, Icoy Mercado, Jayco Valmon, Jonathan Benitez, Luigi Concetti, Mache Belangel-De La Torre, M

Having just written and blogged my essay "Why Higher Food Sufficiency Means Higher Farmer Poverty – William Dar" (27 June 2019, Journalism for Development, blogspot.com ), which I share and introduce on Facebook with these words: "Why we pamper rice consumers while we pauperize rice farmers!" it strikes me that our Filipino painters, male and female, have also been pampering painting lovers with their creations and at the same time pauperizing their perspectives – I am referring to both painters and lovers of painting. I, amateur photographer with a Lumix FZ100 digital camera with an Intelligent Auto, iA, mode, shot the photograph above on 20 January 2019. That iA mode takes care of technical details; I take care of the creative image. That image is my way of showing that our modern painters, the ones I have seen shared on Facebook, many of them, have been giving us mostly closeups , to use the language of photography – sorry, I did not study painting, although for

That goes against logic, right? That is from William Dar, from his Manila Times column of today (Thursday, 27 June 2019, "The 'New Thinking' For Agriculture," 3rd of 4 parts ( manilatimes.net ), where he says, "We must learn from India." He speaks from experience – and from the Indian initiative led by the National Institution for Transforming India, NITI. Mr Dar stayed in India for 15 years, from start of January 2000 to end of December 2014, when he was Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT. I know because I was international consulting writer for ICRISAT from January 2007 to December 2014, when Mr Dar retired. From a report on the NITI, one lesson from India is this, Mr Dar says: Despite the success of India in increasing food production by 3.7 times from 1965 to 2015, resulting in a 45-percent increase in food production per person, poverty persists among its farmers. Indian farmers multiplied

Manila: Thursday, 20 June 2019, Kisig G Lopez shared this link, more than 3 years old, and yet it is timely as you will see; ANN says, "Bolivia To Be Completely Food Independent In 2020 By Investing In Small Farmers" (Author Not Named, 11 May 2016, CSGlobe , csglobe.com ).  Also that day, UP Los Baños Professor (Retired) Teodoro Mendoza spoke of "Game Changers In Addressing The Scarcity Of The Two Main Drivers Of Agriculture And Food Systems," at the "SEARCA Agriculture & Development Seminar" at SEARCA headquarters. SEARCA is the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Studies in Agriculture based at the UP Los Baños campus. Mr Mendoza says the 2 main drivers are water and energy . Elsewhere, the World Food Programme, WFP, writes on the "Climate Impacts On Food Security" ( wfp.org ). Ha. The WFP is looking at only one side of the coin; the other side is that the pursuit of food security impacts on climate . Mr Mendoza essentially says t

Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol should have been there, but was not . I took this photograph on 24 January 2019 at the opening ceremony of the 8th National Rice Technology Forum at the boundary of Asingan, Pangasinan (host town) and Urdaneta City at exactly 7:44:52 AM. International aggie manager William Dar was there (in pink polo shirt), and so was founding PhilRice Executive Director Santiago R Obien (rightmost). My digital Lumix FZ100 superzoom camera is precise and I have set it up to work automatically, that is, on intelligent auto , iA; leadership must activate itself into iA mode.  In his latest Manila Times column ("The 'New Thinking' For Agriculture," 2nd of 3 parts, 20 June 2019, Manila Times , manilatimes.net ), Mr Dar says new thinking for agriculture begins with leadership: There is… a need to bring in more active leadership into the agencies involved with the country's agriculture sector and engage the private sector in a big way in setting up mo

The image you see above of a Word 2013 file is the cover of the latest coffee-table book I have almost singlehandedly produced, all 214 pages of it, images & texts, 11" by 8.5" landscape. Happily, I must say. And that's much, because in 3 months, I will be 79 years old, thank God! Microsoft Word is an ubiquitous application, app, today. This Filipino in Manila is enjoy using this app – are you? The pleasure is mine!. It has been my pleasure for the last 32 years, from Word 1 starting 1987 to Word XP starting 2003 to Word 2013 starting 2012. And I'm all self-taught. No, I'm not selling the software – I'm selling you self-teaching the soft skills: creative writing, blogging, editing onscreen, desktop publishing (adding digital photography from my Lumix FZ100 superzoom). Like I said, I'm all self-taught. You can teach yourself too if you're not in a hurry. So! I have been enjoying: 1)    Editing a technical journal into world-class. 2)    Promotin

As climate changers, we must pay attention beyond rice only, beyond trees only, and beyond vegetables only – we must cover all . I took the above image at 6:24 AM in my hometown Asingan, Pangasinan, before the 8th National Rice Technology Forum held that day, 20 March 2019 – here is a selfie that is not a selfie! In the face of climate change, it may not be obvious, but I am challenging the information workers, communicators and news or views contributors public & private in my country the Philippines for their journalism to work for the Inclusive Development of Agriculture in Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao. "Inclusive development" means you include the poor as active contributors, not simply remember them when you are ready with your alms or, as practiced by the PH government, ready with the 4Ps: Pray Pay Poor People! This is not cultivating people; not cultivating progress. Actually, I started this call with my essay "Narrow View On Press Freedom – Joel Salud &am

There is a glut, surfeit, superabundance, overstock, over-supply. "Sweet, velvety, soft and scandalously succulent – we have the best mangoes in the world!" Chef & Filipino food advocate Jam Melchor, is trying to help stem the flood of the world's best by putting out a call on Facebook, tagging chefs, restaurateurs and food advocates.  That is a report by Yvette Tan published in an online magazine, "Help Luzon Mango Farmers By Buying This Season's Bumper Crop" (03? June 2019 Agriculture Monthly , agriculture.com.ph ). Too many market stalls displaying too many mangoes to love (see image above again), too few mango buyers out of love. Miss Yvette writes: Reports of tons of produce dumped by the side of the road by frustrated farmers who've grown too much but have no access to buyers have been a depressing occurrence in social media. I guess too many mango growers wanted to make a killing – all at the same time! So, Miss Yvette writers, chef and Filipi

This repeated list of 5 has been conjured today, Tuesday, 04 June  2019, in a matter of 40 minutes or so. Just the list. Now I'm going to time myself writing a 517-word essay on it. It's 18:00 as I start, the time including the listing, writing, and the editing. Except deciding on the illustrative image, done writing: 18:50. Rereading the entirety for errors: 10 minutes. Total of 1 hour. (image from Stephen Aedy's Online Income Teacher , onlineincometeacher.com ) The Fastest Editor In The World I have been editing the writings of others, not to mention my own, in the last 44 years, starting when I became Editor in Chief of the Forest Research Institute, FORI, on 16 April 1975. I founded and edited the FORI 3: monthly newsletter Canopy ,   quarterly technical journal Sylvatrop , and quarterly color magazine Habitat . That was the experience of a lifetime. I was happy being Editor in Chief of those publications. The Fastest Science Writer In The World The speed writing starte

And so I continue to build the case of  Alternative Intelligence Journalism,  in short,  AI Journalism.  My AI is  not Artificial Intelligence;  it is "of, with, for the people "   (see my first essay, "The Next Journalism – Applying AI, Alternative Intelligence" (31 May 2019,  AI Journalism ,  blogspot.com ). From becoming the Editor in Chief of the Forest Research Institute based in Los Baños, Laguna in 1975, today my journalistic journey has been strewn with thousands upon thousands of essays of an average minimum of 1,000 words each – each one urging the reader to THiNK!  With today's Congress thinking of  Sagip Saka , this time, I say: Philippine lawmakers think too highly of themselves.    Rowena B Bundang writes, "Senate Adopts House Version Of Proposed 'Sagip Saka Act'" (01 March 2019,  Congress ,  congress.gov.ph ). Sagip Saka "seeks to institute the Farmers & Fisherfolk Enterprise Development Program" that will be under