Frank A Hilario – The Purpose Driven Write

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I started to write in senior high school, self-taught, in 1959. I continued to write at the UP College of Agriculture, now UP Los Baños, Freshman in 1960. I continued to write when I became a copywriter for Pacifica Publicity Bureau of Makati 1974-1975 – that was writing to sell something. I continued to write as Editor In Chief of the Forest Research Institute, FORI, also founding its 3 publications: monthly newsletter Canopy, quarterly technical journal Sylvatrop on tropical forestry, and quarterly popular color magazine Habitat, 1975-1981. FORI was where I taught myself to write for the good of others.

I learned to blog in 2005. In 2007, Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, William Dar recruited me as an international consulting writer, and I wrote for the poor Asian farmers in the blog I called iCRiSAT Watch[1], 2007-2014. Some 5,000 plus long essays later, I have not stopped blogging to inspire farming families to rise from poverty to prosperity. Now that he is Secretary of Agriculture, William Dar has my unstinting blogger support in my purpose driven write.

Today, I would like to invite columnists, journalists, opinion writers to write about how farmers can help themselves, with public and private assistances, to emancipate their families from poverty. That includes media online; news gatherers & reporters like Rappler and Vera Files; members of the Philippine Agricultural Journalists; and bloggers.

Too much attention has been given to what I call SSS Journalism, that is, single success stories, and too few in the manner of GSIS Journalism, that is, group success-inspiring stories. (main image from Food Evolution[2]; people locking hands from The Situationist[3])

When writing on PH Agriculture, I say, you have to take the side of the public!

Today, I am now encouraging aggie journalists, columnists, writers to make known to others about successful cooperatives, in the practice of GSIS Journalism. Note that SSS is a private insurance group and GSIS is a public insurance agency – you are serving private interests with your SSS Journalism while you are serving the people’s interest with your GSIS Journalism!

What is your purpose driven write?

Suggestion: To help PH Agriculture survive and thrive, our mass and social media need to come out with stories of successful farmer cooperatives anywhere from Aparri to Jolo. Enough of SSS Journalism – it magnifies the efforts of single individuals who could afford to succeed. None of them can be a model for the farmers, because for lack of resources, the poor farmers cannot identify with any of them. Their stories are nice to read in the magazines and newspapers in print or online, but the poor farmers can only envy them, not emulate them.

We communicators must cultivate a culture of cooperation among PH farmers so that they all can be successful, small as they are individually.

Cooperativism is what PH media can help to cultivate. Cooperatives are democratic institutions, at least the best of them are. Cooperatives should be modern, digital PH media’s purpose driven write!@517

 


[1]http://icrisatwatch.blogspot.com

[3]https://thesituationist.wordpress.com/2010/05/04/the-situation-of-cooperation/


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