Fats, Vitamins and Minerals

“They have learned nothing, absolutely nothing, from the history of the 20th century, from a hundred years of retaliation, vengeance, war, a hundred years of terrorism and counter-terrorism, of violence met with violence in an unending cycle of stupidity.”

- Howard Zinn wrote about being horrified by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and equally horrified by the response of U.S. political leaders, who called for retaliation.

When we arrived at Neria’s house in Baclayon, there was this fellow single-handedly building a nipa hut just outside the back yard. It is taking him a long time - the frame of the house has taken two months - because he only gets building materials from around the area, scrounging around for fallen trees, branches, bamboo, if he is not allowed to cut wood from nearby places.

Baclayon is not our home yet but we are nearly there. Two years now - just like this house-builder, we’re taking a long time!

“I know that there would be huge repercussions for that, but this would be the only way to free humankind from slavery… to America and its companies.”

Steamed cabbage sprouts
Steamed broccoli
Boiled rice (sticky and Sinandomeng)
Laing
Fried saba strips
Fresh mustard leaves
Fresh leeks

Steamed cabbage sprouts
Steamed
Breaded pork strips
Boiled rice (sticky and Sinandomeng)
Fried saba strips

Sinigang na baboy
Boiled rice (sticky and Sinandomeng)

Chicken curry (coconut milk, turmeric, ginger, green chillies, cheese)
Boiled rice (sticky and Sinandomeng)

Bicol express
Boiled rice (sticky and Sinandomeng)
Ginataang gulay

Crispy Galunggong with oatmeal batter
Boiled rice (sticky and Sinandomeng)
Steamed cabbage sprouts and tauge

Garlic and Brown Sugar Chicken
Boiled rice (sticky and Sinandomeng)
Lettuce, onions, tomatoes and vinaigrette with cream cheese

Crispy Pork patties with oatmeal
Finely chopped cabbage, dry shrimp and chillies thin pancake
Boiled rice (sticky and Sinandomeng)
Lettuce, onions, tomatoes and vinaigrette with cream cheese

Sautéed asparagus with baguio beans, garlic, onion and finely sliced cabbage (with cornstarch and water)
Thin Ham Slices
Boiled rice (sticky and Sinandomeng)
Papaya shake

Beef brisket slices crispy fried in garlic and cracked pepper, with baby potatoes, carrots
Romaine lettuce salad with vinaigrette and dried basil
Boiled rice (sticky and Sinandomeng)
Melon shake

Thinly sliced chicken breasts with baguio beans, garlic, onion, cauliflower, dried basil, cracked pepper and cheese
Romaine lettuce salad with vinaigrette and dried basil
Boiled rice (sticky and Sinandomeng)
Melon shake

Battered fish filet with chips (and apple cider vinegar)
Fried battered oyster mushrooms
Boiled rice (sticky and Sinandomeng)
Apple Juice

Deep fried tilapia
Boiled rice (sticky and Sinandomeng)
Honey dew melon shake

Chicken breast with soy sauce, bay leaf, apple cider vinegar, shiitake mushrooms, ginger and sweet peas
Boiled rice (sticky and Sinandomeng)
Orange juice

From Edward’s Compatibility Club, Philippines Outlook 2010:

I think that this excerpt from a memo (below) issued by the CIA about the 1965 presidential elections in the Philippines aptly describes the coming electoral possibilities:

A Pyrrhic Victory?
Regardless of a Macapagal or Marcos win, the Philippines as such, and specifically the Filipinos, stand to gain very little indeed. Interesting as the current elections may be, the principal fact which they point up is a continued deterioration in the Philippines situation. The elections serve to aggravate and perhaps make more readable that situation; there is little chance the results will improve it. – Memorandum prepared in the Central Intelligence Agency, Washington, October 27, 1965.

The CIA described the election campaign, the candidates, and the issues and concluded that as all three Presidential candidates were “Western oriented and pledge to continue close ties with the US and the West.” – Intelligence Memorandum OCI No. 2343/65, October 28, 1965.

The Memo also added that therefore, given their orientation, it doesn’t matter who wins, what’s important is that the winning candidate has a “socio-economic reform program” to temper down generalized public discontent.

“Socio-economic reform program” therefore means ‘Free World’ oriented reforms (i.e. education, streamlining bureacracy, modernisation programs, globalisation adjustments, etc, and such reforms should never include giving back land to the peasant farmers or giving greater economic power to local traders versus foreign ones).
I will stay in the Philippines, Mandy. The reason why things won’t get better, is because a lot of people in the Philippines is “Western oriented and pledge to continue close ties with the US and the West” and want to abandon the Philippines and go abroad. I don’t want to do that. I will stay here and make things different, and make things better.

IT businessman Joey de Venecia III says there should be a computer connected to the Internet in every Filipino home to give everyone access to livelihood and educational opportunities and bring the country firmly into the Information Age.

This kind of techno-propaganda has been bombarding the public for decades, pioneered by NGOs in the 80s and 90s who believed technology empowers and democratizes, and by pioneering scientists and organizations such as the Internet Society (ISOC) who have since sold off to corporate interests if not simply advocate the hegemonic “The Internet is for Everyone” doctrine. This continuous propaganda is what makes it doubly hard now for less giddy minds to discuss and be taken seriously for their suspicions of technological solutions to social problems.

In 1996, Herbert Schiller criticized the US government’s “vision of, and reliance on, high-tech communications as the ultimate answer to whatever is ailing the country.” He called the US National Information Infrastructure’s promised solutions to the nation’s education problems a “technological subterfuge.” He suggested that the “information highway’s” ability to carry cultural product into the nation’s living rooms and facilitate “active home shopping” is the NII’s primary motivation. Schiller argued that private ownership and market competition are “Washington’s basic prescriptions for the infrastructure that promises to carry, for business and home use, all the image and message and data flow that the country produces.”

Much earlier, as computerization of the economy and communications accelerated, Schiller called for “a maximum effort directed at slowing down, and postponing wherever possible, the rush to computerization,” in order to allow “time to think through the enormous complexities that surround advanced communication and other technologies at this stage of unequal global power and influence.”

None of these critical incisive thoughts cross the media landscape anymore, it is just impossible in the all-powerful global corporate media and communication sector, which now advocates open access, open knowledge, open democracy, open source - the open arms of techno-fascism!

Fatima

PC, Internet needed in Pinoy households, says JDV III
(The Philippine Star) Updated January 20, 2010 12:00 AM

MANILA, Philippines - There should be a computer connected to the
Internet in every Filipino home to give everyone access to livelihood
and educational opportunities and bring the country firmly into the
Information Age, IT businessman Joey de Venecia III said yesterday.

“This is not an impossible dream, but rather a realizable goal,” he
said, as he called for the next administration to make this and
information technology education a sustained part of the national
government budget.

De Venecia said a personal computer, Internet access and information
support will have an immediate and dramatic impact on Filipino
families. This would give them enhanced educational and livelihood
opportunities that are only available from IT, and a means for OFW
families to re-integrate with their loved ones working abroad by
commuting on the cyber-highway.

“Students will have the entire world as their library and they will
hone up on the skills we need to become truly competitive in the 21st
century. All OFWs abroad can be involved in the day-to-day lives of
their families back home, while families can engage in IT businesses
like e-commerce and delivery of out-sourced services from their own
homes,” he said.

One of the country’s pioneer IT businessmen, De Venecia said that
because the cost of PCs has gone down drastically in the last few
years, they should be a standard part of every household, much like TV
sets, electric fans and gas stoves.

Between the country’s three major telecommunication companies, Internet
connection is also available just about everywhere in the Philippines,
De Venecia added.

De Venecia said that he had high hopes for the continued growth of the
IT industry in the country.

He explained that when he set up the first call center in the country
in 1997, little did the public know that this segment of the IT

industry would soon become the fastest growing business. Today, there
are some 600,000 Filipinos employed in the call center industry.

De Venecia said it was possible that employment in the IT industry
could be in the millions in a few years, given enough incentives by
government.

On one of our jeepney commutes to Quiapo, a small unkempt boy climbed in, handed out envelopes to the few passengers, sat next to me and started playing a makeshift set of drums. A while later, he started singing - chanting, actually.

I was astounded at how good he sounded.

His drumset consisted of milk tins of different sizes, plus one aluminum pot, five or six in all, held together by a black rubber band, maybe an inch wide. The tins were all open on one end and he beat and swiped the other end with his palms. The sound was amazing.

This afternoon, in one of the apartments downstairs, I heard a little girl’s voice and the banging of a tin pot. Then I heard her father’s loud scolding voice. Shortly, I heard the tin pot again, the sound going further and further away, out into the streets, mingling with the voices of children playing.