LAST April-May 2009, I spent my annual visit to the country, to the Bicol region, and to my birthplace, Caramoan, in Camarines Sur where I also spent the town fiesta. Being at the center of TV-Series ‘Survivors’ location film shooting, I became excited to spend most of my time in Caramoan to experience again the adventure of exploring the paradise islets and witness exactly how the Bulgarian edition of the Survivor TV series was being filmed. The experience I had was out of expectations. It was a bit frustrating because of the changes in the weather condition. The Caramoan townsfolk said it was “typhoon during summer”. It was almost rain and flood in many areas. The out-of-normal warm or hot weather was terrible. I had to find myself and my grandkids inside the newly built air-conditioned expanse of SM Mall in Naga City, which was most of the time full of people and shoppers from all walks of life. The mall must be earning enough or siphoning most of the businesses in the Naga centro, and the other places around the area and the suburb. Around the country people were anxious and fearsome about the impending spread of swine flu-AHIHIvirus and the recurring floods and rains as reported by news networks.

        With the abnormalities I describe above, there must really be a serious alarm to be araised against the worsening GLOBAL WARMING. I think it is really HIGH time for all the people and the government to be involved in the proper care of the environment, including the proper dumping of wastes and toxic materials. The abaca-nipa-coco handicrafts should help find a way to arrest pollution and replace the manufacturing of plastic related products. Also, to avoid highly technical-complicated toxic, we should focus on ALTERNATIVE medicine that abound in our own backyards ( lemon grass, Banaba, Bayabas, lukban, and many more, as example ). We must all find a way to innovate the save the earth and the environment from final degradation.

        RUDY L. FERRAN

        Los Angeles, California

        laferran2003@yahoo.com




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-- Editor