To Junk or not the Junk RTL?

The Rice Tariffication Law passed earlier this year has come under fire yet again. The goal for he RTL was to lower the cost of rice by introducing other competitors to the market. This was a direct response to last years call for government action to address the high prices of rice. So what's the solution, people?

It seems that supporting the RTL means lower prices of rice across the board while making our local rice farmers' lives more difficult. While junking it would raise the price of rice across the board while making the farmer's lives better as they'd earn more. There seems to be a stalemate of sorts unless you consider other options.

The internet activists seem to think that being a net importer of rice is a bad thing. For an agricultural country, it surely is ironic, but it's not necessarily a bad thing. Our country is a net exporter of so many other products that only we can produce. Why are we forcing this idea that the rice industry here has to be a lucrative one? It is not! The sooner we all can accept that, the better for everyone.

So what's the solution? Rice farmers now, should try to venture out to other crops. Rice isn't the only thing that needs planting! I will admit however that this is too simplistic to be a probable solution as rice paddies are generally not suitable for many other crops. Taro, however, can also be explored as an option. Other crops can also be looked into during the dry seasons when rice typically can't grow.

But enough of that. I'm tired of internet activists saying that we must junk the RTL while not giving any solution as to how to maintain the low price of food that we enjoy now that we didn't enjoy last year. Until a reasonable solution to both problems can be seen in sight, I cannot support the junking of the RTL. Too much is at stake and too many will suffer if it is junked.

Of course the Netizens know better!

The title of this post is sarcastic if you haven't gotten that by now. Earlier last week, a post made the rounds on social media about a Php50M cauldron which the Philippine government spent for the upcoming SEA games. I think that amount is ridiculous and the netizens have been right to point that out. Where I draw the line is when people start chiming in on where that money should have gone to.

You see this issue happening in any country hosting the SEA games or the Olympics. The fact stays that hosting these types of events in the country is always an expensive affair. Every little thing is going to cost money. The cauldron itself maybe shouldn't be that expensive and the palace has stated that it's cost comes from it being a work of art.

Looking at its pictures online, I can say it did cost a lot to design. It looks simple but elegant, something that these days is very expensive to find (oddly enough). I'm looking at two scenarios right now which justify the cost of the cauldron though these are two of three and so I'll put all three.

Scenario 1. The government decided not spend much on the cauldron.

The lighting of the cauldron is one of those epic moments during the opening ceremonies of any sporting event and if the cauldron just so happens to be ugly, it will no doubt draw flak from the online community (government is at a lose-lose situation here). If they happen to get a decent design (which I swear is difficult to get these days), no one would notice. Conclusion: better to hire a good artist to make the design.

Scenario 2. Government spent the Php50M and the opening ceremony is praised.

No brainer here. Conclusion: the Php50M cauldron was well worth the money.

Scenario 3. Government spent the Php50M and no one abroad notices.

The people online will then be the experts yet again. There is a chance that the opening ceremony will be criticized though seeing the design of the cauldron, I highly doubt it.

All this is reminiscent of the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) built in Mandaue. When Governor Gwen Garcia had it built, it was criticized as well for being overpriced and not needed. The CICC, when it operated did bring in a lot of business to the area until Gwen's term ended and her successor decided to abandon the entire project since it was overpriced and done with "low quality". Now, Cebu has lost the CICC entirely. It's now a rundown shell and is now more of a waste than it was before. It's currently being used by squatters as their permanent settlement. It really is sad to see.

The point here is we really don't know how best to use the money of the government. We can criticize for sure but let this be our learning moment to realize two things from this:

1. We now know how the people who approved his think and can vote correspondingly.

2. The government sucks at everything. Amen.

I just started Chewing

I love food. I usually joke that I'm on a see food diet, which means when I see food, I eat. And so to eat more food, I tend to eat my food fast which means I don't chew as much as I should. Nikki has been telling me to chew my food more but I chose not to listen to that as it does mean I'll finish eating later. Since Nikki eats much slower than I, it's given me more incentive to try chewing my food more.

So I started and immediately I noticed a difference. When I don't fully chew all my food, I have this bloated feeling that makes me regret eating whatever I ate no matter how little I ate. Now when I chew my food, everything goes down much smoother. Odd as it may sound, I can feel my body digesting every single particle of food I take it and I love it.

I don't know how to make this blog post any longer so I'll cut this one short. Chewing my food at least 20 times before swallowing has been a game changer for me. Now, I don't wanna say it helps in weight loss but it is scientifically proven to be a healthier way to eat your food so that's all I'm saying about that. My dad does have a theory though. He says since it takes me longer to eat now, it give my body enough time to process the fact that I'm indeed full as opposed to simply eating very quickly. So there's that too.

We just a Pre-nup photoshoot

Now that me and Nikki are planning for our wedding, a lot of things come up that we always knew were there or expected but we never though we'd do ourselves. Things like, Nikki meeting designers for wedding gowns, me having a suit made, etc. But the one thing I never thought of myself ever doing is having a pre-nup photoshoot.

I never got why people did prenups. Regardless, we did one! And I just felt so tired after the whole thing. Halfway through the day, Nikki looked to me and said, "I don't get why some people say this is tiring. I'm having a blast." To which, I simply said, "Nik, you're talking to some people." I was so tempted to just call it quits midway through but Nikki looked like she enjoyed the day so much, I decided to enjoy it myself.

Most prenups see the couple wearing formal wear to locations they wouldn't normally wear formal wear. That's something Nikki doesn't like and something I never got. She prefers the more organic prenup shoots that feature clothes the couple would normally wear to the place they have their shoot. So when we went trekking, we wore trekking clothes. When we spent the day at the farm, we wore clothes that reflected what would actually be worn on a trip to the farm.

The day was long but I think we got a lot of good pictures in. I haven't seen any yet so it's hard for me to say if they came out good but judging from our photographer and the work he's already done, I'm confident in the end product. But of everything that we got from the pre-nup shoot, the chance to work with our photographer before the day of the wedding was the biggest plus for me. He got to see how we are as a couple, the things we don't like and the things we like, the things that excite us and the things that bore us.

We, on the other hand, got to know our photographer more. We know the poses to avoid, the things he thinks make for good shots and the ones that he thinks look to weird. I can't wait to see the prenup shoot pictures. I think I'm due for a Facebook profile pic change and I'm honestly just waiting for that.

World without Humans

A video posted on Facebook caught my attention and I'm shocked to say the least. This video imagines a world where humans one day simply cease to exist. I admit I'm a sucker for these kinds of thought experiments. 

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2497052613646559

It starts of accurately in my opinion. Then it proceeds to paint a picture of a more beautiful Earth. Towards the end, the narrator even suggests that it could be a new Eden. This really gets under my skin for several reasons. The first is that in practically all other scenarios where other species suddenly go extinct (bees, snakes, frogs, flies, wolves, lions) the end result is always unfavorable. It always ends up with a chain reaction that sees the extinction of other species as well. This is actually one of the first things we learn in ecology - Nature abhors a vacuum.

That means when humans are taken entirely out of the picture, the world will indeed change and not necessarily for the better. The video, while not stating it outright, implies that no other organism depends on humans. It even mentions one organism that may actually depend on humans - mosquitoes and then states that mosquitoes will be fine as they consume plants as well. It was at this point I knew this was bogus.

While it's true that mosquitoes eat plants as their primary food, the pregnant females are the ones that need blood for their babies. Now, I'm unsure of whether they need human blood for this matter but I can say that many animals do depend on human conservation efforts for their survival. Also, almost all domesticated animals do in fact rely heavily on humans to take care of them. The grasslands of Australia, for example, require human intervention in culling kangaroo populations (and maintain balance in the circle of life).

This is one of those tactics in pushing an agenda. If you see any positive effects of an "aggressor" suppress it or ignore it altogether. In this propaganda piece, BBC is trying so hard to push that humans are simply aggressors to nature and have done absolutely nothing  good in working with nature. This is simply not true - not true at all.