By Danilo P. Padua, PhD
inflicted.”
Oct 7, 2023 was an unbridled, ignominious day. It was a day written in blood of the innocent– children, women, elderly and men. Unacceptable, despicable, deplorable, sordid, shameless, carnage, etc., are words not apt enough to describe it. It was an inhuman act actually beyond description.
Any individual or group that perpetrated it has no place in this world.
The above-mentioned day was willingly planned and authored by Hamas, a Palestinian militant group considered as a terrorist group by many countries. They launched a surprise attack in Southern Israel where some OFWs were working and residing. Seeing the videos of the attack, one can not help but to shed tears as people were gunned down in their homes, in their cars, in various buildings, in the streets, and even while people were waiting for buses.
The scenes were spine-tingling, hair-raising and evoke outrage especially when you see children, women, and the elderly being herded and shortly thereafter seeing them sprawled dead in the streets.
Not content with that, the Hamas terrorists immediately launched thousands of rockets to Southern Israel, killing thousands more Jews.
Israel’s reprisal to the attack was similarly bone-chilling. It also rained thousands of missiles to the Gaza Strip (which is also home to some Filipinos, especially those married to Palestinians) targeting Hamas sites. But in so doing, they also killed innocent women, children, and the elderly. Their retaliation was swift and bitter.
That, to me, is also senseless although they claim, it is the Hamas that was targeted, not civilians. In short, the death of the innocents were consigned to being collateral damage. Besides, according to them, the retaliation was meant to protect their survival as a nation. Still, they committed a wrong to humanity.
The much greater brunt of the conflict definitely lay squarely on the shoulders of the Hamas group but Israel must also be made to account for the collateral damage that they had inflicted.
Based on some surveys, 70% of the Palestinians in the Gaza strip are not sold to how the Hamas group is running their affairs, including their hard line stance against Israel. I bet that percentage will drastically decrease because of what happened in their retaliatory action.
The conflict dates back to Biblical times, of course. To decrease the possibility of similar future conflicts, the State of Palestine should be properly recognized by delineating a permanent geographical location for them. This is a gargantuan task but it must be done.
Whether we like it or not, we might be unceremoniously pulled into the vortex of the Israel-Hamas conflict. While our officials are allaying fears that we might be affected by the conflict, there is a big possibility that the conflict will linger a while. Hamas is just an organization within the Gaza Strip, but it was able to fire thousands of missile into Israel costing a fortune, indicating that it is being helped by other countries. Iran is widely known to have provided the said missile used by Hamas.
If other similarly-inclined Muslim countries decide to aid Hamas, the conflict is really prolonged. They are now calling other Muslims around the world for a “day of outrage”. Israel will surely count on a lot of countries to succor them. (Let’s hope that the conflict will not reach that point). In that case, supply of oil in the world could be affected.
That would have a domino effect on the economy of every oil-dependent nation. The prices of fertilizer, for one, will skyrocket. That is not good for rice production. So, the Hamas-Israel conflict could really affect us
Rice is life
In the just-concluded 6thInternational Rice Congress held at PICC, Pres PBBM blared during the opening program: “Rice is Life”
That’s especially true for the Philippines, considering that we are one of the top 2 rice-importing countries in this slowly sinking world.
To produce at least 92% of our rice needs, we need to spend PhP20.0B for chemical fertilizer. Our efforts to use alternative fertilizers that are environment-friendly, have not bore the needed fruit. I think that is because there was no conscious and concerted effort to formulate a game plan for the purpose.
There are sincere officials in the DA who are/were very sincere to advance the rice industry but they are stymied by the tentacles of greed from within and from without. Some-both from the public and private sector- do not like that we become self-sufficient in rice because of their vested interests. Smugglers are always one step ahead of government (some obviously in cahoots with officials). Others dictate what they want, even if that is likely to depress production.
Watching a news feed some days back, a long-sitting senator involved in the agriculture committee questioned the proposed PhP20B allocated by DA for the procurement of synthetic fertilizer in rice production. She said, “why allocate that big amount for the importation of chemical fertilizer. Why not buy compost?”.
She is the same senator who always find it convenient to question and castigate DA officials in public committee hearings. She never helped the agency to craft a sustained, beneficial program to make the rice industry attain a deserved lofty place in the local agriculture firmament.
A chance discussion with a colleague hinted of a real scenario that the senator is now producing compost in commercial scale. Vested interest?
We can actually easily become self sufficient in rice if we want to. Our average yearly rice production is only around 4 tons/hectare. Yet, so many farmers, including those from CAR are producing as high as 15-17 tons/hectare. Many more obtain yields, using locally available technologies, ranging from 6-12tons/hectare. Those farmers can be asked to be resource persons in trainings on how to increase rice production.
By the way, the 6th IRC gifted PBBM with harvested rice varieties having a low glycemic index. This is a breakthrough because we are rice eaters and all the available varieties at the moment contain high GI – not good for diabetics. That’s why diabetic persons are prescribed with lower rice intake. It is said that 1 out of 4 Filipinos are diabetic; the development of that low GI rice variety therefore is like a whiff of fresh air for them.
Let’s all be riceponsible(according to Philrice). After all, rice is life.**
