By Penelope A. Domogo, MD
sell to you? ”
Happy Mothers’ Day! Today, some mothers will treat themselves to something special or be treated. However, even if they will be treated out to lunch, many of them will still pick the tab. After all, women have much money nowadays that they have some to spare for luxuries like dining out. But, of course, eating at home would be best, with the children or the hubby cooking for you, for a change. For many Cordillera and rural women, though, we will be spending today like any other Sunday. It is not because we are taken for granted but because we, women, are not used to being paid attention to. Women act the opposite- we pay attention to others. So let us talk about the mother whom we take for granted but without whom humans won’t be alive. Mother Earth.
Do you know that without Mother Earth, we won’t be alive? As of today, no one has ever discovered any other planet where humans and plants and animals can live except Mother Earth. There is no life in the Moon or Mars (unless somebody has discovered otherwise). Martians are only in the movies. So there, there’s nowhere people can survive but on Mother Earth. In the first place, the Creator designed this to be the place where we spend our earthly lives.
It is easy really to forget that it is Mother Earth who gives us life if our life revolves around the store. Especially if that store says “we’ve got it all for you.” You need rice? Buy from the store. Need water? There’s the water refilling station. Need load? Of course, go to the store as there’s none from Mother Earth (you don’t need load to communicate with Mother Earth so God did not create a tree that produced cellphones and cellcards) . Need air? Nope, you don’t go to the store. At least for now. All you need to do is just open the windows or go out in the open. Go to Mother Nature. Thank God, we can still breathe the air around us. So are going to continue poisoning the air and the water and the soil that sustain our lives until we are forced to buy oxygen from the store?
See how easily we dump our garbage anywhere- along the road (I hope there’s an ordinance which punishes vehicles whose passengers throw garbage along the road.), along pathways, in trash cans. Why should we not have garbage bins for public use? They magnet garbage of all kinds (even if you label them with big bold letters). Further, these bins encourage our throw-away mentality which is one of our worst enemies today. And if that garbage bin just empties in the dumpsite, then it just transferred your garbage from your hand to another’s backyard. If you don’t like your garbage, it is unfair to dump it on others. See how difficult it is for Baguio City to find a place for its garbage. Even if we successfully convince others to take our garbage, is it okay to be just dumping garbage on Mother Earth? How far can she take our carelessness? Until we have covered all her surface with garbage and we have nowhere to plant our food and graze our animals? Especially in the Cordillera where arable land is very limited, we should be the more mindful not to just dump garbage. Especially in the Cordillera where we, indigenous peoples live.
Igorots in history did not just dump garbage anywhere. Every little land was precious to be planted with camote or any food crop. Moreover, there was no garbage in our indigenous communities in the first place. Thus there’s no Igorot word for “basura” that I know of. “Basura” is of Spanish origin. Igorots, by culture and tradition, practice zero waste. Vegetable and fruit peelings went to the pigs, leftover food that couldn’t be eaten again was given to the dogs or pigs and other waste went to the pigpen which is a very good composting pit. There was no plastic then. Since clothes then were made from natural fiber and expensive, old clothes were reused and mended when torn and recycled into “punas” or “pigadan” until it was degraded to dust.
For our water sources, we took good care of them, developing rituals that showed respect to these resources and acknowledging their importance to our survival. As for oxgygen, we didn’t know of its name but we knew that trees were very important to our survival so our forefathers took effort to plant trees and preserve forests. In Besao, Mt. Mogao is considered sacred and burning its trees is punishable with one pig. This is an effective way to preserve Mt. Mogao. For those who forgot, let me remind you that trees and other plants are the only manufacturers of oxygen. The factory may be able to produce oxygen in oxygen tanks but how horrible it would be if we had to carry oxygen tanks with us to be able to live. But if we continue to cut our trees and build concrete jungles, then such a situation is not far-fetched. God forbid.
How easily we have forgotten that water comes from nature, from Mother Earth. Where do you think the water refilling station gets the water to process then sell to you? Even if it gets the water from Amburayan river, it is still from Mother Nature. The problem is we are now polluting even our water sources. How? The chemicals that come from our solid and liquid wastes are leeching to the ground deep down to our groundwater sources. You don’t believe it? Well, we have reports that drinking water samples in some garden areas of Mountain Province have tested positive for pesticide residues. If this happened in Mountain Province, what more of Benguet and other areas which are practicing massive chemicalized farming. Meaning we have polluted our soil and water with these toxic pesticides, herbicides and fungicides and many other chemicals that kill mosquitoes and other creatures. We have polluted our environment also with plastic. Two issues ago, we discussed the massive plastic pollution in our communities, even in the Cordillera.
So what if there’s pollution in and degradation of our environment? Well, the environment is Mother Earth. Mother Earth is our mother who sustains our life in this world. How can we, sons and daughters, destroy the mother that gives us life? Mother Earth is very generous and forgiving, but how can she continue to nourish us if we destroy her.
Today is Mothers’ Day. Let us gift Mother Earth with a lifestyle that respects her and celebrates her goodness to us. Go organic!***
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“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; those who act accordingly have a good understanding; his praise endures forever.” Psalm 111:10
