Panorama Vol. XX, No.5 (May 1968)

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Title: Panorama Vol. XX, No.5 (May 1968)
Issue Date: Vol. XX, No.5 (May 1968)
Year: 1968
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extracted text: PANORAMA needs intelligent readers of: 1. Informative materials 2. Interesting ideas 3. Enlightening opinions 4. Broadening views 5. Controversial thoughts 6. Critical comments 7. Idealistic suggestions 8. Humorous remarks 9. Serious statements 10. Meditations on life and work. All these are either original productions or selective adap tions and condensations from Philippine and foreign publica tions. Usually brief and compact, lasting from two to ten minutes to read, each article offers a rewarding experience in one’s moments of leisure. Relax with Panorama. We say this to the busy student and the teacher, the lawyer and the physician, the dentist and the engineer, the executive and the farmer, the politician and the preacher, the employer and the employee. PANORAMA is specially designed for Filipinos — young, middle-aged, and old, male and female, housekeeper and houselizard. Special rates for new and renewal subscriptions to begin on November 1, 1966: 1 copy ..................................... 1 year ..................................... 2 years .................................... Foreign rate: .......................... 50 centavos P5.00 P9.00 $3.00 (U. S.) For one year’s subscription of 5 pesos, a person receives the equivalent of 12 compact pocketbooks of lasting value and and varied interest. COMMUNITY PUBLISHERS, INC. Inverness, (M. Carreon) St., Sta. Ana, Manila, Philippines Vol. XX TMI raiumwv MAflAzmi Of eooo bsawno Entered as second class mail matter at the Manila Post Office on Dec. 7, 1955 MANILA, PHILIPPINES No. 5 WORLD PEACE THROUGH LAW ... 1 speak to you tonight under the auspices of the Philippine Constitution Association dedicated to the defense and preservation of your constitution and the leader in the never ending crusade for the respect of the rule of law. The contribution of this association is not only working toward law and order in the Philippines; it is also making a real contribution to peace through law throughout the world. For, we know that wars settle little. We must realize by now that peace will only come through law. World peace through law must become the goal for/all freedom loving people .., What we need more than anything else is faith in our own governments — faith in our own Constitutions — faith in our own laws. Secondly, we need determination and willingness to work within these laws. We must insist on government of laws — not government of men. Thirdly, we must realize that true democracy, a lasting peace requires hard work by all peoples. . So, I close with two final admonitions. One is an old true statement: “Eternal Vigilance is the price of Peace.” And another old but true statement repeated by President Johnson just a week ago: “No Country and no man ever stands as tall as when he falls on his knees before God.” — Thurgood Marshall. Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, from his speech before the Philippine Constitution Association. ■ This paper presents a novel and interesting; angle on the problem of the Filipino national langauge. A PROPOSAL ON THE NATIONAL LANGUAGE PROBLEM One curious fact about the national language movement is that, despite the dictatorial methods employed by the ori ginal leaders of the move ment and the tremendous pressure applied by their successors to propagate the national language based on Tagalog over the last three decades since President Que zon’s proclamation of De cember 30, 1937, the national language so based has not as yet found general acceptance among the people in the nonTagalog-speaking areas. And sincfe it has not found accept ance in these areas of the country, the Tagalog-based national language cannot be said to have been useful in the achievement of greater national unity. As a matter of fact it has contributed to more dissension than to har mony on the national scene. Even among the Tagalog speakers themselves, there is no general consensus as to which form of the language — the purist or non-purist — should be propagated as the national language. So in the face of this widespread dissension about the national language, it should be time to re-examine the whole problem thorough ly so that a more satisfactory solution could be arrived at through general consensus. A plebiscite need not be re sorted to obtain the majority opinion; it might give rise to unnecessary acts of hostility between the language groups. A far-seeing and firm states manship, which will reject dictatorial or short-cut pro cesses, should be in a posi tion to show the way to a peaceful and satisfactory solution to the problem. I think that all thinking Filipinos, whatever be their native language, are agreed on the advisability of having 2 Panorama a common language of au tochthonous origin which will eventually be used through out the country. In the ab sence of a language which, from the outset, is acceptable throughout the country, the bone of disagreement for the last three decades has been the implementation of the Constitutional provision to the effect that the Congress was to take steps towards the development and adoption of a national language based on one of the existing native languages. I have done a lot of think ing on the matter and I have come to the conclusion that the most advisable way of im plementing the Constitutional provision is bv means of the Constitution itself. Problems brought about by operation of the Constitution can best be solved by proper amend ment or amendments to the Constitution itself. And since in three years we shall be amending the Constitution through a Constitutional Con vention, it should be wise even this early to consider the matter of a national language. To my way of thinking the most effective way of imple menting the Constitutional provision on national lan guage, as well as the most de mocratic way of achieving national greatness, is to es tablish a federal republic in place of the present Unitarian republic that we now have. Under the proposal, the existing provinces could be regrouped into autonomous states on the basis of the lan guages spoken by the inha bitants. All functions and powers of government exceot those relating to foreign rela tions, citizenship, national defense, currency, immigra tion and customs, are to be exercised by the various states. This scheme of gov ernment, I make bold to pre dict, will be able to achieve and preserve greater national unity and a more viable de mocratic way of life than the Republic under which we are living. Under this proposal the > Tagalog-based national lan guage will continue to be de veloped as the national lan guage of the Republic, with English as a second language which, however, should con tinue as the official language of the Republic until the Ta May 1968 3 galog-based national language has been sufficiently deve loped to serve as an adequate language of government; but the various states are to choose which local languages they are to use within the state, in addition to the Ta galog-based national language and English. This means that along with the ilteratures in the national language and in English, the literatures in the main local languages are to be cultivated and enriched, instead of being discouraged or suppressed as it seems to be the plan of the present leaders of the national lan guage movement. The indifference and some times hostility to the national language movement that one finds ampng speakers of the more important native lan guages may be traced to the ill-concealed intention of the Tagalistas to discourage the development and eventually suppress the various lan guages in order to give way to the exclusive use of Taga log throughout the nation. To these Tagalistas, Tagalog is really the national lan guage, the Constitutional provision about the develop ment and adoption of a na tional language based on one of the existing native lan guages being only a euphe mistic way of warding off op position from the non-Tagalog-speaking Filipinos. The development of the regional languages along with the na tional language based on Tagalog will remove the in difference and weaken the latent opposition to the na tional language movement and pave the way to greater national unity and the deve lopment and strengthening of our democratic institutions. One could of course raise the question whether political and cultural decentralization, as proposed in my scheme, would be best for our people. It can be seen that it runs counter to the present poli tical and cultural scheme, which is highly centralized. MY THESIS My thesis is the political and cultural decentralization, which will result in equitable distribution of political power among the more important ethnic groups, would bring about greater national unity 4 Panorama and a more viable democracy. The great problem of a multi ethnic state, such as ours is, is how to distribute political power equitably among the several ethnic groups. Predo minance in the membership in the powerful Senate, which is elected by the whole na tion, has always tilted to wards the Tagalog-speaking Regions. If, as in the United States Senate, each state in the federal Philippine Repub lic will have equal represent ation in the Philippine Senate, then the distribution of poli tical power will have been partly solved. In the House of Representatives, the prin ciple of proportional repre sentation will work as well as in the present scheme, if not more effectively, since the autonomous states will be more vigilant about their re presentation than the existing provinces. SOME PROPOSALS My proposal envisages the amendment of the Constitu tion to provide for the re constitution of the existing provinces into countries and their grouping into ten states namely: (1) North Luzon, (2) Central Luzon, (3) South Luzon, (4) Southeast Luzon, (5) West Visayas, (6) Central Visayas, (7) East Visayas, (8) East Mindanao, (9) Cen tral Mindanao, and (10) West Mindanao. The cities of Ma nila and Quezon City are to be reconstituted into a Fe deral District, which will serve as the capital of the Federal Republic. Since this political reorgan ization is designed to pro mote local autonomy and en courage the development of the cultural heritage of the various ethnic groups, then the regional language and literatures will have to be en riched through the help of the governments of the various states, which are en joined to use the more im portant local languages as official languages within the state. Iloko is the dominant language of North Luzon, with Ibanag as second in im portance; Tagalog is domi nant in Central Luzon, fol lowed by Pampanga, Iloko and Pangasinan; Tagalog is the lone dominant language of South Luzon, while Bi col is of Southeast Luzon. HiliMay 196.8 gaynon dominates West Vi sayas, Sugbohanon the Cen tral Visayas, and Samareno the East Visayas. Likewise Sugbuhanon is dominant in East Mindanao; Magindanao and Maranaw are the leading languages of Central Minda nao, with Hiligaynon and Iloko trailing behind; and l^ausug and Samal are most widespread in West Minda nao and Palawan. With writing in these various languages encouraged by the various state govern ments, along, of course, with the national language which is based on Tagalog, hope is expressed for the flowering of the human imagination throughout the land in the not too distant future. Our democracy will have become more viable with its grass roots strengthened through the exercise of local autono my. Love of and pride in the local or regional community will blend naturally with love of and pride in the national community. It is in the na ture of things for a person to take more interest in the things that are closest to his day-to-day existence than in matters that are remote. Once you have developed his self-respect through local ci vic pride — that is once you have inspired in the Bicolano, the Ilongo, the Cebuano, the Hokano, the Pampangan, the Pangasinan, the Maranao, the Tausug, or feeling of pride in his community repre sented by his autonomous state — you can expect the Filipino citizen in any part of the country to develop a greater love for and loyalty to the bigger community that is the nation. Under this political organ ization and socio-cultural set-up, language movements for purism and anti-pufism, like those of Mr. Gonzalo del Rosario and Mr. Geruncio Lacuesta, will no longer be necessary because the na tional language will follow a natural development. As a second language of the Re public and as an official lan guage for some time, English naturally will ‘continue in fluencing the growth of the national language, in vocabu lary and in grammar. With the various states using their own main languages and 6 Panobama English, the local languages will have a rich opportunity to contribute to the enrich ment of the national lan guage. There wlil no longer be any reason for conflict be tween the local or regional languages and the national language, because the na tional language will have ex tensively borrowed from the regional languages for its own enrichment. When that time comes — may be three to five genera tions from now, that is, if a Federal Republic is set up through a Constitutional amendment — a Dante, a Chaucer, a Luther, a Cervan tes will .appear on the na tional scene to produce a masterpiece or masterpieces in the new language that will mark a significant take off point for the growth of a greater national literature which our posterity will be proud to call its own. — A Lecture by Leopoldo Y. Yabes, Professor, University of the Philippines, at the Y.M.C.A., Manila. ON SAVINGS One of the surest ways to make money is to save money. Savings are the storage batteries of financial power. — Savings & Loan News, 1968 May 1968 7 GENERAL EDUCATION - A NEW DIRECTION It has always puzzled me to try to understand our aca demic mentality. Ideally, we agree that general and special education should supplement each other. Practically, we find ourselves in verbal con flict, in which general edu cation usually comes our second-best. Tradition is not on its side, nor is prestige. Today a teacher’s value is too often measured by the num ber of grants he brings to the institution and the smallness of the time he devotes to teaching. Certainly general education must take some of the respon sibility for its present uneasy position. We have not done a very good job; we have not lived up to promises. We have put things to gether in a kind of crazy quilt fashion. We have denounced survey courses as superficial but in effect have gone right on using them. We have set up thousands of high-sound ing objectives for our courses while paying little or no at tention to the real residues the student may carry away from them. Frightened by the bogy of standards, we have made our courses diffi cult instead of challenging and interesting. Like the rest of higher education, we have spoonfed our students with well organized lectures, con trolled their supposedly im mature minds in class discus sion, and given them little or no chance to discover the joy of learning for themselves or creating vital ideas of their own. I am more convinced than ever that we can produce better learning by doing less so-called teaching. As David Riesman puts it, “There is the paradoxical possibility that teachers are now too erudite and capable, for their students are given to feel that there is little left to discover for themselves... There is hardly any room in Panorama which students can outflank (their teachers) and gain the feeling of independence that comes in this way.” In a natural sciences, for example, the teachers have been too devoted to their subject matter to do a good job for the nonscientist. I have about come to the con clusion that this job in science for the nonscientist might be better done by a philosopher — or by a scientist-philoso pher-historian team. Gra duate preparation of all kinds of college teachers, narrowly specialized as it is, gets in our way and keeps us from breathing life and meaning into liberal education. General education is not merely the victim of change; it is,also the victim of its own blundering, philandering, and of its efforts to gain academic erudition. But let us not over look its successes. It has opened the doors to experi mentation, to better ways of dealing with the vastness of accelerating knowledge, and to better teaching. It has pro duced many fine programs and kept hopes alive for teaching more vital goals. Lt has by no means com pleted its mission, nor has it failed in its mission. Those who strangle it to provide more time for specialization are focusing merely on a brief moment of the present. Yes, we need technicians and spe cialists. We also need in these same human beings those who can see, think, and evaluate the possibilities of the future in terms of the swift-moving present. Our pressing problems are not technical; they are human. When we are willing to take a close look at the needs of our college product, when we are willing to quit build ing curriculums for the con venience of faculties and turn our attention to the student — how he learns, and .what we can do to help him help himself — when we recognize that we as teachers have only a humble place in the learn ing process as the starters and promoters of self-discovery and self-achievement, we will not need to worry longer about any conflict between breadth and depth. It will take care of itself. We can achieve this by doing less teaching, thus providing op May 196S portunity for more learning. At this moment, one can see ahead only a hazy continua tion of the present trend. There is only the mad drive for specialization and more education, whatever its na ture. Continuing down this oath indefinitely can lead on ly to debasing the academic currency. General education needs to take a new direction. It has spent too much time revising and tinkering with curricu lums and too little effort sti mulating and inspiring stu dents. Our curriculums must relate more closely to life, to change, and to students. I have said many times that general education curriculums should be torn up and thrown awav even five years. Only in this way can they retain vitality. We need to reduce and sim plify our objectives and bring them closer to life. The stu dent today is merely jumping through hoops to get that co veted degree. Yet we think we are providing him with an education. If it is true that students no longer trust any one over 30, we need to take a long hard look at what is wrong with us and our system. They have good reason to distrust us. Both the curri culums and the teaching of today are highly seasoned with nineteenth-century fla vor. Yet, conceptually, acce leration has carried civiliza tion well into the twentyfirst century. We have long needed more meaningful preparation of college teachers, not only for general education but for all fields. It is not enough today to be able to talk and to know one’s subject well. This kind of handout teaching reaches the lowest level of efficiency if we are talking about real education. Most desperately we need experimentation in new ways of teaching as reflected in student learning, which is after all, the only reason for teaching. We need a few institutions willing to go all out in experimenting, with the focus on the learning teaching process and not the teaching-learning process, in an honest and sustained ef fort to release all students from our present stupid sys tem of credit accounting and the debased state of class 10 Panorama room-handout bondage. Stu dent independence and free dom to learn, even if the pro cess is slow and painful, must be the major objectives. I am convinced that there is private-venture capital avail able to any institutions will ing to strike out boldly in this direction. Tt is time for this kind of experimentation on a major scale. The place for it is in general education, where what we cover is of much less importance than what the student does with his own mind. We have all the accessorv apparatus for moving rapidly ahead, such as teach ing machines, workbooks, textbooks, and audiovisual tapes to- provide essential handout learning of facts. The teacher must be free for the ‘critical job — to raise Questions (but not to answer them to guide, prod, lead, r’-ovoke, and counsel as need ed. This, in my judgment, is the essential direction general education must take — to lead the way up and out of an educational stalemate with massive efforts to blast a new road toward intellectual free dom. A former speech teach er, now an eminent states man-leader, said recently: “Most of all we need an edu cation that will create the educated mind — not simply a repository of information and skills, but a source of creative skepticism, charac terised. by a willingness to challenge and be challeng ed. ... Jt means a funda mental improvement in the quality of our education.” But there is no wav to im prove the quality of Amer ican education without seek ing ne'v directions. We have come close to the end of con ventional improvements — better lectures, better discus sions, better textbooks, better facilities. Experiment after experiment has shown us that students learn about the same amount of subject matter whether they are in large classes or small classes, lec tures or discussions, before living teachers or viewing audiovisual tapes, before machines or using workbooks. We have juggled with such experiments long enough. Our job should be to set students free, not to tighten covalent bonds to teachers. May 1968 11 We have preached this for years; now it is beyond high time for the action phase. We need a few courageous institutions willing to take this kind of risk, not to in troduce safe independent honors programs for the selected few, but to go all out for freedom from tradi tion and bondage — fpr all. Team teaching, with its strong counseling segment and its emphasis on the stu dent, provides an ideal starting/place. The situation indicates the need for a sharp change in direction. Someone must make the change boldly; someone must support it generously; someone must produce this minor miracle quickly. The alternative for general education is gentle demise. The alternative for all of higher education is a half-life of useless residue. There is already a wide-open door — through well con ceived existing programs of general education, and some willing leaders. — Sidney J. French in The Journal of General Education. THE ABLE RULER “No man is fit to govern great societies who hesi tates about disobliging the few who have access to him for the sake of the many whom he will never see.” — Thomas Babington Macaulay 12 Panorama TRAINING FOR OUR FUTURE PRESIDENTS One of the strongest rea sons President Quezon used in supporting the restoration Of the Senate was his belief that it would serve as a good training ground for the coun try’s future Presidents. In a way it has so served; but in effect, it is proving a very inadequate school for chief executives. The Commonwealth began with a unicameral National Assembly. This meant that future Presidents could count on gaining experience in gov ernment as assemblymen or department secretary or both. This was obviously not enough. According to Mr. Quezon, the President could easily control the Assembly because its members, not having the stature to be in dependent, readily kowtowed to Malacafiang. Training as department secretary was no better; a department secret ary, being a presidential ap pointee, was nothing but a minion of the President. A senator being nationallyelected, Mr. Quezon argued, would in the nature of things be more mature than a mem ber of the House of Repre sentatives and greater in sta ture than either a department secretary or a representative. His argument was based on the assumption that a politi cian who can command a na tional following was of neces sity a man on the rise. This was the theory, but the prac tice became entirely differ ent. In the first election for senators the so-called block voting was adopted under which a voter could check just a box on the ballot, and the entire ticket of the partv for whom he voted obtained one vote each. When public opinion denounced this scheme as political fraud, it was abolished but candidates for senator thereafter habit ually rode on the President’s coattails. The senators be came more personal selections May 1968 13 of the Chief Executive than the members of the House. This is still the situation to day. Hardly any candidate for the Senate without direct presidential support can get elected. Yet, today, when we think of presidential timbers, we continue to look for them in’ the Senate. The current speculations on whom the Li beral Party may field against Marcds are confined to sena tors. Even when the idea is toyed with that the LP might give the NP a dose of its own medicine and pick an NP to run for President, just as Magsaysay and Marcos were lured from the LP by the NP, only. NP senators are mentioned — Puyat, Magsay say and Tolentino. Secretary Ferriando' Lopez and Repre sentative Emmanuel Pelaez would by far be more attrac tive candidates, but not being senators they are not remem bered. Yet, they have been both senators and possess executive experience. All this proves how restrict ed and inadequate is the training for President our po litical establishment affords. In the United States, the sources of Presidents are more varied: state governor ship, the U.S. Senate, the Ca binet and the armed forces. U.S. state governors learn the vast executive side of govern ment, and the presidency is executive in character. Woo drow Wilson, who rose from the governorship of New Jersey to the presidency, is the best example. U.S. sena tors are elected by the states as partymen but largely on their own. They thus have a real political base. Most U.S. Presidents have come from the Senate, a fact that probably influenced Mr. Que zon’s thinking. Former Ca binet secretaries have the ad vantage of having gone through the complicated executive mill; William Ho ward Taft, former Philippine civil governor and secretary of war, is a conspicuous case. From the armed forces, several war heroes have bec o m e Presidents starting from George Washington, with Dwight Eisenhower as the latest General-President. The American presidential school has produced Chief Executives of wider expe rience and greater stature. 14 Panorama Except for Magsaysay and Macapagal, we have had senator-lawyers for President. Experts in advocacy and le gislation, most have had the handicap of being uninitiated in executive work. If only to provide better sources of Presidents, we should return to the election of senators by districts and raise the stature of provincial governors, per haps by making each senator ial district a single province together with a legislature. Such a scheme will also im prove Philippine democracy by welding the provinces closer and making represent ation more direct and ge nuine. — (VICENTE ALBA NO PACIS, in The Manila Chronicle) LIBERAL EDUCATION Knowledge is one thing, virtue is ^another; good sense is not conscience, refinement is not humility, nor is largeness and justness of view faith. Philosophy, however, enlightened, however profound, gives no command over the passions, no influential motives, no vivifying principles. Liberal education makes not the Christian, not the Catholic, but the gentleman. ,It is will to be a gentleman, it is well to have a cul tivated intellect, a delicate taste, a candid equitable, dispassionate mind, a noble and courteous bearing in the conduct of life — these are the connatural qualities of a large knowledge; they are the objects of a univer sity; but still they are no guarantee for sanctity or even for consciousness, they attach to the man of the world, to the profligate, to the heartless — pleasant, alas, and attractive as he shows when decked out in them. Alfred North Whitehead May 1968 15 ■ A Spaniard criticized his own countrymen in defense of the Filipino. ON FILIPINO 'INDOLENCE' The Philippine Progress, a monthly newsletter published by Development Bank of the Philippines, has- a very inte resting article entitled “Is the Filipino Indolent?” It quotes two old conflicting opinions on this topic — one by an Augustinian friar, Gaspar de San Agustin, the other by a Jesuit father named Juan Jose Delgado. In an open letter dated 1772, Fray Gaspar wrote: “The complexion of these Indians (Filipinos), as reveal ed by their outward features, is cold and moist, being much under the influence of the moon... ‘ This complexion and influence is what makes them inconstant, malicious, suspicious, sleepy, lazy, slug gish, given to frequenting rivers, seas and lakes, attach ed to fishing, ichthyophagous, that is to say, thriving on fish diet more than any other, poor spirited owing to their cold humor, and little inclined to work.” The Jesuit father, on the other hand, wrote: “Who are the seamen- who sail the ships and galleons to Acapulco and other ports, and sail them back again? The Spaniards, perhaps? Ask the navigators, the marine officers, the boat-swains, and they will tell you that this great and inestimable service is performed by Filipinos... Again, who are they that cul tivate these lands and supply us with what we eat? Do the Spaniards, perchance, dig or reap, or plant any where in these islands? Of course not; for they no sooner land at Manila than they are all gen tlemen ... It is the Filipinos who plough the soil; who sow the rice; who weed the field; who watch over the growing grain; who reap it... It is the Filipinos who defend us from our enemies; for who are they who make up our garrisons, who man our fleets, who are ordered to advance first in every battle? Does 16 Panorama anyone believe for a moment that the Spaniards by them selves can keep this land if the Filipinos did not help them?” It is interesting to note that the debate on Filipino faineance has been going on as far back as 200 years. Then as now, the Filipinos had their detractors as well as defend ers. There were Spaniards who thought very little of the Filipinos. But there were also Spaniards who dared criticize their own countrymen on their attitude towards the na tives of these islands. It is obvious that Fr. Delgado thought more of the Filipinos than his own countrymen. And that is saying a lot especiallv in that day and age. —(ALEJANDRO R. ROCES, in The Manila Chronicle) KNOWLEDGE FOR ITS OWN SAKE Cicero, in enumerating the various heads of mental excellence, lays down the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, as the first of them. “This pertains most of all to human nature,” he says, “for we are all of us drawn to the pursuit of knowledge; in which to excel we consider excellent, whereas to mistake, to err, to be ignorant, to be de ceived, is both an evil and a disgrace.” May 1968 17 ■ This thoughtful paper is a remarkable expression of what may be called the way, the truth, and the light, A REASONABLE HOPE FOR OUR TIME Ten days ago I was stand ing in the midst of the Amazon Jungle three hun dred miles south of the Equator. There were seven of us who had set out to visit a settlement of the Yagua Indians who inhabit the forest areas along the Amazon River. Our bare footed guide, himself a half breed, after leading us through underbrush which he cut as he went along with his- machete finally located the little clearing where one lone family of the Yaguas was living. The fam ily consisted of the parents, four children, and a motherin-law; their worldly pos sessions comprised three iron pots, a couple of hammocks, a blow gun with a quiver of poisoned darts, a few scraps of coloured cloth, and a jar of red paint with which they proceeded to decorate one of our party as a special sign of favour. Their shelter was freshly cut from native tree branches; their food ap peared to be a few fruits on a rack and a fish which was roasting in a banana leaf over the embers of a fire. We were seven; they were seven — nothing ex cept our common humanity made us kin — neither language, nor custom, nor civilization. We had expec ted to find ten times their number in an established village, but we were to learn that whenever a death oc curs the entire camp is abandoned and the huts burned to the ground lest the evil spirits pursue the survivors. There apparently is no doubt in their minds but that there are evil spi rits and that malicious spirits will do them evil. They are fearless as they pursue the jaguar and tiger through the forest with their slender 18 Panorama poisoned reeds, and as they paddle blithely along the Amazon in their fragile canoes knowing full well that the river is ready to swallow them up and the man-eating piranha is ines capable. Of these things, they have little fear, and in dealing with them they have much knowledge; of the evil spirits, they have great fear, and in dealing with them they doubtless think that they also have great know ledge. It is apparent, however, from our point of view, that in everyday life they act upon one kind of/ knowledge and in their religious life they operate upon a second k;nd. The knowledge and skill bv which they not only tnrn the steaming jungle to the *piirn®ses of nourishment and . shelter but even fathom out the secrets of medicine from the herbs of the field and the trees of the forest — in this they act upon the same principles and by the same methods as rational men everywhere;—and given the same facts and ex perience, we and they would doubtless find little upon which to disagree. In the realm of the spirit world, however, it is doubtful whe ther many rational men would arrive at a common agreement with them. The Greeks made a care ful distinction between know ledge and opinion — beween that which was veri fiable and that which was based upon feeling or im pression. Indeed, for that matter, so have all intelligent men, and all of us know that the hottest arguments arise in those areas where men have the strongest opinions and the least specific knowledge. Not all conflicts, to be sure, have arisen from faultv knowledge, but not a few of the bitter controversies in politics and religion have found their support more from the ignorance of men than from their enlighten ment. And yet men must have opinions for there are manv relevant areas of life in which we must act without suffi cient knowledge and for which there can be no post ponement. Indeed, some sort of faith is an essential to existence as is the body of May 1968 19 verifiable knowledge requi site to rational daily living. I gather that except that each of us assembled here this morning felt the need of and had some intimations of the nature of faith we would hardly have left our com fortable homes to gather here. Faith may be, some times has been, and; perhaps often is a lazy substitute for hard-headed thinking and wrestling with cold realities but it is far more than what and it is relevant even to the 20th century scientific man. Much faith has, indeed, been shallow and oftentimes we have told men to have faith when we couldn’t think of anything else to tell them. Some of us will recall Calvin Coolidge’s pat exhortation to HAVE FAITH IN MASSA CHUSETTS when some of us would have preferred that he should have attempted to tell us what kind of Massa chusetts he was offering us to have faith in. My topic this morning isA REASONABLE HOPE FOR OUR TIME. In a sense, I, too, am urging you to have faith in our time, our world, our society — but I hope it will not be a shallow faith nor an unrealistic one. To be sure, we could exhaust the remainder of the hour in enumerating all the reasons for abandoning hope in our time. We could recall the war in Vietnam, the crime in our cities, the corruption in our politics, the indifference of our people to social issues, the lost college generation with its hippies and addic tion to drugs, the bitter ten sions of civil rights and black power — all these and more can neither be dismissed nor brought under immediate so lution. Yet it would be more unreasonable to be hopeless than to affirm our conviction in the ultimate triumph of righteousness. The fact is that the plusses still out number the minuses else the social order would have crumbled and we would in deed be in the midst of anarchy; crime is still news worthy because it is ex ceptional, unusual and con trary to the usual order of events. It may be small com fort to affirm that there is more good than evil abroad in the land and in the world, and that most men whether 20 Panorama they be Yagua Indians on the Amazon or neighbours in Back Bay are more friendly than unfriendly, and more to be trusted than feared most of the time. Yet, from this modest premise we can build our statelier mansions of faith, and upon these founda tions we can build our castles of hope. I discern, however, a num ber of false hopes in our time and I believe we should examine them candidly and dismiss them before they dis illusion us. There is in the minds of many men the hope of uni formity — that somehow the day will come when all men, presumably by the process of education and yet of their own free’will, will come to think and act alike. In re ligion they will all be good Unitarians, or Catholics, or Baptists, or whatever our own preference in these mat ters; in politics they will instinctively adhere to the right issues and parties; in taste they will enjoy the same music, the same art, the same recreations. In short, it is xery difficult for most of us to accept the fact that other individuals can possibly dif fer from us in an essential matter except it be from ig norance, stupidity, or per verseness. Another heresy of our time is like unto the first, namely the false hope of conformity. If men will not or cannot honestly arrive at the same convictions in all matters es sential, then we like to be lieve that somehow a false uniformity may be achieved by imposing a gentle or less gentle conformity. The pres sures to conform are not the same in our generation as those of the Spanish Inquisi tion or Puritan New Eng land, but they are not absent and the flower people, if they have a message for our age, may be just saying this— to remind us that the pres sures to conform are real and sometimes oppressive. Another heresy of our time is the ecumenical move ment because, I believe, it is a false hope. Good Chris tian people, recalling all the bickerings, the bloody reli gious wars, the useless theo logical squabbles, are decided that Christianity should bury its differences and strive for May 1968 21 uniformity and conformity, the better to propagate its doctrines and to defend itself against the indifference and hostility of a secular age. Our orthodox friends are un dergoing much soul searching and agony of spirit as they struggle to reduce the peculi arities of their own particu lar tradition into conformity with a single statement of faith and common creed, losing much, I believe, of the richness of their religious heritage in the process. These are hopes of our time — in politics, in socie ty, in religion. I have called them heresies because I am convinced that they are false hopes and will neither be achieved, nor is it desirable that they should be realized. It is not bad that men should think differently, that they should act differently, that they should believe different ly. It is bad that they should fight with each other, that they should hate, that they should be uncharitable and dishonest with one another. BUT THESE ARE DIF FERENT MATTERS. But there are real and reasonable hopes in our time — positive signs of pro mise and faith. There is the hope of the unity of understanding. We live in a marvelous era of communication and enlight enment. Many of our grand parents lived lives of extra ordinary isolation; — or if not our own grandparents, the generations immediately behind them — they seldom traveled, they read little more than local news, they had only the foggiest notions of what life was like outside their own section of the United States, much less the rest of the world. In fact, it didn’t really make much difference anyway, for the United States had not yet be come a world power and they, as individuals were not likely to affect many people outside their own community. Today, there is no isolation; indeed, there is no escape. I have heard American jazz in the Sahara Desert and the Amazon valley. Radio has brought, sound, and television has brought images into the most remote community — thousands upon thousands have traversed the globe either as civilians or to even 22 Panorama more remote areas in military service. We do not have Wendell Wilkie’s one world politically, but we are mov ing forward to one world of understanding, if it be true that knowledge and expe rience make for understand ing and sympathy. What age has even approached the degree of knowledge of its peoples of one another, or when have more diverse in dividuals been brought into contact one with another? And then there is the hope for the unity of good will. Here we need perhaps a higher degree of faith for not all we behold on the face of the earth is in the nature of good will. I believe, how ever, there is more good will abroad among men today thari ever before. There have been foreign mission aries in other centuries and thev have served selflessly and with devotion; but what age has ever before seen a Marshall Plan, or a Peace Corps, or organized political concern for the oppressed. Civil rights, fair housing, desegregation—perhaps some of these issues are too precipitantly launched — but who can say that they are not evidence of a unity of good will unparalleled in our history. Understanding and good will are the foundations of any reasonable hope for the present or the future. But more than this, there must also be a unity of MUTUAL RESPECT. Men will not arrive at uniformity nor will they conform for any ex tended time. Nor will men really succeed in reducing the diversity of Christian ex perience to an ecumenical unity. Nor is it perhaps de sirable that any of these thoughts should be brought to pass. The Unitarian movement is an' attempt to incorporate into a religious institution the ideas which I have been discussing this morning. It has always striven to be hard headed and rational, but it is as aware as any church that men do not live by bread alone. We, as members of this liberal tradition, have never claimed that ours is the only road to salvation or, per haps, the right road for many May 1968 23 people. We have ever sus pected uniformity and con formity in life and doctrine, and we have not so much opposed creeds and forms because of our suspicion of their validity, as from our fear that they may stifle the believer in his personal search after truth. It is not without pain that we suffer fools gladly within our move ment and without it, but the same charity that we ask for ourselves must perforce be extended to the most bizarre individualist or the most rigid institutionalist, provided he be sincere and honest in his profession. Our own move ment is blessed with diversity and no One can claim that our strength lies in conform ity (and uniformity. There is a rational hope for the year that lies before us and for the unfolding pro gress of man. But that hope will be realized only as men and women, like ourselves, believe and accept the chal lenge to make the world bet ter for their having lived in it. The apostle Paul may have been a poor theologian when he tried to deal with sin and election, but he ne ver discerned the spirit of the universe better than when he reminds us that we are co workers together with God in the building of the king dom of the spirit. Let us, therefore, take courage with that which has been achieved, fall to the task of the pre sent, and be of good cheer for the future.—By Reverend Richard D. Pierce, S.T.M., Ph.D., LL.D. LOYALTY TO PROFESSION Every man owes some of his time to the up-building of the profession to which he belongs. — Theodore Roosevelt 24 Panorama 09 Sv.eet corn offers the largest profit and has the steadiest market of all field crops. GREEN REVOLUTION IN CENTRAL LUZON A green revolution is sweeping peacefully and profitably across the gently rolling plains of Central Luzon, long the rice bowl of the Philippines. Ride is still the principal crop of the hardworking far mers who till the area’s rich, fertile soil. In fact, since the introduction of IR-8 less than two years ago, followed by rapid transition from tradi tional to modern farm prac tices under the helpful su pervision of college-trained technicians, Central Luzon farrrters are producing more rice today than ever before. At the same time, how ever, they are dramatically boosting their income—some as much as ten-fold—and greatly improving their liv ing standard by growing and marketing a wide varie ty of vegetables and field crops. Some farmers are re ceiving better returns from the sale of mongo beans, sweet corn and string beans than they are earning from IR-8 production, even though yields are several times greater than rice varieties they used to plant. Interestingly, explain agri cultural technicians, the in troduction of IR-8 largely ac counts for the revolutionary development in vegetable farming taking place in Central Luzon. Since IR-8 is short-matur ing, they point out, the wet crop is harvested in Nov ember, at the end of the rainy season and almost two months in advance of tradi tional varieties. Early har vesting enables the farmer to plant vegetable seeds sooner, permitting the seed to germi nate quickly and the plant to develop rapidly in the soil’s high moisture content. Furthermore, the residual effect of the generous appli May 1968 25 cation of fertilizer which IR-8 requires, invigorates vegetable growth. Only sweet corn needs additional fertilizer. Still another factor is the willingness of farmers to care scientifically for their crops controlling insects and plant disease. They learn the im portance of such care while growing IR-8 under the Agri cultural Guarantee and Loan Fund (AGLF) program, su pervised by agricultural cre dit technicians of the Central Bank of the Philippines. The purpose of the AGLF is to provide crop loans, with out collateral and at a mo dest interest rate, principally for tenant and leasehold far mers whose main source of credit has been the notorious money lender. Loans are ar ranged through privatelyowned rural banks and are carefully supervised by cre dit technicians who advise the borrower on proper land preparation, pest control, fertilizer use, and other measures essential for maxi mum crop yield. The most successful Cen tral Luzon vegetable ven tures, in fact, are those of the 400 farmers of Mexico, Pampanga, who since Dec ember 1966 have obtained more than a half million pe sos in loans under AGLF financing from the Rural Bank of Mexico to cultivate 1156 hectares of high-yield rice varieties. During the 1967-68 dry season, only 300 of the 1156 hectares were planted to rice. The balance was in vegetables and field crops, such as grain sorghum, soy beans, and com. In early January, to discourage the planting of rice because of water shortage and to pro mote vegetable growing, the bank stopped granting rice loans until the next wet sea son. Best promoters, though, are farmers themselves who have discovered undreamed wealth in the raising of vegetables between rice har vests. For many, vegetable sales have meant the dif ference between bare sub sistence and profitable farm ing. The difference between grinding poverty and relative affluence. Take 37-year-old Pedro Dizon who leases 12 hectares 26 Panorama in Barrio San Juan. Before he began planting IR-8 he cultivated one hectare of string beans during the dry season, netting about P400. This.season, from one hec tare and without adding any fertilizer following his IR-8 harvest, Dizon netted P4700 from the sale of two crops of string beans. This, added to his mongo bean and palay sales and ex cluding five hectares of IR-8 destroyed by Typhoon Welming last November which were replanted, gave him a net profit of more than P13,000 in 1967. From his earnings, Dizon made a down payment of P6000 on three residential lots in San Fernando, the provincial ca pital. That he had a net loss of P318 from his farm ope rations in 1966 underscores his spectacular success. Says Florante Salvador, Central Bank agricultural credit technician who has worked closely with Dizon since Dizon got his first loan under the supervised credit program: “Pedro used to be quite a gambler. He’d dis appear for several weeks at a time. Now he doesn’t want to leave his fields. He says he intends to keep his 12 hectares under cultivation the year ’round. He’ll be able to because all of his land is irrigated by the Abacan River even during the dry season. Besides rice and beans, he wants to try sweet com, peanuts and picnic cu cumbers.” While not all of Mexico’s string bean growers have been as successful as Dizon, many have done very well. Barriomate Leonardo Mal lari, Sr., boosted his profit from P240 to P1700 since he began growing string beans after his IR-8 harvest. Another San Juan resident, Gregorio Pineda, saw his earnings jump from PBOO to P850. And Teofilo Dizon of Anao, who earned 1*350 from one hectare of string beans before he began plant ing IR-8, netted P1300 from one-and-a-half hectares this season. Credit technician Salvador said the municipality’s 30 hectares of string beans should net producers an average of P1700 per hec tare. He estimated an aver age per hectare profit of May 1968 27 P850 for the 500 hectares of mongo beans under cultiva tion. Among outstanding mongo bean producers are Leonardo Franco, San Juan, and Epifanio Tolentino and Pastor Miranda, both of Anao. Fran co had an income of P1250 from two hectares compared to P340 from one hectare of mongo beans before the land was used for IR-8. Tolen tino’s earnings were more striking. From two hectares and a profit of P260 before IR-8, he doubled his mongo bean earnings although he planted only one hectare. Miranda’s profit went from P200 to P530 from one hec tare as he increased yield from five' to twelve cavans. Sweet corn has Mexico farmers rpost excited. Even though it is more costly to grow than most other vege tables, sweet corn offers the largest profit and maintains the steadiest market. Two contractors competed for Mexico’s entire production. The representative of a can ning company offered to contract for 20,000 ears a week. At season’s peak, one con tractor purchased Mexico’s total output, about 60,000 ears a week. He paid the farmer 10 centavos an ear and furnished cellophane sacks into which the un husked ears were placed im mediately upon being picked so as to preserve their fresh ness. Most of the corn was distributed to Manila super markets, Clark Air Base and the U.S. Naval Station at Su bic Bay. “We figure it costs about P400 for seed, fertilizer, insecticides and labor,” said Vergara, “to produce a hec tare of sweet corn. Gross returns on the investment are about P1500, or a net earning of approximately P1100. This is a better re turn than most farmers are earning on the production of IR-8 rice.” Primo Mandani planted one hectare of Hawaiian Sweet on his farm in Cawayan. He sold 14,000 ears for P1100, had P291 in produc tion costs, for a profit of P809. He was still harvest ing when the data was col lected. 28 Panorama Mateo Garcia, Anao, net ted P913 from the sale of 17,000 ears of UPCA Hybrid 801, and like Mandani was still harvesting when data was obtained. Sa profitable have been the bean and sweet corn harvests of Mexico farmers that many are using pro ceeds from vegetable sales to pay >off bank loans in curred for last year’s rice planting. A number were unable to meet their obliga tion when more than 20 pet cent of the rice crop was destroyed by Typhoon Welming. “This experience,” says Salvador, “has taught them that they should not depend on a one-crop economy. Their vegetable crops have been gooql insurance against a disastrous’ rice crop.” Mexico farmers, particu larly the 400 who have bene fited from the rural bank’s supervised credit program, maintain they owe most of their success to the faith and understanding of Miguel Ver gara, President-Manager of the Bural Bank of Mexico, and the technical skill and encouragement of Florante Salvador. At the same time, Vergara and Salvador stress that their program would have failed had it not been for the willing cooperation of the farmers who were eagerly responsive to change once they were shown how to improve their farm opera tions. There is reason to believe Mexico’s quiet revolution is just beginning. Vergara and Salvador have plans for de veloping a bustling provin cial farmers market where farmers from all of Pampanga could bring their produce and contract for its sale to canners and represen tatives of Manila supermar kets. They want to increase the planting of field crops, improve and greatly expand fish, livestock and poultry production, and promote mechanization as farm earn ings increase. Mexico’s greatly increased rice production and success ful multiple-vegetable crop ping have brought several constructive changes. For one, unemployment no longer is a problem. Those who used to head for Manila af ter the rice harvest because May 1968 29 there was nothing to do un til the next rice season, have found a new profitable in terest in vegetable farming. In fact, Mexico actually has a labor shortage. The most important as pect, however, of Mexico’s awakening is the wholesome ly contagious effect it is having on neighboring com munities. Nothing succeeds like success. The green re volution is spreading, each day winning more Central Luzon farmers to its cause. THE NEED IS GOVERNMENT Government is the thing. Law is the thing. Not brotherhood, not international cooperation, not secu rity councils, that can stop war only by waging it. Where do human rights arise, anyway — security against the thief, the murderer, the footpad? In brotherly love? Not at all. It lies in government. Where does control lie — control of smoking in the theater, of nuclear energy in the planet? Control lies in government, because government is people. Where there are no laws, there is no law enforcement. Where there are no courts, there is no justice. — E. B. White 30 Panorama THE COMMON EXPERIENCE For all practical purposes I believe it can be said that only man grieves. Only man loses a part of himself and knows he loses a part of him self and feels the loss in tensely. The more deeply man feels, the more, deeply man is involved in life, the more he grieves. Further more, grief is an almost in evitable part of the life of any normal person. Sooner or later he loses a limb or an ear or his nose. Or he experiences separation through divorce; or he finds close friends moving away; or he faces the imminence of his own death. Any situa tion that involves drastic se paration, including unwanted retirement, is a grief-produc ing situation. The only way to avoid grief is not to live. The very fact we are alive and involved in the lives of other people means the vir tual certainty of eventual grief. The minute we marry we invite the likelihood of grief. The minute we have children we invite the possi bility of grief. Life means grief — in time. Love means grief — in time. But grief is more than be ing sad for a while. “Grief work,” to use Freud’s expres sion, must be done and this requires time. During the period of grief the emotional ties to the lost object are broken, even as the ties to the lost object have been physically broken and mentally recognized. The emotional ties must be broken so that new emotional ties may be created. In the normal course of grief there will be a feeling of loneliness and unreality, an emptiness in the stomach, a feeling of insecurity, a strong temptation to with draw from all activities. Questions will be asked that can not be answered like “Why did God permit it?” There will be feelings of guilt. A tendency to lash out May 1968 31 against anyone who pre sumably might have preven ted the. loss. To facilitate grief’s work let there be tears. Tears, as one psychiatrist has pointed out, is a mechanism for re ducing the tension caused by grief. Tears are not a distor tion of nature nor evidence of weakness. They are a means by which the griev ing persons works his way up from the depths. Then let there be talk. Repeat over and over again all the details surrounding the grief-producing tragedy. This makes the loss more realistic and the expectation that the loved one will re turn is dissipated. When tears and talk flow freely, grief’s work is being done and in time the bereaved person comes to realize what Jesus meant when he said, “Blessed are they who mourn for they shall be comforted.”—Chedbourne A. Spring In recent years the “Waling-Waling” has played a prominent role in orchid hybridization work. Orchid hybridizers in Florida, Hawaii, Singapore, Bangkok and other orchid centers of the world have crossed this versatile vanda with other orchid species and genera to produce prolific blooming hybrids. These hybrids exhibit a wide range of shapes and colors in their flowers. Some outstanding examples are the golden-flowered Vanda Tan Chay Van, the pinkflowered Vanda Nellie Morley, the blue-flowered Vanda rothschildiana, and the red-flowered Vanda Jane Shimamoto. In the esoteric world of orchid col lectors, these handsome hybrids command near estronomical prices. 32 Panorama WALING-WALING Vanda Sanderiana (Waling-Waling), the most promi nent native orchid, was first detected by Roebelin of the orchid establishment, Sanders and Company, in 1882, while he was collecting throughout the southeast portions of Mindanao Island. It is ende mic to a restricted area of this island and can be found in no other place throughout the world. The plant was ■originally described by Rei chenbach in 1882 and is de dicated to the orchid compa ny responsible for its disco very. This species has been de scribed by various authorities under different genera; Schlechtei* delegated it to Eunanthe while Reichenbach assigned it to Esmeralda. The flower differs from that of the typical Vanda in hav ing a small lip with no spur and without a saccate form ation. Also, because of the distinctive markings of radial hue on the sepals and petals, the species has at times been incorporated with the genus Arachnis. At present, how May 1968 ever, the plant is included in the Vanda Group for which it has an alliance because of its typical Vanda-like growth, upright flower scape and general floral arrangements. Plants of this species often grow to a height of two to four feet, but it is not uncom mon for plants to flower that are only eight to twelve in ches high with four or five sets of leaves. The unusual flower, the biggest among Philippine orchids, is flat and from three to five inches across the petals. The upper sepal and the two petals are whitish purple with dark red dish-brown spots near the base, while the lower sepals are greenish with purplish crimson netted lines and spots. The flowers which form in big clusters of twelve to sixteen during August and September open a few at a time and the raceme will last for from five to seven weeks. This species is not fragrant. — Excerpts from the book, Philippine Orchids, by Reg S. Davis and Mona Lisa Stei ner. 33 ■ Experiment to Create Venusian Atmosphere on Earth. VENUS IS A SCORCHED WORLD The surface of Venus is charred black. There, wood, paper or cloth do not burn. Yet, they produce smoke and are instantly scorched black. Such is the strange world of Venus where everything burns up without flame or fire. This has been confirmed by experiments which simu late the atmospheric condi tions on the surface of Venus carried out by the Asahi Shimbun Publishing Co., one of Japan’s major newspaper publishers, in cooperation with the National Institute of Metals of the Government’s Science and Technology Agency. When the results of the sur vey by the Soviet Union’s un manned probe, Venus 4, were announced, many scientists thought that “on the surface of Venus, everything burns furiously.” But this specula tion has now been repudiated. There is not enough oxygen on Venus, so nothing burns there. However, it is a veri table inferno of intense heat. If a human being without a protective device against heat should land on Venus, he would instantly become a charred corpse. 22 Atmospheres, 270° C, and 0.4-0.8% Oxygen The atmospheric conditions on the surface of Venus were minutely observed by the Soviet probe on October 1^, 1967. The unmanned sur veyor was soft-landed with a parachute and conducted a survey of the Venusian atmo sphere as it descended. Ac cording to the data thus col lected, the surface of the pla net has a temperature of 270°C. an atmospheric pres sure of 15 to 22, and the at mosphere itself consist pri marily of carbon dioxide with an oxygen content of only 0.4 to 0.8 per cent and water vapor of 0.1 to, 0.7 per cent. Compared with the earth’s atmosphere which contains 21 per cent oxygen, the Ve 34 Panorama nusian atmosphere contains an extremely small amount. In the light of the fact that Venus has twenty-two atmo sphere and a temperature of 270° C, the absolute quantity of oxygen in the atmosphere is not at all small. One liter of Venusian atmosphere con tains one-seventh — one-third nf the oxygen content cont lined in one liter of the earth’s atmosphere; Because both the atmo spheric pressure and the tem perature are high, the oxygen in the Venusian atmosphere is expected to be far more active than that in the earth’s atmosphere. This is,the rea son why it is surmised that combustion there would be far more vigorous than on the earth. But, is this actually the case? At a temperature of 270° C, tin melts but lead does not. Under 22 atmo spheres, water boils at 216° C. This much is definitely known. But beyond this, the scientists can only guess. To simulate conditions of another planet on this earth is one area of experimental astronomy and it was thought that such an experiment would be of great help in pro ducing a realistic picture of the other planet. Simulation of the Atmosphere For the simulation experi ment, an autoclave of the Na tional Institute of Metals was used. An airtight cham ber used in chemical and me tallurgical experiments, it is filled with gasses or liquids at high temperatures or pres sures in order to test their re actions. The autoclave used in this particular test had an inter nal volume of 500 cubic cen timeters. It had two windows at the bottom, one admitting light and the other for mak ing observations. The artificial Venusian at mosphere was created by mix ing carbon dioxide, oxygen and water proof. Since the Venus 4 probe failed to detect any nitrogen gas in the Ve nusian atmosphere, this ele ment was ignored. The following mixture of gases was used in the experi ment: May 1968 35 Carbon dioxide Oxygen Water Nitrogen Atmospheric pressure Temperature Venusian Atmosphere 90-95% 0.4-0.8% 01-0.7% not detected 15-22 270°C Simulated Atmosphere 98.5-99.5% 0.4-0.8% 01-0.7% 0% 15-22 270°C This mixture of gases was placed in a 30-liter tank and then transmitted to the auto clave through a preheating tank at the rate of 500 to 1,000 cubic centimeters per minute while the pressure in the chamber was kept at 22. The gas mixture was removed from a second exit. With this arrangement, the autoclave was constantly refilled with a fresh mixture of gases. No Combustion Because of Lack of Oxygen A variety of specimens were placed in this chamber to observe any changes that they might have undergone while the temperature in the chamber was increased up to 270° C. The test materials were chosen from among common items readily avail able in order to facilitate our understanding. Under the pressure of 22 atmospheres and at room temperature, it was learned that small electric bulbs used in flashlights, pingpong balls and quial eggs were able to withstand this pressure. Un der the same pressure, how ever, killifish in water in a beaker died instantly in the autoclave. When the tempe rature was raised, the water boiled and evaporated and the killifish was scorched. A match, the head covered with combustible chemicals, ignited spontaneously at around 150° C, but the fire thus started did not burn the wooden stick which, instead, began to scorch at about 170°C and became charred around 200° C. This carbonized match stick would burn in ordinary air with a red glow at about Panorama 350°C. In the artificial Ve nusian atmosphere, however, it did not burn even when the temperature was raised to 400°C. After the temperature was raised above 300°C, how ever, the carbonized match either bent or splintered and gradually became thinner. With wh*t percentage of oxygen in the Venusian at mosphere, then, would the carbonized match stick began to burn? In an experiment in which the oxygen content in the car bon dioxide was raised gra dually from 3 per cent to 5, 10, 20 and 30 per cent, the match stick did not burn at 10 per cent. With an oxygen content greater than 20 per cent, however, it began to burn at 230°C. That is to say, even when the atmospheric pressure is as high as 22 and the tem perature as much as 270° C, a match stick does not burn if the oxygen content is only from 0.4 to 0.8 per cent. The same may be said of sulphur which readily burns in the air. Sulphur burns spontaneous ly in the earth’s atmosphere at 230°C. In the man-made Venusian atmosphere, how ever, it merely melts and turns into an amber-colored fluid. It furiously emits smoke but does not create the whi tish blue flame which is char acteristic of the combustion of sulphur in the air. Even when the oxygen content was increased to IQ per cent in the autoclave, sulphur did not burn, but it did when the oxygen content was increased to 20 per cent. In the Venusian atmosphere of 270° C, even absorbent cot ton, gauze and handkerchiefs simply became carbonized. But these carbonized mate rials proved surorisingly stur dy. They could be, with some care, folded or unfold ed, without crumbling to pieces or turning into ashes. Does all this mean that no thing ever burns in Venus’ atmosphere? The head of a match burn ed, to be sure. But this was because the tip was covered with chemicals containing po tassium chlorate, an oxidizer. It would burn even in an at mosphere containing carbon dioxide alone or even in va cuum because of the effect May 1968 37 of the oxidizer it contains. This would be true with cel luloid which consists primari ly of nitrocellulose, such as a pingppng ball. There are some things, however, which do burn in the Venusian atmosphere be cause of the slight amount of oxygen contained in it. The fine particles of mag nesium is one example. Mag nesium powder which used to be used for flash-light in pho tography, does not burn spon taneously even when heated up to 360° C in the air. But if mixed with an oxidizing agent, such as used in a match, it can be made to burn instantly with a flash when the agent is ignited at tem peratures • around 150°C. When the same substances are placed in a container with carbon diox’de with 22 atmo spheres and heated, the oxi dizing agent of the match alone burns at temperatures around 150°C while the mag nesium powder does not. When the same experiment is conducted in the simulated Venusian atmosphere, how ever, magnesium, too, is ig nited and burns instantly. In the Venusian atmosphere which contains a very small amount of oxygen, only a small of substances including magnesium burn. Even ben zene does not burn there. When a cigarette is lighted in the earth’s atmosphere and placed in a test tube, which in turn is placed in the Venu sian atmosphere, the cigarette is instantly extinguished, pro ducing a large nuantitv nf smoke and tar while the ci garette itself becomes char red. Water under 15 atmo spheres boils at 197°C and under 22 atmospheres at 216°C. In the Venusian at mosphere, heavv oil evapo rates instantly leaving only a dark brown residue. As said before, the oxygen content in one liter of the at mosphere on the surface of Venus is from one-seventh to one-third that in the same amount of the earth’s atmo sphere. Yet, despite this re lative abundance of oxvgen in the earth’s atmosphere, things do not burn as readily as they might be expected. This, reasons Dr. Tsuyoshi Hikita of Tokyo University, is because “in the earth’s at mosphere, carbon dioxide, too, is equally compressed 38 Panorama and this, among other things, impedes combustion because it deprives the heat necessary for burning.” “If we took a substance whose temnerature is several thousand degrees,” says Pro fessor Hikita, however, “to the surface of Venus, the hiqh temperature itself would dis sociate oxygen from carbon dioxide, and then that oxvqen would cause the sub stance to burn.” Apart from the combustion experiments, a test was also conducted for checking changes that occur in metals in the Venusian atmosphere. This was done with stainless steel, magnesium, pure iron and aluminum, whose speci men pieces were left alone for one week in the simulated atmosphere. The result show ed that the iron became co vered with a black coat of rust which in turn prevented the iron from further rusting. Stainless steel, magnesium, and aluminum, also, rusted. Specialists have said that “metal pieces rust rapidly in the Venusian atmosphere, which has less oxygen than the earth’s because of the high temperature.” Another factor in causing the metals to rust may be that oxidiza tion takes place because of the oxygen created by the dissociation of carbon dio xide, besides the 0.4 to 0.8 per cent oxygen in the at mosphere. Further Approach to Real Atmosphere The data obtained through the above experiments seem to repudiate almost all the hypotheses hitherto advanced by many scientists concern ing Venus. The theory advanced by Svante Arrhenius (18591927), the Nobel Prize-win ning Swedish scientist, and Dr. Graviil A. Thikhoff, the late Soviet space biologist that “Venus is covered with vegetation” is now totally in conceivable. The theory of Dr. Fred L. Whipple (1906), director of the Smith sonian Astrophysical Obser vatory, and Dr. Fred Hoyle (1915-), a British'astronomer, who both advanced the theo ry that there would be “sea of petroleum” on the surface of Venus, too, would be im possible. For water and pe troleum would evaporate and Mat 1968 39 any plant would instantly turn into charcoal. The only remaining hypo theses yet to be repudiated is that the surface of Venus is an intensely hot, barren desert. Yet, there is no way of knowing as yet whether the entire surface is desert or if there are high mountain ranges as on the earth and if plant life and microbes might be found at places on the high mountains where the temperature is low. On these questions, there is now only speculation. The experiments jointly conducted by the Asahi Shim bun Publishing Company and the National Institue of Me tals have made a major con tribution in changing much of the speculation about Ve nus into reality. In order to learn more of the realistic facts of life on Venus, how ever, it will be necessary to send more sophisticated sur veying instruments to its sur face. It is no mere dream to ex pect that someday such na tions as the United States and the Soviet Union, coun tries which are capable of launching rockets, will launch Venus probes one after an other and establish a coope rative relationship in space science, and conduct experi ments by reproducing on the earth conditions similar to those on Venus with the fur ther data obtained from such Venusian probes. These re cent experiments in Japan will undoubtedly contribute to stimulating further efforts to reveal the secrets of Ve nus and other planets of our solar system in the interests of greater international coo peration and understanding. — Japan Fortnightly, 1968 40 Panorama Panorama Reading Association PANORAMA invites the educated public to join its Association of Readers. PANORAMA READING ASSOCIATION is dedicated to men and women who appreciate the variety and quality of its articles as sources of liberal ideas. PANORAMA READING ASSOCIATION includes stu dents, businessmen, professionals, proprietors, employers, and employees. It is also open to clubs, schools, and other ac credited organizations. PANORAMA has been in existence for over Thirty Years. PANORAMA provides excellent material for classes in history, government, economics, political and social studies, lite rature, and science. It may be adopted for secondary and college use. PANORAMA is not a fly-by-night publication. It -was bom in March, 1936. COMMUNITY PUBLISHERS, INC. Inverness, (M. Carreon) St., Sta. Ana, Manila, Philippines Contents World Peace Through Low............................................................. 1 A Proposal on the National Language Problem.................... 2 General Education — A New Direction ................................ 8 Training for Our Future Presidents .......................................... 13 On Filipino 'Indolence'.................................................................... 16 A Reasonable Hope for Our Time............................................... 18 Green Revolution in Central Luxon .......................................... 25 The Coipmon Experience ............................................................. 31 Waling-Waling ................................................................................. 33 Venus is a Scorched World........................................................... 34 THE COVER — Loneliness occasioned by the absence of the First Lady and their three children, who flew to the U. S. earlier, aggravated by a sprained foot, which grounded him most of the time, plus state problems, engulfed the world of President Marcos during the better part of May, this year. — ABP