I have special interest on the subject microplastic and opted to re quote portions of Mr. Boo Chanco’s article in his column “Demand and Supply” (PhilStar May 1, 2023). I owe this to my academic foundation and research in Science!

I refer to the results of the study commissioned by the World Wide Fund (WWF) for Nature published in the New York Times (NYT) “that the average person may be consuming as much as much as five grams of plastic every week – the equivalent, of an entire credit card.” quoted and published by NYT. It started by saying “there is plastic in our bodies, It’s in our lungs and in our bowels and in the blood that pulse3s through us,” …we can’t see it, and we can’t feel it, but it is there. It is there in the water we drink and the food we eat, and even in the air we breathe.

“We don’t know, yet, what it’s doing to us, because we have only quite recently become aware of its presence, but sincere have learned of it, it has become a source of profound and multifarious anxiety. “Maybe it’s nothing; may it’s fine. Maybe this jumble of fragments – bits of water bottles, tires, polystyrene packaging, microbeads from cosmetics – is washing through us and causing no particular harm. But even that was true, there would still remain the psychological impact of the knowledge that there is plastic in our flesh.”

This knowledge registers, in some vague way, as apocalyptic; it has the feel of a backhanded divine vengeance, sly and poetically appropriate. Maybe this has been our fate all along, tgo achieve final communion with our own garbage.”

MY COMMENT:
Nano-plastics particles are several times tinier than microplastics, the former needs a high-powered research electron microscope to examine, identify. Indeed, these (nano-plastics) “are capable of crossing the membranes between cells and have been observed to accumulate in the brains of fish.”

My closest encounter with the aforementioned case, was (while doing MS Fisheries at Kagoshima University, Japan) was the infamous “Minamata Disease” so-called after the coastal town of Minamata, Kumamoto, Japan, a neighboring Prefecture of Kagoshima. The case was Lead (Pb) wastes thrown to the sea from manufacturing companies, engulfed by shallow water-dwelling fish species; the same fish eaten by coastal inhabitants of Minamata, including nursing mothers, from which mother breastfed their babies (inakay), milk upon laboratory examinations and tests found strong traces of Lead. This made the end ‘user babies’ test positive to the toxic-lead element in the milk. I was able to visit and interviewed several victim mothers in Minamata and confirmed that their fish source came from the nearby Bay.

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THAT gospel episode where Christ shocked his apostles when they saw him walking on the water (cfr. Mt 14,22-36) reminds us that the ways of God can overwhelm us and even throw us into the grip of fear. We should just remember what Christ told his apostles. “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”

We should just be prepared for this eventuality which can happen anytime. We may not deserve to be given such extraordinary intervention of God in our life, but it is really up to God to give us that favor.

We should just have to learn when to be afraid and when not. We have to distinguish between a good fear and a bad fear, a healthy one and a sick one. We need to know how to handle and deal with our fears that are unavoidable in our life.

Fear is an emotion that we need to educate also. It just cannot be on its own, guided only by our spontaneous judgments and reactions, and appearing when it’s not supposed to, and not appearing when it’s supposed to. It has to be grounded and oriented properly, expressing the sublimity of our dignity as persons and children of God.

Let’s remember that among the gifts of the Holy Spirit is the fear of the Lord. It’s the good and healthy fear of a child who is afraid to offend his father. It’s a filial fear, not a servile one. It’s one that, instead of being tempted to run away from God, would rather motivate one to get closer to him. It’s the fear of losing God, even if we may have offended him and have to do something to atone and repair.

It’s the fear that we should foster, especially these days when we see a lot of people who are not afraid anymore to offend God. Though to be fair, we can also say that many do not fear God anymore because in the first place they don’t know him. No one fears what he doesn’t know.

Look at little children. They have to be watched closely because in their carefree spirit of playing and running around, they do not know the many potential dangers that can befall them. In a sense, they have no fear, which is why we have to watch them closely.
There are, of course, those who do not fear God because they don’t believe in him. This is reflected in one of the psalms: “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God above.’” (52)

Lastly, there are those who lose the fear of the Lord because they think they can escape or hide from him. It’s kind of a funny predicament to be in, but actually many fall under this category. For sure, it’s the devil’s work, supported by one’s weaknesses and self-inflicted delusion.

We have to contend with these possibilities and wage a battle of love and peace, of truth and charity, with a lot of patience to boot. Prayers, heroic sacrifices are definitely needed, but concrete, doable plans on how to tackle these problems should also be made.

We have to learn to lose our fear, allowing our faith to make that leap in the dark that is integral to it. That is the secret. Instead of fear, what we should have is awe. Though it may have some freezing effect, awe actually attaches us with God. Not so with fear. Fear makes us to run away from God.

Continuous torrential rains that hit the region these past days had flooded many places. Casualties of the floods had been reported and the families of those who perished are grieving amid the soaked situation of their homes. Damage to crops and livestock are great as reports are being gathered by concerned agencies. Water levels had just subsided a bit and rains fall heavily again, causing the temporary suspension of classes throughout the region. People had to travel through flooded streets to reach destinations risking limbs and life from being caught in deep excavations or carried by the strong currents or catching water borne bacteria. The situation had caused so much inconvenience and suffering to the public and government seem flatfooted in coping with the problem.

Now is the aptest time to determine the areas that are prone to flood. Data about the flood problem is best available in these times as flood levels are at peak. The situation is an engineering problem that requires an engineering solution. It is not and is never a political problem for politicians to immerse themselves into. While government funds are required to pursue a well-studied solution, politicians ought not to use the problem to float their ugly ambitions. It is very unfortunate that this perennial problem is not being addressed properly as those in the know are not empowered to posit long-term solutions. Indeed, the best engineers could not come-up with appropriate measures unless adequate funds are allocated, which funds are in the stranglehold of politicians that holds the power of the purse.

As inundations affect many areas, local officials seem on a swan-swim slow motion taking action for the affected populace. Drenched in floodwater, people await assistance from their elected officials. This has been the nasty setup our patronage politics where people depend on elected officials for just every need. Politicians make every helping an opportunity for grandstanding to promote their political ends. This is the reason that government intervention are often in the provision of relief goods to victims of floods and other calamities. It is easy for politicians to pool resources to show off their assistance to the poor victims of calamities.

Nothing had been heard about allocating government funds towards solving the flood problems. All that politicians keep on pronouncing is the release of dole outs to victims of the flood and some measures to temporarily assuage the situation. Piecemeal approach to the problem will only increase the waste of government funds. We have seen how public officials had been implementing drainage project in each barangay. We do not know if such projects are contributing in any way towards a long term solution to the flood.

So much government funds had been washed to waste due to poor planning. It is really incorrect for government to treat the flood as a segregated problem of every barangay. The way to contain the flood problem must be by way of a comprehensive drainage plan that will serve as serve as guide in the construction of drainage. Else, government funds will just continue to go down the drain while floods remain a perennial problem.
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