Promoting the
bio-gas program

Last week, we went with Dr. Reynante Decena, provincial veterinarian and his assistant Romy Espinosa to the farm of the Abelardes in Bago which used to be the farm of the late Peping Espinos, and then to the Jingco farm in Cansilyan, Murcia.

The province, while promoting piggery projects for livelihood of the rural folk, is also promoting the use of bio-gas with its liquefied gas used for lighting and cooking.

If this goes into a full swing, I can just imagine the province producing pork which can be exported to Manila and nearby provinces and the farmers also using liquefied gas from its bio-gas project.

Dr. Decena told me he is putting up models for others to follow.

The secret in developing people is giving them livelihood, something to earn their income from. Let us wean our people away from doleouts.

What did an old Chinese saw tell us? Give a man a kilo of rice and he will have his meal. Teach him to plant rice and he will live with enough food throughout his life.

Bio-gas is only one of them. There are other projects.

***

My item last Monday about the beauty of a Mass with Latin prayers got some reactions. I was asked if I was advocating for the return of the Latin Mass. I said, no. I just voiced my enjoyment when recalling in my youth praying the Mass in Latin.

I only wrote my impressions as an altar boy to those Mill Hill missionaries mostly Irish, Dutch, and German. A few Englishmen.

And in my own class, three became priests, two died already and the third is still okay even with five heart bypasses.

What I liked in those Masses were their solemnity that one could feel. There was no holding hands during the prayer. There was no dancing and there were no other hymns except the choir would sing "Credo in unum Deum. (I believe in one God)." And the "Pater Noster (Our Father)."

It's up to the Diocese what to do. What I just hope is the church is made the place of worship. I am just happy with the traditional although I don't believe in bringing back confessions to priests. Confessions should be made direct to God.

That way, confessions can be more meaningful.

***

I believe each of us has his own way of worshipping his God. Let each one do what suits him.

I just want to comply with a request to print again what English poet Daniel Defoe wrote about some devils in the house of prayers.

"Wherever God erects a house of prayer,/ The Devil always builds a chapel there;/ And 'twill be found upon examination,/ The latter has the largest congregation."

This was from his "The True Born Englishmen" written in 1701.

Earlier in 1530 in his "Table Talk," Martin Luther wrote, "For where God built a church, there the Devil would also build a chapel."

Before put it into verse and added nearby 200 years later that upon examination, the Devil has the largest congregation.

Lest you accuse me for saying the devil has more following in a church, it was Luther and Defoe who said it. I know many will not disagree.

***

Let me insert this little joke. I was asked why some women do not want to have their hand held by a man in the prayer, fearful he might have just come from the urinal.

When this was asked, another friend answered, there is the danger, she might be infected by the virus of a bird flu.

Don't ask about the virus of a bird flu. Asia is now in the grip of a threat of a bird flu.

***

I have noted there is a growing support for the President wielding a strong hand against terrorism and, I hope, against the corrupt.

Let the President know, in the provinces, she is getting a good support for putting up a strong government. But this must be a government whose actions are all based on laws.

What made Marcos popular in the early days of Martial Law was when he neutralized known criminals. He threw out of office those who were corrupt, calling them the "notoriously undesirable."

He worked for the small farmers. He made shortcuts but people supported him because he was neutralizing the corrupt.

But absolute power corrupts absolutely. He became the worst corrupt and, with the tamed media, he did everything he wished.

That was what destroyed him.

This must be a great reminder to the President. And she should stop protecting and hiding her subordinates who have something to answer to the public, like the former Comelec Commissioner "Hello Garci" Garcillano.

Senator Joker Arroyo of the administration said, he will argue the case against National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales in the Supreme Court.

I believe and hope Joker will win his case.*

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