Energy

The biggest problem of the world right now is energy – and we're running out of it. This is exemplified by the soaring cost of oil which impacts on almost everything – transport, food, clothing, shelter – you name it.

Here in Bacolod , and probably in most other places, talk is going around that soon it may cost ten bucks to ride a jeepney. If that happens, or if the government permits that to happen, you can imagine the severe crimp in moving around.

The world is frantic, trying to squeeze power from the wind, the sun. Even the plants are involved in the proposed solution to the energy problem. In this regard a hassle has developed between the views held by Senator Defensor that planting, say, Jatropa (and ethanol) will displace the area for food production, and the view that it would not because anyway we'll utilize idle lands. A good question is: Why are the lands idle? (In the U.S. food prices have gone up because of some action on the bio-fuel front. In any event, what we have is a classic between the devil and the deep blue sea situation.)

As I have said, energy is basic to our lives. Even a caveman likes to have a burning fire (energy). The reason why we go on breathing is the energy our food yields. As long as energy (some call it the “life force”) continues to burn, life remains until the inevitable moment when one's energy has run out.

This battle between energy (life force) and the state when no energy remains (entropy) is presently exemplified by the see-saw battle of ex-President Suharto of Indonesia against death. The guy has multi-ple organ failures; now he has a raging infection and the doctors are pumping his system with all sorts of drugs to fight it. The guy, who is 86 however clings to life. He had absolute power for three decades. Apparently, some of that dictatorial power remains to halt death at the door.

On the local front, our own governor is also battling his disease. We are wishing him all the luck in the world.

As I write (Thursday) January 17, I do not know if ex-dictator Suharto still lives. For all I know, when I turn on the TV later this morning, news will carry his death. Or maybe not.

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Rep. Genaro M. Alvarez, Jr. has written to comment on my “Billion Trees” column last week. Aside from Rep. Alvarez, Rep. Marcelino Teodoro ( Marikina ) was a prime backer and so was Speaker Jose de Venecia.

Rep. Alvarez promises to personally pursue the passage of the “Billion Tree” law in the Senate and the bi-cameral conference. We wish him more power. To the rest who voted for the “Billion Tree” act, we also extend our thanks.

The “Billion Tree” Act dove-tails with the report that there are 6 million hectares of abandoned land, most of which are logged-over areas. Jarius Bondoc, the crusading columnist has also pointed to an additional fifteen million hectares of denuded forest. What a vast area to plant some of the Billion Trees.

Incidentally, under Chapter VI of the proposed law, every municipality is supposed to establish a mini-forest park. Can Bacolod City establish a tree park for its citizens? Forget the public plaza: It has lost all vestiges of a forest park .

This column will pursue and/or monitor the progress of this law and more importantly its implementation.

FROM RALEIGH TO RENO :

Las Vegas is a showcase for a lot of shows and exhibitions – magicians, singers, dancers. Two performers played with lions, until a favorite cat, in a fit of apparent madness, clawed to near death one of the famous pair. If you want to see the artifacts of Titanic, a long standing exhibit can show you how it was, the story in hundreds of items in that ill-fated ship. Another long standing exhibit Madame Tussaud's at the Venetian can have you stand beside wax but real looking great and famous celebrities. We got in and I had my photo taken with Abraham Lincoln and other giant of American history. I didn't pose beside Michael Jordan for obvious reasons.

But one exhibition called “Bodies” at the Tropicana, if memory serves, was drawing crowds and generated a lot of amazed gossip. We bought tickets and lo! we saw lots of naked men and women; dead of course.

Their flesh had been turned to plastic by a process invented by a Polish-born biologist named Gunther von Hagens. Human tissue, by a marvel of chemical technology has become incorruptible plastic. The process has given some people physical immortality. I must confess that for the first time the human body, its various parts had an enormous impact on me. I never realized that human nerves look like spaghetti. Another twist to the exhibit is that the subjects are supposed executed Chinese convicts – both male and female.

We got out of the exhibit with long thoughts. If you had a choice, would you rather have your dead body turn to plastic and laugh at time? Would you cheat the worms and the bugs. Ah, Gunther – what have you wrought!*

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