To Eat or not to Eat

After reading Bradford G. Schleifer’s A Pig’s Tale from the magazine The Real Truth, I now have second thoughts about eating my favourite meat of all- pork!

According to Schleifer pork is highly toxic. Here’s why:

1. A pig’s digestive system is not designed to filter toxins from its system. These toxins work their way through the pig and are deposited in the animal’s flesh-especially in its fat deposits.

2. A March 1950 Reader’s Digest article stated that pork contains “myriads of baffling and sinister parasites.”

3. Pigs are designed as natural vacuum cleaners. They will eat just about anything-garbage, carcasses or even their own urine and feces.

4. Pigs can eat poisonous snakes-with no harm to the pigs. The poison is stored in the flesh which can be ingested by humans.

5. Pork fat stores much of the toxins. Therefore, eating fat means storing the most toxic form of the animal.

Pork, anyone?

Pinoy Learning the English Language

Learning English as a second or foreign language is quite complicated. If you’re a Filipino like me you will encounter a lot of queer words that don’t even sound like they ought to be. But then, we try our very best to learn and use it because it is the official language here.

Some common pitfalls for Filipinos learning English include pronunciation, spelling, subject-verb agreement and preposition. Really, one will understand the difficulty given the kind of language Filipinos have.

For one, Tagalog or the Filipino language has a very simple spelling and pronunciation. If you write, “Mahal kita” (I love you), that is exactly how you are going to pronounce it. No mystery. All the a’s are pronounced like the a in “ah.” We only have five vowel sounds: a, e, i, o and u. And the sound never changes when combined with consonants.

There are also consonant sounds and diphthongs not found in the Filipino alphabet hence the production of the sound is also difficult. We don’t have the v, f, soft and hard th and other combinations. Instead of saying v we say bictory, or pace for face. We say tenk you for thank you and pader for father.

Another thing is the subject-verb agreement problem. Singular and plural subjects pose a big problem for most of us. Choosing the right verb or predicate for the subject is quite tough. Even the tense of the verb is also a big problem.

Not to be overlooked is the problem with preposition. The trouble begins when you combine the verb with a preposition. Simple combinations like look at, look into, look over, go on, go to, go over, go into, etc., really are mind-boggling for the non-native speaker.

Nevertheless, we continue to struggle and work our way into the labyrinth of the English language hoping that one day we will be able to use the language meaningfully and beautifully and enjoy its benefits.

Goodbye Tilapia

In my whole life I have never experienced my place being swamped with water and mud. But a time came when the place we were renting went under during a typhoon. We live near a river, hence, floods aren’t unusual. It’s weird though when you watch your house submerge in water.

When the river was not very swollen yet, Tiya Charit, our landlady, told me that our place has never been flooded so I better not worry a lot. But she was wrong because I really saw with my own eyes how the water rose and inched its way into the house. You can imagine how I tried frantically to save our things. It’s kind of funny when you see small creatures and other things enter your house. I was even imagining snakes swimming under the water, seeking for someone’s legs to bite! Thanks God there were none.

All of a sudden something fluttered near the bathroom. It scared me for a moment but then my husband said it was just a fish- a tilapia fish. I chuckled when I heard what it was. I asked my husband in jest to catch it so we will have something for dinner. My husband tried to put the poor fish inside a pail to keep it safe from the intense flood. But the fish took itself to the air and plunged straight down to the wet floor and vomited what looked like muck. Strange because the muck was actually tiny bits of shaking and twittering live fry.

This tilapia must be a glutton! Imagine devouring so much fingerlings. Made it throw up instead. Nevertheless, I asked my husband to save the glutton to be safely returned to the river after the flood. The tilapia seemed relieved and happy to swim inside the pail. A moment later and the tilapia threw up again. This time the half-full pail teemed with live fingerlings cramming delightfully around the big tilapia.

And then I realized that the tilapia was not a glutton but a mother to these thousands of fingerlings. She gobbled the fingerlings to save them from the flood and to prevent them from scattering. Must have been very hard to gather and keep fingerlings in your mouth without swallowing them. I couldn’t help but admire the motherly instinct of this tilapia.

I was enjoying the glorious display when the bubbly and energetic fingerlings started to become drowsy. They turned dull and some just broke the surface- dead! It must be the lack of air that caused it. How on earth am I going to instruct the mother tilapia to gather her fry again and save them from asphyxiating inside the pail? Even the mother tilapia was losing her strength.

I should not have put the fish in the pail and made it look safe for the fish and the fingerlings. I had no other choice but to let go of the tilapia and the fingerlings. I let them out of the pail- the mother tilapia and the fingerlings- into the river. Chances for them to reunite were nil.

Goodbye tilapia!

Heaven or Hell or Something Else

When I was young I kept wondering where we would be when the world is gone. I didn’t ask anybody for an explanation because I knew it was such a silly question. I tried so hard to answer the question on my own but then the question remains a question until now.

Of course, others say that our destination is either heaven or hell, others say we will be reincarnated and take another form- a pig or a tree perhaps- depending on how you lived your life. Others opine that we simply turn back to dust to nourish plants and never to regain consciousness ever again.

I don’t know which of the choices is the best but for me, I don’t think any one of them will make me happy. If I go to heaven I will be singing religious songs forever and if I go to hell I will be yelping horrible tunes unless forbidden to. What if reincarnation is true then I just wake up walking in fours because I transformed into an animal?

Now that I’m not getting any younger, the fear of dying is slowly creeping into my very heart. Questions start to fill my mind. What will happen to me when I die? Where would I go? Then if doom comes what will happen to everyone? Will I still regain consciousness? If I do, will I still see my loved ones? Will I still feel the same feelings for them?

If not, what will become of me, of us and of this world? Are we all going to vanish just like that? Or are we going to go to take another form, say we become immortal? If so, where and how are we going to exist?

They say let us not try to fathom things that are beyond this universe. But I think it is only possible for people who are not afraid of what is to come. Maybe I do not have that kind of faith to calm myself and just leave everything to God. I envy those people who tell me that they are never afraid to die. They must be very brave.

Goodbye Tilapia

Sa kagurangan ko sa kinaban dai pa lamang ako nakaeksperiencia na piglaog ki baha an naistaran ko. Pero uminabot man nanggad an aldaw na pigbaha an harong na pigarkila mi. Pano man kaya, may kataning na salog an harong mi kaya siguro bako man makangalas. Siyempre ibahon sa pagmate na pigabaha an harong.

Kan dai pa nagalangkaw an tubig sa salog sinabi ni Tiya Charit, tagsadiri kan pigarkila ming harong,  na dai man daa lamang nagaabot an tubig baha sa harong. Pwes, nasala si Tiya Charit ta nahiling ko nanggad kun pano diit diit na naglalangkaw an tubig sa salog sagkod na abuton na an pinto kan kusina mi. Sabi ko kay Tiya Charit pigalaog na kami ki tubig! Ay sus, ta nasibot baga ako kun pano isarakat su mga gamit mi! Makatakot palan pag nahihiling mo na mismo na kun ano-ano ng mga bagay an nagaralaog sa harong kasabay kan makusog na tubig. Isip-isipa daw kun may maglangoy na halas sa pinto dangan sagidan ka sa bitis saka magdesisyon na kagaton ka!

Herak nin Diyos wara man na halas. Pero may nagapilik-pilik sa may pinto kan banyo! An sabi ni agom tilapia daa. Makaulok ta may tilapia sa laog kan harong. Sabi ko dakupa na ta isira ta. Karaw ko man sana. Kan didakop ni agom abaa ta garo naglukso pasiring sa halangkaw na parte kan kusina. Di an nangyari nakalampog an tilapia ta dai pa man na tubig sa naluksuhan niya. Nahiling ko nanggad su tilapia nagsuka habang nagapilik-pilik siya. Kan pigreparo ko garo nagiirikul-ikol su pigluwa kan tilapia. Pigmaanan ko ki husto asin duman ko sana nadiskubre na mga ogbon na sira palan an pigluwa kan tilapia.

Sabi ko na sana, ay grabe man an kaunasan kan tilapiang ini ta kadakul na saradit na sira an kinaon tapos dai man sana kaya. Sabi ko ki agom maray pa lugod ibugtak mo sa baldeng may tubig para ibalik ta sa salog atyan pag wara na an baha. Primero ko talaga makahiling ki tilapiang buhay sa sadiri kong balde kaya imbes magasikaso kan mga gamit pigparahiling ko su tilapia. Diit pang minutos an nakalampas nagsuka na naman an tilapia. Nahiling ko nanggad kun pano magtiripwasan sa balde an kadakul na ogbon na sira na garong mga tanga kasaradit. Haros mapano nin ogbon na sira su balde asin gari mga maogmahon na nagralangoy-langoy sinda.

Saka ko sana naisip na dai man palan pigkaon kan dakulang tilapia su mga ogbon na sira. Saka ko man sana naintindihan na posibleng pigsaro-saro kan tilapia na itago sa ngimot niya an mga ogbon huli ta sadiring ogbon niya ini na gusto niyang isalbar sa baha! Marhay pa an tilapia matibay an estratehiya.

Grabe an paghanga ko sa tilapia sa ginibo niya. Saka ko man naisip na nasala ako sa pagbugtak sa saiya sa balde. Ini huli ta nahiling kong diit diit na nagagadan an mga ogbon. Ini siguro por medyo sa daing paros sa balde kaya dai na man nakahangos an pobreng mga ogbon. Pano ko daw sasabihan an inang tilapia na punpunon giraray an saiyang mga ogbon tanganing sarabay ko sindang buhian sa salog? Nahiling kong pati an inang tilapia pigluluya na man sa laog kan balde.

Wara na man akong maginibo. Iyo, sala ko kun nata pigluwa niya an mga ogbon. Paghuna kan tilapia dai ng baha ta maray na man su tubig sa balde. Abay pa, pigbutasan lugod niya su mga ogbon. Ano pa man maginibo ko? Makulog man sa boot ko, pigbuhian ko na sana su tilapia sa salog kairiba an mga ogbon na siguradong iaanod na sana asin maburulagan sinda.

Goodbye tilapia!