Our Destructive Millennial Myth …michael a. bengwayan..

Our Destructive Millennial Myth
…michael a. bengwayan..

We are living a millennial myth, absorbed into, and expressed in the doctrine of progress through technological wizardry by exploiting all of Earth's resources.. It's fueling the drive towards the endless high consumption of goods.

Obviously the result is total exploitation. The millennial vision of a beatific future that we would accomplish  ourselves through prodigious efforts implied, that all things on Earth as we found them in their natural state were in an unacceptable and unholy condition. We thought everything needed to be changed.

As a result, every effort of science, technology, economics and politics was to be bent towards effecting these transformations of the natural world. The drive behind this whole mechanism was to take all our natural resources and transform these by industrial methods into products for a society with an unsatiable hunger for more and more.

Our religion, turned to the service of secular purposes, is the driving factor. We are spiritually unfulfilled. We are so diminished in our soul values. Our idea of the market economy is sacred to us.. We have sacred values associated with our modern, commercial mechanistic life.

By making life easy for us, technology is the instrument by which we build our mythical Wonderworld.

But obviously we are ending it. We are building a Wastedworld. That's the tragedy of it.

We must love Earth with our soul

We must love Earth with our soul

…..michael a. bengwayan.

We came into being in the loveliest moment  of all Earth history. God made sure of that. He first created light, water, the heavens, trees, plants , animals and sea denizens before man. He first made everything beautiful and gifted it to our eyes. All the beauty that surrounds us. We could not  experience the fulfillment of our souls except through the experience of this beauty. 

We may destroy beauty but we cannot destroy our need for this beauty. Our need, even for our longing for immersion in the awesome world that surrounds us, is manifest in our immediate and most intense response to the natural world— admiration, awe and reverence. When we hear a bird sing see the colors of trees, butterflies, when we walk through the woods and forests or feel the wind on a summer evening.

In these experiences, we find our deepest human fulfillment. That is why we go to the sea, the mountains, meadows. To some distant place far from city turmoil. To be healed and inwardly renewed. There we find our deeper selves. Because by creation, we are part of nature. Not apart from it.

We are caught in the world of the sacred. And only through this experience cn we obtain the insight and energy we need to alter the road to absolute devastation of Earth in search of economic gain.

We must love Earth with our souls and use that sacred covenant to care for her.

Environmental Accounting in Boracay....by Michael A. Bengwayan

Environmental Accounting in Boracay

By Michael A. Bengwayan, Ph.D., Environmental Resource Management

In environmental resource management, we have what we call environmental accounting which is the sum of costs  connected to the actual or potential deterioration, damage, destruction of natural assets due to human, especially economic activities. We did not expect the media to be thorough in their reportage regarding this as not many in the pen-pushing noble work had all the ingredients in environmental journalism. Now that Boracay is closed, one is wont to ask, how much damage has really been done on the island, will it recover, what and how intense is the marine ecosystem affected?

It is important to ask these questions because  of increasing  and worsening environmental problems,  in the midst of tourism economic, social and technological developments which threaten  the future  and sustainable development in Boracay and neighboring marine ecosystem.

In Boracay,  marine pollution  comes mainly from land..Nutrient pollution comes from diverse sources, including hotels, restaurants, shops , residences that emit sewage (from mostly human wastes) and wastewater discharges.  It overloads  the marine environment with high concentrations of nitrogen, phosphorous, and other nutrients, which now produce the widespread large algal blooms or “lumot”.  The decomposition of these algae after they die consumes oxygen.  This creates hypoxic, or oxygen depleted, “dead zones” where fish and other marine life cannot thrive.  In effect, it creates dead zones in other areas due to adverse effects of high nutrient pollution.

Fishing and shellfish industry are  being hurt by harmful algal blooms that kill fish and contaminate shell fish. The losses  spell lower source of food for the next generations.

The marine debris – trash and other solid material that enter the  bay from the wetlands now occupied by squatters – threaten wildlife and marine habitats, presents health and safety concerns for humans, and imposes costs  to the island and coastal areas, not only now but more so, the future.  Plastic wastes, consistently makes up a significant proportion of the marine debris polluting the seabed, corals seagrasses and marine life.  It does not biodegrade and is consumed by marine life, killing fishes, turtles and other aquatic life. The costs can never be estimated.

Preventing trash from entering the sea is difficult due to the many sources, including  lax municipal laws of the island, corrupt officials, poor trash management by hotels, restaurants and communities and incomplete waste facilities, widespread littering by tourists, and inadequate municipal storm sewers carrying trash in rainwater runoff.

The closure of Boracay should not only be measured by the loss of money or jobs because tourism, when irresponsible,  does not only affect the Filipino as a victim.

The victim here appears to be much of  the future life in the Philippines.

Prayer for the Morning .........Michael A. Bengwayan

Prayer for the Morning
Michael A. Bengwayan

God  of all who walk the Earth
bring to Earth new life
Make our labor bring new creation
that heals destruction
Let the Spirit of Life revitalize our work
increase our awareness and love
Make us learn and appreciate
Interdependence of each creation
Towards life-giving movements
Make us work and not talk
To cherish concreteness
Over idle judgment and prating.... Amen

Daybreak....….michael bengwayan

Daybreak…
….michael bengwayan

I do not tire waking up each daybreak to hear the birds’ calls. I want to hear their morning songs that serenade the fullness of each flower’s bloom. I stand on my balcony and look over the fruit trees, bending from heavy fruits. The red-beard tree grooves delighting in sparkling green. Every moment is savored by the promises of new challenges to be breached. Each bird and cricket call are led to outstanding performance by an unseen maestro. Nothings seems unplaced, each outburst a song, all chirping a melody, fine-tuned that even the deaf would feel just by the sight of them. Nothing is left for granted.

 
Alone, I have a wishful thinking that each prayer’s faith, a new way is laid. For each nature’s glow, hopeful horizon grows. I know each week is a testing and a stressful path. The best thing about having faith is trusting to the judgement of an Everlasting Power who holds the plan for you, regardless of religion,.... faith is the one thing we all share. The implicit trust that is required to believe that whatever trials are placed in our path are for the greater good though we cannot understand the reasoning. I do  sometimes, I admit. I am drawn to an unexplainable things that seem destined to happen and I am just there incidentally. 

 I am thankful to God  for everything each day. For the love of my family, the fondest thoughts of my wife, my children’s musings for friends and for the very air that I breath. I don’t actually  look for the big things because  these are the biggest things.

The seemingly small things in my garden under the house terrace which pass by so easily unnoticed ar jewels hidden to the naked eye. The  color of the cherry leaves as they change their hue. The flash of  blue and green of bluejays and lovebrids on the Calliandra, the cold dewdrops, the ripening lemons, oranges, pomelos, amarillos and papayas or a hanging new ampalaya and a cluster of cherry tomatoes. All under a slow-rising golden sun made soft by the cool breeze from pine trees.

 
Each daybreak, a new set of gift is dropped by heaven.  yet to most, these are ordinary. ..but they make us live through the day

fully.