By Jeffrey M. Tupas
Inquirer Mindanao
His love affair with the mountains is beyond doubt, having spent most of his life singing the most romantic serenade—the way only a possessed lover can do—to the precious forests and sacred rivers that had embraced him over the years.
Until quite recently, Fred Jamili, a 59-year-old experienced mountain climber, lived a life entirely devoted to the mountains.
Not that he has shaken off his passion for high places, but Fred has found a new love.
It is ironic that after more than three decades of conquering mountain peaks here and abroad, Fred would find his new love waiting for him to set foot in Zamboanga City.
And it was all thanks to the Philippine Balangay Expedition, which last year took replicas of the historic precolonial vessel on a triumphant 12,600-kilometer journey across the country and Southeast Asia.
Fred, who was a member of the First Philippine Mt. Everest Expedition Team’s technical and support group, was one of the voyage’s leaders.
His new love
In March 2010, the expedition’s three balangays (boat villages) docked in Zamboanga City, a few months before it completed its 15-month Asian voyage.
One of those who welcomed the expedition was Fred’s future bride, Russelle Tabuniar.
“I thought, yes, I will forever be married to the mountains. I had convinced myself that the mountains are my wives until I met her,” said Fred.
Russelle, 30, a history professor at the Ateneo de Zamboanga University, will wed Fred, 59, today, something they both never imagined would happen to them until they met.
“This is a special wedding for the special woman in my life,” said the soft-spoken Fred.
The groom will be wearing a coat embellished with beads. The bride will wear a matte-gold beaded dress.
“We want it to be simple and something that will take us back to our cultural roots. The beads will connect us to the culture of the indigenous peoples. It is something that is always part of their life, art and culture,” said Russelle.
Shipboard wedding
The wedding will be celebrated on the Masawa Hong Butuan, one of the balangays, which is now moored at Barangay (village) Bading in Butuan City.
It is the couple’s way of paying homage to the reason why their love blossomed.
“I met her because of the balangay. When we decided to get married, we both wished it to happen here,” said Fred, who is from Bago, Negros Occidental.
“It was not love at first sight. Nothing like that,” said Russelle of their first meeting when the expedition docked in Zamboanga City last year.
Russelle was part of the committee formed by Ateneo de Zamboanga to hold a symposium on the voyage.
“That was a very formal meeting. We were not even properly introduced. Even during dinner, the discussion was very formal but she already made a good impression on me because she was very knowledgeable about history,” said Fred.
A texting romance
Two months after they met, Fred and Russelle were in love.
There was no formal courtship. Everything happened through constant texting.
“We just found ourselves in love with each other. The words and the process of courtship were no
longer needed,” said Russelle.
A month after they first met, Fred told Russelle by text message that he wanted to marry her. And then over dinner in Pagadian City, he personally proposed marriage, which she happily accepted.
“She is outgoing and we have almost the same interests. Academically, she is into history. It’s like we’re similar in a lot of things, something that I have not found in other women,” he said.
“She is very special to me,” he added.
For Russelle, married life is something unimaginable if it were not with Fred.
“He is adventurous. I love the fact that he understands the life that I was imagining to be. I am very adventurous myself and I want to spend a lot of my time outdoors. Other men would not understand that,” she said.
Better late than never
Art Valdez, Fred’s mountain climbing partner since 1979 and the Balangay expedition leader, said their group was happy that “[Fred] has found someone other than the mountains.”
“All his life, he had no one to care about, he was carefree and always out there … it is worth celebrating that he has finally found something that will temper him and will complete the cycle of life,” said Valdez, a former transportation undersecretary who chairs the Mountaineering Federation of the Philippines.
“It is better late than never,” he added with a laugh, remembering the bridegroom’s age.
According to Valdez, a lot of things changed in Fred after he met Russelle.
“He was always cross. A terror. Very strict. But when he found love, he changed. Love brightened him, lightened him up,” he said.
But Valdez, who will be godfather at the wedding, hopes that Fred’s romance with the mountains and the great outdoors will not be weakened by marriage.
“But I am confident that Fred will always be part of our expeditions. His wife will understand,” he said.
Like launching a ship
As for his advice to the couple, Valdez said: “Marriage is like the launching of a ship in an unchartered sea. It is full of challenges but determination and love will be able to bring you to that desired destination. Overcome the big waves and bad weather. And it will make the journey worth it.”
For Fred and Russelle, marriage only signals the beginning of their journey together.
“I know it will be an exciting journey with him. People asked me if I am excited about the wedding day and yes, I am. But what I am more excited about is the journey with him, that life with him,” Russelle said.
And Fred has another adventure in his mind.
“We are not only living a new life as husband and wife but we will also be building our own boat house, our own balangay,” he said.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Monday, May 30, 2011
Destructive plastic bags
By: Dr. Esther L. Baraceros
Philippine Daily Inquirer
WHICH PARTICULAR place in a barrio, a town or a city repeatedly gathers a lot of people any time of the day, especially early in the morning or late in the afternoon? The answer is: Market! Market! Market!
Yes. In this place, your attention is caught by all kinds of fish, vegetable, fruit, meat or dairy product. Here, you also see people prone to doing things that aggravate the country’s problems: garbage disposal, perennial floods, polluted environment or climate change. Once you are here, you get to observe buyer-seller transactions that make plastic bags part and parcel of any commercial agreement. Apparently, putting the object of the transaction inside the plastic bag signals the end of the business deal.
Plastic bag for bangus, plastic bag for ampalaya, plastic bag for tomatoes, plastic bag for this and that and so on and so forth. Every item, big or small, cheap or costly, wet or dry, goes into a plastic bag. Buy just a single item; say, one camote, one apple, or one sayote, and right away, the seller opens a plastic bag and shoots the lone item into this ubiquitous but problem-giving container.
In fact, a wet or watery item like fish or chicken settles not only into one plastic bag but into two or three. One kilo of galunggong is placed inside a first plastic bag that is small, thin and transparent; this is then thrust into the second plastic bag that is bigger, thicker and translucent, with a handle; finally, the already-twice-covered galunggong is placed inside a third plastic bag that is the biggest and the thickest, and with a sturdier handle. To accommodate a mixture of purchased items, this third one, the “major-major” plastic bag, needs to be the strongest among the three plastic bags.
So, now, do your math. Count the number of people buying things from the market plus the number of items they take home daily. Start from vegetables: eggplants, ampalaya, tomatoes, onions, etc.; next, meat: pork, beef, lobsters, etc.; then, fruits: atis, mangoes, oranges, etc; and, groceries: sardines, milk, coffee, soaps, oil, etc. Unless these are bought at a big supermarket, not a single one of these enumerated items is exempt from sloping down into three different plastic bags. Thus, every day, each market buyer accumulates more than a dozen plastic bags in his or her house. Multiply the number of market buyers with the approximate number of plastic bags taken home by the buyers, and what do you get? Thousands and thousands of used plastic bags in a city in one day!
One thing more: Not all these used plastic bags are disposed of properly. Light as kites that are easily blown by the wind, several of these plastic bags travel from place to place or dangle from one structure to another. Further, the use of these plastic bags by some barangays as town-fiesta decorations contribute to the easy and speedy travel of these plastic bags.
In some places, you see plastic bags bulging with garbage that people purposely hang from the trunk of a tree. Try roaming some streets in the city or in several not-so-posh subdivisions in Metro Manila, and witness a tree trunk in front of two or more houses used as a hanging garbage can. With many colored plastic bags hanging from every side or from the lowest branches, the pitiful tree appears like a Christmas tree.
Think of trees carrying heavy loads of garbage until the arrival of a city-garbage truck collector, or their exposure to pollution and vandalism. Definitely, trees put in this pitiful situation, lacking love and care from people around them, refuse to grow robustly and abundantly in any area. Treating trees in this manner means disregarding the beneficial effects of trees to humanity.
Much has been written and said about climate change, going green, planting trees and so on. Likewise, words have appeared in some daily papers about the Senate’s drafting of a law prohibiting the excessive production and use of plastics. Cognizant of the damaging effects of the extensive and wanton use of plastic bags, the Senate must work on this plastic bill in an expedient and fast-tracked manner. I hope one provision of this law will impose a penalty on people caught hanging plastic garbage bags from the trunk of a tree, and on residents using plastic bags as banners or decorations during town fiestas.
Dr. Esther L. Baraceros is a faculty member of the College of Architecture at the University of Santo Tomas.
Philippine Daily Inquirer
WHICH PARTICULAR place in a barrio, a town or a city repeatedly gathers a lot of people any time of the day, especially early in the morning or late in the afternoon? The answer is: Market! Market! Market!
Yes. In this place, your attention is caught by all kinds of fish, vegetable, fruit, meat or dairy product. Here, you also see people prone to doing things that aggravate the country’s problems: garbage disposal, perennial floods, polluted environment or climate change. Once you are here, you get to observe buyer-seller transactions that make plastic bags part and parcel of any commercial agreement. Apparently, putting the object of the transaction inside the plastic bag signals the end of the business deal.
Plastic bag for bangus, plastic bag for ampalaya, plastic bag for tomatoes, plastic bag for this and that and so on and so forth. Every item, big or small, cheap or costly, wet or dry, goes into a plastic bag. Buy just a single item; say, one camote, one apple, or one sayote, and right away, the seller opens a plastic bag and shoots the lone item into this ubiquitous but problem-giving container.
In fact, a wet or watery item like fish or chicken settles not only into one plastic bag but into two or three. One kilo of galunggong is placed inside a first plastic bag that is small, thin and transparent; this is then thrust into the second plastic bag that is bigger, thicker and translucent, with a handle; finally, the already-twice-covered galunggong is placed inside a third plastic bag that is the biggest and the thickest, and with a sturdier handle. To accommodate a mixture of purchased items, this third one, the “major-major” plastic bag, needs to be the strongest among the three plastic bags.
So, now, do your math. Count the number of people buying things from the market plus the number of items they take home daily. Start from vegetables: eggplants, ampalaya, tomatoes, onions, etc.; next, meat: pork, beef, lobsters, etc.; then, fruits: atis, mangoes, oranges, etc; and, groceries: sardines, milk, coffee, soaps, oil, etc. Unless these are bought at a big supermarket, not a single one of these enumerated items is exempt from sloping down into three different plastic bags. Thus, every day, each market buyer accumulates more than a dozen plastic bags in his or her house. Multiply the number of market buyers with the approximate number of plastic bags taken home by the buyers, and what do you get? Thousands and thousands of used plastic bags in a city in one day!
One thing more: Not all these used plastic bags are disposed of properly. Light as kites that are easily blown by the wind, several of these plastic bags travel from place to place or dangle from one structure to another. Further, the use of these plastic bags by some barangays as town-fiesta decorations contribute to the easy and speedy travel of these plastic bags.
In some places, you see plastic bags bulging with garbage that people purposely hang from the trunk of a tree. Try roaming some streets in the city or in several not-so-posh subdivisions in Metro Manila, and witness a tree trunk in front of two or more houses used as a hanging garbage can. With many colored plastic bags hanging from every side or from the lowest branches, the pitiful tree appears like a Christmas tree.
Think of trees carrying heavy loads of garbage until the arrival of a city-garbage truck collector, or their exposure to pollution and vandalism. Definitely, trees put in this pitiful situation, lacking love and care from people around them, refuse to grow robustly and abundantly in any area. Treating trees in this manner means disregarding the beneficial effects of trees to humanity.
Much has been written and said about climate change, going green, planting trees and so on. Likewise, words have appeared in some daily papers about the Senate’s drafting of a law prohibiting the excessive production and use of plastics. Cognizant of the damaging effects of the extensive and wanton use of plastic bags, the Senate must work on this plastic bill in an expedient and fast-tracked manner. I hope one provision of this law will impose a penalty on people caught hanging plastic garbage bags from the trunk of a tree, and on residents using plastic bags as banners or decorations during town fiestas.
Dr. Esther L. Baraceros is a faculty member of the College of Architecture at the University of Santo Tomas.
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