Wishes

My househelp said over the weekend that her one big wish is to stop smoking; she did not say it, but sometimes mentioned she wanted to say goodbye for good to a husband who spent the whole day just lazing around with a bottle of Tanduay beside him.  Yesterday she came to do the laundry, and I asked about her wish. “Oh, I’ve almost given up Ma’am. I’m smoking only two sticks now.” She used to smoke 10 sticks a day. I don’t know if she will really throw away her habit.

I’ve long stopped making wishes at the end of the year. Yearend wishes are foolish, I now think. Why wait till 2019 to give up something one should never have gotten into anyway? If we want to put an end to a forbidden vice, let’s stop it now. Like procrastination, or overindulging in sweets or alcohol, uttering cuss words, or putting down a less-endowed colleague. Or closing the pages of a book about someone who could never be? This last one is the hardest wish to make come true.

But there is a wish that sounds sweet, that we should all wish – the wish for our friends and loved ones to have a merry, happy new year!

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A friend sent a message from Gerald C. Nelson, a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a former senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute, saying that emphasis on the productivity of staples such as wheat and rice have been so successful that we are now awash in carbohydrates. 

“And because so much has already been invested in improving the productivity of these crops, solid yield gains will likely continue for the next few decades. The productivity enhancements have also made them more affordable relative to other foods that provide more of the other needed nutrients.

Our success with carbohydrates, however, has had a serious downside: a worldwide plague of obesity, diabetes and other diet-related diseases, says Nelson. The World Health Organization reports that in 2014, there were 462 million underweight adults worldwide but more than 600 million who were obese – nearly two-thirds of them in developing countries. And childhood obesity is rising much faster in poorer countries than in richer ones.

“Meanwhile, micronutrient shortages such as Vitamin A deficiency are already causing blindness in somewhere between 250,000 and 500,000 children a year and killing half of them within 12 months of them losing their sight. Dietary shortages of iron, zinc, iodine and folate all have devastating health effects.

“These statistics point to the need for more emphasis on nutrients other than carbohydrates in our diets. And in this area, our findings are not reassuring.

“Micronutrient deficiencies are a problem today even in the world’s richest countries and are widespread elsewhere. Our forecasts show these deficiencies are likely to continue under all scenarios and that climate change could make them worse in some regions.

“Our findings thus point to the need for a course correction. While we prepare to adapt to climate change, which will likely produce major and somewhat unpredictable effects on future food supply, we must also prepare for the decades immediately ahead. We must shift our emphasis from food security to nutrition security.”

Nelson’s prognosis: “A major effort must be made to increase the productivity – the yield per hectare – of nutrient-rich foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and beans. By enhancing their productivity, we’ll make them more available and affordable. And we’ll see the benefits in a diminished obesity crisis and fewer victims of micronutrient deficiencies.

“Agricultural research, however, generally takes years to pay off. It’s magic, but it’s slow magic. We need to start now.”

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Marroquin Alas Fernandez has died. I write those words in bold letters because Marroquin was my – and everyone’s – favorite piano teacher in Gingoog city. I can picture him now – seated behind an old, well-loved piano standing on an elevated stage in the sala of his house, playing classics and romantic pieces with gusto, oblivious to the world around him. He would then move across the room, and go up a couple of steps to another stage to play an organ.

Also called Mark, his life was devoted to playing the two instruments, in United Church of Christ in the Philippines churches, and school programs and private parties.  He also tutored students in piano – including my whole family in the 1950s. He came to the house Saturday mornings, and first thing he did – always – was play “Poet and Peasant,” a one-hour long piece. A few weeks ago, when we visited him in his house in Cabelto Extension, he played the piece to humor me, and a few days later gave me ornamental plants for my just-started garden.

Mark was the eldest son of the late pastor Eugenio de la Pena Fernandez and Nena Alas.  His father graduated at Ashbury College in Wilmor, Kentucky, majoring in theology.  When he returned to the Philippines, he served as a pastor at Binalonan, Pangasinan then transferred to Butuan City, and then to barrio Anakan, and finally brought his family to Gingoog.

Mark was born on Oct. 21, 1933 in Binalonan. He finished his elementary and high school education in that town, and for college, he attended Pacifican college at Urdaneta as an education student, major in music. 

He earned his living as a music teacher and became a music supervisor and retired with that position at DepEd Gingoog city. When he retired he was the president of the Senior Citizen club and principal of the UCCP Pre-school. 

Mark’s brothers were diligently loyal to their manong. Victory, married to Adelaida Ocampo, lives in Lipa, Batangas.  Zoilo, married to  Aurora, was a purchaser for Baguio Country Club.  Morrisson is married to Tessie Paasa of Kauswagan, CDO. Love Joy, once an OFW as electrician, and wife Gloria Cainhug live in Baybay, Leyte. Florencio and Venus Simeon live in Gingoog city, their house behind Mark’s.

Susana, Mark’s only sister, was my classmate at Gingoog Institute.  She was a campus figure, a chinky-eyed band majorette who won the heart of a lawyer watching her from a side street twirl the baton – Alejo F. Rola who became a judge assigned to Malaybalay Bukidnon. The late judge and Susan have five children: Reynald, a retired branch manager; Alexander is employed at DENR, Cagayan de Oro city; Lalaine, who is presently employed as a legal researcher of RTC Branch 39, CDO, is married to Bienvenido V. Esmeralda Jr., the OIC regional director of the Bureau of Treasury, Region X. Alejo Jr, is the Northern Mindanao sales manager of a company selling electrical equipment.  Lyndon is an entrepreneur. 

From his earnings as a pianist/organist, Mark sent all his siblings to school.

We shall miss you, Mark, but the music you made stays in our hearts forever.

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I wish my brother, Warto, a gentle, loving person, whose birthday is today, January 8, the best in life and everything, now and in the more years to come.

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