Celebrating Human Adaptability?

Oh great Filipinos! Rice shortage has indeed stretched our fellow common Filipino again. No, Filipinos will not suffer. Filipinos will survive because they will be eating some thing else – patatas (potato), mais (corn), and camote.

What a crap. I should be celebrating human adaptability now but how can I, when I know that there is “something else” behind this so-called rice-shortage issue?

I was born in Cagayan, far north in the Philippines where rice is the major product. If you ask me, I don’t think there is rice shortage at all. I went home last Holy Week (Semana) and as usual saw the loads of trucks full of rice sacks being transported from the Province to Manila. Harvest is not as good as last year, but it’s not great either. In short, there should be enough. I don’t think someone will contest that. What is wrong then?

Some say the lack or absence of the proper and strong law implementation of laws that punish people stealing, smuggling and “locking away” rice. Some say the Government simply refuses to appropriate budget to improve agriculture and livestock. Both of these only point out how misused our resources are in this Country. What happened to the Fertilizer scam? I would have preferred to talk all about agriculture but politics is getting in the way.

It’s sad how a Country like ours with vast land for farm and livestock may possibly fail to support itself because of politics. Of course, Filipinos will survive and can adapt with scarcity, even the poorest can, but never with bad politics.