This is one of William Dar’s sharing on Facebook, today, 09 May 2020 morning, from the ebook Mga Lutuing Katutubong Gulay (Dishes Of Native Vegetables) published by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic & Natural Resources Research & Development, PCAARRD, based in Laguna.
Next to the Tagalog title page is this instruction in English: “Download this free publication at PCAARRD eLibrary.” Yes, English right after Tagalog; because nobody can translate “Download” and “eLibrary” into Tagalog or any local terms. And PCAARRD does not have to.
(There is a catch. No, you cannot download immediately – PCAARRD has to take your Name, Rank and Serial Number! I’ve gone through this once; Soldier, obey first before you complain! No phone number? No download!)
Now, this PCAARRD project they call Science & Technology Academic & Research-Based Openly Operated Kiosks, STARBOOKS:
STARBOOKS, dubbed as the first Philippine S&T digital library, is a stand-alone information source designed to bring S&T information to the grassroots. It aims to provide S&T-based educational and learning resources in various formats to geographically isolated schools and local government units throughout the country, as well as enhance the educational experience of students in its beneficiary schools.
Among its features:
Stand-alone. Accessible to multiple users. Free.
Stand-alone. Accessible to multiple users. Free.
I saw a figure that there are now 1,476 STARBOOKS installed all over the Philippines, as of May 2017. That’s Good News and Bad News. They were very active intellectually & technically up to May 2017 but idle after that – or there are only 1,476 knowledge-isolated places in my country? (See map.)
I think I know why – PCAARRD made it complicated and expert-demanding to come up with other reading materials, not to mention a bigger national budget. You cannot plant knowledge kiosks forever.
I am not saying they are incapable of, but PCAARRD was not thinking beyond complete ebooks like Gulay. Yes, it looks like they brought themselves into the Gulay Archipelago, no escape, and their island is now their own prison! (The 3-book Gulag Archipelago was written by Russian Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn about the Communist Soviet forced labor system[1].) The Filipino Gulay is not forced labor, but the way it is constructed is constricted.
But I love the English of it – no genius can translate download and ebook into any of the local languages just yet. They don’t have to – English is excellent, no matter what the UP Diliman people say for all their nationalism. Knowledge has no nationalism. (But translations later.)
Now, my suggestion is for the ladies & gentlemen of ebooks PCAARRD to come up with a series of slimmer volumes as Farmer’s Options – not designed as ebooks but constructed so that even an illiterate farmer, with the help of his daughter or son with a cellphone, can choose for instance between planting Pinakbet Batch A Vegetables (Ilocano original) and Pinakbet Batch B Vegetables (Bisayas modified). Cooking instructions included. Downloadable anywhere, not only in selected, secluded places.
Then PCAARRD would have made my dinners more exciting as a native Ilocano whose grandfather roots came from Rosario in La Union.
As an Ilocano, Pinakbet is my Gulay Archipelago!@517
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