Wednesday, May 28, 2008

books, before i die...

Literary Blues

Philjeduc1_1 Since i learned how to read printed text, i became hooked on reading anything that comes my way.

My mother was a public school teacher and she was subscribed to The Modern Teacher and Philippine Journal of Education. Those were great reading materials in those times. There was also this Social Studies book called More Stories on Parade. I think i spent more time on that book than all my other textbook.

Then my elder sister Arlene, started subscribing to Reader's Digest, and i was the glad recipient of her hand-me-down archive. I carried these collections as we moved from place to place. In fact, when i started working, i also subscribed for two years to RD.

My first introduction to serious literature was when my brother, a Pastor, came home for vacation and brought home some old American-donated books. We had a hard-bound copy of Introduction to American and English Literature. It covered novels, short stories, essays and poems of famous writers. I think the book was circa 60's. It was part of the American Public Library donation.

While classical literature are gems of a reading, but me not being philosophical, i just get tired of the classics. I can't stand reading Taming of a Shrew, not even Jane Eyre. Or some Dickens classics.

Dickens_a_tale_of_two_cities The only Dickens i can remember was the Reader's Digest Feature story on an explorer to Amazon savannah who got lost. He was picked by a 'hermit' who had a stacks of books. Problem is he doesn't know how to read. So he told the explorer he will lead him out of the savannah if he will read a book to him every night. The man agreed. But as months passed on, he finally realized it will take a long time to finish all those books. He tried to escape but he got lost and injured seriously he can't walk anymore. The hermit found him and brought him back to the hut -- and forever resigned to the fact he will be reading books till the day he dies. It was kind of a literary sadism. I can't remember the exact title but it's like "The Man who liked to read".

But i like action stories like Last of the Mohicans and believe it, the colossal Moby Dick. I also tried reading Das Kapital and War and Peace, but i can't even finish the first chapter. Daphne du Maurier and Edgar Allan Poe also makes great short thrillers.

In college, an English professor named Sir Essex, and who would insist being called "Sir Sex", made a good impression on involving the class in dissecting Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. Fo a week that was our only topic and i'd say that it was one of my unforgettable lesson in understanding and enjoying literature --- knowing what you read.

Anyway, here is a list of authors i have read.

1. Robert Ludlum. Except for Trevayne and Osterman Weekend, i love all the rest of Ludlum books.
2. John Le Carre
3. Daphne du Maurier
4. James Michener
5. Herman Wouk
6. Mario Puzo
7. Leon Uris
8. Beowulf
9. Herman Melville
10. James Fenimore Cooper
11. Franklin Dixon
12. John Grisham
13. Stephen King
14. Sidney Sheldon
15. Sir Thomas Mallory
1664 16. Emily Bronte
17. Childrens' Lit. (featuring children's stories from around the world)
18. Isaac Asimov (the only sci-fi writer i can tolerate reading)
19. Ernest Hemingway
20. William Faulkner
21. Trevanian
22. Frederick Forsyth
23. Tom Clancy
24. J.M. Barrie
25. Alexandre Dumas
26. Danielle Steele
27. Dan Brown
28. Graham Greene
29. Ken Follet
30. Jack Higgins
31. J.G. Ballard
32. J.K. Rowlings
33. Arthur Hailey
34. Harold Robbins
35. Joseph Wambaugh
36. James Clavell
37. Michael Crichton
38. John Steinbeck
39. Elia Kazan
40. Ayn Rand
41. D.H. Lawrence
42. Mitch Albom
43. Robert Kiyosaki
44. Og Mandino
45. Kahlil Gibran
46. Charles Dickens (the other night, i finally decided to read A Tale of Two Cities - IX.18.07)
47. Washington Irving
48. Nathaniel Hawthorne
49. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

On the national side, i've read selected books of the following:
1. Manuel Arguilla
2. Carlos Bulusan
3. Eric GamalindaPhilit_1
4. N.V.M. Gonzales
5. Nick Joaquin
6. F. Sionil Jose
7. Jose Rizal (mandatory)


i like Filipino short stories, especially the ones on Carlos Palanca awards. I was also an avid komiks reader when i was young.

i recommend reading plenty of classical literature and get yourself this book on (Bartlett or Bartleby or Barnes and Noble) English Grammar and Composition. Also, this Norton's Anthology on American or English Literature.

Then again, for local flavor, get any textbook on Philippine Literature.

or a copy of Palanca awardees. www.geocities.com/palanca_awards/
==============

Quotable Quotes:

I took a speed reading course and read 'War and Peace' in twenty minutes. It involves Russia.
Woody Allen (1935 - )

From the moment I picked up your book until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Some day I intend reading it.
Groucho Marx (1890 - 1977)

Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.
Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)

Thank you for sending me a copy of your book. I'll waste no time reading it.
Moses Hadas (1900 - 1966)

When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading.
Henny Youngman (1906 - 1998)

Education... has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading.
G. M. Trevelyan (1876 - 1962), English Social History (1942)

Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock.
Ben Hecht (1893 - 1964)

Reading this book is like waiting for the first shoe to drop.
Ralph Novak


The Diet Cola and Aspartame

This is a forwarded message only.

This is not the first time i received email about the danger of our average food and beverage that we regularly consume. I would also post the one on noodles.

When i was deep into study, i would drink Pepsi Maxx and follow it up with black coffee to power me up before and during exams. I tell you, the Pepsi Maxx and coffee mix is highly volatile.

One time, during Civil Law Review finals, i spent the previous night studying until 5 am. My exam will be at 6:30 pm the following day. Even in the office, i did additional readings. At 3 pm, my mind is so addled and tired. So i took Pepsi Maxx and Nescafe. after 30 minutes, I felt light-headed, my mind was clear as daylight, as if somebody switched on a halogen lamp in my brain. It could have been the kind of kick i need, the problem is --- to my horror --- my mind went white -- blank white. As in all i memorized the previous night just disappeared. My memory bank was empty. Well, good thing i made some study notes, so i have to cram with barely 2 hours left for exam.

My wife and I always go on separate ways in after-meal drinks. She go for Coke and i go for water. I always reminded her that her family has diabetes history. I told her not accelerate her diabetes with so much Coke intake (every meal) because i would not be able to afford to buy her the medicines. Even told her morbidly that i would rather be a widower than squander our savings paying for diabetes meds. Ahh, but women. It didn't scare her at all.

I had a friend who drinks soda (Diet Coke) all day. He said it his 'water' and he felt weak if he can't drink 3-4 cans a day. I hope he is still alive these days.

This Aspartame article has been going the rounds in the internet and was never updated. It still its finger to MONSANTO, makers of NutraSweet. But behind MONSANTO is the fact that it bought the license for Aspartame from the original G.D. Searle & Company, which happened to have as its CEO, no less than, Donald Rumsfield.

If soda's, especially these Diet sodas, are dangerous as the article suggests, how come we never heard any warning from DOH? How come they put, under pain of fine and imprisonment, warning on cigarettes, but not on sodas? Isn't sodas, like Coke and Pepsi, are as easily available to the public as cigarettes??

Maybe because nobody sued Coke or Pepsi yet for getting cancer or is dying for ingesting large volume of Diet Coke/Pepsi. Not yet.

Or maybe, there is the usual conspiracy theory involving pharmaceutical companies, big fastfood businesses and softdrink companies.

Anyway, there is no harm in knowing the risks we can get from some everyday foods (and bev) we take.

But as usual, their is a saying (said by a sayer) that goes, "too much of anything is harmful".

-------------

SWEET POISON

In October of 2001, my sister started getting very sick. She had stomach spasms and she was having a hard time getting around. Walking was a major chore. It took everything she had just to get out of bed; she was in so much pain.

By March 2002, she had undergone several tissue and muscle biopsies and was on 24 various prescription medications. The doctors could not determine what was wrong with her. She was in so much pain, and so sick.she just knew she was dying. She put her house, bank accounts, life insurance, etc., in her oldest daughter's name, and made sure that her younger children were to be taken care of.

She also wanted her last hooray, so she planned a trip to Florida (basically in a wheelchair) for March 22 nd . On March 19 I called her to ask how her most recent tests went, and she said they didn't find anything on the test, but they believe she had MS.

I recalled an article a friend of mine e-mailed to me and I asked my sister if she drank diet soda? She told me that she did. As a matter of fact, she was getting ready to crack one open that moment. I told her not to open it, and to stop drinking the diet soda! I e-mailed her the article my friend, a lawyer, had sent.

My sister called me within 32 hours after our phone conversation and told me she had stopped drinking the diet soda AND she could walk! The muscle spasms went away. She said she didn't feel 100% but she sure felt a lot better. She told me she was going to her doctor with this article and would call me when she got home.

Well, she called me, and said her doctor was amazed! He is going to call all of his MS patients to find out if they consumed artificial sweeteners of any kind. In a nutshell, she was being poisoned by the Aspartame in the diet soda...and literally dying a slow and miserable death.

When she got to Florida March 22, all she had to take was one pill, and that was a pill for the Aspartame poisoning! She is well on her way to a complete recovery. And she is walking! No wheelchair! This article saved her life.

If it says 'SUGAR FREE' on the label; DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!

I have spent several days lecturing at the WORLD ENVIRONMENTAL CONFERENCE on "ASPARTAME," marketed as 'NutraSweet,' 'Equal,' and 'Spoonful.' In the keynote address by the EPA, it was announced that in the United States in 2001 there is an epidemic of multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus. It was difficult to determine exactly what toxin was causing this to be rampant. I stood up and said that I was there to lecture on exactly that subject. I will explain why Aspartame is so dangerous: When the temperature of this sweetener exceeds 86 degrees F, the wood alcohol in ASPARTAME converts to formaldehyde and then to formic acid, which in turn causes metabolic acidosis. Formic acid is the poison found in the sting of fire ants. The methanol toxicity mimics, among other conditions, multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus. Many people were being diagnosed in error. Although multiple sclerosis is not a death sentence, Methanol toxicity is!

Aspartame was discovered in 1965 by James M. Schlatter, a chemist working for G.D. Searle & Company. Schlatter had synthesized aspartame in the course of producing an anti-ulcer drug candidate.
Systemic lupus has become almost as rampant as multiple sclerosis, especially with Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi drinkers.. The victim usually does not know that the Aspartame is the culprit. He or she continues its use; irritating the lupus to such a degree that it may become a life-threatening condition.

We have seen patients with systemic lupus become asymptotic, once taken off diet sodas. In cases of those diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, most of the symptoms disappear. We've seen many cases where vision loss returned and hearing loss improved markedly.

This also applies to cases of tinnitus and fibromyalgia. During a lecture, I said, "If you are using ASPARTAME (NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc) and you suffer from fibromyalgia symptoms, spasms, shooting, pains, numbness in your legs, cramps, vertigo, dizziness, headaches, tinnitus, joint pain, unexplainable depression, anxiety attacks, slurred speech, blurred vision, or memory loss you probably have ASPARTAME poisoning!"

People were jumping up during the lecture saying, "I have some of these symptoms. Is it reversible? Yes! Yes! Yes! STOP drinking diet sodas and be alert for Aspartame on food labels! Many products are fortified with it! This is a serious problem.

Diet soda is NOT a diet product! It is a chemically altered, multiple SODIUM (salt) and ASPARTAME containing product that actually makes you crave carbohydrates. It is far more likely to make you GAIN weight!

These products also contain formaldehyde, which stores in the fat cells, particularly in the hips and thighs.

Formaldehyde is an absolute toxin and is used primarily to preserve "tissue specimens." Many products we use every day contain this chemical but we SHOULD NOT store it IN our body!

Dr. H. J. Roberts stated in his lectures that once free of the "diet products" and with no significant increase in exercise; his patients lost an average of 19 pounds over a trial period.

Aspartame is especially dangerous for diabetics. We found that some physicians, who believed that they had a patient with retinopathy, in fact, had symptoms caused by Aspartame. The Aspartame drives the blood sugar out of control. Thus diabetics may suffer acute memory loss due to the fact that aspartic acid and phenylalanine are NEUROTOXIC when taken without the other amino acids necessary for a good balance.

Treating diabetes is all about BALANCE. Especially with diabetics, the Aspartame passes the blood/brain barrier and it then deteriorates the neurons of the brain; causing various levels of brain damage, seizures, depression, manic depression, panic attacks, uncontrollable anger and rage. Consumption of Aspartame causes these same symptoms in non-diabetics as well.

Documentation and observation also reveal that thousands of children diagnosed with ADD and ADHD have had complete turn arounds in their behavior when these chemicals have been removed from their diet. So called "behavior modification prescription drugs" (Ritalin and others) are no longer needed. Truth be told, they were never NEEDED in the first place! Most of these children were being "poisoned" on a daily basis with the very foods that were "better for them than sugar."

It is also suspected that the Aspartame in thousands of pallets of diet Coke and diet Pepsi consumed by men and women fighting in the Gulf War, may be partially to blame for the well-known Gulf War Syndrome.

Dr. Roberts warns that it can cause birth defects, i.e. mental retardation, if taken at the time of conception and during early pregnancy.

Children are especially at risk for neurological disorders and should NEVER be given artificial sweeteners. There are many different case histories to relate of children suffering grand mal seizures and other neurological disturbances talking about a plague of neurological diseases directly caused by the use of this deadly poison."

Herein lies the problem: There were Congressional Hearings when Aspartame was included 100 different products and strong objection was made concerning its use. Since this initial hearing, there have been two subsequent hearings, and still nothing has been done. The drug and chemical lobbies have very deep pockets. Sadly, MONSANTO'S patent on Aspartame has EXPIRED!

There are now over 5,000 products on the market that contain this deadly chemical and there will be thousands more introduced. Everybody wants a "piece of the Aspartame pie." I assure you that MONSANTO, the creator of Aspartame, knows how deadly it is.

And isn't it ironic that MONSANTO funds, among others, the American Diabetes Association, the American Dietetic Association and the Conference of the American College of Physicians? This has been recently exposed in the New York Times. These [organizations] cannot criticize any additives or convey their link to MONSANTO because they take money from the food industry and are required to endorse their products.

Senator Howard Metzenbaum wrote and presented a bill that would require label warnings on products containing Aspartame, especially regarding pregnant women, children and infants. The bill would also institute independent studies on the known dangers and the problems existing in the general population regarding seizures, changes in brain chemistry, neurological changes and behavioral symptoms. The bill was killed.

It is known that the powerful drug and chemical lobbies are responsible for this, letting loose the hounds of disease and death on an unsuspecting and uninformed public.

Aspartame has been the subject of controversy regarding its safety and the circumstances of its approval by the American FDA and European FSA. Aspartic acid, into which aspartame is metabolized, is a known NMDA receptor antagonist. Aspartame itself has been shown to have antinociceptive properties through effecting NMDA receptors in mice. Some studies have also recommended further investigation into possible connections between aspartame and negative effects such as headaches, brain tumors, brain lesions, and lymphoma. These findings, combined with possible conflicts of interest involving CEO Donald Rumsfeld in the approval process, have engendered vocal activism regarding the possible risks of aspartame.


REFERENCE:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartame
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartame_controversy

Is there a pattern to Philippine Bar Exams?

According to some bar revew centers, there is. And they call it the Lex Pareto Notes, using the Pareto principle. Thanks to Atty. Zodiac and Atty. Pareto for contributing this info in the original Pinoylaw.com Message board.

==============

LEGAL ETHICS

Did you know that 34 % of the bar exams in legal ethics for the past 15 years, is taken from the Code of professional responsibility ?

Did you know that 78 % of the questions asked in the Code of Professional responsibility comes from Chapter 1 and Chapter 4 of said code ?

Did you know that out of 52 questions taken from the Rules of court, 29 are asked from RULE 138 for the past 15 years ?

Did you know that the "COMPLAINT" is the most favorite form asked in PRACTICAL EXERCISES, and that it has been asked for 20 times in the past 15 years ?

CRIMINAL LAW

Did you know that 77 % of the criminal law exam is taken from the revised penal code, 19 % from Special penal laws and other matters compose only 4 %

Observations on book 2 of the revised Penal code:

Book 2 has a total of 253 articles of which only 75 are asked (About 30 %)

These 75 Articles are asked 211 times

Out of the 211 times these articles were asked 178 (84 %) were taken from those articles that were asked at least twice.

The most asked crime was on murder, followed by homicide, estafa, robbery with violence against persons.

REMEDIAL LAW

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON QUESTIONS TAKEN FROM CIVIL PROCEDURE FOR THE PAST 15 YEARS:

1.) Civil procedure has 56 Rules. Out of these 56 Rules, 33 were asked.

2.) About 150 questions were taken out of these 33 Rules

3.) Of the 150 questions asked, 82 % were derived from only 14 Rules.

4.) These 14 Rules represents only 25 % of the total number of rules in Civil
procedure.

5.) The most asked article was on Rule 9 entitled “Effect of failure to plead” followed by Rule 6 “Pleadings”, Rule 3 “Parties to a civil action”, Rule 2 “Cause of action”, Rule 39 “Execution of judgment” and so on. It can be noticed that there is a very good reason why such rules were those that were frequently asked. These rules walks you to the process of a civil action. (Pleadings, parties, cause of action etc.)

CIVIL LAW

Did you know that the most asked book in the Civil law exam is Book 4 ? Book 4 (Obligations and contracts, Special contracts) consist of about 46 % of the exam in civil law ?

Did you know that 14 % of the questions asked in book 4 is about obligations ?

Did you know that 77 % of the questions taken from Book 1 are taken from the Family code ?

TAXATION

Income taxation, Remedies and General principles constitutes 85 % of the exam in taxation for the past 7 years.

MERCANTILE LAW

The corporation code, Negotiable instrument, Insurance code, securities regulation code, transportation laws, banking laws, maritime commerce and the civil code make up 85 % of the exams on mercantile law.
The other 15 % is composed of other special laws namely:

Asked more 9 times or more for the past 15 years:

- Intellectual property law
- Bulk sales law
- Insolvency law
- Chattel mortgage law
- Retail trade liberalization law

Asked less than 5 times for the past 15 years:

- Trust receipts law
- Letters of credit
- Anti-dummy act
- Flag law
- Electric power industry reform act
- Public service law
- Foreign investment act
- Investor’s lease act
- Constitution
- Other applied provisions of the code of commerce.

So what does the “Pareto principle” really mean ?

The 80/20 Rule means that in everything there is a “vital a few” (20 percent) that results in the “trivial many” (80 percent) For Pareto it meant 20 percent of the people owned 80 percent of the wealth. In Juran's work he identified 20 percent of the defects causing 80 percent of the problems Project managers know that about 20 percent of the work consume 80 percent of time and resources. 80 percent of company sales will come from 20 percent of the sales people. 20 percent of the employee will cause 80 percent of the problems. The 80/20 Rule applies to almost anything, from management to science. So why can’t we apply it in preparations for the bar exam?

How can observing the Pareto principle in the bar exam help you ?

The value of the Pareto Principle for a bar candidate is that it reminds you where to focus your study on. Of all the laws that you have studied and read, only 20 percent really matter in the bar exams. Those 20 percent make up 80 percent of the bar exam questions. With this in mind a bar candidate should spend 80 % of his time studying the vital 20 %.

Some people say that we should not study hard but that we should study hard. Definitely that is true, however we should remember that it is more important to study smart on the right things.

Does the bar exam have a pattern ?

“Quantum mechanics is certainly imposing. But an inner voice tells me that it is not yet the real thing. The theory says a lot, but does not really bring us any closer to the secret of the Old One. I, at any rate, am convinced that He does not throw dice.” – Albert Einstein

Whether we agree or not, we live in a world of order. Our world follows a set of rules and principles. The sun and moon just does not rise and set randomly, it follows a certain pattern. Seasons goes through certain cycles. What goes up must come down, and for every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction.

Even how chaotic a system might be, there is always a certain “order” to it. Einstein’s quote above is often paraphrased as “God does not play dice with the universe”

To recognize the existence of such patterns and to make use of them will be certainly to our advantage.

In our study of law it cannot be denied that the preparations for the bar exams is given primordial concern. Preparing for the bar is not an easy task. Wouldn’t it be great if we would know in advance what particular article or subject area we should study? Is it even possible to know this?

The answer may be a yes or no. The science of probability and statistics is not an exact science. However it more or less gives us a general idea on things on what would be, though not what should be.

For this reason a group of lawyers and law students has developed a five volume reviewer for the bar exams called the “LEX PARETO NOTES”

What is the “Lex Pareto notes” and why call is called such ?

A famous bar reviewer once said, that only 25 % of the articles in the Civil code are going to be asked in the bar exams. The rest of the 75 % will never be asked or if they will be, they will seldom be asked. He quipped “Magiging ka tawa-tawa ang bar exam pag kinuha sa 75 % sa civil code ang mga questions.”

Prof. Abelardo Domondon, a very well known bar reviewer said that he topped the bar because he studied the previous bar exam questions and saw a “pattern” in the questions that are being asked. He even showed evidence concerning this matter.

This is what the Lex Pareto Notes is all about. The Lex Pareto Notes is based on the foundation laid down by Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto. If Pareto were alive today he could say that 20 % of the law are the questions that will most likely be asked in the bar exams, while approximately 80 % of it will rarely be asked or never asked at all.

Who is Pareto anyway ?

Vilfredo Pareto is an Italian economist. In 1906 he observed that twenty percent of the people owned eighty percent of the wealth. Through that he created a mathematical formula to describe the unequal distribution of wealth in his country. After Pareto made his observation and created his formula, many others observed similar phenomena in their own areas of expertise. In the late 1940s, Dr. Joseph M. Juran a quality management pioneer based in the U.S attributed the 80/20 Rule to Pareto, calling it Pareto's Principle. Dr. Juran reduced this universal principle into writing and gave another term for it the “Vital few, trivial many” principle.

So what does the “Pareto principle” really mean ?

The 80/20 Rule means that in anything a few (20 percent) are vital and many (80 percent) are trivial. For Pareto it meant 20 percent of the people owned 80 percent of the wealth. In Juran's work he identified 20 percent of the defects causing 80 percent of the problems Project managers know that about 20 percent of the work consume 80 percent of time and resources. 80 percent of company sales will come from 20 percent of the sales people. 20 percent of the employee will cause 80 percent of the problems. The 80/20 Rule applies to almost anything, from management to the science. So why can’t we apply it in preparations for the bar exam?

How can observing the Pareto principle in the bar exam help you ?

The value of the Pareto Principle for a bar candidate is that it reminds you where to focus your study on. Of all the laws that you have studied and read, only 20 percent really matter in the bar exams. Those 20 percent make up 80 percent of the bar exam questions. With this in mind, a bar candidate should spend 80 % of his time studying the vital 20 %.

Some people say that we should not study hard but that we should study hard. Definitely that is true, however we should remember that it is more important to study smart on the right things.

The five volume work contains, graphs, statistics on how many times a question has been asked on a particular article. It will point out the applicability of the Pareto law in the bar exam questions. It also discusses the doctrines that were asked in the bar exams. The first four volumes corresponds to the subjects that will be given for the 4 Sundays of the bar exams. Volume 1 will be on Political law and Labor law. Volume 2 will be on Civil law and TAXATION. Volume 3 will be about Mercantile law and Criminal law while Volume 4 will be on Remedial law and Legal Ethics and Practical exercises. Volume 5 will be all about bar questions from 1990 to 2006 and other information on bar preparations.

For more information on where to buy the LEX PARETO NOTES 2007 edition and other information check out their website at www.lexparetonotes.8m.com.

REFERENCE:

Pinoylaw.com Message Board

Yam, An alternative to rice...

In my previous blogs, i was ranting about the government's inefficent program on rice research towards self-sufficiency.

Ok, so now even Jollibee confirms the rice shortage by offering half-serving of of the usual rice. This is not a joke anymore. And with 100 million filipinos in the next five years, rice shortage, or food shortage, is looming specter.

Jollibee aside, the latest news on the government's attempt to encourage filipinos to look for altenative to rice is by way of PGMA's endorsement of the Cebuano's saksak-sinagol food, a combination of rice and camote.

In Basilan and Tawi-tawi, the locals are using cassava, instead of rice, as the major staple food.

Outside of Philippine rural areas, urban Filipinos knows of camote only as camote cue, and cassava, being a poor man's rice.

Here in Nigeria, a country of 141 million people, rice has never been an issue. While they eat rice, but their main staple food is the Yam (Dioscorea rotunda). Yam is a tuber, belonging to the family of gabi and ube. It can be stored for at least six months without spoiling.

Yam is a versatile tuber. In can be cooked (boiled), roasted/grilled, or pounded.

The one type of cooking yam that i like is the pounded yam. I ate 2 serving of pounded yam with vegetable stew for my lunch. I didn't feel any hunger well into the night. That's how heavy the food is. It tastes good also. During Sundays, we will have yam chips (fried yam cut in small slices like potato fries) with Star or Gulder.

I think yam (aside from camote and cassava) could be a great alternative to rice consumption in the Philippines. It can be grown easily in the country and the productivity of the plant is far greater than the rice production. And it is also easy to plant and propagate. It does not need fertilizer or insecticide -- unless the insecticide companies will start developing strains of pests that will attack yams... Walla.

Besides, African yam has more nutrients than the well-milled rice. According to Wikipedia:

Yams are high in Vitamin C, dietary fiber, Vitamin B6, potassium, and manganese; while being low in saturated fat and sodium. Vitamin C, dietary fiber and Vitamin B6 may all promote good health. Furthermore, a product that is high in potassium and low in sodium is likely to produce a good potassium-sodium balance in the human body, and so protect against osteoporosis and heart disease. Having a low level of saturated fat is also helpful for protection against heart disease.

Yam products generally have a lower glycemic index than potato products, which means that they will provide a more sustained form of energy, and give better protection against obesity and diabetes.

Another crop that should be given support on food processing is cassava. Aside from the way we usually it cassava in the Philippines (boiled), Africans pound it and then cook it into sticky mash they call "Eba". Eba is as versatile as pounded yam when it comes to mixes with other food like various type of stews.

When i have enough money, i am going to put a 'no-rice' restaurant in my village that promotes yam (or any local variety), cassava and camote as the main menu to replace rice.

I tell you, eating sinugba or kinilaw with yam or eba should be more tasty and fulfilling than with rice. Estofado or pakbet with yam? paksiw and yam? menudo and yam?

Do you know why Africans are taller and have strong white teeth?? It is because of their diet which is heavy in yam, tomatoes and beans.

Seriously, i think the Dept of Agriculture should consider transplanting yam and promote its consumption, together with cassava and camote.

Yam, yum...

REFERENCE:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yam_(vegetable)