On Taal Fishkill, Accordion Day, Scary SIM, Intuitive LSS, Secret of Happy People, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, with Videos of David Cook, Olivia Newton John, Andy Gibb, Neil Diamond, Simple Minds, Twillight Zone

No Fish Be With You

Botcha! That’s what they call those fish for sale in various wet markets around Luzon for the last few days – netted from the fishkill in Taal Lake which had shockingly spread in the provinces of Batangas and Pangasinan.

Thousands of metric tons of fishes died when volcanic hot water rose to the surface, bringing up poisonous toxins from decaying algae, said the Bureau of Aquatic Resources.

A crucial factor is the overstocking in illegal bangus fish cages that had infested the area for years.

         

   Hundreds of kilos of botcha bangus are being confiscated daily for almost a week. There had been at least four reported cases of poisoning, all of the victims having been deceived that what they bought wasn’t part of the deadly double-dead batch.

All this time, the stench of decaying fish has fouled the surrounding towns in Taal.

Bangus, also known milkfish, is the national fish of the Philippines.

            

 As expected, a lot of money-hungry market vendors mix the botcha fish with the fresh ones.

            The deadliest thing about this tragedy is the one that has poisoned our entire culture and history – Greed.

Squeeze Day

Apparently  last June 1 was Accordion Day.

I got that from deejay Rudolf Rivera of RJ 100.3 The Voice of the Philippines. You can get the same sound from an electronic keyboard, he says, so you can save all that squeezing for something else.

Stalk & Text

Tried to change my mobile number Thursday morning. I have another stalker would you believe? Here’s the weird part:  As soon as I inserted it – the new SIM card, I mean – I got a message from a strange number!

            Sorry it took so long to get in touch, he or she said. This was his or her roaming number. A package will be sent to me, I was told, Text back!

            Had to get another SIM.

            That was so Twilight Zone.

Telepathic Idol

I was singing to myself Don’t’ You Forget About Me by Simple Minds a couple of days ago. It just popped into my head. Click!

            Shortly, I chanced upon the grand finals of American Idol, where Scotty McCreery won. David Cook was performing that same song.

Psychic?

Resting My Love

The happiest people are those who enjoy the moment, feeling full alive at that given space of time.

            At 10.20 PM, March 24, I was stuck in traffic in Sergio Osmeña Highway. I can hear the radio from the jeepney beside me, as I was singing along to Rest Your Love On Me by Andy Gibb and Olivia Newton John

As Jawaharlal Nehru once said, “It is through great effort that we grow, it is by allying ourselves to great causes that we also develop some touch of that greatness.”

We are all blessed to be surrounded by carriers of transcendence like art, music – and literature.

           

Richard Bach was not a king or a conqueror. But he changed the lives of countless people – including mine – with his beautiful gift to the world: the immortal novel Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

            Nobility moves in mysterious ways. You can find beauty and inspiration anywhere if you just open your heart. But every once in a while, a work of art comes along and evokes in you the desire to soar to the highest aspirations of the human spirit.