Pre-mid-1900s
The story of the Tasaday begins at an unknown time past--perhaps 200 years ago--when, ancestoral stories say, people fled a deadly epidemic disease (cholera, smallpox, measles?) and hid in a vast, uncharted rainforest of south central Mindanao, Philippines. The people believed everyone left behind died of the terrible scourge, which was known to their ancestors as a killing wind called “fugu.” Only those in the deep forest survived, they believed, vowing never to return to the fatal north. The survivors came to regard the forest as the entire world and themselves as the only people on earth.
The people formed into separate groups that established residences at places they called Tasafeng, Sanduka, and Tasaday. The people at Tasaday had a complex of three caves in the side of a forested mountain that became their home base. Below the caves flowed a stream where they gathered tiny fish, crabs, tadpoles, and frogs. In the surrounding forest they foraged for roots, fruits, mushrooms and other foods. They made fire with a wooden drill, clothing of leaves, and tools from stone, wood, and bone.
Marriage within a group was forbidden, so women married into one of the other groups; men stayed in place. Life went on in this way for several generations; the forest became home as far back in time as any Tasaday could remember.
Each group usually numbered about 30--too few to be a tribe or band--and stayed in their part of the forest, where they gathered food and firewood, leaves for clothing, stones for tools.
Over time these people became part of the environment and did not damage or change it. Later, an ethnobotanist who studied the Tasaday said they appeared to have lived “as close to nature as any people known in modern times--in a symbiotic relationship between the people, plants and terrestrial animals.”
They satisfied their subsistence needs with a few hours of work each day and spent the rest of the time with their families, talking, playing with children, making tools, swinging on vines, splashing in a waterfall. Life was good, perhaps reflecting the “original affluent society,” as described by one scholar of the Stone Age.
But life was also difficult--infection and injuries, sickness and old age eventually touched everyone. Death would come to each one. A dying person was taken into the forest by close relatives so the failing person would not die in the caves, where the departing soul could lure away souls of the living. The Tasaday believed in a great spirit--above the other spirits that resided in the forest--who could send wind and rain and lightning, or even illness or death--for violating certain rules. The spirit also sent great blessings--the always dry caves, delicious food, the waterfall, and much more.
Life played out in this way for---nobody knows how long... several generations? Two centuries? And then a mysterious stranger came into the Tasaday’s lives. . . . [more...]
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Gumagawa ako ng project sa History 3 (History of Filipino Muslims and Lumads) ko nang bigla akong mapadpad sa page nato. Fascinating masyado kung paano namuhay ng ganito kasimple ang mga Tasaday, at kung paano sila naka survive sa isang mundong sa tingin ng iba ay hopeless na. Siguro, kung ako ang nasa kalagayan nila, patay nako. Iniisip ko pa lang na walang bigas ay parang nahihilo na'ko. Alam ko kung gaano kahirap ang walang bigas syempre. Minsan, katulad ngayon, late dumating ang allowance na inaasahan ko. Lalong mahirap iimagine kung ang ilalagay sa pwesto ng mga Tasaday ay ang mga kakilala kong mga pasosyal. Karamihan nga sa kanila, hindi nga ata kaya magluto ng kanin, o mag-ihaw ng manok. Naalala ko tuloy yung proect naming bahay-kubo nung 3rd year high school na hindi bahay ang itsura. Umiinit na nga ang ulo ko pag wala akong mahagilap na kutsilyo habang nagluluto - pano kaya kung katulad ng mga Tasaday, bato lang ang ginagamit ko? Isang kasama ko sa boarding house and hindi raw gumagamit ng Safeguard pang-ligo - ayon sa kanya, pwet lang daw ang dapat ginagamitan nun. Pano kung isang araw, sumiklab ang World War III, at lahat ng supermarket, mawala. Pano kung tuluyang mag breakdown ang trade at industry, at kahit saan ka pumunta, wala ka nang mabilhan ng bigas, noodles, Century Tuna, o pancit canton? Pero, sa tingin ko, kung may mga taong matulad sa mga Tasaday, hindi rin naman siguro sila mawawala na lang ng ganun. Siyempre, kahit mahirap mag-adapt, alam ko naman na master talaga sa pag-aadjust sa mahihirap na sitwasyon ang Homo sapiens. Merong ibang hindi makaka-susurvive, pero marami din namang iba na makakaya ang hamon ng kahirapan - survival of the fittest - nasa Biology ko yan nung high school.
Pano kung tuluyan nang madeplete ang oil sa mundo? Isipin mo, Pag wala nang oil, wala nang gagamitin ang mga pabrika, pagawaan at planta - wala nang de lata, wala nang Meralco, wala nang RRJ, Penshoppe, wala nang Avon, Natasha, Islander, Nokia, Samsung, iPod, PC, PSP, etc... Peak oil ang tawag dito. Sinasabi ng ibang ang Peak oil ay narating na natin - ibig sabihin, mula sa panahong naabot yun forward, unti-unti nang mauubos ang oil reserves ng mundo. Hindi ba masyadong nakaka-alarma? Heto:
Within the energy profession there are groups (e.g., ASPO, ASPO-USA) grappling with the challenge of "Peak Oil." While the efforts of Al Gore and others have raised awareness of the threat of global warming, society is not in any way prepared for the imminent decline in global oil production.
In the near term, declining production will impact certain countries more than others. Cantarell, the largest field in the western hemisphere, is declining rapidly. Over the next couple of years, Mexico's economy will be hard-hit.
Without imports, the USA's domestic oil reserves would be exhausted in three years at the current rate of consumption. The Oil War option is losing favor. Technological breakthroughs will be too slow and voluntary conservation will be too shallow to avert widespread disruption of economic activity, especially transportation and consequently food. Lacking the political will to make conscious, rapid, drastic changes, Americans will be subjected to Mother Nature's adjustments; She did not negotiate with the Mayor of New Orleans; nor will She negotiate the American Way of Life when Saudi Arabia's Ghawar field collapses of its own accord.
Liquid fuel substitutes (tar sands, coal-to-liquids, oil shale, surprisingly even ethanol and biodiesel) are carbon intensive and will only exacerbate global warming. Plus they cannot be scaled up on a timely basis.
It would take one new nuclear power plant every week until 2050 to fill the oil gap. Minor detail, uranium shortages would emerge long before 2050, unless as yet unproven breeder reactors come on line soon.
While it will take time, direct conversion of solar radiation to electricity (photovoltaics and concentrating solar power) can be scaled up. One viable sustainable alternative also exists for repetitive travel (e.g., commuting -- more than half of all urban transport). It is the rapid build-out of solar powered electric vehicles on fixed guideways (the "podcar"). A continuous solar array, well within the width of the guideway, is sufficient to provide 100% of the power required for this efficient form of high capacity transit. [more...]
Alam ba ng karamihan sa ating mga pulitiko ang problemang ito? Alam ba ito ng karamihan sa ating mga mag-aaral sa kolehiyo? Busy ako saking love-life at student life, at mas masarap mag DOTA kaysa makisawsaw sa problemang ito - ok, I'm doomed. Ganyan naman talaga kadalasan ang marami sa atin. Wala tayong pakialam sa iba - ang importante lang ay maganda ang damit natin, may load tayo, steak ang ulam, malambot ang kama, hearthrob ang boyfriend... Wala ngang programa ang presidente ng Pilipinas na inaddress sa problemang ito o para iinform man lang ang karamihan sa kanyang mga mamamayan. Sorry Philippines, malapit na bumagsak ang Modern Civilization - at wala kang alam ni katiting. Nalaman ko ang Peak Oil mula kay Dr. Floro Quibuyen, professor sa UPD, sa isang lecture na binigay niya sa whole-day seminar namin last semester para sa History 1. Maganda ang pagkaka-deliver niya ng kanyang speech, at naisip ko ngang maghukay sa likod-bahay para maghanap ng probable oil reserve sa lugar namin. Kaunti lang ang nilagay kong info dito. Marami pa sa net, at mas maiintindihan pa siguro kaysa sa sinasabi ko dito.
"MY ANALYSIS, BASED ON GEOLOGICAL ESTIMATES OF THE TOTAL WORLD RESOURCE OF PETROLEUM, SUGGESTS THAT WORLD PETROLEUM PRODUCTION WILL PEAK AROUND THE YEAR 2004 AND THEREAFTER WILL START ITS INEVITABLE DECLINE TOWARD ZERO."
- Albert Barlett
Anyway, dapat siguro, kausapin ko na ang mga Tasaday para maturuan na nila ako ng "Secrets of Survival", at rest assured, ilalagay ko rin ang mga bago kong malalaman dito sa blog ko -kung may oil pa sa panahong iyon. HAHAHA!
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Sources:
The Tasaday and the Friends of the Tasaday - http://www.tasaday.com/
Hubbert Peak of Oil Production - http://www.hubbertpeak.com/
Thank you for providing these information. Sorry sa mga pangalan na di na dapat ilagay dito, pero inilagay ko parin. Pakiusap, 'wag nyo po akong ipakulong. Hehe...
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