What are the creation myths of indigenous Filipinos?

 

By: 

Bisaya

https://barokandtakya.com

Every culture has a story or legend that they use to describe the origin of their tribe. For Filipinos, the tale is about these three princesses who wandered out into a vast nothingness one day and were swallowed up by enormous waves, only to be saved by a mighty bird.

With so many years between then and now, most people would think our beliefs are just fanciful tales from old superstitious times. But in fact, as science has begun to show us more and more just how small this world is--that we're all living on one planet with creatures including plants and oceans that we have yet to explore--and faced with environmental changes through pollution and climate change; these fantastical legends now find more meaning than ever before.

The ancient beliefs of our ancestors can be found in the old creation myths, which are more like poetic stories about how everything was made. Here in the Philippines, many of these tales come from indigenous tribes like the Tagalogs, Ifugaos, Mangyans and many more.

The Tagalog people, for example, believe that their role on earth is to tend to rice plants, while it's the spirits' job to take care of everything else on Earth. The ghosts are like little elves, the creator said to them. You're like helpers and guardians of the rice plantation.

Even with this seemingly simple task, some spirits have gone bad, and they cause disasters--they're also known as engkanto. Some enjoy playing tricks on humans by making them hear noises in the night or seeing things when there's nothing there at all.

For the Filipinos, these stories not only tell of how everything was made, but they also teach a moral lesson about how to behave and what happens when people don't apply what they know.

Success Myths

My column in BusinessWeek Mindanao, Mindanao Daily and Cagayan Times

OPINION

 September 3, 2019

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WHAT is a perfectionist? A perfectionist is one who believes that moral perfection is attainable, or that he or she is attained in.

One of my students told me this morning, that she always wants to be 100% perfect in everything she is doing. Well, my reaction was, " Nobody is perfect!" Take the student who works hard and maybe gets a poor mark. If she tells herself: “I’m disappointed, but it’s okay; I’m still a good person overall,” that’s healthy. If the message is: “I’m a failure. I’m not good enough,” that’s perfectionism.

Many think that perfectionism is a good trait, but it researchers have found it can have a dangerous affect on mental health – and it’s on the rise.

You sit in a job interview, nervously sweating through every question thrown at you, and then comes the hardest one of all: “What is your worst quality?” Being a perfectionist is regularly thought of as a good answer – you might hope your fastidiousness will help you secure the role. But is perfectionism actually a good trait?

To be a healthy and successful human, you have to learn from your mistakes; and to be able to learn from your mistakes, you have to be comfortable with making them. But in general, perfectionists are not. They tend to avoid making mistakes by sticking to tasks they feel most comfortable with or overreacting to obstacles, feeling more guilt, shame and anger when they do make mistakes.

I told my students, that I always wanted to be perfect. When I was not, I could easily could get mad on myself. Culturally, we often see perfectionism as a positive. Even saying you have perfectionistic tendencies can come off as a coy compliment to yourself; it’s practically a stock answer to the “What’s your worst trait?” question in job interviews. (Past employers, now you know! I wasn’t just being cute).

Perfectionism nowadays, is on the rise and has been linked by to a whole host of mental health problems including depression, anxiety and self-harm. Perfectionists feel every bump in the road. They’re quite stress-sensitive. Tennis star Serena Williams, just to mention one example, is a self-described perfectionist who destroys racquets and casts blame when things go wrong – outbursts which have cost her the game.

And while conscientious people tend to live longer, perfectionists die earlier. Worth to think about it.

Five myths about Bataan Power Plant debunked

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By: Kristine Daguno-Bersamina (philstar.com)

SOCHI, Russia — Sitting atop a 389-hectare government property along the coast of Morong, Bataan, the hulking Bataan Nuclear Power Plant has stood quietly since its construction in the 1980s.

For almost 40 years, the fate of what critics called the "monster" of Morong has been hotly debated.

"We are the first in Southeast Asia to develop power plant but never used it," said Philippine Nuclear Research Institute Director Carlo Arcilla during a round table discussion at the 10th Atomexpo International Forum held in Sochi, Russia.

Atomexpo is a key exhibition event in Russian nuclear industry, organized by Russia's state atomic energy corporation Rosatom.

Arcilla, a geoscientist and geotechnical engineering expert, said it is important to set the facts straight about the first nuclear power plant in the Philippines. 

"We (Filipinos) have suffered so many fake news in nuclear... It's overriding the public perception," he said.

Here are five prevailing myths about the dormant Bataan Nuclear Power Plant that experts debunked.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology has certified that there is no fault underneath the mothballed nuclear power plant. 

Philvolcs added that the BNPP was built on a solid foundation of hard rock. 

"While there are publications suggesting faults proximate to the plant, these do not underlie the plant, which would have made the plant inoperable," the PNRI chief said.

The proximity of the suspected faults, according to Arcilla, will require proof of the following:  

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• That the faults are active
• The maximum earthquake that can come from such active fault cannot be withstood by the 0.4g seismic design of the BNPP. The 0.4g design means that the whole nuclear structure can withstand ground acceleration at 4 meters/second/second, or 40 percent the acceleration due to gravity. 

BNPP was built on the eruptive products on the flanks of Mount Natib but not on the crater of the volcano, Arcilla noted. 

Since Mount Natib is a dormant volcano, Philvolcs dismissed possible hazards pertinent to BNPP's location such as volcanic eruption.

"For perspective, practically the whole of Metro Manila is built partially on pyroclastic flows (adobe) from Laguna de Bay caldera, which is much younger than Natib," Arcilla said.

"Laguna de Bay is not an active volcano, and Metro Manila is not built on a volcano," he added.

Since the length of the Manila trench is shorter than Japan's, experts say that the magnitude 9.0 earthquake that occurred close to the Fukushima plant "will probably not happen" in the Philippines. 

An 8.0-magnitude earthquake in Mindanao in 1876 is the strongest that hit the country.

Arcilla emphasized that the earthquake did not destroy the Fukushima plant, Japan's oldest nuclear power plant.

Part of the disaster was the complete breakdown of the Fukushima plant after it was swamped by a tsunami produced by the earthquake.

The tsunami disabled the power supply and cooling systems of three Fukushima reactors, resulting to the release of radioactive materials to its surroundings. 

The PNRI chief said that the accident could have been prevented had the operator followed an earlier advice to move its diesel engines for cooling at higher grounds.

"In contrast, BNPP elevation is 18 meters above sea level, which is higher than the 14-meter tsunami that happened in Japan. In addition, all the 420 plus nuclear power plants in the world have made redundant systems so that the loss of cooling will not be repeated. These lessons will be implemented if the BNPP is rehabilitated," he added.   

Philippines' first nuclear power plant has at least three working sister plants which are very profitable and has been safely operating for 40 years. 

These include Angra in Brazil, Krsko in Slovenia and Kori2 in Korea. 

The said nuclear power plants "have more than recovered their investments and have upgraded to the latest operational standards," Arcilla noted.

Though the BNPP was never used, its nuclear core is still sound based on the recent evaluations made by the Korea Electric Power Corp. and Rosatom.

"The main challenge in rehabilitating BNPP is financial because of the replacements of ancillary parts like the steam generator and turbines, among others," the PNRI chief said.

Arcilla explained that the BNPP was built to withstand a seismic load of  0.4 g. Japan's Fukushima plant had a peak horizontal ground acceleration of 0.12g only.  

This is more than twice that of the Fukushima plant and with upgrades to prevent repeat of the nuclear accident, he noted.  

"Japan has similar geologic conditions in the Philippines and has at least 50 nuclear plants; Taiwan is also similarly tectonically active and has at least 4 NPPs, and Krsko is the only seismically designed NPP in western Europe," Arcilla said. 

He assured that BNPP's containment structure was designed to resist the crashlanding of a large wide body aircraft.