Letter to TRC

 

 

 

Dear Sir:

 

I was a recent participant in the four day TRC Breadmaking and Bakery Management Course and I would like to give you a feedback of my experience.

Although there is no question about the competence and skill of our training instructors, the extremely abbreviated mode of instruction makes the course  superficial and not much helpful for trainees who pay a steep enrollment price in the belief and hope of finding a livelihood opportunity. Even our trainor wondered out loud how he can realistically impart knowledge and skill gained over a long period of time in just four days.Yet without sufficient knowledge and skill, how can  we succeed in our chosen enterprise?

For me, given the time limitation, a remedial solution would have been through a well written and comprehensive material. But even in this area, the handout and resource material provided and offered for sale by the TRC are woefully insubstantial. I believe the TRC had been conducting the bread making seminar for a long time already yet the hand out material given us are just loose leaf xeroxed material quickly assembled for distribution.

The person selling TRC booklets told me that they make their booklets simple because many readers have a low reading capacity. I believe this mentality is wrong and unacceptable. An institution of learning should not condescend to the people but do its best to lift them to the necessary level of competence. Mediocrity should never be encouraged.

I am sad to think that the TRC have degenerated into a mere money making institution and it is not surprising that it was easily used as a conduit for corruption. I believe as the TRC have been attached to the DOST, its purpose and manner of pursuing its mandate to open livelihood opportunities for the people should be reexamined and new approaches considered. There is a culture and thinking at the TRC that must be changed.

I am hoping that you read this letter in a favorable light and usher in changes that can make the TRC more relevant and attuned to the public need.

Thank you and kind regards,


Super Moon

The super moon phenomenon occurs when the moon orbits very close to earth thereby appearing very large and brighter than usual.

It certainly is an astronomic event but some people believe that the closeness of the moon can have some dire effects on our planet such as causing very high tides that can trigger underwater landslides and earthquakes.

Hopefully the super moon that I saw yesterday will have no such unwelcome result. We have already so many calamities both natural and man made to deal with.

At the 10th DA Agriculture and Fisheries Technology Exhibit

I wish I can say that the exhibit was a huge success with many new things to see and discover. But sadly that is not the case. I felt let down by this exhibit that showed nothing but more of the same of what they had been showing from last year and the previous years before that. And to think that this forum was even participated in by the various state colleges and universities.

In the exhibit I saw several stalls that carried wines made from various local fruits and vegetables. I wish the makers of these wines success but frankly I do not see how these products can become marketable.

One reason why traditional grape wine is widely consumed is because it can be taken as an accompaniment to meals to enhance the eating pleasure. If that can be said for the locally made fruit wines then maybe, local wine makers should advertise that possibility to open a new market for their produce.

A novelty I found at the exhibit was the chicharon made from sea cucumber. They look like some kind of crispy giant worms but taste very much like the usual chicharon. Maybe because it was a novelty, it immediately sold out. Hopefully, in the next exhibit, there will be more novelties like this chicharon from Quezon Province which is called "kibit"

Dates to remember

Yesterday, August 6, 2014 was the 69th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima with the first ever atomic bomb used in war. Two days later, another atomic bomb was dropped in Nagasaki.

Commemoration activities mark these dates in Japan but it is not only the Japanese who should remember these dates. We members of the human race must also remember.

The atomic bomb ended not just the war but it also eroded national borders. Henceforth, all of us are joined together in the common objective of preventing a third explosion to ever occur or it will be the end of all of us.

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