Du30’s coronavirus lockdown extends to 12 Sept 2021, but no presidential decree should quarantine our thinking such as on science applied to agriculture, on knowledge applied to farming – and on a national university reaching out to the people to help them think on problems and act out solutions.
The University of the Philippines Los Baños is crucial here and, since as an alumnus I know that UPLB has inadvertently locked down itself into the Silence of Science, as a modern knowledge warrior I dare my alma mater to wake up from its science slumber and serve the people with eyes wide open and mind alert!
In the above image, I’m saying if you are the UPLB Chancellor, you need instant multi-institutional perspectives that you can create only in a digital universe.
UPLB needs a digital Chancellor now!
I, Frank A Hilario, as:
Editor In Chief of several science publications in the last 45 years;
a self-taught digital Editor in the last 25 years;
a self-directed unstoppable blogger publishing thousands upon thousands of essays for PH Agriculture in the last 13 years;
I have not observed any official involvement of my alma mater in the matter of reviving Philippine Agriculture before or during the lockdown;
I believe the times call for digital wisdom and I know this candidate UPLB Chancellor has been immersed in the digital world of education, pioneering e-learning in the Philippines:
Considering all that, I fully believe that among the 3 candidates,
Patrick Alain T Azanza deserves to be the next Chancellor of my alma mater UP Los Baños!
(above image, superimposed)
Meanwhile, all of UP Los Baños is in its Rip Van Winkle digital slumber, despite the founding of the Institute of Computer Science that started offering a BS Computer Science degree in 1983, the first of its kind in the country[1].
Today, the first is last!
Sadly, UP Los Baños never went beyond offering BS Computer Science into digitalizing knowledge in agriculture and related fields in both languages: technical (for professionals), and popular (for farmers). I can give 2 reasons for UPLB’s failure:
(1) UPLB’s incomplete appreciation of the digital universe – otherwise, the aggie professionals and field technicians out there would have been served with unending knowledge.
(2) UPLB’s incomplete empathy with the farmers – otherwise, the University would have joined the government agencies behind the Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture, OpAPA, as digital servant for everyone involved in farming.
Submitted via PhilRice, OpAPA was the brainchild of the then-Director General of ICRISAT, based in India, now Secretary of Agriculture William Dar. On how to implement OpAPA intellectually, I wrote out my proposal into a digital book, The Geography Of Knowledge, 198 pages, dated 28 December 2003 – unfortunately, nothing came out of it. They went on their OpAPA way, and now OpAPA is dead.
If Mr Azanza becomes UPLB Chancellor, I will show it to him. Then it will be an excellent opportunity to explore the geography of knowledge for agriculture!@517
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