A LAND RICH IN FRUIT OF THE EARTH THE ABUNDANCE OF THE PHILIPPINE SOIL IS A REMINDER BOTH OF THE RICHNESS OF THE EARTH 26 AND THE SCANDAL THAT SO FEW FILIPINOS BENEFIT FROM IT COLM MEANEY CSsR
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s I was planting sweet pea early last summer, I noticed that of the many sticks we had used the previous year as supports for the plants, three had actually sprouted themselves. Well, this was incredible. I mean, those sticks were almost dead twigs, used simply as short frames along which the sweet pea could lean for support, and yet, they had brought forth new life. I was reminded once again of the fecundity of nature. As the great poet Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote, after describing how humans had become increasingly distant from nature: "and for all this nature is never spent / There lives the dearest freshness deep down things." So I thought I'd put pen to paper regarding the richness of the Philippine soil and the great fruitfulness that the hard-working Filipino can bring from it, year after year. In a previous column entitled 'Bayanihan' (meitheal in Irish), I described the two basic crops for domestic consumption, rice and
REALITY JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022
corn. But I neglected to mention one of the fantastic natural wonders created by a tribe in the country's north. Because rice needs constant irrigation, flat land is required. But Filipino ingenuity has converted very hilly terrain into terraces of rice fields. It is a task requiring the correct level in each of the terraces so that the water will slowly flow down from the highest to the lowest. The elevation of each terrace and the tiny adjustments in slope among the terraces have to be exact so as to ensure that the irrigation is unimpeded. These terraces were originally created 2,000 years ago by a tribe called the Ifugao in the northern island of Luzon. The result is an amazing exhibition of human creativity, a panoply combining a marvel of engineering, precision design and natural beauty. Indeed, in 1995, the terraces were declared a UNESCO world heritage site, "a living cultural landscape of unparalleled beauty."
SUGARCANE Another widespread crop in the Philippines is sugarcane. It has a decidedly shady connotation or background. Trucks are needed to transport sugarcane to the factory, so it is almost inevitably the crop of the wealthy. And indeed, there are plantations of many hundreds of acres. Yet, it must be said that the workers' quality of life varies quite a bit, depending largely on the character of the owner and of his managers. Yes, there are some who are very caring towards their workers and seek their best interests. But there are others where the living conditions are just a step above a hovel. This is true especially of migrant workers who travel from one island to another to partake in the sugarcane harvest. They often have to endure primitive surroundings in 'dormitories' or 'bunk houses,' no better than the standards suffered by Dickens' Oliver Twist. Sugarcane takes nine months to mature. It grows to about nine or ten feet, a long stalk
