Tiny requests by professors

For ENVISOC, we were talking about indigenous tribes and about their practice of "kaingin".

Kaingin is the process of burning down trees so that these indigenous people can have land to plant new crops. Throughout my life studying, I've been taught that this is a bad practice because of its environmental impact whenever they burn down trees. However, our professor explained to us that they do this because the soil becomes filled with nutrients after they burn down the trees. Our professor told us that the rice they harvest are to die for, and that they come in all sorts of colors (not just the typical white, brown, black that we see in the market). 

However, most of these indigenous people are losing their lands because they are deceived or threatened to sell their land. In one account, he sold his hectare of land for just 3000 pesos. Our professor told us that there was a time that he had to console this person for 30 mins because that person felt bad that he sold his land; the only thing he had for his family. Now, some of them are contemplating on not continuing their practice of kaingin and just look for another way to earn a living. 

What's sad about this is that if they stop, so will the crops. The seeds they plant are only passed on by hand for every generation. The diverse and to-die-for (according to my prof) rice will soon be gone. Which is why at the end of the lecture, our professor told us that he knows that someday, we're going to be part of the government, big corporations, etc. All he's asking is that when we do sign papers involving ancestral land, we should check who are the people that are going to be affected. These indigenous people not only lose their livelihood, but also their home. He told us that when the time comes, he hopes that we remember this lecture and that we'd make the right choice. 

I love it when teachers make these little request. Maybe its because it makes me feel that they know that I'm going to be big someday. And in a way, it makes me want to comply to that request.

This request also heightened my anxiety towards the future. This made me feel that I will graduate soon and that I have to make the decision soon on whether I should continue with the psych path or the trapeze path. I still don't know.