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ASINGAN, PANGASINAN: We just ended at noon today, 23 October 2012, the very first General Assembly Meeting of our Nagkaisa Multi-Purpose Cooperative held at the Senior Citizens building across from what is known as the Danggay building but which we will willingly call the  Senator Letecia Ramos-Shahani Hall , to honor the lady who planned and funded it through her congressional development fund (pork barrel). For weeks now, we have had the keys to the Danggay building; it is like Occupy Wall Street because Danggay used to be impregnable, off-limits to outsiders. We learned at the GA meeting that Nagkaisa was officially listed in the registry of the Regional Cooperative Development Authority, Dagupan Extension Office on 10 October 2012. We met at the Seniors' conference room because Danggay is an almost-empty building, no chairs and no desks. It's an old building but it's nice, because it's concrete and has withstood the tests of time; it has 2 floors, 2 rest rooms and a

MANILA – Today at 40, ICRISAT is #1 among the 15 international centers of agriculture of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. This pre-eminence was achieved in about 10 years by Team ICRISAT, with Director General  William Dar  as Team Captain. Metaphor:  ICRISAT @ 40 is ready to take on the world, middle-aged, at the 7th stage of life, according to  Erik Erikson : "Ego Development Outcome: Generativity vs Self-absorption or Stagnation" with "Basic Strengths: Production and Care" ( support4change.com ). This is the time when, Erikson says, "we tend to be occupied with creative and meaningful work and with issues surrounding our family. Also, middle adulthood is when we can expect to 'be in charge,' the role we've (long) envied." Another metaphor:  We have just registered  Nagkaisa , a multipurpose cooperative in my hometown of Asingan, Pangasinan in Central Luzon, the Philippines. Board Member or not, because I

MANILA – Today at 40, ICRISAT is #1 among the 15 international centers of agriculture of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. This pre-eminence was achieved in about 10 years by Team ICRISAT, with Director General  William Dar  as Team Captain. Metaphor:  ICRISAT @ 40 is ready to take on the world, middle-aged, at the 7th stage of life, according to  Erik Erikson : "Ego Development Outcome: Generativity vs Self-absorption or Stagnation" with "Basic Strengths: Production and Care" ( support4change.com ). This is the time when, Erikson says, "we tend to be occupied with creative and meaningful work and with issues surrounding our family. Also, middle adulthood is when we can expect to 'be in charge,' the role we've (long) envied."  Another metaphor:  We have just registered  Nagkaisa , a multipurpose cooperative in my hometown of Asingan, Pangasinan in Central Luzon, the Philippines. Board Member or not, because I want o