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MANILA: This is all about greening India, greening the Philippines, greening the world. They did. The Indians broke the Guinness World Record in number of trees (seedlings) planted within 24 hours in one day, not 24 hours distributed over several days. Early morning Sunday, New Year's Day 2017, I saw the EcoWatch post on Facebook with Katie Pohlman reporting on 800,000 Indians attempting to plant 50,000,000 trees to break the Guinness record of 847,275 trees set by Pakistanis in 2013 (12 July 2016, EcoWatch, ecowatch.com ). Samantha Cole of Popular Science reported the exact numbers: more than 800,000 students, government officials and volunteers gathered in India's populous State of Uttar Pradesh and planted 49.3 million trees in 24 hours (14 July 2016, Popular Science, popsci.com ). Actually, breaking the Guinness was only part of the plan. Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav told the people, "The world has realized that serious efforts are needed to reduce car

MANILA: I just realized that you , not me, did not learn the biggest lesson in the year that was 2016. And I as a Civil Service-certified teacher will teach you now! I'm assuming you are teachable. No, it's not Martial Law, whether it's the past or the present (threat). I have just come to that conclusion mid-day today, New Year's Day 2017. What triggered this essay just now is the Facebook post that linked to the commentary by Mart del Rosario, whom I do not know, and who according to Inquirer.net is a retired advertising-PR consultant ("What's the big deal with martial law?" 01 January 2017, opinion.inquirer.net ). I would put that title like this, "What's the big deal about Martial Law?" but it's no big deal, if you know what I mean. Mart is saying: These days you hear more and more about interesting times ahead. PRody is just about ready to declare martial law, according to his chief legal counsel, who as usual is