Kubonismo©

The current roster of transportation modes in the Philippines

1. Kalesas: The perfect way of getting around the old city
of
Manila, quiet,
romantic, breezy and elevated two-passenger horse driven carriage, takes you
back to the 1800s.

.

2. Jeepneys: An evolved form of the WWII US Army willies,
the symbol of Philippine culture, ingenuity and resourcefulness. It seats ten
to 14 passengers.

.

3. Tricycles are very colorful motorcycles with sidecars
attached, for the adventurous. It seats two to four passengers.

.
4. Both air-conditioned and open window buses, will take you
anywhere.

5. Pedicabs are smaller pedal-powered Tricycles, quiet and
relaxing. Seats two.

.

6. Bankas are pumpboats native to the Philippines;
they take you from one beach to another. Smaller bancas are paddle powered or
sailboats. Five to 20 passengers.

.

7. Taxis, just like any other taxi in the world.

8. Light Rail Transit/Metro Rail Transit, probably the most
convenient and busiest mode of getting around the metro area, unfortunately
there are only two lines that exist as of this time.

9. FXs: Recent additions to the transportation problem/solution;
SUV looking owner type vehicles that generally seat 7 people, air-conditioned
and are not quite colorful like the jeepneys.

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                    My recommendations/commandments

1. Place jeepney/bus stops every 2 miles, with stop signs clearly indicating what your location is and what the previous and next locations was/will be. Jeepneys and buses cannot stop anywhere to drop-off/pick-up passengers unless they are at a PUJ/PUB stop(public utility jeepney/bus) Anyone else that want to be picked up/dropped off from/to anywhere else can take the taxi. This means setting up fixed routes with set times and schedules.

2. Buses must not run the same routes as jeepneys. They are designed for longer routes. There will not be any long distance jeepney routes. The jeepneys and buses can interconnect but must not run the same route.

3. Taxis will be hailed by hand signal or preferably cellular phone text messages
     and will have meters and set fares.

4. Tricycles will be banned from the Philippines until the time that a quiet and non-polluting engine is made available to replace the current inefficient motor.

5. Pedicabs will run like taxis but will be restricted to their specific barrios. Each
     one will be registered and the drivers will have ID’s on them at all times.

6. Motor powered bancas will be banned with the same restrictions much like the
     tricycle, sailboats and paddle powered bancas are not restricted but will be registered and sailors/operators will have IDs available at all times. Each banca will have a wireless transmitter/receiver for communications (cellphones with text message capability is acceptable) There will be fixed routes for each banca and each boat will have an emergency action plan (with detailed alternate embarkation points listed) located in each vehicle

7. The LRTs/MRTs will be expanded from the biggest cities way up north Luzon to the little provinces as far south as land exists. The same will be constructed in the big islands of Visayas and Mindanao, ultimately the 3 main regions will be connected by a series of LRT/MRT, a MagLev (magnetically levitated) train will run from Babuyan Island to Sultan Kudarat.

1. There will be a unified pass system instead of separate cards for travelers.
2. The downward escalators will be removed. Elevators will be provided for the elderly and handicapped.
3. Stairs will be made wider (four abreast)
4. All escalators will only be going up, and placed side by side with stairs. The stairs will be color coded, green for going up and red for going down. There will not be any red escalator.
5. There will be diagrams posted above each door showing routes and the next station will be announced 20 seconds before the train comes to a stop.
6. Two rows of seats per car will be provided to the elderly and handicapped and anyone can occupy the seats until it is needed by the elederly or handicapped.

8. The FXs will either be running like taxis or jeepneys but will have a specific
     route either way, personally I don’t see a reason to have these things around unless a national auto manufacturing company is established. FX’s will be restricted to Philippine designed/made vehicles with Philippine designed/built engines.

9. All routes will be marked and known, each route will be assigned a number
     starting from within the metro Manila area with single digits, spreading to the provinces for dual digits and farther out with 3 digit assignments. (i.e., 1-9 for Metro Area, 10-20 for provinces, and 100-500 for outlying regions) A website will be created that uses the latest web based technologies to show routes and estimate
     travel times for passenger.

10. All vehicles (official, public and private vehicles, running on land, sea, air and space) running in all forms of petroleum fuel will be smog checked and must pass a pollution inspection. Smog violators will pay a fine and must initiate repairs, submit to and pass a smog check. If the vehicle cannot pass after all proper repairs have been made then the vehicle will be banned from using public roads. Law enforcement officers will issue tickets that will be paid at a centralized department of motor vehicles. A toll free hotline will be available to report smoking, leaking vehicles
     and smog violators. A reward system will be in place.

11. The department of science and technology with the help of the department of
     motor vehicles will hold annually a jeepney standardization/modernization contest. There will be a big push to convert all existing jeepneys to electric.

      Anyway these are improvements I would like to see now, I
believe it would save the Philippines from pollution and traffic congestion and greatly enhance the beauty and health
of the Philippines and its citizens. Just a dream for now, maybe next time you visit the Islands you will see these improvements.

I’m still reading :
The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu 

I hear the sound of taps in the background… Its quiet… time to turn over it’s 11 pm in an army camp in South Korea.
Tomorrow is the big day to see if I’ve learned anything about fitness since Ive arrived here in the peninsula, Its just seems unfair that I’ll have to do it knowing I’ve injured my knees Wednesday. I got back from my 15-day vacation to the Philippines last week and I’ve been training heavily since Fri knowing that I’m competing tomorrow, the only problem is heavy training brings injuries and I’ve popped my knees, sprained my ankles and my hurt my ribs and my forearms… shouldn’t have been training too hard. On the positive side Ive had 2 days of very light workout and the rest should make me at least healed enough for Saturday noon’s fight.

I am probably in my best shape right now since I’ve injured my back while I was still stationed at DM, after that injury I’ve shot from 135 pounds to 175 lbs (my heaviest) while i was in Iraq (stress haven’t helped) now I’m back to 145 and  hopefully by mid next month be at 140. When that happens then I’ll start training to add muscle mass and reach my goal of carrying twice my weight.

Since November I’ve been core training and increased my flexibility.. I’ve cut down on animal fat considerably (with the help of my no-mammal meat diet) have completely gone smoke free and cut down on my alcohol consumption.. Since arriving here Ive ended my polyphasic sleep test and have gone to a normal 6 hour a night rest (also became a day worker)… This whole lifestyle change will either kill me or make me stronger.

Having a well rounded life is what the air force aims for its airmen, not because of better performance reports scores, it is a life changer, it enhances your life experiences.. The lord has given us talent investment, what we do with that investment is up to us, we can either dig a hole and keep it there or use the money and create wealth. Each one of us has the same potential for greatness, for enlightenment, for happiness. Our bodies are god’s temple, we must keep it holy and sound, you can be all spiritual all you want, be all knowing, and amass all the riches in the world, but without god’s home, it is all for nothing. The soul doesn’t need a body to exist, but it does need one to make a change in the world. Our bodies are part of our selves, it is our window to the world and it is the vessel in which we store the wisdom and beauty of god, It is our way of means of embracing our beloved and followers and the children of god.

Clean out your temple, make it fit for the lord to live in, sometimes we have to destroy and rebuild the house of god, but we do not have much time. Act now, tomorrow is too late.

(NEW) Latin word: Shingle, n. glarea,f.; scandula,f.

I’m currently reading :
The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu 

Yesterday was world water day , and as we near the "Supposedly Hydrogen Economy" then water will be a scarcer commodity.

The theme of this year’s World Water Day is Coping with Water Scarcity. The United Nation’s prediction that by 2025, 1.8 billion people will live in regions or countries with “absolute water scarcity.” Drinking water, agriculture, sanitation and sustainable industry – none are possible without access to water and all are required to lift regions out of poverty.

One way of resolving our water problems is through the effective and efficient use of water. I’ve completed the floor plans Ate Emy’s house in Hermosa, Bataan,

The hybrid kubo/earth ship construction is built using worn-out trash dump destined automobile tires and other recycled materials. Cooling and heating is provided by the planet through the massive thermal blanket that surrounds the house. It has an extensive water system that provides both cold and hot water though a passive solar water heater system. Rain water is collected from the thatch roof and silt-filtered in to a collection Cistern, the clean water is used throughout the house, the waste water (gray water) generated at the kitchen and the baths are routed to an indoor filtering pond where water-loving plants break down and use the waste water as fertilizer and creates clean gray water to be used for flushing the toilets, liquid and solid waste from the latrines are routed to the black-water systems, to be broken down into non-hazardous soil and enriches the surrounding flora facade. 

The whole system is able to provide the house its yearly water needs. plans are available for additional dry wells for additional storage from run-off during monsoon months. The system simulates the previous job of a tropical rain forest in filtering, storing and distribution of crystal clean rainwater.

This house will use approximately 500 tires and 2000 glass bottles destined for the dump. Using recycled materials lowers down construction material costs and uses a resource that people have classified as unusable. It effectively reduces landfill use. It doesn’t look like we will be getting rid of automobiles soon, so there will always be throw away tires available.

I’m done with the floor plan after modifying my original plans from a 2-story bungalow into a 1-level unit. I’ve removed the second cistern and instead increased the diameter of cistern #1, consolidated both baths into a bigger room complete with bathtub, 2 showers, 2 toilets and dual sinks. Ive also situated all water system facilities close together to reduce piping costs. The finished plan is a 900 square feet 4 bedroom, 2 bath, hybrid earth-ship/kubo construction with natural lighting in mind.

Another side effect of building this way is that the inside walls are leaning away and provide more room as you go up towards the roof. Hopefully once we start with this project people will see that there are other ways of building their homes, back to basics again without sacrificing comfort. It is a high-tech way of building a house, make that retro-tech way of home building since we are just using what is already available for thousands of years and implementing them in a new way that resolves some of our problems at this time. So Yesterday starts the plans for Kubonismo and as soon as I head back to the Philippines, it will materialize.

I’m currently reading for the third time:
The War with Earth by Dave Grossman & Leo Frankowski
I’ve lost this book on my way to the Airport.. Damn, gotta get another copy

I’m 31 years old I tell myself, i should already be in the desert finding myself.. Which I was and I did, not exactly but did find out the path to self discovery. A feeling not of fear but hastiness, a foreboding feeling that my time here is short and I should be doing everything I can to make a difference for my loved ones and for all the beings in the universe.

But how can one start on the path of service when your beloved feels that he/she has been taken for granted, being left out, not loved? It’s a very thin line you have to walk on.. One where you give yourself, your all to the service of humanity but lose and deny your beloved her/his share, or spend blissful ignonimity in Lethe-like abandon in the arms of your beloved ignoring the suffering of the universe.

Could this be the reason why Siddharta left his Palace, wife and kids to be a renunciate? Why the Carpenter Nazarene have spent life in single blessedness… I’ve heard about this and some statisticians have actually correlated a persons productivity and ingenuity in reciprocal to his love life. Great minds fall when all consuming love is realized. Poets lose their touch… The muse leaves in the afterglow and sometimes never returns. Sometimes the pain and longing is necessary.

My choice in this matter… I choose service. Not because I am taking my beloved for granted, but because true love waits, but does not wait forever. True love supports, true love trusts in his/her beloved. Reflect on this.

And I do this not because I relish the pain of being separated from my beloved, But hoping in the future to share the fruits of my labor and to bring forth a better world to share in. Please be patient with me, I love you with all my heart, but remember that True Love is not selfish. Service means Sacrifice.

I’m currently reading for the third time:
The War with Earth by Dave Grossman & Leo Frankowski
This book is part of my personal collection.