Accents
Hunting for a column
Bluffton, South Carolina, March 10, 2006-The Filipino Channel has been giving us a blow-by-blow account of the recent Marcosian event that engulfed the motherland. It was as if we ourselves together with the rest of the demonstrators tussled with the truncheon-wielding policemen. Anchors and commentators chewed to the tiniest morsel Presidential Proclamation 1017 like it were a piece of juicy beef brisket (a favorite at One Hot Mama's, a Filipino-run bistro in downtown Bluffton). Arroyo's version of Martial Law stirred the hornets' nest, resulting in heavy traffic in the intergalactic space. Pinoy texters and bloggers sent in their two cents' worth, the TV anchors faithfully reading them. Me? For the moment, I'm indulgently savoring self-censorship, a side dish of PP 1017. I'm reining in my horses, holding in reserve the fury to unleash them at the most opportune time.
Now I'm hunting for a topic to write on. Say, why not a column about hunting? Indeed, why not?
The idea struck me when Oscar emcee Jon Stewart made a swipe at US Vice Pres. Dick Cheney during the Academy Awards night last Sunday. Those who have cable TV in the homeland must have caught Stewart's The Daily Show, a laugh-riot of an entertainment fare. Stewart is also the author of AMERICA (The Book) A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction. (Hey, guys, if you understood why the last word in the subtitle is spelled one word, then you know why Jon Stewart is a liberal whose jabs are laced with humor. Stewart dedicates his book To the huddled masses, Keep yearnin' which goes to show that he is anathema to the conservatives and Republicans like Cheney. But I digress too much.
The vice president (not our Noli de Castro) featured in an accidental shooting a month ago, Feb. 11 to be exact. Known to be "an excellent shot," Cheney mistakenly shot Harry Whittington, a 78-year old lawyer, his hunting partner in a Texas ranch. Much brouhaha was made about the mishap because it was released to media only after 24 hours had elapsed from the time it happened. I would say the delay is unacceptable because it involved the second most powerful person in the most powerful country in the world. Whittington is now out of danger, and a quote from the vice president made a fitting cap to the incident: "You know, I've never felt so bad about anything in my life."
Thus the barb around here goes: "Would you like to go hunting with the Vice President?" Would you? A question the average Joe would probably guffaw. Although stationed quite a distance from the vice president, the secret service men in the entourage would make the ordinary hunter uneasy. Moreover, heaven forbid, one may end up another Whittington.
Hunting as a pastime? I do not know for you, but never in my wildest dreams have I imagined hunting as a hobby. Kind of distasteful to me. You hear the crack of a shotgun, and you know a life was felled whether it is that of a quail, a deer, a wild duck, or pheasants. Or, even that of pen-raised game birds in the exclusive hunting range of the rich. What is most distressing is that, if you missed as in the case of Cheney, the shot could mean the life or death of a fellow hunter.
It is said Cheney and partners sometimes cook for dinner the birds they shoot which is all very well. Stalking them in the marshlands won't be for naught. Fun for Cheney and company, and dinner feast, too.
I wonder if deer and wild boars are still roaming the Panay mountain range. In West Virginia, also called the Mountain State, where my daughter Randy used to practice medicine, a herd of twenty to thirty deer would go down from the hills and graze up to their backyard. My husband Rudy and I said that if this were the Philippines, all those deer would have been hunted for food.
Hunting as a hobby is nil in Bayan Ko. In the remote areas of the country, hunting has always been for survival-that is, for food. That I can safely say without fear of contradiction, as the cliché goes
The hunting aficionado would benefit from this hunting tip in the February issue of Field & Stream about tracking game through leaf litter: "Big-game tracks on leaf-covered ground are tough to see from a standing position. If you lose an animal's trail, crouch down to get your eyes close to the ground. Look for a series of disturbances in the fallen leaves in the direction the track was last headed. Sight this path as far as possible, then walk to the point where it disappears and take another low-angle view." A tip applicable to wide areas of leaf-covered grounds that-sad to say-have become rare in our denuded forests.
These questions bear asking: How rich of game are our mountains? Have they gone hopelessly bald no more wildlife are to be found? How safe are we from the potential threat of another disastrous mudslide? Are reforestation efforts really getting somewhere? How vast or limited are our hunting grounds for those who need to put food on the table? Paging the DENR's forestry people.
(Comments to lagoc@hargray.com)