<font color='black' size='2' face='arial'><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4"><b>Bamboo and the
weather</b><br>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">In the movie <i>Crouching Tiger Hidden
Dragon</i>, warriors defying the laws of physics walk on billowing bamboo tops
as they chase each other in a highly choreographed dance of <i>Tai Chi, </i>a remarkable feat of
cinematography, on the one hand, and a mythological drumming of the
imagination, on the other.</font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family:"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">I stopped by Wudanshan in Shiyan Prefecture last year
where the Taoist section of the <i>Wushu </i>martial
arts of the movie was shot. From Shiyan
in Hubei all the way to Fujian in the east cost are moso bamboo forests (<i><span style="color:#1C1C1C;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">Phyllostachys edulis</span></i><span style="color:#1C1C1C">, moso, or
tortoise-shell bamboo,</span><span style="color:#092F9D"> </span><span style="color:#1C1C1C">or mao zhu)</span>, remarkable for their shiny
skin sheen and the absence of sticky spikes.
The bamboo grows like the grass it is in China’s eastern hills, plains
and shores.</font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">Living with the bamboo is an Asian source of rich metaphors. The tinkling <i>tinikling, </i>bamboo stick dance of my former archipelagic home,
celebrates a lifestyle of avoiding the clashing bamboo branches in a storm
(typhoon/hurricane) by dancing in between the clashes. Grace under pressure!</font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">Were I Nikos sitting in Cyprus watching the clouds hovering over
Olympus at a distance, I probably would not see anything across the Aegean, as
I am sure the skies have become overcast like the rest of the planet. But the weather in Dong Bei in late May would
have forgiven Nikos if he said that the Olympian gods had gone wild! </font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">We already had rains in spring but I did not shelve the long john in
our wardrobe for the cold vacillated with the reluctant sun. We had a day when short sleeves left us
sweating in the sweltering heat, shattered by lightning and thunder with cold
winds in the early night. The following
day, the sun came out strong again, until an afternoon hailstorm triggered all
the automatic sound alarms in the parked vehicles to blast a discordant
symphony of blaring sirens and flashing lights.
Pedestrians sought cover under apartment door eaves, as umbrellas were
no protection to the ice-cube sized hail that peppered parasols.</font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">Hard rain pelted Guangdong southwest of Hong Kong causing flooding in
urban center Shenzhen. Nikos would be
forgiven if he thought Zeus had been peeing under his toga and Minerva could
not hold her countenance. But where rain
was not needed, there was too much, and where it was needed so badly, nary was
there a drop. My normal two-week spring
did not last a couple of days. Summer
arrived with a vengeance, making us suddenly neighbors to Taklimakan and the
Gobi. My Shenyang sunroom is my solarium
of potted plants. I usually sit in the
morning to soak the warm rays, think and write but it turned into a Turkish spa
with heat making cozy friends to my sweat pores. </font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">The thunder and rain followed us in the wetlands of northeast Texas
as storms darkened the skies and tornadoes touched down on Okie land, making an
internationally diverse group gathered at a symposium on realistic living
grateful for the relief on Texas hot, though fierce lightning in the night
scared the bejesus out of our fragile souls.
We found harsh winds in Chicago even as tornadoes wrecked homes in
Wisconsin, ferocious twin twisters leveled Pilger, Nebraska to the ground, and
South Dakota battled the twirls. Some powerful
voices in the U.S. Congress still find no alarm in the radical changes happening
with our weather but denial has become more prominent than the river in Egypt.</font></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">The resilient bamboo that grows fast and in some places is used as fancy
flooring when made into plywood (plyboo@) is an eco-friendly alternative to
hardwood. Full maturity happens in five
years compared to hardwood that matures as long as 120 years. It is also self-renewing because the root
system remains intact after harvest, preventing rapid soil erosion that follows
hardwood harvests. In its natural
environment, it grows without the assistance of chemicals (insecticides and
pesticides). The carbon footprint in
production and utilization is very low though some have criticized the
transport cost since a majority of the product comes from China.</font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">I am in no way suggesting a direct correlation between bamboo and the
weather. The production of plyboo
requires high urea formaldehyde (allegedly no longer used), a high dosage being
a health hazard, though the material is widely used for bonding in toys. As a resin, it is a derivative from oil, so
that is a plus in oil utilization. I am
suggesting that where bamboo grows naturally, they can be cultivated for their
eco-friendly quality rather than from the perspective of raking a profit. To be sure, activities surrounding its use
have to be viable commercially to continue its use, but it is prudent not to make
it a profit making investment but rather as an inexpensive environmentally
friendly ally, universally supported by the public through its governments.</font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">As to the weather and climate change, the easy way out is
denial. We are way past the option of
restitution; our option is adaptive evolution, a metabolic change in the
specie. We humans are resilient as the
bamboo. Be pliant!</font></span></div>
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<div style="clear: both;"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4"><i>j'aime la vie</i><br>
<a href="mailto:pinoypanda2031@aol.com">pinoypanda2031@aol.com</a><br>
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<div><i><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!</font></i></div>
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