usapang kanin

"Tangina Mo, Andaming Nagugutom sa Mundo Fashionista Ka Pa Rin!"

– Radioactive Sago Project

There’s an unwritten rule among Bene High students (especially among the ladies) that prohibits the eating of everything on one’s plate during a meal. If I’m not mistaken, the generally accepted quantity of leftovers is at least five spoonfuls of rice and at least two bite sizes of the main course. Of course, this goes to show that the more food you leave on your plate, the more socially attractive you become. Everybody who’s anybody (even those who are at least trying to be) knows this rule very well.

I have no idea when the tradition started or if it’s still being practiced today; but during my time, it was social suicide to go beyond the usual rice intake regardless of how hungry one is. It’s probably the culture of wastefulness that generates the sweet air of affluence. Mga taga-bene nga naman. Ridiculous, I know, but it used to make sense to me back then when being socially accepted was more important than being sensible.

Four years later, I moved out of comfort zone and headed for the urban jungle known as Manila. College life along Espana is not for the faint of heart. For one, it takes forever to get there, no matter where you’ve come from.

In this side of Manila, a complete meal of P15 is more than just possible; it’s edible. As I discovered the cheap offerings of small restaurants (more like hole-in-the-wall eateries) that line the eskinitas along Dapitan, eating at the usual fast food joints became a rare commodity. Each time we eat, my college classmates would look at me with curious eyes, perhaps a little concerned over my habitual wastefulness. I didn't realize I carried on such a foolish tradition. From time to time they would raise their concern and tell me all about the hungry people who subsist on garbage for food. Of course the idea of young children going hungry because of me was enough to pierce through my conscience, enough to force me to finish everything up to the last grain of rice, thinking that by eating everything there will be one less hungry person in the world.

Since then, it had been an old habit of mine to constantly remind my fellow eaters about the prevalent malnourishment in the world. And just like me, they would blindly oblige and gobble up whatever’s left of their meals. Until one classmate—probably fed up from all the persistent malnutrition alerts—pointed out, “bakit, pagkinain ko ba ‘to lahat, mabubusog ba sila?” So rude yet so true—until prices of rice started soaring to outrageous heights.

Lucky for our family, we are not so much of a rice-eater that’s why we can still afford to indulge in the P60 per kilo jasmine rice (it’s really the gas that’s depleting our resources). Our monthly rice consumption is probably just around 3 kilos, so it’s not much of a burden—yet. Imagine if we’re all boys, my mother would have gone crazy! It would have been miserable, just like when my dad was a lot younger. He told me their family used to eat just rice and soy sauce every day and it was a good meal already, a lot better than having nothing to eat. They were very poor, and there were 13 mouths to feed in the family.

Whenever my dad would tell me stories about his past, I can’t help but feel so guilty for having everything I need (not want; i don't belong to a well-to-do family) within easy reach. It sucks that my dad had to live that kind of life, but it sucks more knowing that most Filipino families still live and eat that way. Now, with oil prices hitting the ceiling and rice becoming an endangered commodity, what more is left for them to eat?

It’s no wonder food riots are happening all over the world (yes, it’s not just in our country). Even if governments are trying their damn best (I sure hope they are) explaining to people how the law of supply and demand eventually led to steep price increases, the people wouldn’t listen, let alone understand. And we can't blame them. They only measure the state of the nation by the growling of their stomachs. And believe me, it’s hard to speak to the belly especially if the growling is so loud.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. I know, I know, but let’s not resort to barbarism and other forms of deviltry here. After all, we’re talking about the government, not the Ministry of Magic. While they can make money disappear in one flick of a finger, they can’t pull sacks and sacks of rice from their magic hats! That would be too much to ask. So let’s not take over the streets and throw paint balls on Shell’s building façade. Believe me, whatever you say will just fall on deaf ears. Besides, did you honestly think that the CEOs and COOs would clean it up themselves? No, sweetie, it’s the poor janitor, whose daily earning will remain dormant despite the additional de-painting job you just hurled at him.

Times like these call for frugality, and maybe even a little creativity. Sometimes, we have to go through crunch time so we could learn to look at other assets available under our noses. You see, people now are beginning to take a second look at public transportation. What used to be so eewie and unflattering among social climbers is now a favored way to go from point A to point B. Moms are beginning to see the light in replacing their 60-watt incandescent light bulb with a 13-watt fluorescent lamp. Governments are now considering the commercial consumption of alternative sources of energy that are cheaper, renewable, and earth-friendly. And hopefully my schoolmates in Bene have undertaken a healthier perspective on food intake.

In my recent travels to Ilocos Sur, I’ve learned about the cultural and historical roots of their food and eating habits. Unlike in France and other parts of Europe, eating in this side of the country is driven by the will to survive. They don’t think about the flavors and aromas or what kind of wine would go well with it. They eat because they have to, and they cook whatever they can find in their immediate environment be it an ant, a sparrow, a frog, or a rodent. Whether I had the stomach to try them all would be discussed in another entry in another time.

I’m not saying we should eat our pets, let alone eat our house pests. I’m saying we can look at different alternatives to ease or maybe even avert the growing global demand for rice. In Africa, people eat bananas as a meal staple instead of rice. Not only does it grow abundantly in our country, but it also has a slew of nutritional benefits not found in rice.

It’s true that need is the mother of all inventions. Let’s take this opportunity to shut our mouths, use our heads, and stamp out our debilitating culture of wastefulness. Mass movements will mean nothing unless we collectively adopt a more rational method of using our resources.