Chemical Imprisonment

The Bible is opened with the story of creation. The creator, at the end of each day’s work said, “It was good.” Really, nature is a world of beauty to be lived with.

But now, in the 20th century, the creation of God has been badly altered—it has become a world of poison. The technochemical achievement as we have now has no heart to care for nature; its effects have the destructive impact upon our society by the poisoning of the biosphere that is, the air, the land and water on which human life depends.

Our modern technology has succeeded in establishing a new lifestyle: dependency on chemical. All strata of modern living are saturated with chemical.

In the field of population control-program of the government, the demographers who think that the lack of food is due to multitude of mouths are promoting chemical and mechanical control of birth. The womb of the mother once the ancient seedbed of life becomes the new killing field. Some babies are strong enough to parry the chemical attack; they come out of the womb victorious but disfigured: one-eyed, one-eared, single foot, one-handed, disharmonized physically and psychologically. The new born baby is already a veteran long before he will be recruited to the military. Beware, Oh Philippine, you are coming up with a new breed of veterans, a monstrous generation to avenge the assault they have undergone by the anti-life peddlers.

In the field of food and health, we eat chemical from the rice we eat. The vegetables are sprayed with chemicals. The baby has all the choice of milk, canned, bottled, instant, fast-manufactured, preserved in chemical; from Swiss cow, from Dutch cow, from Australian cow, from New Zealand cow, from U.S. cow. But none from mother’s milk. It is understandable that the child loves more the cow than the mother, that his heart is cold like nose of the cow. As the baby is denied of his birth-right to his mother’s milk and the warm embrace of a mother’s breast, so also will he learn to reject the parents and humanity as well.

In the field of agriculture, the input components are all synthetic chemicals: fertilizer, pesticide, insecticide, herbicide, inducer for fruiting and ripening.

In the field of poultry and husbandry, we raise foreign pigs, foreign cows, foreign chickens, foreign goats and we feed them with foreign feeds and chemicals.

Is the chemical development a blessing to humanity? Is this the development we want? Is this a curse? Yes, it is a blessing and development to the very few owners of big business but a curse to the many. The benefits of this high-tech chemical achievement go to the very few but the destructive effects to the whole humanity and to the whole earth.

Shall we patronize this sophisticated chemical which suffocates life? I see this situation as a new kind of imprisonment. There is a need to make decision on how to get out of it. I wish to offer an alternative that is beneficial to all life: Let us lead a life that is simple, natural and yet refreshing. As the saying goes in theology, “grace is built in nature.” Let’s try the natural way. Let’s respect the way of nature and nature will care for us. Let’s remember, disgrace is built on the destruction of nature.