Vote Now: The World Challenge

I don't like watching local news sometimes. It almost always makes me nauseous and sick and I just walk away with a general feeling of helplessness at how stupid we, as a people, can sometimes get. And seeing Francis Escudero's face every freakin' night adds a hint of revulsion to helplessness... ugghhh.. Bottomline, I get insomnia.

Goodness knows we NEED something that's positive and good on the tellie. I came across this while watching GMA 7's 24 Oras. For some strange reason pinyapol finds ABS-CBN's TV Patrol revolting. Hmm... but that is another story altogether I think.

A segment in 24 Oras showed how a local agricultural engineer Justino Arboleda has managed to turn waste from cocounut husks into good use. Husks are the hairy fibrous parts you see when you crack open a mature coconut. Our mum mainly uses those for her orchids :) but generally, it gets thrown out.

Now, Engr. Arboleda and his company makes coco husks into COCONET or coconut geotextile, that when laid on a tract of land, acts as surrogate roots and prevent soil from eroding further. Considering our forest cover has gone down to 18%, this is good news indeed. In fact, COCONET is helpful to agriculture, period. His invention has been nominated in The World Challenge, a joint project between Newsweek and BBC, supported by Shell. COCONET is pitted against 11 other practices/projects.

All we have to do is VOTE for COCONET and help spread the good news (note: you will need to submit your email address for verification purposes). And I'm telling you, this is not a hoax, as other good news have turned out to be in the past...

To vote, click on this link. Voting ends 16th October. The winner shall be announced 17th November.

Vote now, mga kababayan ko. Vote now, mga bisdak :)