Tag: philippines

A Brief History of the War on Kratom

by plasticscreen, posted in Herbalism, Ethnobotany & Nootropics

A few months ago, I noticed a disturbing uptick in kratom scare stories and suggested a new push to ban the plant may soon be underway. Unfortunately, this seems to be the case. Despite bipartisan support in both houses of Congress urging the US to speak to the UN, “industry pressure” is resulting in an attempt to pressure the WHO into banning the plant worldwide. It’s important to see what role friends of the opiate industry like former FDA head and member of multiple pharma boards Stephen Gottlieb have to do with this sudden push as well as to hear what respected scientists from organizations like the National Institute on Drug Abuse have to say about the “junk science” FDA relies on to demonize the plant.

Big thanks to goes to Philippines Kratom for the use of the image. That is some of the kratom that they are growing along with other amazing ethnobotanicals in the southernmost island of the Philippines, Mindanao. They were also quite helpful in sharing links related to the global threat against kratom and sending me a recently published research paper from the Philippines evaluating this centuries

Through the Plastic Screen ep06, Language, Culture, Education & History with Lindo Faelnar

by plasticscreen, posted in Art, Entertainment & Pop Culture, Interviews, plastic screen & Walking the Wire

This week it was my absolute pleasure to take part in a long chat with Lino Faelnar from Defenders of Indigenous Languages of the Archipelago. A lawyer, linguistic expert and language preservationist, Lino is also a genuine renaissance man. Our conversation was all over the map, both literally and figuratively as we bounced around from indigenous Filipino languages to the history of Crimea, Suharto and E. Timor, strange coincidences that seem to connect the Vikings to China, the Basque, Celts and the indigenous Melanesians who inhabited the Philippine islands before the Austronesian migrations. From Dr. Charles Tart to linguist Noam Chomsky and concepts like linguistic fascism or intellectual piracy, we covered quite a bit of ground in a little over 2 hours. Endangered languages and cultural genocide to the importance of folk tales and how stories and language affect our window on the world and much more today on through the plastic screen…

Unfortunately this was the last episode of the podcast for a while. I’ll be on hiatus until I can get the cost of the surgery taken care of and recover from that, but once I have that out of the way, already have several amazing guests from artists to best selling authors and ordinary people with extraordinary stories.

buscalan apo whang od mambabatok

Trekking to Remote Buscalan

by plasticscreen, posted in blog, Travel
In March of 2018 I made the trek out to the remote mountain village of Buscalan in the Kalinga province in the Cordeillero region in northern Luzon, Philippines. We came to try and get tattoos from Apo Whang Od, oldest living Kalinga Tattoo Artist (or “mambabatok”). We weren’t able to get ink from Apo Whang but did get tattooed in the traditional fashion (pomelo thorn, bamboo and charcoal ink).


The trip alone was long, arduous and at times somewhat precarious. After hours spent on an overnight bus ride, we made it to Bontoc, as far as the bus line ran towards our destination. From Bontoc we took a jeepney ride up the Halsema highway, one of the most dangerous highways in all of Asia. I remember wondering why there were so many large stones and boulders in the road… that’s when I noticed that it was because they were regularly just rolling off the side of the mountain.

Holding on to the rails of the top of the jeepney for dear life we rode up the highway up until the point that nothing with wheels could pass. From here we found a guide who accompanied us as we made the steep hike up the narrow path. At one point I ended up losing a sandal which got sucked down into a rice paddy, never to be seen again! Ah, but it was worth it for the once in a lifetime experience we gained.

In this video I go into a little bit of detail about some of the history behind the Kalinga and their tattoo tradition. Thanks to the Goldwater staff, especially my Goldwater co-host Diana Printz who was responsible for video-recording and editing the audio and video together and K2, our a/v guy who mixed the audio of my recording and of course Diana, Maria and Tita Fely for accompanying me on the adventure.


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