Holism & Rex Victor Cruz. The Nobel Prize & UP Los Baños Chancellorship

ASINGAN, PANGASINAN - Even in my hometown, now it's very public; 250 is the number of email addresses that "AN OPEN LETTER TO DR REX VICTOR OR CRUZ & DR FELINO P LANSIGAN" was sent to. When you write an open letter to people, do you cc the people concerned? In fairness, I should hope so, because this letter imputes "intellectual dishonesty" and "lack of academic integrity" on both Cruz and Lansigan for claiming that they share the 2007 Nobel Prize for Peace with the IPCC and Al Gore (see also my "Nobel Prize, Please! Rex Victor Cruz & Felino Lansigan as awardees," 27 August 2011, University Matters, blogspot.com). And I should say, it's very well-reasoned out.

The signatory to the letter is the UPLB-Coalition of Concerned Constituencies but there are no names listed, so I can't tell you. But it's a very serious matter now and no longer a joke (like my "Nobel Prize, Please!"), because the open letter was sent to important people: Kiko Pangilinan, Legal UPLB, Loren Legarda, MB Villar, Media Group of Chiz Escudero, Miriam, offices of UP Los Baños (LGMO, OAR, OASH, OC, OCREL, OICA, OIL, OPR, OSA, OSPML, OVCA, OVCCA, OVCI, OVCPD, OVCRE, OVPAA, PPMSO, Registrar, SOCA, SOCAS, SOCDC, SOCEAT, SOCEM, SOCFNR, SOCHE, SOCVM, SPMO, SWF, Systems, TREES, UHO, UHS, UPF, UPRHS, UPSIO), Office of Sen Joker Arroyo, Pia Cayetano, Sen Escudero, Sen Lito Lapid, Sen Trillanes, Sen Enrile, Bong Revilla, Serge Osmeña, and Jinggoy Estrada. It's not something you can sneeze at, which the camps of Rex Victor Cruz and Felino Lansigan did.

The open letter is all of 837 words, emailed on 31 August 2011 at 1256 hours Manila time. (It's too long to reproduce here, but if you want a copy, you can send your email request to frankahilario@yahoo.com.) In the meantime, I think the very first paragraph of the letter summarizes the whole thing nicely, if frankly and honestly and bluntly:

We are heartened that many of your friends, supporters and colleagues acknowledge the serious implications of your preposterous official and public claim of sharing the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the damaging effects of such absurd claim on the reputation of our university in which you are both erstwhile held in high esteem. We are pleased that they have strongly advised you to take the "daang matuwid" and put an honorable closure on this very disturbing display of intellectual dishonesty and lack of academic integrity by publicly apologizing to the constituents of our university and irrevocably withdrawing your nominations / candidacies in the search for the next chancellor of UPLB.

"Ang Daang Matuwid" is President Noynoy Aquino's The Straight Path, or The Right Way, his mantra on good governance. Not bad, not bad at all. If you ask me, it's really good advice,except perhaps for the word "preposterous" - synonyms: absurd, outrageous, laughable, ridiculous, ludicrous, silly, outlandish, unbelievable. But it comes with a Price (not a Prize, I'm sorry to say):

Apologize to us and withdraw your candidacy as Chancellor of UP Los Baños!

All the UProar arises from the fact that in Cruz's Résumé (I don't have a copy of Lansigan's), under "Awards and Distinctions," he has this entry (rexcruz.org):

Nobel Peace Prize 2007, shares with International Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) and former US Vice President Al Gore.

The proper claim is like this (thefullwiki.org):

4 of 6 Filipinos in the UN IPCC that won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize are UPLB professors Juan Pulhin, Rodel D Lasco, Rex Victor Cruz and Felino P Lansigan.

It was the IPCC that won (along with Al Gore) the Nobel, not Pulhin, Lasco, Cruz or Lansigan. Since Pulhin and Lasco aren't claiming that they too are Nobel awardees, they must know something that Cruz and Lansigan don't.

Not only that. In news reports, Cruz has been quoted and cited as a Nobel Prize awardee, and he neither protested nor corrected the report. (See for instance, "Total logging ban will lead to disaster: Nobel awardee," 16 February 2011, Manila Standard Today, manilastandardtoday.com). The reporter (not named) would not have known that Cruz was such and such if Cruz or someone in his camp didn't volunteer that information. The intent is clear: Use the Nobel Prize for Peace 2007 as a halo around the head. Actually, in this case, the halo belongs to the IPCC and Al Gore, no doubt about it, while Cruz is just basking in reflected glory, knowing that the halo is not his.

Hello?! Here are some appropriate words from the lyrics of Beyoncé's song Halo:

Everywhere I'm looking now
I'm surrounded by your embrace
Baby I can see your halo
You know you're my saving grace
You're everything I need and more
It's written all over your face
Baby I can feel your halo
Pray it won't fade away.

The winners of the Nobel Prize are the saving grace? In this case, I pray that the halo around the heads of IPCC and Al Gore will not fade away and just leave Rex Victor O Cruz (and Felino P Lansigan) basking in reflected glory.

Is it that Rex Victor Cruz (and Felino Lansigan) imagine themselves being surrounded by the embraces of Indian Rajendra Pachauri (head of IPCC) and Al Gore (his own man) and sharing their honor?

Another metaphor: When Cruz (or Lansigan) claims that he is a Nobel awardee, it's also like the tail wagging the dog.

Indeed, Rex Victor Cruz and Felino Lansigan were members of the IPCC when it shared with Al Gore the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2007. Currently, the member countries of IPCC number 194 (ipcc.ch); if there are 2 members from each country, that counts to 388 members. Using the logic of Cruz (along with Lansigan), 194 countries and 388 scientists shared the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2007 with the IPCC and Al Gore! Of the 388 scientists, what possible major contribution could Cruz have made to help the IPCC win the prize? We don't know, and he is not saying - and certainly not the IPCC!

This one is not a metaphor: In his Vision for UP Los Baños that he presented as a candidate for Chancellor of UP Los Baños (see his "UPLB: One University, One Goal, One Destiny," rexcruz.org), and knowing that he is a forester and a watershed scientist, and his own vision, "UPLB: One University, One Goal, One Destiny" calls for it, I'm surprised that he uses neither the word nor the concept of holism (or wholism). It would have been perfect!

I learned this one some 35 years ago yet, when I was Chief Information Officer of the Forest Research Institute (now the Ecosystem Research & Development Bureau), as already I was a super-wide reader at that time. Holism uses the concept of wholes. You cannot think of the forest or the watershed except, ultimately, as a whole. So why doesn't Cruz present a unified, integrated, interrelated, interconnected, interlinked view of his Vision programs and plans? Failing in holism, "UPLB: One University, One Goal, One Destiny" is just that, a slogan. To the Vision, Cruz does not present the Mission to accomplish in order to achieve that Vision. There are no Goals and Strategies either. All he has are those "Five (5) Point Thematic Action Agenda" too long to cite (and useless to explain here anyway). At least, he doesn't seem to have a hidden agenda! Or does he?

I'm sure he knows what holism is, but I'm going to simplify it here anyway for the technical people like him, and for those who have no idea:

Holism is where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Let us now apply my definition of holism with the claim of Rex Victor Cruz (not to mention Felino Lansigan) that he is a Nobel Peace Prize 2007 awardee:

For Rex Victor Cruz to claim that he shares the Nobel Peace Prize of 2007 with the IPCC and Al Gore is to claim that the part is as great as the whole.

That is preposterous!