DEAR CONTRACTORS, ARCHITECTS, ENGINEERS, LANDSCAPERS AND BUILDERS
By:  Iris P. Concepcion

Dear Contractors, Architects, Engineers, Landscapers and Builders of the Philippine Government:

I have noticed that your street lights had dimmed over the years, making my shadows smaller and unimpressionable.  I take it personally that I could no longer form my hand dog drawings using your connection.  I suggest, with glimmering aspiration, that our bulbs be retained in their original wattage as the General Electric and Philips handy people had envisioned them.

I propose the following innovations too:

1.  Broccoli light, following the pattern of this vegetable for salads.  Let its stem light fully as its Hiroshima bombing flower on top illuminates a greenish flicker, giving the illusion of a live plant.

2.  I have seen my vision, regrettably, placed ahead by an Indian starving man, on a food cereal advertisement.  His pole swayed like a perfect dancer and his bulb is in flaming orange fruit, resembling a stage klieglight.  I wonder if its actual execution could properly deliver the hues to form my hand drawings.  It is a significant start though.  One step of orange, a bigger leap to broccoli.

I also propose, in the interest of aesthetic justice, to commence your urban development projects from the point of view of a washed stone or a pebble.  The roads in the future shall be made of pebble pools that could generate a possibility of producing my orchid-designed wheels (in pristine white, look Ma, no dust!).

I am bearing an acronym for an easier facility with your future plans using the RMP method (river, mountain and parks development).

Have your rivers rejuvenated; give them a colorful shot in the arm.  The grass could be landscaped like steel, giving the provocative shapes of flowers and live ferns.

Let me return to the rivers: Please, and kindly expand your imagination on this, form arcs on the river streams using either of the following:

1.  Wild flowers i.e., orchids and other crawling plants.

2.  Choose trees, if you intend to plant them around the streams, with colorful leaves (mix of pinks and reds) where spiders (in gray) can spin their webs and catch their prey.

3.  Always cover your rocks with the softest green moss for people to glide in, instead of being wounded by their pointy tips.

And the buildings.  Oh, yes, the buildings.  The Un ited States of America, Europe had transformed their mountains into open space museums for busts and historical markers.  India and the rest of Asian countries (the next exciting place for creative thinking), untouched by internal political strifes in the modern world, have already surged in terms of aesthetic visibilities even in their small towns.  They might look overtly sleepy but their furniture is beyond reproach.

I have seen a signage here in Yala, Thailand, hung in front of a house with a superb string music blaring from its stereo, with these words: Cultural Tour, instead of the usual Guided Tour. I have seen its owner's majestic sofa fit for royalty.

My proposals may seem daunting and unpalatable right now but they could enliven Ninoy Aquino's statue in Makati City.

I do not hold a diploma in Aesthetic Development for Urban Development but my suggestions here could merit a twitch on the brow and a flap on your ears.

I faithfully remain,

A student of  Visionary Development, a diploma course in an unknown university somewhere in Nepal.