RIGHT off the bat, we ask: Would you prefer listening to the bad news messenger or to the good news deliverer?

Your answer to this and that of the rest of theoretical respondents will quickly reveal the percentage of the nation’s populace that want to bring this nation down and those who want it to rise – despite all odds.

Taken against the current preoccupation of media to herald the bad news about the rice situation by incessantly ranting from its own safe “pulpits” on the air, on print or in the blogs as though Armageddon was nigh and coming terrifyingly real, we can only wish many of these characters were the true pundits they proclaim themselves to be.

But the truth is, these purveyors of the bad news, more often than not, are simply parroting their readings from other people’s declarations, even unabashedly drawing off-tangent conclusions from the statements of real experts in the field to paint a situation as bleak as they prefer it to be.

The result is that those who hardly know, or who do not know any better, who hear or read the “preachers of doom” become alarmed, panicked, spooked to the extreme. And thus not knowing any better, unconsciously become part of the escalating tension in the country, buying in excess, stocking in frenzy and overall throwing the supply of the prime staple in disarray to the detriment of every grain-eating creature in the Philippines.

Such waste! Such mindless drivel!

The need of the hour in this country is for calm and sobriety in the face of the worldwide challenge to invent more creative strategies for food production and sustainable living. Let us all thrown our support towards this direction and for this worthwhile endeavor while going about our normal ways.

The next time you hear the doomsayers on radio or read them in print, shut their valves off. It could be the best thing you’ll ever do for yourself and for this beautiful planet.