The second week in April was the premier festival of all Negros Island, Panaad. This festival allows each city on the island to showcase their local delicacies as well as fashions and other cultural folkways like dancing. On previous visits to this festival I was on the search for real honey. So I made my way to the organic section of the festival which was located in a different place from past years.
Because it was early in the morning not many people were out. Walking around nothing really caught my eye. It seemed to be the same old products I have seen being sold at mall kiosks and other organic fairs. That this display of undisputedly fake honey was allowed into the Panaad Organic Village turned me off to the idea of actually finding any real honey.
That is a display of Wise Man's Food Pure Honey which I wrote about in 2017 and which incidentally if you search that name this blog is the first of only two results! Wise Man's Food is fake. Green honey is not to be found anywhere in nature. Who audits these vendors?
Ennui set in real quick as I realised I did not wish to spend much money anyway. Certainly not P200 on a bottle of dubious honey. Walking across the area was a bit of a chore because there were large rocks and my slippers were thin. Rain had fallen the previous night and muddied up the place making the situation worse. Finally I found a vendor selling coffee for P15. I bought a cup and sat down to drink it in peace.
Looking around it occurred to me that something was not right. Then all of a sudden it hit me. This is a construction zone! The organisers of Panaad had moved the organic market to a construction zone. Look at these pictures:
Because it was early in the morning not many people were out. Walking around nothing really caught my eye. It seemed to be the same old products I have seen being sold at mall kiosks and other organic fairs. That this display of undisputedly fake honey was allowed into the Panaad Organic Village turned me off to the idea of actually finding any real honey.
That is a display of Wise Man's Food Pure Honey which I wrote about in 2017 and which incidentally if you search that name this blog is the first of only two results! Wise Man's Food is fake. Green honey is not to be found anywhere in nature. Who audits these vendors?
Ennui set in real quick as I realised I did not wish to spend much money anyway. Certainly not P200 on a bottle of dubious honey. Walking across the area was a bit of a chore because there were large rocks and my slippers were thin. Rain had fallen the previous night and muddied up the place making the situation worse. Finally I found a vendor selling coffee for P15. I bought a cup and sat down to drink it in peace.
Looking around it occurred to me that something was not right. Then all of a sudden it hit me. This is a construction zone! The organisers of Panaad had moved the organic market to a construction zone. Look at these pictures:
Those steel girders are obviously the skeleton of a roof that has not even been completed. And how about all the rocks? Those are not tiny pebbles.
In this photo you can see two tiny concrete pillars amongst the large rocks.
This is a trench filled with broken rubble surrounding one vendors stand. How is this even safe?
More rocks that must be traversed to access a vendor. But this next one takes the cake.
These vendors have constructed a bridge to make access to their table much easier and safer. Otherwise there is huge trench that must be crossed. These people at least had the insight to know that having your customers navigate a deep trench is not a safe idea. So why didn't the organisers of the festival have this realisation? Who the heck thought holding any kind of activity in this construction zone was a good and safe idea? But remember in the Philippines safety comes last.
After finishing my coffee I looked around for a trash bin in which to toss it. I didn't see one at first but I did see these signs:
Where's the trash can so I can clean as I go? It's right here of course:
What a joke. I really do not like Panaad and knowing that they moved the one aspect of the festival I have any interest in to a construction zone and that they allow vendors selling fake products makes me to never want to return.
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