Andy playing his bagpipes/Silliman U goes solar

A good friend passed away on December 2, leaving us with happy thoughts of his sense of humor, his appreciation of friends, his love of music, his winsome personality. Us friends must be one in believing that he is playing his bagpipes up there, as he is in our hearts.

Andrew Braid, a Scott, was a resident of Manila for 40 years – brought over by his wife Florangel Rosario Braid whom he met and married in Sri Lanka. At their home in San Juan, Metro Manila, a small group met weekly for Bible study, and there we got to know more about Flor as an academician, a constitutional convention delegate, a caring person. She and Andrew were a good match.

Andy leaves his bereaved wife, Florangel, and children Angus, Nancy, Marian and Ferdinand and their spouses, 10 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

He finished his BA (summa cum laude) from St Francis Xavier University in Canada, and a masters and doctorate in agricultural economics from Cornell University in New York; spent a number of years in agricultural development and cooperatives in countries like India, China, Jordan, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines. At the FAO Office in Rome, he was for 14 years head of the cooperatives division and its representative in Sri Lanka.

His primary contribution during his 40 years of residence in Manila was his seven-year stint as an advisor to the Cagayan Valley Regional Cooperatives Development Program, a joint project of the CIDA (Canadian International Development Assistance) and the Department of Agriculture, to help promote the sustainability of the technical assistance extended to rural communities. These were in cooperatives established in Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Ecija, and other parts of the region.

He was active with the local St. Andrew’s Society where he was vice-chieftain and its resident Piper. “He is now soaring up to the heavens playing his bagpipes and singing with the angels,” a friend texted Flor. “He’s never far at all . . . they never are from those they love as only a fine line separates our plane from theirs,” said another. The Braids’ neighbor said since they heard Andy’s piping, the fairies had disappeared from their garden. “His ‘hour glass’ is now empty. But the lower part is full from his years of caring and sharing with others,” said another friend, a Carmelite priest.

For almost six years, Andy was vice-chieftain and resident piper of the 136-year-old local St. Andrew’s Society. During its centennial in 1979, he co-produced a special “Scotland Forever” for Concert at the Park, composed a musical piece, “Salute to the Manila St. Andrew’s Society” and played several Scottish classics.

Andy and Flor shared the same passion to help farmers and fisherfolk. Flor relates that her association with these people in CIDA projects here and in Sri Lanka helped her realize how the cooperatives can be critical instruments in economic development and social justice. In fact this is the essence of the constitutional provision in the Article on the Economy in our Constitution which she helped draft as a member of the 1987 constitutional convention. She is most proud of this provision authored with other commissioners that became the basis of two laws – the Cooperative Law and the establishment of the Cooperative Development Authority by the late senator Butz Aquino and former Sen. Nene Pimentel who are now known as the fathers of cooperativism.

As a Quaker, Andrew was known as a conscientious objector to war. Thus, during WW I, he joined the Friends Ambulance Unit for China where he helped organize industrial cooperatives. During the cholera epidemic, he drove hundreds of afflicted patients to hospitals, helped treat some, as well as bury the dead.

Andy, a tall, good-looking man,  was a poet, a musician, a magician, a handyman, raconteur (he had a wide repertoire of stories and jokes), a gardener, and one who was most comfortable sharing with farmers and children for whom he was Santa or the Pied Piper at Christmastime. When asked about the secret of his longevity, he would quickly banter, “Cigarettes and whisky, and wild, wild women.”

But levity aside, many who know him think it was his genes as well as yoghurt and yakult. His ancestors who included the psychologist Dr. James Braid (who experimented with mesmerism and hypnotism) and the golfer James Braid who won the Open five times, were known to be hardy Highlanders.

One of the first converts to compost farming, he built two pits in their yard. After the garbage matured, he would run the soil through his fingers and say, “This black gold will save our grandchildren and future generations.” Many of his experiences are documented in his autobiography and memoirs, titled, “The Rainbow in the Bubble.”

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Silliman University signed a partnership agreement with First Solar Orion (FSO) Energy Solutions Inc., (FSO) a Filipino-American company, to install in the 62-hectare Silliman campus a 1.2 megawatt solar power generating capacity, to supply the power needs of the university.

A story written by Celia Acedo of SUResearchNews  notes that the partnership is the largest school-based solar power project in Southeast Asia. Dr. Ben S. Malayang III, Silliman president, signed the agreement with Reynor G. Jamandre, president of FSO, last Dec. 18 at the university. Dr. Malayang said, “We intend to be producing as much as 1.2 megawatts of solar-based energy. Silliman will be the principal consumer and our partner Orion will be our developer and supplier of energy.” He said the project is expected to be operational by June.

Jamandre said, “This is the first and biggest direct-use solar power for a large university, covering the 60 hectares of property of the university.” The installation will come at zero cost to the University, Dr. Malayang said. Silliman’s only commitment to Orion is to use and pay for as much as 100 per cent of the solar energy generated.

Dr. Malayang said the cost for solar energy consumption will be 20 per cent less per kilowatt hour than what it is now paying to Negros Oriental Electric Cooperative (NORECO) II. Jamandre said the solar panels are built to last 25 to 40 years and designed to withstand typhoons of lesser ferocity than Typhoon Yolanda. Orion’s investment in this project is 100 million pesos of direct foreign investment, he said. Jamandre added that the project is Orion’s pledge to provide free solar energy to poor families living around Silliman. “That means it’s not only the university that will be enjoying solar; 240 families to be exact will have free solar lighting,” he said. Dr. Malayang said the project is Silliman’s and FSO’s “modest way of immediately responding to the agreement in Paris in reducing our carbon-based consumption of energy and hopefully leading the way in expanding the scale of use of non-fossil-based fuels.”

Jamandre said the clean energy generated by solar power at Silliman will replace the equivalent of carbon emitted by 240 cars running daily for a year.

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