while the dogs are making raucous noise outside, i'm downloading photos from my recent trip to bangkok from my camera. i kow i'm supposed to sleep for an early morning activity tomorrow but i'm finding it difficult to sleep. i'd rather do something productive than curse the dogs.

here's a few photos from the trip to bangkok. the wonderful, the amazing, the eloquent can be seen everywhere.

it felt very much like home and yet very different.

was it that they drove on the other side of the road? or a majority of them have another religion than mine? or was it the languare that try as i might, i could not understand? or was it perhaps an unending patience that i don't quite find with city dwellers in manila?

though i noticed those differences, it never actually bothered me. in fact, i loved the city more than anything else. bkk had its character but more than that, it gave flavor and a great start to my year.

for more than a week, i stayed in bangkok. i was only actually on official business for a few days but i booked my flight for an additional week on a notion that i needed it, not having anything concrete in mind. i did set-up meetings with certain organizations in support of our business back in the philippines it looked like none of them were replying. that said, i had a week open to a lot of possibilities.

but i'm getting ahead of myself. the official business was worth the trip in itself.


i was in bangkok for the global social venture competition: south east asian round. (this competition was started by berkeley and thamassat university in bkk is handling this regional round.) my teammates and i were fortunate enough to be invited into the competition to present our business to a panel of judges and be given a chance to have additional funding. to cut this part of this story short, we didn't get into the next round.

thing is, i still felt like a winner. just being with in bangkok was enough. and added to that, there were other teams that presented their plans to help their country in one way or another. it was inspiring to be around these people. and some even became friends.

one story stood out though during this time: i got to know one of the teams pretty well. this was the team from new zealand. here was a team that i knew that was coming from the heart, in every sense of the word. their presenter, paul, is a maori and he carries his marae heritage with him, proud of it to the very last bit. here's a man who went back to his roots in his twenties and studied the language and the culture. to me, he's a man who loves life and has long accepted where he stands in this world.

he shared with me both his heritage, his dreams for the business he presented and his path as a maori. he talked about his father and how in his last years, he found peace. he talked about marrying a woman of a different tribe and allowing that to further ease the tensions between the tribes. he also showed that he was a student of life, soaking in it fully. there was ease and contentment in the way he talked. and definitely much heart. actually when paul presented, it brought me to near tears. (i was sitting beside my girlfriend when he presented but she didn't notice. haha!)

it was a good thing that i saw the opportunity to talk with such a man (and not be blinded that i couldn't learn anything). i allowed it to change me, and after those conversations, i will never be the same.

his adviser, chris, is another story, but i will reserve that for another entry.


after they left, it set the stage for an amazing week. in the following days, amazingly (if i may use the word again), i was able to set meetings: one with a judge from the competition, another with one of the heads of right to play asian headquarters and with the organizer of the competition. it was a rush of abundance: a possibility of having funding from other sources (and i may be going to kl for this!), finally being able to talk with an organization that i admire and deepen an interaction that was mostly through e-mail.

especially with right to play, i found myself astounded by the fact that i have given up with what i can do with this organization and yet the road leads me here. for those who don't know, i was supposed to do volunteer work for them in africa for about a year but it didn't push through. it was actually heart breaking at that time. now, after talking with them, i have the opportunity to bring the organization to the philippines! (wow!)

bouncing off ideas with these people and having agreements with them made me see how life has always, always turned out well for me. its as if the universe continues to conspire and inspire! sometimes i just refuse to see it. finding this during the week after the competition made my stay absolutely astounding. it wasn't a vacation, rather, it was an immersion to life itself.

no wonder, it felt like home.

"witnessing to one’s deepest convictions, notwithstanding the consequences, is the measure of our humanity. proclaiming the truth to others, whatever the cost, is the mark of authentic humanity."
- manoling francisco, sj, "reclaiming our humanity", homily at the mass for rodolfo noel lozada jr.

again, the philippines is experiencing a shake-up of events. jun lozada, a person who has worked with the government, has exposed the extent of graft and corruption that the present administration is involved in. he has implicated the first family in embezzlement of millions of dollars from a national infrastructure project. it has been made very public with televised senate hearings. though one can try hard to get away from it, inevitably, it can't escape the public consciousness.

these are hard times for the country by taking on a very bitter pill. we have put this president into power during the peaceful revolution back in 2001 and now face the consequences of being unable to provide a consistent accountability structure with regards to government spending. it shows that we, as a filipino people, have not fully opened our wounds for healing.

but beautiful times as well. i see this as the perfect opportunity for transformation, both as individuals and as a society. when i marched along with a million others during the second peaceful mass uprising of 2001, i knew that i could make a difference. i knew from then on that my voice can be heard and that there's an awesome opportunity for change. i know what its like to fight for my country.

on my end, i guess i just forgot that this is a continuous process, it doesn't end with just a single event of installing a new president but rather to take a look at the wounds that have haunted our nation and finally allow it to heal. it is a tipping point, a time where we can set things right and continue towards that path of healing and redemption. what i can see now is not another mass uprising but rather a coalescing group hungry for change, seeking the truth, reclaiming its humanity and pushing forward in action.

real and lasting change has started: people putting up new businesses and providing a number of citizens with jobs, ngo's and foundations empowering the marginalized, the rise of social entrepreneurship, an organized accountability structure on the side of civil society and an amazing private construction boom that the country has never experienced before.

it takes some pounding to break that wall down but slowly and surely, the cracks are starting to show. these are beautiful and amazing times indeed. not often is a society, a country given an opportunity to heal so quickly, so profoundly.

i believe that there are great things destined for this nation. i love my country. more than ever, i am proud to be filipino.