Last year was made exclusive for the students, when they opened this year I grabbed it–I made it in TEDxXavier School 2017: Spaces.
Last 2015, I was impressed on how they organized a TEDx event so I got excited when they opened it again this year. The theme is Spaces where speakers shared their spaces and how they used their space to bring change to society.
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Stephanie Yap shares her experience when she went to Antarctica with the 20141 Foundation whose advocacy is about climate change. She recounts how she was amazed with the huge boulders of ice and how rich nature is thriving on this side of the world–leopard seals, crab eating seals, antarctic fur seals, penguins, whales. And while she realized there is a proliferation of life here,
she realized how she was only a guest paying a visit, and the animals are the true inhabitants of this world.
This is the moment she realized that staying there for research and travel was just temporary, that we have to take care and act on the world we are living in.
Miko Espiras shares his space in the kitchen–where he makes something out of nothing. He never really rests because after making delectable desserts in Le Petit Souffle, he goes home and continue to think what treat he will create. And as he shares his presentation, your taste buds will tell you how much you crave for visual and enticing desserts this humble chef made.
He shares how he really love what he is doing and he remembers the first day he worked as he carries heavy sacks and when he meets his previous workmates, they barely recognize him. But working for 10 years in the kitchen, he will not stop creating even circumstances might have changed. He shares,
“If you make your work, a place to thrive out of nothing, you will surely create something glamorous.”
So he reminded that the next time you take a dish, take a moment and appreciate what went behind the dish.
Ricky Dee started from scratch. For years he has been striving with the restaurant that he manages until this 20 year old guy meets Henry Sy. He got a call that night that they have to close late to prepare a dinner for Henry Sy. From then on, he never stopped and soon, he successfully brought here Michelin starred restaurants, Tim Ho Wan, Todd English, Food by David Oldani. He tells,
“The world is ready for the Filipino dish, that is why we have to think global. From one space to another, do not stop from there.”
Gabby Malvar would want to call himself a storyteller. He is a celebrated photographer, producer, director and travel writer. Back when social media was not the main channel to communicate,
“stories were conveyed through a limited number of channels and in magazines. Stories come in different forms and platforms.”
But now, with the age of social media, what used to be 12 stories, you have to encapsulate everything in one minute. It should resonate. Stories are fictional or non-fictional, but for Malvar he prefers the real world,
not on created narratives but actual happenings by documenting. No need to create a dilemma nor create characters.
The real world is a space, no need to compel but to create stories.
He shares his travel in Mindanao where stories about Mindanao was about how they were defined by constructs. There are negative connotations about constructs in the Philippines just like in ARMM. As he went back and forth with this travel, his space has expanded. As he took photos of Sulu, Yakan and the Tausug (tau-people, sug-current), he learns more not as what the media has brought out there. He emphasizes,
Learn more from the narratives. The more I learn, the lesser I know. Thirst for more culture as there is a gap that needs to be bridged. For lasting peace to happen, we need to understand them more and more.
Richard Heydarian shares his experience as a policy adviser and as a professor. Universities, he shares, should be an open space to express ideas. The protection of common space should be observed. Currently, social media and the issue in South China Sea is the common space that should be treated as public good and should be non-exclusionary.
Social media is a double-edged sword and can build polarization. We should be critical with what is real and what is not. Fake news provoke emotions and therefore, we should we guard our own biases not to take over other biases as well.
With the power of social media, it should not be a legacy of likes, a shallow solidarity but a true social revolution. As he reminded everyone, it is high time that we make our voices heard as Heydarian shares what Thomas Jefferson said,
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.
Marika Constantino shares her passion for giving lives to spaces. With her group, 98B, as a collaboratory visual artist and curator, they search for spaces that could express through arts.
From Cubao, they moved to Escolta where art thrived during heyday. Last weekend (February 18-19) was when they celebrated Escolta week where there was a street art performance overflowing with poetry, music and arts
to incite conversations and provoke dialogue. We want to promote collaboration through experiments and exhibits that are accessible and will create a community.
Their group aims to revitalize the street where first things happen in the Philippines.
Karen Davila shares how she manages her space on a daily basis as a journalist. As there are digital natives spending 3.2 hours a day, we have
broken into each other personal spaces. But that does not mean you have to lose yourself.
She recalled the latest national elections where she interviewed the then presidentiable Rody Duterte. She delivered questions like what they usually did in their show, Bandila where there is a segment of asking questions in one minute. After that, a friend told her to check her Facebook account and she was shocked to see negative comments about her and even threatened her life and her family. “Was I wrong in asking those questions? But it’s part of the course,” she shares. It is a fact that
26% of Filipinos wrote a negative comment to people they have not met.
But it was already obvious that time that Duterte will win the highest seat in the government. “When you’re bound to win, you are supposed to be ready to face the toughest issues.”
Davila urges everyone that the space that we share, we should be sharp to know what is false.
Go with your mind. Value your personal space where you were taught good values. Stick what is real and true.
It was a productive day and really great to start the TEDx experience this year with this one. I define space as overlapping circles or eccentric circles. We are the circles and no circle that can exist alone because no matter what we think of our own welfare, we create a ripple–we affect others with what we do. This is what we should consider, that our spaces are not like bubbles that will not pop because the moment we interact with others, the more we learn from each other. With this the world is more informed, more understood.
Overlapping Circles (TEDxXavier School 2017: Spaces) Last year was made exclusive for the students, when they opened this year I grabbed it--I made it in
