A note can be so lonely, but when you put together a series of notes it becomes a melody–and it tells a story.
This is what I thought about “Why Coordinate?”, the theme for this year’s TEDxADMU last Saturday, February 21. If I would answer the question, I would have to say simply, “Because all of us has ideas worth sharing.” And that is what TED and TEDx is all about right? But I will share my piece a little later, let us talk about the answers of our speakers.
The event started with an interpretative dance of the event’s prayer, making you feel more open to what’s in store for the event. The event was hosted by Ken Abante, Toni Potenciano and Megan Young.
Why Coordinate? To Show The World Who We Are
Jim Paredes is a member of the APO Hiking Society (with Buboy Garovillo and Danny Javier) that I grew up with, my favorite songs were “Bawat Bata”, “Lumang Tugtugin” and “Blue Jeans”. He wanted to share his passion for OPM. He shared that in the 60s, artists wanted to be the next big star by being the counterpart of the US music scene, having to represent “Elvis of the Philippines” because that was how they wanted to stand out in the crowd. Then in the 70s, suddenly being Filipino was in and everyone wanted to sing in Filipino making the masa/bakya fused with the class. In the 80s, they went to US to find a recording studio to showcase their songs and in English. A producer told him, “You wanted to make it to LA, then line up like the other aspiring artists. If you wanted to stand out, go back to your country and be the best there. Be so big in your place, that the world will notice you.” He noticed when Anak made its way in the international scene, the foreigners didn’t know the lyrics but they were listening. He would like to invite everyone, to be big, one has to showcase oneself as he/she is. The world is a big party and you just have to come as you are and most probably, the world will notice how unique and outstanding you are.
Why Coordinate? To plug in with the right people and succeed.
Paul Rivera came from humble beginnings. He was a scholar in University of California and he realized he has to work hard to get what he wanted. Back then, he couldn’t even afford buying his shoes. After college, he joined a start-up company and was given an assignment to set up offshore operations in Bangalore. He realized, “When someone gives you a free airplane ticket, just take it.” Later on, he moved out and became part of Google. Hard work manufactures opportunities, and soon afterwards he left Google for something he thought will be out of his comfort zone. He went back home here in the Philippines to put up Open Access and found the potential of putting up a call center in the country and then he founded Kalibrr, because he realized we have a lot of opportunity for work here but only a few are fit or wanted the job. He stressed on this, “Go where you’re not supposed to be.” It is surprising yes, but the road less travelled is usually where opportunities knock. Get out of the status quo and create opportunities.
Why Coordinate? To Know The Optimal Outcome in Every Situtation
Geek mode on with Dr. Queena Lee-Chua as she relates Game Theory in everyday situations. She then called it, “The Games of Life” and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did listening to this wonderful professor. It’s a sad thing I was an Isko Statistician and maybe my love for Math will be appealing as how she captured the audience that day. Getting the definition of Game Theory from Google:
the branch of mathematics concerned with the analysis of strategies for dealing with competitive situations where the outcome of a participant’s choice of action depends critically on the actions of other participants. Game theory has been applied to contexts in war, business, and biology.
And so she talked about a student who didn’t know the answer in the test so he wanted to cheat. She introduced the Game Theory and found out that even if the student cheated, he wouldn’t win anyway and his classmate would not allow him to copy. She extended the Game Theory to The Dark Knight in the ferry scene where the captains of the ferries were given the option to detonate the other ferry, both captains decided not to and Joker was about to kill the people in both ferries, of course Batman arrives and saves the day.
She then recalled the EDSA People Power in 1986. She was already in her junior in college and she knew she had to do something to fight for freedom. What really opened her eyes, was about how Evelio Javier was brutally killed. She joined the rest of the country to protest from the dictator. This is interesting, because in the Game Theory, the optimal outcome was they will stay to protest AND the soldiers will execute them as ordered by the dictator. They did stay BUT the soldiers stood down and became part of them: to fight for freedom. It is a miracle that day and an outcome that is unexpected. Something to prove that compassion is indeed an essential in coordinating.
Before we took a break, coordination was exhibited with the help of technology and this is how Nancy Lublin talked about.
https://embed-ssl.ted.com/talks/nancy_lublin_texting_that_saves_lives.html
It is amazing, when we look at technology as a helpful tool and see how meaningful data we can get from it. And with her company DoSomething.org, more voices of children were heard and made into action.
We took a break and when we got back, we were serenaded by the Ateneo Blue Symphony with the classics and the songs of APO. Then another TED video was presented with Sally Kohn, a favorite TED speaker talked about emotional correctness.
https://embed-ssl.ted.com/talks/sally_kohn_let_s_try_emotional_correctness.html
I find it amazing that she maybe very vocal of her advocacy in promoting gender rights but if you listen carefully, it transcends to respect among human beings regardless of any identity.
Why Coordinate? So That You Will Know That Someone Will Look After You.
For Julian Tanaka, he knows how important to coordinate: an Industrial Design senior in UP Diliman (Go Isko!!!) is the Gender Committee head in the UPD University Student Council (USC). Julian was born in the world a girl, but he knew who he was. At first, he was just after being the best softball player, to be the best athlete and he wanted to pursue his passion. But as he is being recognized as such, he sees himself being in an all-women’s team, indicating what he really is not. So he left his team and pursued a different passion: to stay true to himself and promote awareness of the transgender community. Do not be confused of his priorities: he wanted to be the best athlete when it comes to his sport, softball but he realized, he’s about to graduate and when he goes out in the world, he wanted to know if the existing laws of society will protect him from discrimination, from being himself. I admire his courage and I really wish that one day, we will be in a society without looking at the color: in race, in sexual preference, in religion or in anything that we choose to be in. We go back to compassion.
Why Coordinate? So that we could learn to respect each other’s beliefs, culture and save others’ lives.
Enrico Laviña pursues the protection of the people of Casiguran against turning hectares of their land into Aurora Pacific Economic Zone (APECO). At times, with our lives gearing toward progress we just look at progress as converting everything to profit. We forget that people are not machines and not dispensable, that their lives and culture cannot be measured by any monetary value. He shared how the people of Casiguran, Aurora walked 350 kilometers from Aurora to Manila to seek dialogue and what happened? The authorities barricaded them and gave them burgers to appease them. But an Agta child shouted, “Not food, we want our land!” He stressed that sometimes, we feel that we are entitled of being civilized, being educated that we feel we have the right to step onto others’ feet. This is not coordination, this is merely a one-sided thing and this does not validate communication. Communication meant there is a giver of the message and there is a recipient and vice versa and in that exchange there is meaning and there is understanding between the two. If one just talks, then it is simply a monologue. Laviña is quite baffled on that idea and he hopes that one day, the government and the authorities concerned will find light to the issue and listen to the voices of the Casiguran people.
Why Coordinate? Because We Have to Learn to Be With The Poor
Bobby Guevarra perhaps hit the right spot, the “legendary” Theology Professor of ADMU that everyone knows and the audience was fortunate to experience his talk. He identified the poor as to whom we should really coordinate with. He opened his talk with a reflection with this thought, “You have prayed for me, talked about me and I thank you, but I’m still naked, hungry and still homeless.” And I just nodded in all honesty, we keep on hearing news about how we tried “alleviating” the lives of the poor through solutions that we thought are helpful or useful for them but actually are not. He stressed that the only way that we can coordinate with the poor is to be with them and so he invited everyone “to connect with the poor because poverty kills; poverty hinders the potential of a human being.”
Two situations that struck me: (1) when he was visiting a town for an immersion program, they saw a dead child on top of the table, his parents were trying to shoo the flies from their dead child and a student was so furious how poverty sucks; the family was so poor that they could not even afford a coffin for their dead child; (2) when they helped a family gathered food from their crops, their baskets not yet filled told the students they can go home and just return tomorrow. A student suggested that they should have filled in their baskets and the father said, “Ang pagkuha nang higit sa pangangailangan namin ay pagnanakaw na rin sa pangangailangan ng iba.” (“Getting more than what we need is stealing others’ needs.”)
We are invited to be compassionate. Know, identify and be among the poor. I love how Sir Bobby said, “Pa’no mo masasabing ang tao may kwenta? Pag nalaman mo ba ang kwento nila, masasabi mo bang may kwenta sila?” (“How can you know someone’s value? When you know someone’s story, do you think you’ll find their value?”). So finally he invites everyone to know the poor by becoming poor, reminding the words of Pope Francis: “It is knowing what we don’t have, that we will learn to love.”
The meaningful TEDxADMU talk was closed by Fr. Xavier Alpasa and he summed up Why Coordinate as “We don’t fight for, speak for or struggle for. We fight with. We speak with. We struggle with.” In this way, we learn to coordinate through compassion.
It was a meaningful TEDx event indeed. So why did I mention that we have ideas worth sharing because we do! We have a voice to share. We keep on trying to look for the Y-coordinate (a play on Why Coordinate) and how? We have to explore the X-coordinate, but we need to learn that in this life, we cannot only have one X to know the Y. Our Y’s are dependent of X’s and in this life, we will encounter a lot of X’s before we finally get our Y’s. Going back, we have to learn to listen, not just hear but listen with compassion, humility and understanding so we may learn how to coordinate, collaborate and connect.
More of inspiring TEDx talks last TEDxXavierSchool (January 2015) and TEDxDiliman 2014.
Finding the Y Coordinate, My TEDxADMU Experience A note can be so lonely, but when you put together a series of notes it becomes a melody--and it tells a story.
