Imagining the Better

as per request, here's the speech I gave in the cRICEsis forum just this wednesday.

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259,135 - that is the estimated number of poor families in Metro Manila alone in 2008. It is a far cry from the 167,316 poor families measured in 2006. Roughly a 155% increase in the span of just two years.

10,000 - that is the minimum monthly income/expenditure needed by a family in Metro Manila to meet basic food and non-food requirements. According to Romulo Virola of the NSCB, that 10,000 pesos is limited to expenses for food, education, health and transportation.

I can go on to spew more numbers and empirical evidence to portray the Philippines’ poverty threshold, income deciles distribution, human development index, and so on. However, I know that all of you here are aware of the utterly cruel reality which our people face -- the unequal opportunity to live a secure and fully actualized life.

For a poor child, to dream of a brighter future becomes a privilege. For a landless farmer, to be listened to and heard by the powers-that-be becomes an ending only found in fairy tales and telenovelas.

What then can an Atenean do? Will we simply be paralyzed by the reason that we are “just students”? Or will we be open to allow the pain felt by our fellow Filipinos to move us to respond in our own innovative ways?

Our role as students does not hinder us from becoming socially involved. There is so much we can do. You can send numerous emails to advocate the need to preserve the environment or protect human rights. Thanks to NSTP, JEEP or immersion, you can post blogs about your experience with the marginalized. Or you can start your own women’s organization here in the Ateneo. You can even utilize your amazing grasp of the English language in order to donate rice grains to the World Food Program via www.freerice.com! Each Atenean has the intellectual, technological and even financial resources to catalyze change for the betterment of the lives of the voiceless and marginalized. It’s only a matter of choosing to respond.

Father Pedro Caluag S.J. once said “The place where God calls you is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” It is important to acknowledge that each individual has been gloriously gifted with the skills and abilities that highlight one’s passion. Whether your course is Management Engineering, Computer Science or Philosophy, each of you can help in alleviating, or better yet, eradicating poverty by virtue of your expertise. If we are to endeavor for a sustained battle against poverty, it is important to recognize the necessity for us -- Management, Sciences, Engineering, Social Sciences and Humanities majors -- to band together in order to effectively address social development issues while staying grounded on our course’s proficiency. In short, we are called to be professionals-for-others

Don’t worry, I’m nearly finished.

To imagine is such a powerful human ability. This act of imagining enables a person to envision an alternate reality. The societal change we seek to realize starts with acknowledging that our present reality of inequity and insecurity must not be accepted as the “status quo”. I believe that the power to imagine a better reality for humanity will ultimately bind us in our quest towards a better world.

So my fellow Ateneans, start the habit. Imagine better.

Thank you and good day.