ENDEAVOR

*“Hope endures in Türkiye as more survivors emerge from rubble on day 6 of rescue efforts” — Headline* *From Victims to Survivors: Tsunami Stories of Hope – World BOSAI Forum 2023 – Sendai International Center; Sendai, Japan* As the Turkish people picked up the pieces from the massive cataclysm that claimed more than 40,000 lives, a forum in Japan was being held to commemorate the great earthquake on March 11, 2011 that claimed more than 20,000 fatalities. Hope is the currency of these events. Hope is like a lighthouse on a hill upon a distant shore that provides light and direction to mariners charting the course of their vessels in the open seas. ‘Tsunami of hope’ could be a powerful metaphor. The Japanese word tsunami, which means harbor wave, has gained worldwide acceptance, as it describes the full extent of the havoc it creates: “A tsunami is a series of enormous ocean waves caused by earthquakes, underwater landslides, volcanic eruptions or asteroids. A tsunami can kill or injure people and damage or destroy buildings and infrastructure as waves come in and go out. Tsunamis can: Travel 20-30 miles per hour with waves 10-100 feet high.” The organizers of the Sendai forum explained the rationale for the event. Hundreds of thousands of people who lost family members and close friends “also suffered unbearable separation;” hence they have committed themselves to Bosai, a holistic Japanese concept of disaster reduction that fosters a positive, optimistic outlook “so that such a sad thing will never happen again.” I could still vividly recall witnessing live TV footage of how that massive earthquake and tsunami swept away cars and people. I was in Singapore, traveling with then President Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino as he was wrapping up a brief official visit. We quickly arranged for a speech of the President to be beamed live in Manila. It was important to warn Filipino communities who could be affected if the tsunami would reach our shores – just as the Indonesian earthquake triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean that killed almost 5,000 in Thailand. It would take about four hours – the same duration of air travel from Singapore to Manila – for such a natural phenomenon to take place. Thankfully, the huge tsunami waves dissipated before reaching Philippine waters. A few months later, President Aquino visited Japan upon the invitation of then Prime Minister Naoto Kan. We travelled by train from Tokyo to Sendai and talked with the members of the Japanese-Filipino community. What was remarkable was the equanimity that they exuded even in the aftermath of a major disaster. As reported by World Vision: “In July 2011, the Japanese government set a 10-year timeline for recovery with specific targets for clearing debris, restoring infrastructure, and housing. So far, nearly all of the debris from the earthquake and tsunami has been recycled or incinerated.” In our own modest measure, we launched the Manila Bulletin’s UPLIFT Awards last year. UPLIFT is an acronym for Unite, Perform, Lead, Inspire, Focus, Trend – the attributes or elements of stories that could potentially elevate our audience’s sense of hope and optimism. These stories feature individuals or organizations that have shone like beacons of hope. For each beat or content creation area, our senior reporters and editors culled stories of exemplary leaders and organizations who deserve recognition as harbingers of hope. Then our shortlist was reviewed by a distinguished panel of judges who selected the awardees. For UPLIFT 2023, here’s the full list of awardees: TUPAD Program of the Department of Labor and Employment (Public Service); The SM Group (Big Business); Zennor Hydroponics Farm (MSMEs); Dolly de Leon (Entertainment); Carlos Yulo (Sports); Development of Clonal Propagation Protocols for Native Forest and Fruit-Bearing Tree Species of Quirino and Nearby Provinces by Quirino State University (Science and Technology); City Government of Lapu Lapu (E-Commerce by Gcash, Excellence in Adoption to Government Initiatives); Jocelyn Mamar (Agriculture); Chef Rafael Jadaleza Jr. (Arts, Culture, and Education); and Lifeline 16-911 Medical Inc. (Healthcare). Josephine Mamar, this year’s awardee for Agriculture, embarked on coffee growing in 2007 after 17 years’ experience selling rice, vegetables and dry goods in the Libertad (Pasay City) public market. Her first venture in 2010 was a 10-hectare coffee farm in Davao, followed by similar projects in Cavite and Bacolod in 2013 and 2014. As reported by our Agriculture editor Yvette Tan, Josephine’s Davao farm has become learning centers of the (Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and the Agriculture Training Institute (ATI). Josephine believes in the importance of an upbeat mindset. She rues the reluctance of people to work on coffee farms despite being given free seedlings and inputs by the government. Yet, such skepticism fizzles out when members of a farming community begin earning a steady income and realize the long-term potentials of coffee farming. Hope is faith in action. It involves believing in possibilities and daring to take risks even if there is no clearcut assurance of success. While a tsunami or earthquake summons forth great stores of hope amid disaster and calamity, hope can be nurtured, too, through little acts of kindness extended to one’s fellow human beings in the crucible of daily life.