HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRIPE-VINE
With our MB Sustainability Focus Session, held at UST, done and dusted; it is time to start looking forward to our 3rd MB Sustainability Forum, which happens this Nov. 19 and 20 at UP. But it would be remiss on our part to close the chapter on the Focus Session without giving due credit to several of the unsung, who helped make the UST Focus Session such a glowing (and yes, UST, I specifically use that adjective) success… or should I say growling reminder of why we mount these events.
From the moment we pitched the idea of the university hosting the event, the UST Office of Public Affairs, and Micha Lagniton in particular, was super-cooperative and accommodating. She would get the required approvals from Rector Magnificus Richard Ang, and then go the extra mile with her office to make sure the Focus Session would be a success in terms of student attendance. When the first date of Sept. 24 was caught in the crosshair of the Manibela-Piston transport strike, she helped find a suitable alternate date of Sept. 30 — and all the invited speakers appreciated speaking to the audience of attentive and eager students.
Special mention has to go to Issa Litton for hosting the event and making it look so seamless and “easy.” A number of things were happening behind the scenes, with changes in the sequencing; but she was always unflappable, coolness personified. I always joke with her that making it look so effortless actually works against her, as the audience and observers don’t appreciate the hard work she puts in to make it look so fluid. With her 1Lit agency, Issa has been doing this for years now, and has engaged with 1Lit host talents that she manages, to carry her brand of professionalism - but there’s still nothing like the original!
The MBrand marketing and events teams deserve a shout out for handling the daunting logistics of putting this event together. And for putting up with me! I know I tend to go overboard with attention to details, and stage-managing every little thing. But hopefully, they understand it comes from wanting to ensure things go right. We’re all works in progress, and I’m sure we’ll learn from this Focus Session, and get even better with the next event. While each initiative we mount will be unique, there are learnings we pick up along the way that will aid us in anticipating, and reducing, the times things go awry.
And to my “partners-in-crime,” Jordan Tan and Irish Lorenzo, a big thank you. When we began this Sustainability “adventure” in 2022, some worried if we could pull it off, and there were doubts on just how big we could make the Forum. To have a successful offshoot via the Focus Session is testament to how we’ve stumbled onto something that resonates and is appreciated. It’s been a team effort, and I’m happy you’re both on that team.
Estée Lauder, SM Supermalls, and Breast Cancer Awareness Month
At SM Aura the other week, Estée Lauder and SM Supermalls ushered in October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month with a collaboration with St. Luke’s Medical Foundation, with free breast examinations for mall-goers via the makeshift booths set up at the ground floor activity center. It was a potent message driving home the message that early detection through regular testing is best.
This is especially important given the fact that for some inexplicable reason, the highest incidence of breast cancer among ASEAN countries is found here in the Philippines. And while medicine and technology have reached a point where early detection can lead to remission and recovery, our country also leads the region in fatalities from breast cancer. The implication of this is clear —an alarming number of Filipinas live in denial about their condition. They refuse to be tested, and/or when feeling physical discomfort, don’t take the steps to be treated. And yes, I recognize that for a number of these women, the cost of treatment is prohibitive and they opt to suffer in pain, or up to when it’s too late.
But if there is one takeaway I’d like you to take from my column today, it would be that there’s also the need to raise breast cancer awareness among Filipino men. Beyond the fact that men can get breast cancer as well, there’s the sociological impact of ignorance among men that contribute to this situation of Filipinas dying from a disease that’s so curable today. And why do I say this? When I Can Serve would talk to these afflicted women from lower income demographics, a recurring cry would be how they preferred to suffer in silence, as their husbands would leave them — thinking the cancer is contagious, or condemn the wife as “defective.”
That these attitudes exist in this day and age can be shocking for some of us, but the sad truth is that they exist. And until we change that scenario, there’s only so much we can do about imparting early detection. It can’t just be about opening the minds of Filipinas.