(Article by Ernie Cecilia that appeared yesterday in the Q5 Working People Section of the Philippine Daily Inquirer about the Yellow Boat Project. Thank you Sir Ernie!)
LAST TUESDAY WAS BONIFACIO Day. National Heroes Day is in August. But nothing prevents us from celebrating heroes anytime of the year. In fact, I suggest we should.
Korean War hero
My late father was a Korean war hero. He shed blood, sweat and tears in defending democracy in another country. Fifty years after the end of the Korean war, the South Korean President wrote my dad with profuse thanks for his participation in preserving democracy. He must have been a hero to the Koreans.
At the time of the Korean war, South Korea’s per capita income was $60, compared to the Philippines’ $700. Of course, we were No. 2 to Japan after World War II. In 2009, our per capita income increased to $1,747. Today, I guess our per capita income is roughly $2,000, while South Korea’s is $16,000.
Last November 21, Ana Marie Pamintuan wrote in another paper, “Today Hyundai is heavily into shipping, although it is best known in the Philippines for its motor vehicles. Korean cars and consumer electronics are competing with the best in the world. Samsung is taking on Apple’s ipad and iphone. Seoul Incheon International Airport has won several awards as the world’s best. We, on the other hand, have not graduated from making gaudy, polluting knockoffs of the Jeep. And our airport is… never mind. Our country is not lacking in brains and talent, but many of our best minds are working overseas for foreign companies, frustrated that most of those who prosper in this country are those with the right surnames or connections. When the accident of birth plays a critical role in financial or professional success, there is little incentive to strive for excellence and genuine self-improvement.”
Like many kids, I used to dream when I was young and silly that I could fly. My recollection of early childhood is of heroes with supernatural powers. Then, Michael Jackson helped changed the definition of heroism in his song, “In Our Small Way,” when he sang:
“Maybe you and I can’t do great things We may not change the world
in one day But we still can change some things today In our small way” Heroes are ordinary people who do extraordinary things. Perhaps, our world does not have enough room for geniuses. That’s why there are few of them. And you can’t even count on geniuses to save the world.
I admire Helen Keller when she said, “I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.”
Tiny push
I first got an email from Jay Michael Jaboneta in his early 20’s in 2006. He was jumping from one job to another in the corporate world seemingly looking for something meaningful.
Jay would write of his idealism and his ambition to help our country in a big way. Later, he told me he got hooked with Alex Lacson and helped him during the latter’s senatorial campaign and in setting up some foundations. Jay was an incessant blogger. I learned that he was born in Cotabato City where he finished high school, then completed his collegiate education in Ateneo de Davao.
When Jay was a toddler, his father would tease him that his cousin who was a year younger was already reading the Malaya newspaper when he was only four. This must have been the turning point and tiny shove for Jay. Since then, he developed a strange hunger for knowledge, until he blogged and Googled a lot. While working in Manila, he met other bloggers from Mindanao online, mostly doctors, media practitioners and other professionals who hated the perception that Mindanao is a war torn land. In fact, there are only 10 out of 10,000 barangays that can be truly classified as hotspots.
When Pnoy became President in 2010, my friend Sonny Coloma became Secretary of the Presidential Communication Operations Office. Sonny took Jay as Media Head of his office. In October 2010, Jay joined the fifth annual bloggers’ summit in Zamboanga City. He met his online friends and several volunteers. One volunteer talked of how children swim to school in Layag Layag, a nearby village where 200 Muslim families live in huts on stilts over the sea. They have no means to buy a boat, so their kids would swim two kilometers and walk four kilometers to school every day—their uniforms and books in airtight plastic wrappers.
Jay thought to himself, “In Manila, kids would skip school to swim. These kids would swim to go to school.”
Bothersome thought
The thought bothered Jay enough to take a bold move. He used his social network to create awareness of the deplorable situation. He caught the attention of marketing guru Josiah Go, and Anton Lim of Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation, and the rest is history.
Using confiscated logs from illegal loggers, Jay’s group asked boat maker Abraham Mawadi to build the first yellow boat, and named it “Bagong Pagasa” (New Hope). Attendance in the school soared.
When fellow Bicolana Dr. Ofelia Sy heard about the yellow boat, she took no time in contacting Jay in behalf of the Masbate kids. Jay coordinated with a television station to air the story, which started donations to pour in for the Masbate Funds for Little Kids. Three classes at DLSU-ST. Benilde donated their “baon” for the day for one week and helped raise funds for three boats (one boat costs roughly P7,000).
Today, Jay Jaboneta, Anton Lim and Dr. Sy have gone national - and international. Jay’s brainchild, the Yellow Boat Project, was featured in local television shows, and in CNN, Al-jazeera and Associated Press. If you want to help, check out The Philippine Funds for Little Kids (PFLK) at www.facebook.com/philippine.funds.
Jay says, “People power is not just about ousting leaders. It is also about taking on current challenges without waiting for authorities or celebrities to take the lead.”
Time for heroes
The world today needs plenty of heroes. The Philippines can have a fair share of them, too. It could be Efren Penaflorida or Efren Bata Reyes; Manny Pangilinan or Manny Pacquiao; Cory Aquino or Cory Quirino. Anybody can qualify to be a hero. What one needs is the belief that nothing today is impossible. Every human being has the capacity to do something worthwhile, no matter how small it is. Jay Jaboneta did not come from the planet Krypton. He does not have the superpowers that I dreamt I would have when I was a small boy. Yet, Jay made a difference to the hundreds of school children who now don’t have to swim to go to school.
Most heroes don’t work alone. As Andre Malraux once said, “One person may supply the idea for a company, community or nation. But what gives the idea its force is a community of dreams.”
Maya Angelou’s words are apt here, “To make a difference is not a matter of accident, a matter of casual occurrence of the tides. People choose to make a difference.” The key is to first believe in yourself. Then find company in people who can uplift you, whose presence, words and actions bring out the best in you.
Often, we look and wait for heroes to save the day for us. If we continue to wait, we could wait forever. June Jordan suggests that we look inside ourselves as he admonishes us, “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” In the words of a great Filipino hero, “Only the Filipino can help the Filipino.”
The problem is often too easy to see. “Here and there, you’ll find people who want to be carried on the shoulders of others, who think that the world owes them a living. They don’t seem to see that we must lift together and pull together,” says Kyle Carlson.
If you ask most of the boys who their hero is, they’d say. “My daddy is my hero.” I will always remember my dad, but I have many other heroes. These days, my hero is a blogger. So, “who’s your daddy?”
(Ernie is current Chair of IR Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM). He also chaired ECOP’S Long Range Policy Planning Committee. He was also President of the Personnel Management Association of the Philippines in 1999. He is the President and CEO of EC Business Solutions and Career Center, a human resource consulting firm. His new books, “Life’s Big Lessons” and “Life’s Big Lies” are now available at book stores. Recently, he was voted “Best Newspaper Columnist of the Year” in the Pmapmakatao Awards for Media Excellence. He can be reached at ernie_cecilia@yahoo.com)
I am re-posting the keynote speech given by DOT Sec. Mon Jimenez to the 22nd Ad Congress in CamSur yesterday.
Here’s one Cabinet Secretary I really hopes succeeds in harnessing social media for tourism profits.
(photo from http://www.gov.ph)
GAME CHANGE
Good morning everyone!
It’s good to be home.
I have been away for close to three months but I feel like I have been on a very long journey with many new experiences.
You could say that I have had a very direct taste of GAME CHANGE.
That is why I come to you today with a very valuable insight I have gained in the past months in my job as Tourism Secretary.
I have learned that IT IS FAR EASIER TO BE THE ONE TO CHANGE THE WAY THE GAME IS PLAYED than to simply be the one who plays the CURRENT game well.
The way the tourism game is played in the world places financially-challenged countries like the Philippines at a tremendous disadvantage. First, the countries with money have the resources to build infrastructure that makes it absolutely comfortable for tourists to visit and affords them seamless movement from airport to hotel to tourist spot and back. Second, the relative affluence of these societies allows them to create an image of wonder and spectacle, safety and security – something which tourists value a lot.
Third, the greater resources allow our competition to invest in key targets by keeping their pricing competitive.
Better facilities.
Better image and security.
Better pricing.
All these strengths will be extremely difficult for the Philippines to generate in the immediate future. Renovating our NAIA airports alone will take the better part of two years. And security, well, you know we have issues on this subject. Better pricing? Our pricing strategies are disorganized to say the least. Some areas we’re cheap and other areas we’re the most expensive.
Meantime, we’ve got to bring tourist arrivals up to generate the kind of income and employment that it will take to make us even more competitive – if we play the game the way the game is currently played. But we can’t afford to do that. Which means……we have to work with what we’ve got.
To succeed, we have to change the way the game is played.
Let us begin by agreeing on one idea:
THE PHILIPPINES IS NOT JUST A PLACE TO SEE.
IT IS A PLACE TO BE.
It is a place to be if you are tired of the impersonal lifestyle that so much of the world has fallen into.
It is the place to be if you seek adventures in Nature where the most incredible and unique vistas and wildlife still abound.
It is the place to be when you want to find new friends who seek only your friendship in return.
It is the place to be if you are ready for lots of dancing, singing and reverie.
It is the place to be if you want to reconnect with values of family, friendship and faith that much of the world seems to have forgotten.
It is the place to be to feel alive again.
Working with what we know for sure we can promise not tomorrow but today will motivate us to change the way the tourism game is played.
It instructs us to focus on the emotive rather than just the cognitive elements in travel and tourism.
It reminds us that the key to successful marketing in any endeavor is DISTINCTIVENESS and UNIQUENESS.
If infrastructure was the most important component, Singapore and not Malaysia and Thailand would have more tourists.
TO CHANGE THE WAY THE GAME IS PLAYED we have to use what we have in Media strength. Competition has all the money to spend on advertising above and below the line, we have something even more potent: over 12million Filipino workers overseas, 27 million Pinoys on facebook and 10 million on Twitter.
More than any other country in Asia, the Philippines has the power of BUZZ and BUZZ CREATION beyond anything our competition can generate. It is our intention via the internet to harness this power by equipping as many Filipinos here and abroad with simple tools in images and words to sell the Philippines as the ideal tourist destination.
To achieve this, we will count on a resource we never realized we had before: Filipinos with an overwhelming love of country.
Which simply means that the most significant game-changing move for Philippine tourism will be this:
TRADITIONAL TOURISM INVOLVES CENTRALLY-CONTROLLED AND CRAFTED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS.
The game changer will be a campaign that will have a central strategy executed and propagated by millions of active, enthusiastic Filipinos who feel they have the power to persuade people to visit their country as tourists. Much of it will be brilliant and unexpected, some probably humorous and light-hearted, a few even loud and unsettling but all of it, ALL OF IT, heartfelt.
Such is the case of Come Visit My Philippines, a picturebook story on Facebook, founded by one Filipino- Bessie Badilla just last September. Today CVMP has 27,000 members . That’s 27,000 tourism agents right there.
President Noynoy Aquino was right when he agreed to the notion that “Tourism is the people’s business.” It is the cue to the insight that led us to the true game-changer idea we have today: A GENUINE TOURISM CAMPAIGN IS A PEOPLE’S CAMPAIGN.
When you get right down to it, this game changer can be utilized for all brands facing financial and logistical challenges. Some people say, it is an insight gained by those who have lived through and thrived in the era of PEOPLE POWER.
People Power prepared us for the work we need to do today. For in the face of great challenge we have no one else to turn to but each other; no one else to trust but our fellow man. People Power at EDSA was but the launch of an era that unfolds before us today. That of millions of Filipinos, critically and emotionally connected to each other and the world expressing their views; causing trends; raising funds, making a difference and doing it in great numbers.
We are natural game changers, because we cannot play the game the way the rest of the world plays it.
We will be successful game changers because we have the courage and the smarts to work with what we’ve got.
I congratulate the organizers of this Advertising Congress for selecting this theme, for it is truly relevant and timely. It is a theme that commands attention because it provokes thought. It compels us to ask the most basic questions about ourselves and the organizations to which we belong. And, by its very implication, it places us in a COMPETITIVE frame of mind. This attitude has been long in coming to the Filipino people. For many years, we played the game against each other — Filipino against Filipino in a bloody battle for survival year on year. We create plans to compete domestically and we set benchmarks based on local competition.
We never really changed the way we played the game because we never had to – until we are faced with competition from outside our shores. Well friends, make no mistake about it, the rest of Asia is poised to compete and they will not hesitate to seize market share at our expense.
Allow me then to leave you with this thought:
The Philippine Advertising and Marketing community is definitely the oldest and most experienced such community in this part of the world. Manila was a television market even before some countries in Europe.
It is, therefore, fair to say, that we are part of the bunch of professionals who set the rules of the game in Asia.
Well, it’s time to change the rules again.
CHANGE THE GAME. CHANGE OUR FUTURE.
Make this Ad Congress count.
Congratulations, again at maraming salamat po!
Read a very interesting post by Auren Hoffman, CEO of Rapleaf today discussing the importance of failing in life. I will talk a bit about this on my December 7 talk in Inspire Leadership Consultancy’s Voices of Leadership.
What’s Auren’s article covered:
Encourage failure and you will increase large successes. This article will cover:
- Why one must fail often to really reach one’s potential
- Why people who deal with rejection have 10x earning potential
- Strategies for confronting and dealing with failure
There are two exciting things that happened this week.
(picture courtesy of Tonyo Cruz that he shared on Twitter)
I had the honor of representing the Yellow Boat Project as one of the speakers during the Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines’ (IMMAP) first Open Mic Night event powered by Pecha Kucha last Thursday night at the Craft Pub & Grill at the Fort Strip (here’s a comprehensive coverage by Adobo Magazine).
Thanks Janette Toral for this video!
Honored to have been part of a stellar cast of 20 speakers that used 20 slides at 20 seconds each to share stories of their personal projects or advocacy.
Carlo Ople made a very detailed narration of what happened here. (Thanks Carlo!)
It was an exciting night and I really congratulate Leo Burnett Manila’s Pao Peña, LoudWhistle’s energetic head Ysobel Hamidjojo and the IMMAP team for bringing together 300 of the country’s digital, social media and marketing professionals in one night of engaging storytelling and fun.
I would like to thank Josiah Go and Chiqui Escareal-Go as well for taking time out of their busy schedule to see me present our project. Josiah Go was instrumental when we were starting calls for donations last November 2010 for what first became known as the Zamboanga Funds for Little Kids. As some of you may already know, we have now expanded to Masbate and about to launch in Iloilo as well that’s why we now call it the Philippine Funds for Little Kids.
The simple Yellow Boat Project has really come a long way. Just last Tuesday (November 8, 2011), I was also in Zamboanga City to visit Layag-Layag with Ugat Foundation’s Marinela Mirasol and Dr. Anton Lim took this picture which I believe clearly reflects where we are now.
We are now at a point where we are about to grow.
So I’d like to invite young social entrepreneurs and change-makers out there to join us in this amazing journey. Email me at jay.jaboneta[at]gmail.com if you are interested to become part of this exciting project.
We are really looking at making our operations sustainable and I’m excited to announce that Mr. Ronilo Acabo, a resident of Davao City, will relocate his family to Layag-Layag to oversee our first foray at a livelihood project concentrating on seaweed farming (we really need your prayers and help here).
In the last 12 months, we have been featured by every conceivable media organization out there (locally and internationally, check Yellow Boat Meets the Press), Yahoo! Philippines recognized me as one of the Pitong Pinoy (7 Modern-Day Filipino Heroes) last June 12 during the country’s Independence Day Celebration, the student body of Eton International School - Manila also recently chose me as one of their Pillars of Hope, and just last November 9, 2011, the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF) recognized the project as one of the Liberal Projects in the country, these projects are initiatives that best promote empowerment and freedom in the Philippines.
Again, thank you to the support of our stellar cast of donors, supporters, volunteers and friends!
You know who you are and we are excited to continue building this country with you, one Facebook post at a time and one Yellow Boat at a time!
Friends,
Come if you’re free on November 10!
More details at http://immap.com.ph/openmic/.
IMMAP stands for the Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines.
The Speakers
What is it?
IMMAP Open Mic Night is a networking event following an unconference format. Nominated and voted by the wise crowd, 20 speakers take their ideas to the stage and share their thoughts following the PechaKucha format.
What is the PechaKucha format?
Simple. 20 images x 20 seconds each. Each speaker will have 20 slides which he will talk about for 20 seconds per slide. Normally, PechaKucha speakers use images for their slides which they accompany with engaging storytelling. Below are some helpful links to better acquaint you with the format:>
PechaKucha site: www.pecha-kucha.org
Click here to view a sample presentation
What topics can we talk about?
Speakers are to share their thoughts on any of the following keywords: AWESOME, VIRAL?, SUCCESS, BITS & PIECES, ROCKS, BULBS.
Admission
Admission is free of charge for all IMMAP members and non-members alike. We like diversity so one need not be a digital marketeer to attend.
Register by going to http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=267520303282506.
