ShareThis
by Carmelita Cochingco Ballesteros.
January 1, 2013
1. Lea Salonga (Passion)
“Passion for one’s craft requires commitment, discipline, and hard work,” Lea said in one interview (Matabuena,2012).
Born in Angeles City on February 22, 1971, Lea started her professional singing career in a Repertory Philippines production of the musical, The King and I. She was only 7.
Gifted with a crystal-clear voice and driven by her passion for singing and acting on stage, Lea appeared in one production after another such as Annie, Fiddler on the Roof, and The Sound of Music.
In 1989, she landed the lead role of Kim in the London musical, Miss Saigon, then won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Musical for the 1989-1990 season. Afterwards, Miss Saigon went to New York and conquered Broadway where Lea won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for the same role of Kim.
It was 1991, Lea was 20, and she has become a world-class star. Remaining true to her passion, she has been blessed with a long string of brilliant performances and international awards through the years.
2. Albert Einstein (Passion)
A German-American, Einstein’s twin passions were physics and the quest for peace.
He knew at age 12 that he wanted to study physics. Ironically, his grade school teachers thought he was a lazy, good-for-nothing boy. They did not know that he was a genius. Einstein hated the dull and rigid teaching methods in school but he loved learning.
He obtained his doctorate in 1905. The papers he wrote on the photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, special relativity, and the equivalence of matter and energy started him on an academic life and international fame. He won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921.
Being a Jew, Einstein knew first-hand the horrors of discrimination and violence. He spoke against war and advocated peace at great risk.
While travelling in France in 1922, he saw the devas-tation caused by World War I. The destruction revolted him and convinced him that war is a curse from which the world must break free.
He accepted a position at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey in 1932 and became an American citizen in 1940. He died in Princeton in 1955.
3. Romulo Davide (Empathy)
Because of his deep empathy for poor farmers, Dr. Romulo Davide, one of the 2012 Ramon Magsaysay awardees, has dedicated his life working in farms as a farmer-educator.
Being a brother of former Chief Justice Hilario Davide, Jr., his name rings a bell. Their father, Hilario, Sr., always exhorted them, “There is no barren soil, only barren minds.” (Ilag, 2012)
Dr. Davide was born on the barren farms of Barrio Colawin, Argao, Cebu Province. Although his parents were teachers, life was hard in his 5th class farming town. The young Romulo worked as a student laborer to support himself at the University of the Philippines in Los Baños.
He worked his way up the academic ladder and earned a doctorate in nematology or the study of plant parasites. It was the beginning of his lifelong mission – the empowerment of the tillers of the soil as prosperous farmer-scientists.
Dr. Davide has been transforming the lives of many farmers through the Farmer-Scientist Training Program (FSTP) which he has conceptualized and oversees as Program Leader. As proof of his pioneering success, the FSTP is being implemented in 20 provinces around the Philippines today.
4. Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (Empathy)
Mother Teresa died in 1997. Pope John Paul II beatified her in 2003 and gave her the title, Blessed Teresa.
Sister Teresa’s incredible empathy for the poorest of the poor in the streets of Calcutta, India made her leave the Loreto Sisters Convent where she was the principal in 1948. Instead of teaching the children of the rich, she opted to live with the poor, wash their wounds, feed the hungry, and care for the dying. She had become Mother Teresa.
Mother Teresa’s humble everyday act of caring for the poor became a chain reaction of empathy and love. Her old students at the Loreto Convent helped her carry out her mission with small acts of kindness. So did strangers from everywhere.
After 31 years, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. The Nobel Peace Prize Committee deemed that dehumanizing poverty and suffering were threats to peace. Thus, Mother Teresa’s efforts at alleviating pain and misery were pathways to peace.
Today, the Missionaries of Charity founded by Mother Teresa has Houses in 133 countries on all continents. Empathy and love reside in everyone’s heart. All it takes is one little candle to set it on fire!
5. Jesse M. Robredo (Respect)
Jesse M. Robredo, the DILG Secretary from 2010-2012, perished in a plane crash on August 18, 2012.
During the wake for Robredo in Malacañang, a leader of the urban poor wept openly. She said that Robredo treated the underprivileged with dignity and respect.
Respect was the value which defined the late Jesse M. Robredo — for his own dignity and good name, for his parents and the values he imbibed from them, for his wife and children, for everyone as a human being.
When Robredo won as mayor of Naga in 1988,he inherited a mess. Naga was a 3rd class city with a deficit of Php1,000,000. A graduate of DLSU and UP, Robredo ran Naga as a corporation and made local governance a business success. The Ramon Magsaysay Foundation took notice and named him as the 2000 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee for government service.
In 2010, he brought to the national government his “provinciano” ways – being humble and respectful. In death, his life was celebrated as a man who invested respect in people and earned their undying love.
6. Rosa Parks (Respect)
Rosa Parks, an African-American woman, was on her way home after a day’s work in Montgomery, Alabama on December 1, 1955. She boarded a bus and paid for her seat. When the bus filled up, the bus driver told the blacks to give up their seats so the whites could sit down.
Parks remained seated. Her simple act of defiance marked a historic moment in the African-Americans’ fight for equality.
The white bus driver threatened to have Parks arrested by the police. She waited for the police officer and went to jail with quiet dignity. It was not the bus seat she had paid for which she wanted. She wanted respect — respect for every human being regardless of color.
On December 5, 1955, the day that Parks was tried, the blacks staged the Montgomery Bus Boycott, led by an unknown pastor, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It catapulted him as a national leader of the civil rights movement.
Until her death in 2005, Mrs. Parks remained an iconic face of the African-Americans’ fight for equality and respect. (carmelita.nie@gmail.com)