By Tony Meloto
Everything about Paris felt good that early Autumn morning.
The air was crisp and cool at 15 degrees, the whole countryside on the trip to Versailles was like a Cezanne canvas of ripened yellow and orange leaves stubbornly clinging to the branches against a clear sky that remained ocean blue the whole day. A walk in the magnificent garden of the Palais du Versailles and lunch of ratatouille et poulet at the horse stables - turned into a quaint cafe with blue-topped tables - made an auspicious start of a thoroughly enchanting one week stay in Paris and Vienna.
I am here to set up GK Europe as the bridge of hope between east and west to build together a kinder world. As Europe is home to our people, we will make our country home to Europeans.
On that blissful day of October 14 the world was simply beautiful and no care was in sight. I thought to myself that this beauty cannot remain in France; I must bring this to the Enchanted Farm in Angat, Bulacan where a dozen business students from Ecole Superieure du Commerce de Paris (ESCP) are planning to put up a mini Paris bed and breakfast after they fell in love with the place and made a lasting bond with the villagers.
If I cannot bring our poor to experience the beauty of Paris, I'll bring Paris to our poor. This was what we did with the Character village in Iriga City which was patterned after the breathtakingly beautiful hillside villages of Assissi, Italy I visited seven years ago. The typhoon victims of Bicol did not only deserve a strong roof over their heads but a dignified life on a hilltop paradise surrounded by daisies and babies breath and other tropical blooms, with a magnificent view of Mt Isarog from their balconies. It turned out for me to be more beautiful than Assissi.
Life becomes truly rich and beautiful once it is shared with those who have known poverty and ugliness in life.
It only costs a little more love to create more beauty in this world, a little more caring to turn despair to hope.
I want to thank all for the nuggets of inspiration and the genuine affection I received on this trip, particularly Olivier, Bernie,Espie, Chat and Mayenne in Paris and Jorge, Joy, Erich, Lil, Jun and Ning in Vienna. And of course to Mandy and Elsie for sharing four bottles of fine wine to celebrate the victory of hope over cynicism.
Hope was the dominant theme where ever I went and it was defined for me clearly by many people on many occasions on such a short stay.
It was about being family to 28 young French volunteers coming from three top schools who stayed with us for the summer. They were all there with their videos, power point presentations and inspiring sharings, except for Anne-Sophie and Nicolas Girault who supported their event by designing the flyers despite being away for school. The two organized the volunteer team of Notre Dame and Telecom with their uncle Olivier Girault.
Mayeul of Notre Dame du Grand Champs and his group of four found hope in jail. They moved a crowd of nearly a hundred students and faculty with their memories of the women inmates of a Davao prison who recovered their sense of dignity when their cramped cells were converted into a brightly colored Gawad Kalinga village with vegetable and ornamental gardens and a livelihood center.
*Hope for them was about respect for human dignity that frees the spirit even when the body is bound.
Olivier and Gillaume of Telecom Paris-Tech excitedly took turns in extolling the joy of humanitarian service and adventure of their gang of twelve - sweating it out in building the KLM Village in Bagong Silang or dancing with the villagers in the Amalia village in Concepcion, Tarlac on my wife's birthday (the village with fifty homes donated by a young Englishman was named after her to honor his beloved mother-in-law) or simply taking in the wonder of the Banaue rice terraces - they were all equally energizing to the young band of hope-builders filled with the awe and exuberance of life.
*Hope for them was about the joy of loving without borders.
The twelve apostles of human kindness from ESCP, the business school ranked number one in the world in masters in management by the Financial Times recently, overwhelmed me with their expression of affection for our small people, recounting with fondness every little act of hospitality from those who did not have much to give but gave anyway, generously and joyfully - sharing them their simple meal, some giving them the only bed in the house or fetching water for them from a distant well.
*Hope is when those who have little have much to share and those who have much learn to care more.
Born to comfort and class - three of them flew in from London and two from Madrid to prepare for my visit - the ESCP team expressed deep appreciation for their adopted families in Bulacan despite moments of discomfort living with them. They poured out their affection for our people with a rousing standing ovation at the end of my presentation which moved the crowd to tears. Mayenne Carmona of Philippine Star, Jorge Villanueva of GK Austria and Bernie and Espie Matugas of GK France of course opened the floodgates.
In a continent where our people often do the hard or dirty work, it was a moment of pride and honor when our real beauty was revealed and exalted.
*Hope is about social justice; societal harmony is the fruit of fairness and respect for the value of human rights.
This was in the heart of Olivier Girault, the Orange R&D executive who gave me my room at the Westin and wants to spread the GK bug in France. The history and values of the French are anchored on the spirit of "Liberty, Equality, Brotherhood." Poverty due to social injustice is the root of many areas of conflict in the world and Europe is tired of war.
According to him, this is what attracts them to the GK brand of building viable communities achieved peacefully through compassion and shared value creation where no one has to lose her lovely head for the homeless to have homes and for the hungry to have food.
*To many in the development field, hope is about social entrepreneurship - creating wealth with a greater social benefit, where doing good makes good business sense.
It was in Paris where I received the emailed invitation of Vivian Gee, Schwab Foundation Head for Asia and Associate Director of the World Economic Forum, for me to be part of the World Economic Forum - the group that meets in Davos and other regional centers - for the next five years after getting the award as the Ernst & Young Social Entrepreneur of the Year, the evening before I left Manila for Paris. Awarding night at Makati Shangrila was exciting surrounded by my family and friends at the AirFrance KLM table led by General Manager Cees Ursem and volunteer mobilizer Tess Zulueta.
Hopefully, with this GK will be recognized as a credible partner of social entrepreneurs and a trusted steward of social venture capital in building communities to end poverty.
*Hope is also in social tourism- seeing the best places while giving the best of one self to bring out the good in every one.
I discussed this concept in Paris on October 15 over breakfast with Marnix Fruitema, AirFrance KLM SVP for Asia Pacific. There is a growing trend he noted for young Europeans to travel and do humanitarian service before taking on a job or pursuing higher studies or getting married after finishing college. Travel and volun-tourism in GK communities would be an attractive proposition for many of them if packaged properly, according to this flying Dutch man who gained my respect for his depth and commitment to social issues. I sealed my friendship with him when he showed sincere concern for the 30 families in the KLM village he visited last year.
*Hope is being happy with those who share our dream of a better world.
After Paris, Vienna intoxicated me for two days of revelry in the company of GK supporters and my Ilonggo tribe, celebrating our dream of a better life for the poorest Filipino. Philippine Ambassador to Austria Lourdes Yparraguire was gracious over lunch and quite optimistic about prospects for bilateral partnerships due to the high confidence in Europe in our new leadership. It was the same optimism exuded earlier by Ambassador to France Rora Tolentino at the dinner she hosted for me in Paris. I am grateful to both not just for the warm welcome but for spreading the hope.
On a personal note, my affinity with Europeans has deepened since my three grandchildren - my little white cappucinos growing up in Manila - are half British, heirs of a father who is the greatest social entrepreneur I know and Europe's gift to my country.
The fact that Europe and Asia are one family is very real for me.
The other reality to me is that Europeans respect the hard work and caring nature of our people and are generally kind and generous to them.
What is emerging is the second generation Filipinos in Europe - including many Eurasians - who speak the language, understand the culture, can compete with the best in the west, do not carry baggages from the past and are genuinely curious to
reconnect with their Asian roots. They will have the best of both worlds, Asia and Europe will be home and trading ground to them.
This trip, and many more to follow, is aimed to build this east-west connection for travel, hospitality, volunteerism, business partnership, friendship and even love and courtship for sustainable relationship (my three children married volunteers).
I have an invitation end January 2011 to speak and set up the first long term European partnership of the GK Builders Institute (GKBI) with the Institut Catholique de Lille, a famous Catholic university in France with a 22000 student population, as arranged by their dynamic student body president Cyril Vinsard who flew in to see me in Paris for a day to extend the invitation.
It is top priority for me also to visit our GK community in Goettingen, Germany that has consistently supported our village for former scavengers at the Payatas dump site in partnership with the Ateneo Alumni Association. It was my deepest regret that I missed my visit to Germany on this trip due to miscommunication on the travel arrangement. The same was true for Dublin, Ireland due to failure to secure a visa on time.
We want Europe to be aware that this is the best time to come to the Philippines.
1. Our country is the undiscovered treasure in Asia for social tourism and humanitarian immersion with over 2000 GK villages as safe and exciting destination for those who want to do good to others. Our Department of Tourism and foreign embassies have promised full support.
2. We have fertile land, rich natural resources and talented people ready for social entrepreneurship. The GK Center for Social Innovation in collaboration with the Department of Trade and Industry and the Ateneo School of Management can help facilitate partnership and leverage resources for enlightened wealth creation to end poverty.
3. We have a trusted President and a new government determined to end corruption through honest governance and disciplined citizenship.
We are opening the doors wide open for a European invasion of poverty busters. Olivier and our GK alumni in Europe will help set up partnerships with French universities and are aiming for a thousand volunteers to sign up next year. Vienna threatens to do the same.
I hope they will all fly AirFrance and KLM -- the airlines that do not leave the poor behind.
