13 days to Liwanag

Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Davao City hosts global convergence in 2013

An impressive line-up of world-renowned movers in the different spheres of society will be featured in the upcoming Liwanag World Festival on Creativity and Sustainability happening exactly a month from now. The Festival, taking place from January 29 to February 2, 2013 at the Philippine Women’s College of Davao, builds upon the outstanding achievements and reputation of the first two national Karangalan Conferences held at the Cultural Center of the Philippines in 2005 and 2006. Karangalan highlighted the global and national achievements of Filipinos in many areas of life. More than 5000 people, including visitors from other countries, attended these two conferences.

The Liwanag Festival is now taking this success, giving it a new context and making it relevant to the second decade of the 21st Century—providing groups and individuals a creative space and opportunity to come together and share solutions to societal problems confronting us such as climate change, poverty, conflict, unequal distribution of wealth, lack of access to quality and responsive education, lack of livelihood opportunities, inadequate shelter, poor physiological and psychological health, unsustainable development practices, cultural decline, apathy, cynicism, and more. As part of this process, the proponents decided to locate the Festival in Davao City, being a city that is moving towards sustainability, having great leadership and a good track record (e.g. known for its Gender Development Code, Children Welfare Code, Firecracker Ban, No Smoking Ordinance, our own 911 emergency system, among other trailblazing practices).

Some of the topics and speakers in Liwanag are:

“Global impact and message of the Occupy Wallstreet Movement” Seth Jordan, co-founder and co-initiator of Think Outward and Occupy Wallstreet

“Revolutionary Discoveries in the Science of the Heart and Its Relevance to Creativity and Societal Sustainability” Bruce Cryer, Global Director of Heart Math Health Care, a technique created to help people decrease their stress levels and increase their quality of life.

“The New Story of the Universe and the Future of Humanity” Barbara Max Hubbard, President, Foundation for Conscious Evolution

Alongside these guest speakers are Philippines’ own leaders: Maria Ressa, high profile journalist and CEO of Rappler, will elaborate on The Strategic Importance of Independent Media in Sustainable Societies. For civil society, the powerhouse group of Dr. Alyssa Peleo-Alampay, Geologist, Dr. Laura David, Oceanographer, and Dr. Cora Claudio, Environmental Scientist—members of Ten Outstanding Women in the Nations Service (TOWNS) Team on Climate Change will help participants gain a deeper understanding of Climate Change and its impact on humanity. For the economic sphere, Ms. Gina Lopez, Executive Director of ABS-CBN Foundation, will encourage participants to follow their example in Mobilizing Business to Defend Nature; Mr. Tony Meloto, Founder of GK-Center for Social Innovation will likewise share how they Reinvented Philippine Agriculture through Social Enterprise. For the cultural sphere, Surallah Mayor Romulo Solivio, with Sculptor-Artist Kublai Millan, will share their experience onGovernment and Civil Society partnerships for the Rebirth of Culture.

Most importantly, a multi-stakeholder panel from Bayawan City will present Character First: The Liwanag Anchor of Bayawan City's Journey to Sustainability. Bayawan City, two hours away from Dumaguete,  Negros Oriental, boasts the title of being a “Character City,” a member of the International Association of Character Cities and a pioneer Department of Health certified “Healthy City” in the Philippines. Recently, it was recognized by the Asian Institute of Management city as “one of the Top 10 Best Cities to Live In in the Philippines (Small Cities Category)” under its Competitive Cities Survey 2007.

With this festival, the proponents want to emphasize that creativity and sustainability initiatives are alive, healthy and well, not only in Davao City but also in other parts of the country, and, of course, the world. Aside from the plenary presentations, hundreds of pre-registered as well as spontaneous parallel creative workshops, performances and exhibits will be taking place during the entire week, featuring participating individuals and initiatives with inspiring and innovative solutions to current challenges; local, national and international artists such as Joey Ayala (who also composed and performed the official Liwanag Festival theme song); ritualists from different tribes of Mindanao; Bayang Barrios; the Talaandig Artists of Bukidnon; performing artist-activist Juana Change; Sampsa Pirtola from Europe; Hinuguyaw Cultral Dance Troupe; Kaliwat Theatre Collective; Madayaw Cultural Troupe; Bayanihan Dancers, and other surprise artists.

“Two faces of the Philippines, two faces of the world mirrored in two forms of life. On one side, dense darkness amidst suffering and strivings. But on the distant road ahead are pulsing balls of light, like torches blazing trails of Hope – initiatives of some groups of humans in vigil for the herald of a new tomorrow. Brothers and Sisters, Let us glory on these strivings to change the face of the World.”

-The essence of Liwanag Festival on Sustainability and Creativity, as captured in words by Davao-based Palanca awardee Don Pagusara

Liwanag World Festival is initiated by the Movement of Imaginals for Sustainable Societies through Initiatives, Organizing and Networking (www.imaginalmission.net), supported by the Lifebank Foundation, Inc. a microfinance institution providing financial opportunities for the poor, specifically women. For more details about Liwanag World Festival and how to join, log on to www.liwanagworldfest.net. You may also contact Liwanag Secretariat through email: lwfdavao@gmail.com, landline: +6382.286.726, or visit us at: Door A6 2nd Floor, Lakitan Mall San Pedro St., Davao City, Phils. Look for Lilli Arellano 0918.914.1047, Melma Abasolo 0922.832.3244 or Nick Solana 0918.520.1400. 

What is LIWANAG to you?

One of my visions for our country, the Philippines is coming true!

And I'm getting the first had experience.

I've always dreamed of inviting people I admire and who inspires me, be they authors, inspirational speakers, or simply doing a great job in creating changes and giving solutions to global challenges!

I remember talking about that dream with Ate M. some two years ago, and I never thought... it would go this way! and something grand!

Anyway... me and my Imaginal friends in MISSION are organizing Liwanag World Festival on Creativity and Sustainability this coming January 29 to February 2, 2012. :)

To start the conversations of humanity..... let me ask this question:

"What is Liwanag to you?"

Please enter your full name or screen name :P
Name - Field/Company/Advocacy

We might just include your answer in our Facebook Page: Liwanag WorldFest, Inc.

Singapore

After the Malaysia trip we decided to drop by and tour Singapore for two(2) days. If Malaysia has lovely "island bars" imagine my delight when I saw Singapore's "island bars" (refer to the picture at the right).

The bougainvillea flowers they used are just "ordinary" here in the Philippines but they used it to beautify the most part of their city! Wow. Can we not do that in our country as well? Hay. Hay. Lovely lovely. And the trees? Grabe. Salute to the people who landscaped their country. I heard Pinoys did the landscaping? Is it true? Ha? Ha?

We slept right away when we arrived. (Of course we need to recharge after the hectic non-stop travel in Malaysia).


If in Malaysia it's Genting Highlands you must visit, in Singapore it's Sentosa Island. So, by 6pm we decided to visit and watch the highlight show in Sentosa Island which is the "Songs of the Sea". It's an amazing show! They used a musical fountain and interacted it with lasers against the water particles to create 3D images. It was purely MA-GEE-CAL! I wished my sister and brother was with us that time.


We did not get to tour around the Island that much since it's already dark. But they have a nightlife in the island, I guess. Judging from the outfits of the young-uns. Hehe. There's a cable car in the island as well and it's quite different from the one in Malaysia because underneath the cable car would be minus the forest but the sea. But, I will surely try out the cable car when me and my family would visit Singapore for a vacation.

There are different ways to get in and out of the island. Renting a taxi ($35), ride a train, ride the Sentosa Bus, Cable Car, or your own private car.

We spent most of our time in Orchard Road. If you are the type of person who loves to shop, Orchard Road is the place for you. The whole of Orchard Road is filled with shopping malls. I can't name most of them, but all I remember is getting inside. Hehe. There is no trouble if you just use your feet in Singapore since everything is prolly "just-a-walk-away". Unless you are a person who can't stand walking! But, if you are a person who resides in Davao "walk-a-thon" is not a foreign word. In fact everything would be near for you. :) *walang problema pag networker ka!*



I got to visit their National Museum but not the whole of it. The building looks nice noh? :) Very attractive.







If we have the Malacañang Palace and U.S the White House, in Singapore they have the Istana Singapore. If you are on the way to visit the shopping malls in Orchard Road you can pass by the Istana. The home of their Prime Minister.




We took the last flight out of Singapore to Manila so we can fully enjoy our stay at the Singapore Changi Airport. It's like a big shopping mall. They have a wide array of duty free shops and eating outlets. They also have "free internet" which explains my "Greetings from Singapore post". Hehe. They have free massages located everywhere as well.

Changi Airport is the 22nd busiest airport & one of the busiest cargo airports in the world and the 6th busiest in Asia. They have six open air garden areas and during our stay I got to visit the two. I don't know where the other four are located. I only visited their Orchid and Fern garden.

I just have to salute and say thank you to the "smiling customs" in Malaysia and Singapore. They were friendly and not at all imposing compared to the ones in Philippines, sad to say. They would smile and encourage us to come back and even have the decency to ask us if we enjoyed our stay. If we forgot to fill something up in the customs form they would just smile and consult us.

I don't know if you travelers notice this but our customs here in the Philippines always have a serious face. No smiles and everything. Nada. I guess it's different if you are foreign or what? I'll keep this in mind when I go out this November I will look over the customs attending to foreign nationals. They could at least smile a bit and be forgiving to others when they forgot to fill something up. *my mom witnessed a scenario where the custom personnel would scold at a Balikbayan*. Hello! Philippines is our country, we should be welcomed with smiles! They could say "Hi Maam, Sir kumusta ang travel niyo?" or "Hi Sir welcome back to the Philippines!".

There's still a lot to improve in the Philippines. I do hope one day it would improve for the better. Seeing other countries excel inspires me and the desire to see Philippines improving is soooo strong. But, I shan't ask the government to do the improving. It is not a good question to ask because number one I don't think they can answer it and number two the government has matters and "personal agendas" to attend to. The future is not in their hands anyway. The future mga kababayan is WITH US.

So let's stop asking what our country/government can do for us instead let's ask OURSELVES "WHAT WE CAN DO FOR OUR COUNTRY". I think that's better di ba? :)

It doesn't matter if we can't do GREAT THINGS we can do SMALL THINGS in a GREAT WAY! Go go PINOY! Wag antayin ang gobyerno. Hehe. Let's do it ourselves!

a bit stressed out?

*yawn*

I haven't blogged for awhile... but i guess it's quite time to at least update about what's keepin me busy and all that.....

June 9 my friend asked me to assist her in editing and making a video. 2 kinds of video Music video and a drama/play. Not just editing, but actually acting....for the drama part! I have no idea whatsoever about editing, because editing is so stressful!!! when we had that in summer... i was in the financial team. rofl! Anyhow, my friend the damsel in distress, really needs my help and so i said YES! Even though i really need sleep. And i ddnt know my 3 day rest from college was going to be disturbed.

June 10 Saturday! The day I was supposed to REFORMAT my PC and INSTALL my new hard drive (80gig) , and then new DVD writer(woohoo!!), and Memory (512mb) ahihi. But still, I am going to pay all that to MY MOM! ack! being the businesswoman she is, she knows i am going to use the DVD writer as a business so she asked for REFUND when i pushed through! *sigh* oh well... anyhow, my classmate arrived and then installed the DVD writer, HDD and the memory and then tried to reformat my pc. While 2 of my high school classmate (1 of them was the one who asked for help named Matet and the other named Emel) are outside taking videos, I suggested a song for them and they liked it, and now they are shooting outside.

Reformatting: I decided to just format my C and not the D. and so all of my important files are transferred to D. anyway the story is quite long so im making it short, my DRIVE D files were all formatted due to one circumstance.

ANyway.... i had a long day that day. I was tired and frustrated because most of the IMPORTANT pictures were erased, and then i couldnt sleep well thinkin about the pictures my parents wanted me to save to a CD and wasnt able to.. *uhoh* i smell twable! We wrapped up by8:30pm

June 11(sunday) -I wokeup 7am. my classmate came back, to install the softwares i wanted to have in my pc since it was so late the other night he didnt have the time to install the rest of the softwares. My 2 friends came back to brainstorm about the drama. Anyway they finished the Music Video yesterday and all i have to do is edit them and transfer them to the pc, that looks so foreign, new design and new softwares installed minus the PICTURES!! ack!. And now i searched the internet and looked for short stories, and found a story with a fairy. only 2 characters + 1 narrator and would definetly fit us coz its only 3 of us. Anyway i suggested to make that story into a play, and they agreed, i made a script... blah blah.. and we thought we needed a BOY! so we called one of our friend over to act as the Boy hehe.. anyway.. we just finished the dubbing that day.. and we finished editing the MUsic video that lasted for 3 mins! it was good, i have to admit and i wanna have my OWN MUSIC VIDEO! i will one day... when im free from stresss!! haha and all the workloads.. i have lately.. We wrapped by 10pm

June 12 (monday) Happy INDEPENDENCE DAY! I woke up quarter to 7. my classmates arrived like 9am and then we started the acting and all that. we finished by 12noon. then ate. we started editing by 1am.. i was havinga hard time mixing the 2. the dubbed and the video,.. anyway i managed to pull it off.. they went home by 11pm.. and i was left to burn and edit the last of the flaws... i waited for it to render..

June 13(tues) i slept by 1am and then woke up by 3am to burn the 2 cds which will be taken by my friend early in the am 7am. Anyway... i slept 4am again and woke up 6:30 am... by friend arrived 7:40 and then i ddnt get to sleep already i went and do my pending assignments and all that. went to college 1:00 pm and then went to the office to enroll for an anatomy class that i need for iridology certification. But then, it wasnt confirmed yet. I went home with a relative who will be staying at home, so i am entertaining. I slept by 5pm to 7pm while my relative was still using my pc. I AM TIRED *sigh* i wanna sleep more huhuhu.. but got lots of things to do. I ate.. then finally got to sleep by 12am after everything.

June14(wed) went to college 8am. finally im not late! for the first time in 3 meetings hehe. I did not get to sing or give some jokes (thats what we do when are late.) We had a quiz. then on the other subject another activity, another subject another activity... another subject just lecture and then last subject lecture also.. i had a long day.. i went home directly. And then burned some cd.. (ordered..part of business).. slept by... 12am.

June 15(thurs) the day my family would arrive from manila! They went to manila.. and left me all aloneeeee.. here.. its ok.. though. hehe. they arrived early in the morning. Whippee.. got lots of goodies from them.. ahehe.. anyway went to college by 1 and then went back home by 3pm. and then went to do homeworks and then made stuffs online.. like cd.. blah.. blah. and then slept 11pm...

June 16(fri) I found out last night that this would be the first day for our SCLEROLOGY class. So i would be absent from college today to attend this 4 day seminar. i made out excuse letters for each teacher. Oh well our class starts 9am and ends 5-6pm. anywy its a fun day.. still tired coz lack of sleep. slept around 12am

June 17(sat) 2nd day... a fun class... but tiring hehe.. coz im still lacking the sleep i so much NEED. oh well.... we had a pleroma a family gathering. it was fun,.. meeting my covenant sisters... but at the same time.. u know.. tiring.. ahihi.. went home 9pm slept 11:30

June 18(sun) Yes.. sunday we have classes and its FATHER's DAY! Happy father;s day. I made dad a home made video.. its just 4mins hehe.. but it was fine... he was happy.. tahts all that matters. We had class, and then ended by 5pm i went home right away.. i have like lots of CDs to burn... and im still working on the 3rd cd.. right now... oh well.. its 11:31 pm aww.w.. morrow its another day... *sigh* oh well i have to make this fast.. i wanna drop to my BED>. nightieee... -_-