The gift of green

Hundreds of nature lovers and jazz music aficionados trooped to Diana Krall’s recent concert for the benefit of ABS-CBN Foundation’s Save the La Mesa Watershed Project.

Diana Krall is the jazz diva of the day, having been declared the Best Jazz Vocalist at the 2000 Grammy Awards and having been the first jazz artist nominated for Album of the Year also at the 2000 Grammys. Diana’s "The Look of Love" album has sold over two million copies worldwide. In June 2001, her career got a further boost when she received the Ella Fitzgerald Prize at the Montreal International Jazz Festival.

The dinner show at the Edsa Shangri-La Hotel was postponed for a month because of the unfortunate demise of Diana Krall’s mother. Traces of sadness lingered in Diana’s eyes as she rendered heart-tugging songs, but ever the professional, she showed us the caliber of a Grammy-winning musician.

Diana also took time to chat with Gina Lopez, who was a standout in her lime-colored gown. As president of ABS-CBN Foundation, Gina is working for the rehabilitation of the La Mesa Watershed, one of Bantay Kalikasan’s projects.

The La Mesa Watershed is the Manileño’s lifeline. It is a 2,700-hectare forest straddling Caloocan, Rizal and Quezon City, and the site of the filtration plant and reservoir supplying much-needed water to Metro Manila’s 10 million residents. In 1998, however, 1,200 hectares of the watershed were badly denuded to slash and burn farming. A study predicted that if nothing was done to save the watershed, the forest would become a desolate wasteland in 2003. We cringe to think what would happen to Manila’s water system by then!

Thankfully, Bantay Kalikasan stepped in to protect the forest. Save the La Mesa Watershed Project has been planting indigenous trees like narra, kamagong and other species. So far the program has been successful in replanting an average of 200 hectares every year, with a 90 percent survival rate!

Save the La Mesa has likewise gained much support from earth lovers who converged at the dinner gala. Among them were Sen. Serge Osmeña, Ambassador Jesus Tambunting, Vivian Yuchengco of the Philippine Stock Exchange, book author Grace Eleazar and designer Jeannie Goulbourn.

You too can help save the La Mesa by joining the Adopt a Tree or Adopt a Hectare program. Just call 415-2227.

* * * A Hundred Years Of Holiness

It was an unexpected pleasure to be invited to attend the multimedia exhibit "100 Years of Monsignor Josemaria Escriva." As many of you may know, Blessed Josemaria Escriva is the founder of the prelature Opus Dei (Work of God). The exhibit, which has been touring all over the Philippines, commemorates not only the birth centenary of this most holy man, but also his canonization this coming Oct. 6.

Blessed Josemaria was born in Spain on January 9, 1902. By divine inspiration, he founded Opus Dei in Madrid in 1928. By the time he surrendered his soul to God, Opus Dei had spread to five continents with over 60,000 members.

The exhibit drew scores of followers of Blessed Josemaria, among them STAR columnist Atty. Jose Sison and Vicky Cuisia, wife of Jose Cuisia Jr., vice chairman of the board of governors of the Tower Club. They and many cooperators of the Opus Dei have been strongly influenced by the profound philosophy of the humble monsignor. "There is something holy, something divine hidden in the most ordinary situations, and it is up to each one of you to discover it," quoted one of the exhibit panels from a homily of Msgr. Escriva.

The mobile exhibit itself promoted the life and teachings of Blessed Josemaria by displaying the most ordinary things: a coffee mug, a camera, a measuring tape... "We wanted to show that it is through the ordinary things in life that people can achieve holiness," explained Lita Hidalgo, a member of Arts Unlimited that organized the exhibit. Other features were a CD-ROM that showed the exemplary life and works of Blessed Josemaria, and TV sets that ran documentaries telling how simple men and women try to seek God in their places of work.