The founder of Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action, Mr. Miner Pimple, an Indian social worker inspired by Mahatma Gandhi and Paulo Freire, is now the deputy director of the United Nations Millennium Campaign, leading the Campaign to promote the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Asia Pacific. He works with civil society organizations, youth and student organizations, media, local authorities and parliamentarians to facilitate their engagement to hold their government to account towards fulfillment of MDGs. He presided at the inaugural of the Gallery of the Sea at the Manila Yacht Club for the observance of World Environment Day.
The unique collection of Sail paintings was initiated in Boracay by former legislator and Earthsavers founder, Heherson Alvarez when he served as DENR Secretary. The first harvest was displayed at the UN World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in August 2002. It was a stunning perspective of the artists’ cry against the destruction of Mother Nature and their vision of restoring the beauty and bounty of our polluted water bodies. Now the 3rd edition of the Gallery of the Sea for World Environment Day observance, June 5, is an inter-agency collaboration including the City of Manila, the DFA Ocean Affairs, DENR-NCR, the NAPC fisher folk sector, the Philippine Navy and the Earthsavers providing a vivid panorama of the concern for environmental sustainability. All artists deserve applause for their dramatic colorful transmission of the issues and the Art Association of the Philippines who coordinated the project with the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) Public Affairs office and the Philippine ITI Earthsavers DREAMS Academy.
Mr. Pimple, in his address, stressed the significance of the project to harness artistic expertise and cultural resources to raise consciousness and elicit collective action to restore the beauty and bounty of our oceans. Mr. Pimple likewise brought the good news that the Philippines won the first place in the Stand Up for Poverty global count of the UN based on the percentage of the count in relation to the total population. This is a feather in the cap of the government. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo launched the Philippine participation in Malacañang with UN officials led by UNRC and DepEd. Mr. Pimple is impressed with the poverty alleviation efforts of NCCA through KALAHI Cultural Caregiving services which will be manifested nationwide for Independence Day observance from June 10 to 12 in lieu of the traditional parade observance as directed by the President. Social transformation through values education, capacity and confidence building with the promotion of creative industries can be realized with artists harnessed as a creative army to help win the war against poverty. The Creativity Summit on Cultural Caregiving on the MDGs in March for the UNESCO World Theatre Week unfolded the wealth of talents from vulnerable groups coming from the urban poor or indigenous communities in the rural areas that can be tapped to confront and change their social realities. This nationwide mobilization is a follow through of the global Movement on Cultural Diversity for the MDGs launched in Manila at the 31st UNESCO ITI Congress and Theatre Olympics of the Nation by UNESCO Director General Koichiro Matsuura in 2006. An ASEAN performance and Media Arts Workshop focused on the MDGs from Ancestral Roots to New Routes of Expression has been the regional implementation of the thrust for the 40th anniversary of Asean.
Instantly, the Office of Mr. Pimple in Bangkok is cooperating with NCCA for a special film prize for short film on the MDGs at the CineManila International Film Festival in August. As we celebrate Independence Day, Filipinos should work together to gain freedom from poverty, hunger, pollution, ignorance, disease and promote the rights of women, children and indigenous peoples.
The message of World Environment Day 2008 as UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon stressed is that “we are all part of the solution. Whether you are an individual, an organization, a business or a government, there are many steps you can take to reduce your carbon footprint. It is a message we all must take to heart.”