‘Calidad humana’

Journalists tend to be cynical, jaded (and in this country, often malicious and licentious), the type who find it easier to believe the worst rather than the good about people.

Over a year ago when Chilean Ambassador Roberto Mayorga first ran by me his idea about the Filipino “calidad humana” and ready smile, I must confess I felt I was talking to ET. And not just because of my rusty high school/college Spanish, which made it difficult for me to fully grasp what he meant by calidad humana.

What was the ambassador smoking, or drinking? But he was persistent and passionate. He told me he wanted to celebrate the Filipino smile and ever-buoyant spirit even in the face of adversity – qualities that are becoming rare in the fast-paced 21st century.

Those qualities are rapidly disappearing in his own country, the ambassador said. Chile is one of South America’s most prosperous countries, classified by the World Bank as a high-income or developed economy. The country recovered dramatically from the ruinous socialist policies of Salvador Allende followed by the human rights atrocities under the military junta of dictator Augusto Pinochet.

With prosperity, however, the warmth and other human qualities normally associated with Latin American culture are now largely missing from Chile, according to Ambassador Mayorga. So he was elated to find this calidad humana alive and well throughout the Philippines.

I guess it’s like air – we miss it only when it’s not there. Since we still have the qualities in abundance, it had to take a foreigner to point out what a national treasure we have.

Explaining what he meant, Ambassador Mayorga wrote at the time: What do you think are the most relevant questions about the problems in the current society around the world that we must ask ourselves?

Perhaps many. But there is one that has come to our consciousness: why is it that in many countries of the world, despite the economic progress, people are becoming less humane?

No doubt, they have more material satisfaction, but less sense of friendship, hospitality, compassion, less “alegría de vivir.” In other words, they have achieved material prosperity but lost human enrichment.

On the contrary, here in the Philippines, most of the people give priority to “concern for others” rather than material things.  They have what we call “Calidad Humana”: Human Compassion, Humanity, Human Tone. Of course there are exceptions; we are not in paradise.

And so the Chile embassy’s first Calidad Humana Essay Contest was born. This was followed by a photo-essay contest with the theme “Smiles for the World.”

Outside journalism, the embassy found many sympathetic partners — from academe, the Department of Tourism, Benpres Holdings chief Oscar Lopez, and later Coca-Cola Philippines, McDonald’s and Smart Communications.

As I wrote at the time, calidad humana gets us through our worst moments. It will be needed in the soul-searching that has been set off by the scandal over the winning entry in the contest, which turned out to have been lifted from the Flickr account of a Brazil-based foundation for street children.

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Those who heard Mark Joseph Solis speak at the awarding ceremonies on Wednesday last week at the Cultural Center of the Philippines surely feel saddened by this turn of events. The 22-year-old University of the Philippines political science graduate and public administration student was articulate and confident – truly a promising young man.

“When all things have fallen into place, always remember that the Filipino nation, our nation, is a nation of heroes. And when things get worse, and when things get difficult and challenging, always remember that the Filipino character is something that is optimistic and something that is smiling,” Solis said, eliciting loud applause.

Now those who thought at the time that he has a bright future in government still believe it – although this time in a different light. The Senate, for one, beckons.

Yesterday the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process announced that a photo Solis submitted, which won the 2011 “Say Peace Photo Contest” sponsored by OPAPP, was also under review. The photo of a young boy with hands clasped in front of him, described by Solis as a scene taken in Koronadal City, capital of South Cotabato, appears to have been lifted from the Flickr posts of a certain Alexandre Sattler and apparently taken in Nepal.

UP personnel may also review research work submitted by Solis for other possible cases of plagiarism and intellectual property theft.

Detractors fear the boy has an inner sociopath that keeps rising to the surface. In an interview after last week’s awarding ceremonies, Solis discussed his winning entry and the boy in the photo, whose name he did not provide, with our reporter Donnabelle Gatdula.

An excerpt: “I told him, just smile in the most natural way you can. You may show your teeth or you may not show your teeth. The context of the photo is that he was helping his father harvest seaweed in Zamboanga, which is a place right now that is falling apart. It was really relevant for me to have one photo. It was shot back in 2012, when the place was struck by Typhoon Lawin. The enterprise is called aquaculture seaweed farming. (The typhoon) destroyed their house, that is why he’s helping his father. This kid wants to become a seaman… to board a ship and have money.”

The final word on this unfortunate incident comes from Ambassador Mayorga, who maintains his abiding faith in the goodness of the Filipino:

“Did the incident come as a surprise? No.

“The truth is that life is filled with a lot of episodes like this one.

But it had a special significance: it brought to our attention the urgency in the importance of strengthening this Calidad Humana Project.

“In effect this initiative is geared toward safeguarding the positive aspects of the Filipino personality (humaneness, human compassion, resiliency, friendship, humility, hospitality, sense of peace), preventing them from being weakened by the negativity in conduct as we have experienced.  Likewise it aims to share with the rest of the world these virtues, and that is the main thrust of Smiles for the World.

“The numerous messages and text from the different networks condemning the plagiarism and urging us to act with honor and fairness, are very clear evidence of the goodness of the majority of Filipinos, which has made us feel confident that many more will unite with us to face the challenges in the present and the future that may arise from this endeavor.”