Real power

Around the table at the Diamond Hotel’s Corniche was a pretty impressive group of Asian women. There were three diplomats, two from international finance organizations, two from media, and three incredible women.

Our host Vanessa Suatengco is the first female Asian general manager of a major hotel. Vanessa is the epitome of a gracious host, the 500-room hotel being her “home.” She is one of the movers to make the bay area a bustling tourism and cultural district. That day last week that we lunched, Corniche was showcasing American food, and Vanessa urged everyone to try the “turducken,” a chicken stuffed in a duck stuffed in a turkey – and yes, it is as good as it sounds.

Organizing the gathering is Delia Albert, former foreign affairs secretary and ambassador. To say Delia is formidable is an understatement; with a wry humor, an incisive mind and a steely resolve that the Filipino – and the Filipina – can and must take his/her rightful place in the global arena, Delia is – among several other offices and endeavors – head of the Women in the Economy Summit which will gather over a thousand high-powered delegates in Manila in September 2015, in conjunction with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings to be hosted by the Philippines throughout 2015.

Our honoree, 2013 Ramon Magsaysay awardee Lahpai Seng Raw, is so gracious and serene, beautiful in her embroidered longyi which, she tells us, is Kachin, her ethnic minority group in northern Myanmar. It might be hard to imagine such a gentle woman as the moving force behind Metta Development Foundation, the largest non-government organization (NGO, which is not a bad word, despite the scandal du jour hereabouts) in Myanmar, set up in 1997 to provide emergency relief and help persons displaced by conflict, starting with the Kachins in the north, in the face of the iron-fisted military regime then ruling her country. Metta has hundreds of field schools that help farmers improve farm and forest management, has set up schools for early education and research and training centers, as well as community-managed water, health and sanitation projects.

In 2010, Seng Raw gave up her position as executive director of Metta to give way to the next generation of leaders (can those over-staying officials pay attention please). But Seng Raw has not retired to her rocking chair; she is as busy as ever in peace and development work, as her country opens up after years of isolation.

Widowed when she was pregnant with her son, now 35 years old (he’s single and quite good-looking, says the proud mother with a naughty twinkle in her eye), Seng Raw also writes short stories aside from scholarly papers.

Despite a hectic schedule of speeches, interviews and meetings – and lunches and dinners – Seng Raw does not appear harassed or stressed. Her amazing courage and fortitude, her unwavering determination to help others, are clothed in a serenity and grace that would disarm even those who disagree with her. Indeed, real power comes not with a gun or a bomb, but with a smile and a soft, lilting voice that can move not just mountains, but people. 

O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord. You hem me in – behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me; such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Psalm 139: 1-6