Ask me about the things I’d rather not do, and waiting tops my list.

In this hurried world where almost everything can be done in an instant, where people are always pressed for time, where everyone is trying to get ahead of everyone else, it is quite uncommon to find people who take their time, do things slowly, and wait. No wonder modern day life is also known as “the rat race.”

We think life is a race so we don’t want to waste our time. We turn ballistic when stuck in traffic. We bark at the waiter when our meal doesn’t get served on time. We are annoyed at people who come late for an appointment. We hate it when our flight is delayed. We grumble while in line at the supermarket. We complain at the doctor’s office when the queue is too long. I could go on and on, still not run out of examples, and you’d probably skip over this paragraph because you can’t wait for me to get to the point. We could be anywhere, doing anything, be with anyone, and we would still have alarm bells going off the second we are made to wait.

And these are only minor instances of waiting. How about those times when you need to wait for an answer to a prayer, for the perfect partner in life, for healing, for the right career or business opportunity? How do we fair then? If a few minutes of waiting already annoy us, how can we even try to be patient during more difficult times?

The Bible tells us that there is a reason for all our troubles (yes, that includes those long hours, or even just minutes of waiting that we hate so much).

“There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!” (Romans 5:3-5, The Message Bible, emphasis mine)

We all have to pass through difficult periods of waiting at least once in our lives. Sometimes, it becomes so difficult to bear that we just want to throw our hands up and give up. But GOD knows what we go through. HE knows what we are waiting for. HE knows how hard we have worked. HE knows how much we have sacrificed. But our waiting is never in vain, if we have faith in GOD and HIS promises, and if we allow the HOLY SPIRIT to empower us and give us strength.

Remember Abraham in the Bible? He was 99 when GOD promised him a son. And he and his wife Sarah had to wait 25 years for GOD to fulfill HIS promise. But Abraham never complained. HE held on to that promise because he knew that GOD would deliver.

“And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.” (Hebrews 6: 15, NIV, emphasis mine)

GOD did not disappoint Abraham, and neither will HE disappoint us. During those times when all we can do is wait, let us take that as an opportunity to seek GOD, and HE will deliver us because we ask. HE wants us to make productive use of our time. What could be more productive than taking the time to wait on HIM?

“I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope.” (Psalm 130: 5, NIV)

Waiting on GOD is an art. The more you immerse yourself in it, the more enjoyable it becomes. And true appreciation comes only when we realize the beauty and purpose in it.

GOD is a Farmer, the earth is HIS field
HE planted all life to bring forth much yield
By HIS spoken Word and life-giving breath
Man came into being with no fear of death.

But man is so stubborn, we do not obey
We know not contentment, we go our own way
The once fertile field, we’ve made barren and dry
One look at HIS field, the Farmer would cry.

But GOD is so gracious, HE never gave up
HE planned our redemption, way ahead from the top
HE sent a Redeemer, saved us from the pit
The Farmer does love us, every inch, every bit.

To us who received HIM to live in our heart
GOD gave us a promise, that’s right from the start
If we are faithful and obedient, you’ll  see
Our lives would be fruitful as HE planned it to be.

GOD is my Farmer, my heart is HIS field
HE planted HIS Son there to Whom I must yield
HE gave me new life, death does me no harm
In HIM I have comfort, with HIM I feel warm.

Amen!

I have never regarded myself as an entrepreneur or having an entrepreneurial spirit, at the very least. I grew up thinking that to be an entrepreneur you have to be good at one and only one thing – making money. As this was simply not one of the many gifts GOD has generously given me, I resigned myself to the idea that I could never go into business, much less succeed in one.

At a very young age, I had always known I would devote myself to a life of service. I wanted to be a doctor, but when things turned out differently, I ended up doing government work. Come to think of it, had I become a doctor, I would probably be one of those “doctors to the barrios” instead of having the more lucrative private practice. For me, service could not possibly go hand-in-hand with profit-making business.

This is perhaps why going into business never became a serious part of my agenda. I always thought business was purely about making profit and enriching oneself. After all, why would anyone want to go into business if not to make money? Well, that’s what I believed until I learned, much later in life, that business need not have profit as its only bottom line.

Unfortunately, most of us have been educated in the former.  We live in a world that teaches us that the only way to succeed in business is to make as much money as you can, notwithstanding the consequences. We live in a world where money has become our “god”, pursuing it regardless of the cost to others or our environment. We live in a world where all the resources GOD has given us are used and exhausted for the benefit of a few, with no consideration as to the needs of future generations.

While it is true that “sustainable development” and “corporate social responsibility” have been the buzzwords among business circles in recent years, one can still question the extent to which these so-called advocacies have made an impact in the lives of so many individuals and communities who continue to suffer from exploitation, unfair labor practices, unregulated and uncontrolled disposal of toxic and hazardous wastes, and many other “socially irresponsible” business practices.

The problem lies not in the business or enterprise itself, but in the values of the person or persons who own and run the business. Instead of values like generosity and selflessness, most entrepreneurs, though they would not admit it, have greed and self-centeredness as the primary motivations for doing business. It is sad that our prevailing economic system allows and even nurtures these motives.

Certainly, there are far more important things in this world than profit and money.

One is our home, the earth.

“GOD blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’” (Genesis 1: 28)

This verse from the Bible tells us that when GOD created the earth and everything in it including man, HE commanded man to be the steward of all creation. Man was to fill the earth and subdue it, and to him was given the authority to rule over every creature on earth.

While searching for the definition of “steward” online, this one struck me as the most appropriate  – “one who manages another’s property, finances or other affairs.” True enough, Genesis 1:28 reveals GOD’s command for man to manage HIS property, the earth.  The earth is GOD’s property because it was HE who created it. Man was merely appointed to manage what belongs to GOD. Therefore, man has no right to use the riches of creation for his own benefit because it is not his.

“And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own? No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both GOD and money.” (Luke 16: 12-13)

It is clear that we are expected to be trustworthy stewards of GOD’s creation. Why then do we cry out to GOD when nature devastates our cities, when raging floods cover our lands, when earthquakes destroy all property that we have so diligently acquired for ourselves? Why do we blame GOD when we have been unfaithful stewards of HIS property? If we cannot be trusted with GOD’s property, why then should GOD entrust us with our own?

For the love of money, we have forgotten our basic responsibility to take care of this earth. We have to remember that to whom much is given, much is required. To those of us who have been blessed with the resources, the skills, the wherewithal to go and succeed in business, to us GOD has given much. HE expects no less than our faithfulness in return.

But the earth is not all GOD has entrusted to us.

“Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.” (1 Corinthians 10: 24)

GOD also commands us to take care of his most important and most valuable creation – mankind. But in the day-to-day affairs of our organizations, have we been faithfully obeying this command? Do we treat our employees well? Do we give them the benefits and remuneration due to them? Are our labor practices fair? Do we make sure that people are not exploited or disenfranchised in our business operations? And these are all just internal to our business.

How about the people outside our organizations? Are our prices fair to our clients and customers? Do we ensure that we produce goods and services that will not harm our customers’ health? Do we ensure the quality of our products and services regardless of the cost? Do we consider client needs when developing product lines? Do we value customer feedback? Do we continually find ways to improve customer service?

I could go on and on, but I believe I have made my point. GOD wants us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. What better way to show GOD’s love than to take care of and nurture the people whose lives we touch everyday. Surely GOD, the owner of all things and source of all life, will bless us richly if we do.

As a final note, let me point out how management guru Peter Drucker defines entrepreneurs -  “those who create something new, something different.”

So to all those who call themselves entrepreneurs out there, I pose a challenge.

Dare to make a difference. Dare to go beyond the call of profit.

“Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in GOD, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.” (1 Timothy 6:17-19, emphasis mine)

People always seem to be obsessed with the truth.

Last July 30, 2010, Philippine President Noynoy Aquino signed his first Executive Order establishing a Truth Commission to “seek and find the truth” on graft and corruption committed during the previous administration. So when this Truth Commission comes out with its report after two years, we expect people to accept the results to be “the truth”, right?

Well, not necessarily. Sometimes people believe only what they want to believe, they hear only what they want to hear. Surely most have already decided in their minds what the truth of the matter is, and need only a validation of that belief. So if things turn out the opposite of what they expect, what next?

Today, some distinguish between absolute truth and relative truth. One view is that absolute truth implies that whatever is true at one time and in one place is true at all times and in all places, and whatever is true for one person is true for all people. On the other hand, relative truth implies that all truth is relative to time and space (true now but not then), and all truth is relative to people (true for me but not for you).

A survey conducted in 1994 revealed that 66% of American adults agreed to the statement: “There is no such thing as absolute truth.” In 1999, another study showed that 70% of American youth believed the same thing. In other words, two people could define “truth” in conflicting ways and still both be right.

But it gets more interesting. When a study was conducted among American churchgoers in 1998, it was found that 53% of adults and 57% of youth do not believe that there is an absolute truth. This is surprising considering that the Church is supposed to be the guardian of truth.

In John 14:6, JESUS HIMSELF said that HE is “the way, the truth, and the life.” Why then would most people, all of whom profess their faith in JESUS, not believe in an absolute truth?

Although the popular view today is that truth is relative, Christianity is built on the premise that truth is absolute and that the teachings of the Bible are universal. The idea that truth is relative is perhaps one of the most difficult challenges facing the Church today.

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” (Proverbs 14:12)

This verse probably means more these days than it ever did before.

One can look at the world in either a biblical way or a non-biblical way. But the world does not want us to look at it in the former. Why? Because this will require a belief in absolute truth, which will force us to accept that some of our actions are wrong. The world does not want that because most people do what seems right to them, and are not guided by any standards except their own. Compromising with the world has become the norm.

Today, access to knowledge is unprecedented, what with technology and the internet giving us information at the push of a button or a click of a mouse. But knowledge is certainly not synonymous with wisdom. For Christians, only the Bible can provide wisdom. One of its purposes is to be a manual for living. It is a clear guide about what is right and what is wrong.

The truth is in the Bible. But many laugh at the idea of absolute truth and believe that we are free to do as we please as long as we do not hurt anybody else. Some people live their lives as best as they can. Some even say that they try to do what they think is right. Therein lies the danger because that is in direct contradiction to the will of GOD. GOD clearly defines right and wrong in HIS WORD. It is not for us to decide what is true or not. GOD is truth and the truth comes from HIM.

The reason why this world is in such chaos now is that we have compromised all truth. We have gone our own way, ignoring the guidelines given to us by GOD to live a peaceful, healthy and prosperous life. If we want order in this world, if we want harmony and peace, we need to go back to the basics, to GOD’s original design for man, to GOD’s Law, to GOD’s Word, to GOD’s truth.

Only GOD’s truth, HIS absolute truth, will set us free.

“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32)

Twenty years ago, I would have reacted violently to that statement. But the number 40, or 40 years, to be exact, has since found new meaning in my life.

Even in Scripture, the number 40 seems to carry much significance.

. . . When GOD wanted to cleanse the world and start over, HE let it rain for 40 days and 40 nights.
. . . Moses was on the mountain with GOD for 40 days… twice.
. . . The Israelites spent 40 years in the wilderness. It took the spies 40 days to search out the Promised Land and bring back news.
. . . Elijah spent 40 days on Mount Horeb to hear the voice of GOD sustained only by a single angelic meal.
. . . Jonah warned Niniveh that they had 40 days before GOD would overthrow the city, so the people repented for 40 days and GOD spared them.
. . . JESUS fasted for 40 days in the wilderness. JESUS stayed with HIS disciples for 40 days after HIS resurrection.

And the list goes on.

Bible scholars say that the number 40 signifies a period of testing, trial or probation, after which comes a reward or time of blessing. In Scripture, when GOD wants to prepare people for a truly great destiny, HE takes a period of 40 days or years and sends them through an unpleasant yet unforgettable experience.

It was on my 40th year when I hit a blank wall. It came to a point when I asked “Is there nothing more to life than this?” I had spent 40 years in the wilderness virtually going around in circles. I had witnessed GOD’s power and received HIS blessing, yet I never seemed content with what I had. I had everything, yet I had nothing.

My life has never been unpleasant, at least not by worldly standards. But as I look back, I realize I was certainly on probation, a testing of sorts. Much like a new employee put on probation to test if he had the skills and attitudes necessary for his job, GOD had also put me through probation for 40 years, to see if I was ready to respond to HIS call. HE let me experience the world and have everything I could possibly want in it, and then HE led me to a dead end, where I would find HIM and HIM alone. And nothing has since been the same.

It’s amazing how things turn out. Now I have less of what the world can offer yet I feel I have more than I could possibly desire to have. I’m a completely new person with a completely new life.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
(2 Corinthians 5:17)

It’s not so ridiculous after all. Life can really begin at 40.

On April 27, 2010, on the occasion of the Farmers’ Unity Meeting organized by the Bangon Pilipinas Party (BPP) in Muñoz, Nueva Ecija, I got the chance to listen to Nanay Tessie about her family’s situation as rice farmer in Muñoz.

“We had difficulties with our finances”, she said. “The loans we got from the traders were spent mostly on the children’s school expenses and farm inputs i.e. fertilizers and pesticides. Even before the harvest, our crops were already committed to the traders to pay off our loans and they (traders) dictate the price of our produce in most cases. There was very little left to us.”  This was how Nanay Tessie, member of a multi-purpose cooperative (MPC) in Munoz Nueva Ecija, summed up her family’s situation.

Lacking in financial resources, Nanay Tessie availed of loan from the MPC that was funded by a government credit program. Nanay Tessie used the loan for food production. Both financial and technical assistance were extended to Nanay Tessie and to other members of the MPC with the goal of increasing their productivity, ensuring better prices for their produce and eventually increasing their income too.

In the beginning, Nanay Tessie enjoyed the benefits brought about by the financial assistance. But after several loan cycles, she felt she was gradually sliding back to the poverty level she had been before and prior to the introduction of the credit program. The increase in her income was not sustained. Her loans turned sour, so did the credit obligations of her fellow cooperative members, until their MPC was disqualified and cut off from the government credit program. It seemed that the external financial assistance provided was not enough.

With best intentions probably to help MPC the loan provider found itself constrained and unable to stem the cycle of marginalization that characterized the life of poor farmers like Nanay Tessie. Much as the loan provider wanted to continue helping the farmers, this had to stop as the volume of its loanable funds diminished due to low recovery rates. This made the cost of delivering credit more prohibitive, Nanay Tessie remembered the loan officer telling her.

Against this backdrop, it is commendable that the mutually reinforcing institutions of CSRSME Asia, Shared Vision Cooperative (SVC) and On Eagle’s Wings Development Foundation (Eagle’s Wings) have joined forces to advance the BPP food security program as an instrument for poverty alleviation and rural development. But they need to look deeper into the financial assistance needs of farmers.  CSRSME Asia, SVC and Eagle’s Wings should develop new approaches in agricultural finance that are more sustainable and responsive to the needs of farmers. They should deal with crucial issues such as “what appropriate actions should CSRSME Asia/SVC/Eagle’s Wings take in order to create a more enabling economic environment both in the countryside and urban areas?” and “what kind of support is more participatory and responsive to the situation of farmers like Nanay Tessie?”

Extension of credit to cooperatives did not entirely address the farmers’ problem of lack of access to and control over resources. Farmers like Nanay Tessie once more face the threat of marginalization as they have not been able to make more productive use of the financial resources that were extended to them. This looks more like the case of farmers taking one-step-forward, and then two-steps-backward. Lessons learned from almost a decade of many credit programs have not helped much in developing new approaches to countryside financing, nor in improving the orientation of today’s credit programs.

Realizing that providing credit to farmers is just part of the solution, CSRSME Asia, SVC and Eagle’s Wings have come up with a new financial technology package, the Bayanihan Banking Program (BBP). The program is predicated on the belief that farmers can actively participate in, contribute to, and benefit from economic activities if they are organized to undertake grassroots financial intermediation through the Bayanihan system. BBP could help develop the capacity of farmer organizations to generate financial resources not only from the external but internally as well, and be able to mobilize these resources successfully.

For many years now since the BBP was initiated, CSRSME Asia, SVC and Eagle’s Wings have shown that the poor, including the poor farmers, have the capacity to generate their own financial capital. That in spite the crippling effects of poverty, alternative financing programs using more responsive and appropriate organizing schemes and financial technologies through the Bayanihan system can pave the way for indigenous generation of financial resources.

Through the BBP, CSRSME Asia, SVC, and Eagle’s Wings could strengthen their role in the whole effort on poverty alleviation and rural development as socially responsible NGOs which contribute to the creation of an alternative economy that nurtures the self-help initiative of farmers – this time through the Farmers Bayanihan Center.

By: JOEL O. MARCAIDA

A dream is a succession of thoughts, images, sounds or emotions which the mind experiences during sleep.[1] The content and purpose of dreams are not fully understood, though they have been a topic of speculation and interest throughout recorded history. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream).

We sometimes dream driving our favorite hot cars, flying/traveling around the world, or running because we’re being chased by weird creatures and sometimes we’re the mighty warrior fighting all the bad guys in a movie. I assume that most of us have this kind of experience that as woke up we wonder about the meaning of our dream . Is the the opposite of what is the reality? On the other hand, this dream has something to do with your future. We all ask these questions.

I just want to share about my dream in June 4 and June 5. Likewise, I welcome everyone who wants to give their comment.

Last Friday, June 4, 2010 I woke up 3:00 am because of a dream. This is the story: In my dream, I am working in a very popular fast food and I’m assigned as a kitchen staff. The establishment is located in Bagong Silang (Phase 5) near our house. I was going to the kitchen (basement level) when the flood started to flow heavily in the building after I got out of the establishment, I saw houses in surrounding area already in submerged in water. The path walks were elevated and the people stayed there. I saw with very own eyes two children died while a man tried to remove water from his house. I was so devastated seeing this. I also witnessed two-storey building fell down and destroyed because the earthquake like the one you see in the movies. After the calamity, I started walking and looking at the people and when I got near them, I started to declare that “ONLY GOD CAN RESTORE OUR PLACE/LAND” and the people started to follow what I am doing. We all cried and wept while were declaring those words.

Yesterday, the whole day I was thinking about this dream and asking myself “What is the meaning of this?”

Once again, this morning about 4:00 I had another dream but this time it is not about disaster and destruction like the movie 2012 or Apocalypse. It is more relaxed and youth oriented dream because I was in a Youth Camp. The participants came from different background in life. I saw familiar faces in the camp like my friend and PIC (Partner in Crime) Sir Jaylord and some of my friends that I have not been with for a long time (and I missed them so much). In the camp during session, I saw myself telling the participants about how Jesus loves them and the importance of living according to His will.  I was preaching about the Gospel. After my preaching, Sir Jaylord starts telling us to break into groups so that we can discuss and further explain topics about Christian living. Some of the participants in the camp refused to join the small group and moved away.

These are my dreams for two consecutive days.

Now I am here at SM Fairview writing this and asking myself why I am having this kind of dream for two consecutive days. Is this about my calling? Is this the time to go back to what I’m doing for the past years, mobilizing youth? Preparing the Way.

Yu Pengnian, China’s biggest philanthropist sits in the restaurant atop the hotel he built, where he lives and eats most of his meals.

Yang Junpo for The Globe and Mail

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/chinese-philanthropist-donates-it-all/article1650447/

ENJOY WHILE YOU (STILL) CAN!  - Confucius 551BC-479BC

Chinese philanthropist donates it all

Eccentric Developer from Humble Roots Shocks Nation by Leaving Offspring Nothing

by Mark MacKinnon

Shenzhen, China — From Saturday’s Globe and Mail Published on Friday, Jul. 23, 2010 8:46PM EDT Last updated on Tuesday, Jul. 27, 2010 1:31AM EDT

Yu Pengnian’s journey from poor street hawker to Hong Kong real-estate magnate was already a remarkable one. Then the 88-year-old did something even rarer that shocked many in increasingly materialistic China: He gave it all away.

Saying he hoped to set an example for other wealthy Chinese, Mr. Yu called a press conference in April to announce he was donating his last 3.2 billion yuan (about $500-million) to a foundation he established five years earlier to aid his pet causes – student scholarships, reconstruction after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, and paying for operations for those like him who suffer from cataracts.

“This will be my last donation,” he announced. “I have nothing more to give away.”

With that endowment, Mr. Yu became the first Chinese national to give more than $1-billion to charity, now having contributed almost $1.3-billion in cash and real estate to the Yu Pengnian Foundation.

In a stunned China, the question came quickly: Wouldn’t his children be angry that he had given their inheritance away? “They didn’t oppose this idea, at least not in public,” the eccentric Mr. Yu says, laughing, when asked the question again during an interview at his foundation’s office atop the 57-storey Penglin Hotel in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.

“If my children are competent, they don’t need my money,” Mr. Yu explained. “If they’re not, leaving them a lot of money is only doing them harm.”

To make sure that didn’t happen, he appointed HSBC as his foundation’s trustee and stipulated that none of its holdings could be inherited, sold or invested.

In a society where capitalism is just 30 years old, and charitable giving an even younger concept, Mr. Yu says one of his primary goals in making a show out of giving his money away was to set an example to other rich Chinese. “Everybody has a different view of money. Some do good things with it, some rich people do nothing with it. …My goal is to be a leader, a pioneer who encourages rich people, inside and outside of China, to do something charitable.”

The charitable eccentric

It would be easy to characterize Mr. Yu as an oddball. His hair is dyed jet black and held up in a bouffant. He regularly wears white Mao suits and matching white shoes at which his Western-educated grandchildren quietly cringe. His desk, which sits in the middle of an office he shares with half a dozen of the foundation’s staff, is covered with such oddities as a bowl of plastic fruit, a money-counting machine, and a pair of duelling model fighter planes, one Chinese, one American.

He displays little of his wealth – he lives in the Penglin Hotel and eats most of his meals in the buffet restaurant – but sits beneath a giant smiling portrait of himself. Another giant dinner plate emblazoned with a picture of Mr. Yu sits propped up on his desk, gazing directly at anyone who pulls up a chair across from him.

As offbeat as he may be, it’s hard to question his generosity. Mr. Yu, who is ranked the 432nd richest person in mainland China, has topped the Hurun Report lists of the country’s top philanthropists four years running – and will certainly do so again this year – leading by example as the idea of large-scale giving has quietly taken hold among a growing number of China’s superwealthy.

Rags to riches

Mr. Yu says his passion for charity is a result of his own humble beginnings. Born in a small village in China’s southern Hunan province, he travelled to Shanghai in his youth hoping to find his fortune. Instead, he found himself pulling rickshaws and hawking trinkets on the streets until he was arrested in 1954 – on the false accusation that he came from a family of wealthy landlords – and sentenced to three years in a “thought correction centre.”

After his release, he finally caught a gust of good fortune when he was granted rare permission to travel to Hong Kong. He found a job as a cleaner at a large firm, and even though he spoke no English or Cantonese, slowly impressed his way up into a junior management position, saving everything he earned along the way.

In the 1960s, Mr. Yu and some friends pooled their money together and bought their first property, the beginning of a new career that would see him make millions through shrewd purchases that he would sometimes later sell at 20 or more times the original price. As his holdings grew, he became notorious in Hong Kong as the “Love Hotel King” – a name he detests – because many of the properties he owned were rented by operators of hotels catering to hourly stays. He also won fame for buying the last home that kung-fu star Bruce Lee lived in before his death, a property Mr. Yu later donated back to the Hong Kong government as a museum.

Hard lessons in giving

But in rural China, particularly his native Hunan province, Mr. Yu was developing a very different reputation. When he returned to his hometown of Lou De each year for the Spring Festival holiday, he handed out red envelopes stuffed with cash to the elderly and poor.

Those trips taught him an early lesson about the perils of charitable giving. One year, he enlisted the help of local government officials to help him stuff each envelope with 400 yuan. He found out later that much of the cash had been pocketed by the corrupt bureaucrats, and to this day he insists that the money he donates go directly to the recipients without going through any other charities or government agencies. “In China, I do charity only with my own eyes and hands. I don’t trust others,” he says.

Mr. Yu’s initial foray into wider-scale philanthropy came after he developed cataracts and had a successful operation to repair his eyes in 2000. When he researched the disease afterwards, he found that 400,000 Chinese developed cataracts every year, and many sufferers couldn’t afford the required surgery.

He was deeply moved and decided to spend $10-million annually on mobile cataract clinics that drive to the most remote parts of China to perform surgeries paid for by Mr. Yu. His own oversized photograph – his eyes clear of cataracts – is on the side of the “Bright Eyes” vans, which have carried out more than 150,000 cataract operations around the country since 2003.

Mr. Yu says his latest passion is education. He says he wants the bulk of the money from his most recent endowment, as well as the profits from the hotels and other properties he has donated to the Yu Pengnian Foundation, to go to scholarships. “Some for poor students, others for talented students I want to encourage, including foreign students who want to study in China,” he said. “Education is very important for a country, very closely related to its prosperity and standard of living.”

A legacy project

Mr. Yu is proud to hear his name mentioned alongside such famous Western philanthropists as Bill Gates and George Soros – as well as Hong Kong’s Li Kashing, Asia’s most famous philanthropist who has given away $1.4-billion of his estimated $21-billion – but likes to point out that he’s gone a step further than they have by giving away all his money. However, he admits he wasn’t ready to go back to the hard life he lived as a young man.

“I’m not poor, not yet. I still have a credit card – an American credit card – and I take a VIP room in this hotel. And I take business-class flights. I allow myself this,” he says, smiling.  As Mr. Yu speaks, his grandson, Dennis Pang, watches with obvious respect and affection. As someone who was in line to inherit some of the fortune, Mr. Pang admits that he was initially bewildered by his grandfather’s insistence on giving away what he had earned. But then he took a job as his grandfather’s personal assistant, and saw first-hand the good the Yu Pengnian Foundation was doing.

“Before I came here, I was a little confused. But now when I see the people that he helps, I understand that it’s special,” Mr. Pang said. My. Yu’s two sons, both in their 60s, sit on the foundation’s board of directors.

Mr. Yu is pleased to have his family’s support, but says he would have gone ahead with his philanthropy with or without their approval. “I don’t care what others think. It makes me happy to give my money away. I used to be poor.”

–

Work Hard–Do your best–Keep your word–Never get too big for your britches–Trust in God–Have no fear–and Never forget a friend.

- Harry S. Truman

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

A great many opposites are separated only by the proverbial thin line – love and hate, genius and insanity, passion and obsession, success and failure, greatness and mediocrity, even life and death. True enough, even a joke can cross over that thin line and become an insult, if the joker is not careful.

But what exactly distinguishes the left from the right, the good from the bad in this equation? How do we know that we have crossed the line? More importantly, can we prevent it?

During his first State-of-the-Nation Address, Philippine President Noynoy Aquino disclosed a barrage of statistics that bared anomalies during his predecessor’s Administration. Surely, it was the bombshell he promised it would be. The absence of the former President, now Representative of the Province of Pampanga, during this Joint Session of Congress was certainly justified and appropriate, at least for her.

What was the purpose of that barrage? Was it to inform the people of the real state of the nation? Or was it to discredit the previous government, making good a promise to expose all that needs to be exposed? Was it to give justice to the oppressed? Or was it to bring vengeance upon the oppressors?

I am certainly disgusted by the disclosures that were made, how the previous government seemingly enriched itself at the expense of the ordinary Filipino. Who wouldn’t be? It is definitely something that should not be condoned. Justice does need to be served.

However, there is a very thin line that separates real justice that allows fairness and equal opportunity for all, and the kind of justice (which is injustice, really) that brings judgment to a select few for anger and vengeance’s sake. It is crucial for all in government, especially those in advisory capacity to the President, to examine their motivations behind every word, behind every fact, behind every proposal they put forward.

I do not doubt the sincerity of the President. He’s values are obviously put together and entrenched in his character. Unfortunately, he is not the whole government. There are others with him – individuals whose values we know nothing of, whose motivations may be hidden just as well as the previous government officials hid theirs.

The Filipino’s eyes should not only be watching and guarding the President’s moves, but everybody around him as well. We all have to see that very thin line, know when it has been crossed, or avert a tendency to cross it – by watching words and attitudes, perspectives and mindsets, and personal values seen in family life and the workplace.

There is also a very thin line that separates trust and apathy.  Recent social surveys show a very high level of trust in the President. But we have a tendency to leave the destiny of our nation to just one man, and not care what we can do to help. A very dangerous thing, if I should say so myself.

It is a line we should never, ever cross.

We all have our own set of values, our own set of standards that determine which things in life we consider important to us. These values determine our tastes or preferences, our way of life, our entertainment choices, our social, political, and religious interactions, to name a few.

Our values change as we grow older, as we get to experience different things in life. Some of these values may be purely circumstantial, applicable only to a situation in which we find ourselves. But some values are what we call “core values” – standards or ideals that are more permanent and that stay with us our whole lives.

Where do our values come from? Well, our parents are a key influence. Our church or religious background is another one. Our teachers or schooling is yet another one. Our society, neighbors, friends and colleagues can also have a direct influence.

Whether we know it or not, all of us have come to adopt a certain set of values. As a matter of fact, our values determine who we are. And who we are, in turn, determines what we do. It is therefore important to ask what the source of our values is. Are our standards based on what is truly right or are they dictated by what society deems acceptable? Were our values simply dictated to us or did we actually contemplate on the things that we find are most important in our lives? Why is it that if you ask most people what their values are, many would not be able to give you a straight answer?

Many people lead lives unconnected with their core values. Some people live a life according to the values of the company or organization they work for, the church or religious institution they are involved with, their friends or colleagues or even their partner, rather than according to their own.

Let us take as an example the Filipino international singing sensation Charice Pempengco, who, at the “ripe old age” of 18, decides to have botox injections on her face at the advice of her dermatologist because she looked “fat.” Whose values guided her decision? Was it her own, or those of her doctor and a society too concerned with outward appearances that mere teenagers would resort to cosmetic procedures reserved only for their more mature counterparts?

Contrast that with Atty. Ferdinand Rafanan, the head of the Commission on Elections’ legal department, who submitted a report to the Ombudsman citing certain “executives of the Commission as having committed illegal acts in their attempts to help complete a fraudulent transaction” related to the last automated national elections. This despite the possibility that the Commission’s Chairman and Commissioners might be charged for gross negligence, which is an impeachable offense. Atty. Rafanan stood his ground and upheld the truth because that to him was the most important.

In our society today, there are a lot more Charices than there are Atty. Rafanans. It becomes very easy to let external demands and society’s conditionings determine our lives. So it is far more difficult to find a person who stands by his/her own set of values rather than those who bow down to the norms society has laid out for all of us.

It is a choice we all have to make. It is thus important that we sit down and think deeply about what our values are, what in life is really important to us, and then decide to abide by them no matter what.  There is value in our values.

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.”  – Philippines 4:8 (emphasis mine)