The Challenge
The last, highly contested national elections have once again brought us to the crossroads of two eternities – the vanished past and the uncertain future. The past is never a conclusion nor the future an epilogue. Both are continuums of time, embraced alike by destiny without exception, without discrimination.
In his Café Habanero speech (Madrid, 31 December 1891), Rizal said: “Let us maintain firmly union and solidarity among us; let the good of the mother country be our only cause; and let us prove to everyone and let us make it clear, that if a Filipino wills, he can.”
Can the Knights of Rizal (KOR) with its R.A. 646 mandate “to study and spread the teaching of Dr. Jose Rizal and keep ever alive his consecrated memory to make effective his exemplary and exalted principles” play a significant role in making this happen? Or for that matter, can all patriotic Filipinos rise up to the challenge?
Sages and poets like Emily Dickinson have said that we really never know how high we are until we are called to rise. When that happens and we are true to form, our statures and possibilities will touch the skies. The inflexible point of movement now asks us to move the needle past the crossroads and answer Rizal’s call to rise to the occasion.
OUR RESPONSE
At the start of 2022, newly elected KOR Supreme Commander Sir Gerry Calderon together with Sir Ver Esguerra and Sir Pablo Trillana III, Members of the KOR Council of Elders, met with Ms. Marisol Lopez-Eala and Ms. Bel L. Villavicencio, Senior Consultants and Board Members of The Rizal Academy for Innovation and Leadership (TRAIL), an affiliated training organization of the KOR.
Sir Gerry shared his deep desire to make the Order’s activities more resilient and responsive to the complex needs of the changing times. The group agreed and said that Sir Gerry’s aspiration was timely and compelling. The KOR could and should help the country come together and move forward through and regardless of the consequences of the May National Elections. Marisol was tasked to make a study and present her recommendations to the group in their next meeting.
OUR CALL TO ACTION
We live in the age of both Disruption and Possibilities.The VUCA world (volatileuncertain- complex-ambiguous) is now characterized as BANI (brittle, anxious, nonlinear, incomprehensible). Yet the future is bright as another sunshine always rises after the night. As Filipinos, with our strong Faith in God, and like Rizal, we continue to trust, work and endure. All will be well and the Filipinos can!
The Methodology
The work of transforming unjust social structures is a continuing process.In the present time, it is about transforming the ineffective structures of Business, Government and Civil Society that perpetuate the social divides resulting in poverty, a “victim” mindset of blaming and feeling helpless, inefficiency, corruption, and the degradation of the environment. Systemic change is deeply personal and all change begins with the Self.
The Timeline
The 6-year Dapitan Initiative will apply the social change technology called Theory U of the Presencing Institute – Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for its action research project. The U-process shows how individuals, teams, organizations and large systems can build the essential leadership capacities needed to address the root causes of today’s social, environmental and spiritual challenges.
PHASE 1
OCT. 7 – DEC. 10, 2022,
CO-INITIATING AND CO-SENSING JOURNEY.
The Dapitan Initiative was launched last Oct. 7-8, 2022 at the SEAMEO Innotech in Quezon City. A Taskforce was created, called the Rizal SDG Hero Taskforce composed of government employees, teachers, researchers, business owners, and the youth. To better understand the mental models perpetuating the current state of Philippine society, they will be conducting interviews and dialogue with various stakeholders from Government, Business, NGOs and Civil Society Institutions who have ongoing SDG initiatives to learn best practices as well as to know the hurdles that needs to overcome.
PHASE 2
JANUARY – JUNE, 2023,
SOCIETAL LAB (S.LAB)
The Taskforce will join TRAIL’s Societal Lab Year 3 that will begin in January, 2023. They will journey with other organizations from the trisectors of society and have the opportunity to cultivate the social field. The Taskforce will present their initial research output and collaborate with their co-journeyers to prototype change initiatives that will contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
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(02) 721 99 808
info.rizalcenterfoundation@gmail.com
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