Coconets For Our Coconuts

Last year the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the largest broadcasting company in all of Europe instituted a competition that would reward projects that make a real difference to local communities. I was surprise to see that there was an entry from the Philippines. Agricultural engineer Justino Arboleda invented nets that are made from waste coconut husks to prevent soil erosion. He also developed other products like doormats, car seats stuffing, etc. from the same indigenous material. There were 11 equally inventive entries from Spain, USA, Kenya, Malta, India, Ukraine and five other countries. The winner will receive from Shell a US$20,000 grant to benefit their project and a full exposure through a documentary that will be shown in BBC channels for repeated slots.

When BBC proclaimed the Philippine Coconets as the winner, they were true to their promise of the S 20,000 grant and exposure of the project to international media. In the homefront, I could not find a decent write up about the event in the newspaper. No published congratulatory notes from Congressmen, politicians or otherwise. No victory party. No TV special. No Motorcade. No tickertape parade. http://www.theworldchallenge.co.uk/comp_link.php

I could not dispute that winning an international beauty contest is great. Winning a title bout is amazing. Reaching the Everest summit is nothing short of wonderful. There is no doubt that these accomplishments bring a smile to Filipinos’ faces. Indeed, it helps during these times when even a smile is hard to come by.

But let us put everything in its proper place, the exposure that the coconets got maybe what they need to revive the dying coconut industry. Industry that about 4 million families depends on. What is sad is The Department of Tourism paid multimillion dollars to CNN and BBC to air WOW Philippines advertisement for the European and American market to have at least a second glance of our country. This exposure came for free. But again we failed to capitalize on whatever media mileage BBC afforded to this destitute industry.

I guess we were too busy to take notice. Too busy watching celebrity wannabes make a fool of themselves posting as real TV. Or maybe we are just misguided. Misguided to celebrate shallow victories that we failed to recognize what true triumph is all about. This is an opportunity that again we passed up on. However, how many opportunities can we afford to pass up in the future?