We Dare You To Ask
reposted from this Sunday Times article
DARE TO ASK “WHY NOT?”
By Iya P. Joson
It is the simplest of ideas that spark the greatest of revolutions.
For Efren Peñaflorida, it was as modest as taking out run-of-the-mill pushcarts, filling them with school supplies and wheeling them out to cemeteries and trash dumps. For Barack Obama, it was as basic as reaching out to community grassroots, carrying with him the honest word of “change” and showing that real leadership wasn’t steered by skin color.
For social entrepreneurs Mark Ruiz, Bam Aquino and four of their friends, it isn’t any different. They said: if we wanted to fix the educational system of this country, end poverty in 20 years and get rid of bad governance once and for all, complexities weren’t needed.
The solution is simple—all we have to do is look around and ask, “Why not?”
Nothing like word of mouth
Talk isn’t cheap, especially when priceless ideas are on the line.
In a nutshell, this is what WhyNot? is about—Filipinos gathering together through an organized forum, sharing ideas, acting on them and inspiring each other with their own ingenuity. “We started on September of 2007, [and] it was inspired by TED at that time,” WhyNot? pioneer Mark Ruiz says. TED or Technology Entertainment and Design, is an American-based institution that similarly organizes global conferences to share “ideas worth spreading.”
The problem with TED, however, was a lack of Pinoy presence. And this is where WhyNot? swoops in “It was as simple as: ‘We should have a Filipino version of TED,’” says Ruiz. “I knew that the Filipino had so much to offer, had a lot of great ideas, and had done a lot of great things, but wasn’t given a platform to really broadcast [them].”
Three years and seven WhyNot? talks later, the forum has found an even stronger following with the help of the World Wide Web. Videos of the talks are uploaded on the WhyNot? website for hoards of Filipinos with Internet access to view. But even with the kick of technology, the core of the WhyNot? spirit remains the same. “It’s really a passion project,” Ruiz says. “Our intention is in the tagline—‘inspiring Filipino ingenuity.”
Wanted: A little bit of crazy
They call themselves, the WhyNuts.
Maybe because having the passion to get a project like this started, requires a little more than good ol’ sanity; maybe because trusting that the answer we’re looking comes in the form of a question—“Why not?”—is as strange as it is believable.
“We were just a group of friends that got together,” Mark says in reference to his partners—WhyNuts Bam Aquino, Carlo Calimon, Timi Gomez and Angeli Ko. “No applications involved, none of that sort,” he shares. After the third WhyNot? talk, the group welcomed their sixth and final WhyNut: Jan Chavez-Arceo, a businessman with a background in events management. “[Jan] was really the one who helped us take it to a new level,” Ruiz says. “She puts up a big show, a really big show,” he continues on with a proud smile.
Now motivated by six very strong, passionate individuals, one can’t help but wonder how the WhyNot? team chemistry works. Of this, Ko, the youngest of the group speaks up, “I love the WhyNuts!” she says. “We don’t meet very often, but when we do, it stretches on for hours.”
Calimon agrees. “We keep laughing every time we meet,” he says. “You [can] say everyone fits this team like a puzzle.” Power trips and catfights are strangers to the WhyNot? team. “We all recognize each other’s expertise so there isn’t much conflict on that front,” Aquino says. “Everyone trusts each other to do the role that each has chosen for himself or herself.”
Aquino, for example, “usually hosts and writes spiels that explain the themes and the talks.” Gomez is in-charge of briefing the speakers and Calimon is the Finance Guy. Ko keeps track of the registration and the ticket sales, while Arceo revamps everything to a big-scale production. Laying the heart of everything, as everyone agrees, is Ruiz.
Despite their different functions in the team, everyone plays a huge part in coming up with the Why Not? theme. For Gomez, this is the most exciting part of the Why Not? process. “It’s always a stimulating debate to get the perfect mix!” she says.
‘Thinkers, dreamers and doers’
Every single Why Not? forum theme is perfectly calculated. “It’s a brainstorming session,” Ruiz says. “First, we agree on the theme, and it’s really a discussion we have as a group.”
The first three Why Not? talks were a smorgasbord of different ideas, but the four succeeding ones were themed to answer whatever environment was brewing in the country at that time. The most recent one was called “reimagination,” a Why Not? theme created in response to Corazon Aquino’s death. “There was this air of uncertainty in the country—uncertainty about where we were headed,” Ruiz says. “And so we took a point of view and said, let’s ‘reimagine’ the country.”
After settling on a theme, the WhyNuts talk about getting the appropriate speaker—the person who they believe, can best fulfill the theme. And it’s vital to the WhyNuts that they get someone who not only thinks and dreams, but also does. “If you look at the roster of those who’ve spoken [for WhyNot], all of them have done something.” According to Ruiz, not one of their speakers comes up on the platform to say “I plan to do this”; rather they say, “I’ve already done this.”
Pragmatic idealism is what it’s called and it’s usually WhyNot’s first step to getting the Filipino to break out of his mold—by showing him that others have dared ask the question, and he can too.
‘Let a thousand flowers bloom’
It’s difficult to measure the extent of WhyNot’s impact, especially since every forum is uploaded online for everyone with Internet access to take a look at. “Once you put it out on the Internet, you cannot track it. [When] we factor it being on the web, we never really know.” Ruiz says. “So our philosophy is, let’s just put it out there—let a thousand flowers bloom.”
But basing it from the feedback of the talks, both online and offline, it’s safe to say that WhyNot? works. Filipinos, especially those residing abroad, e-mail the WhyNuts to speak praise of their videos. There are “a lot of good things happening [in the Philippines],” they say—a lot of good that they no longer see on the news or in the papers.
All of this goes back to what WhyNot? strives to showcase: the good, and the great things Filipinos can accomplish.
Finding beauty in the bad
Does the Philippines in general lack people who ask “Why not?”
“Yes,” Ruiz says. “And that’s why we really put this up also. Filipinos like the status quo. [But] we want people to be unhappy with the status quo. And that’s what WhyNot is about—it’s about ideas that break, push the envelope and move things forward.”
Most Pinoys believe that an air of negativity hangs thick around this country. But WhyNot? makes it clear—it’s what you do about this negativity and cynicism that makes all the difference. “We see the bad, bur rather than settling on it, we ask ‘Why not?’” Ruiz shares, fervor and passion lining tone.
Children may be lining up on the streets, begging for food, and thousands of people may be out of work, but Ruiz calls this “the starting point.” He says, “You don’t ask ‘Why not?’ when things are perfect. You ask ‘Why not?’ because there’s a certain discomfort with the status quo.”
We would all love to witness the day when every Filipino is properly sheltered, schooled and fed; when jobs can be found inside the country, and families are no longer separated by limiting, financial opportunities in these islands. When hope and pride isn’t something we have to search deep in our hearts for, because we see it all around us—in beautiful infrastructure, in clean streets, in good governance.
But until that moment comes, and we’re still living at a present where corruption is common fare, and poverty is an everyday reality—we can find strength and solace in a simple question.
—“Why not?”
