The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Lito U. Gagni
Indeed, there is something unique about Tzu Chi volunteers around the globe: It is their sense of duty to serve their fellow men. And they all point to the teachings of Master Cheng, whose thoughts were immortalized as Jing Si aphorisms.
One such aphorism that caught the eye of Boo Chanco when we were at the Singapore charity clinic concerns anger. One should not be angry at another person’s mistakes, says Master Cheng. You’d just be punishing yourself for the mistakes of others.
In the clinics, schools, recycling stations and the headquarters of Tzu Chi, there is an unmistakable theme that permeates the Tzu Chi community: that of creating goodwill and invoking karma.
Philippine Tzu Chi CEO Alfredo Li shared how the victims of Typhoon Ondoy (international name: Ketsana) in Marikina City, pooled together their savings and put them in Tzu Chi jars with coins spilling over to alleviate the plight of the victims of Supertyphoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan).
Li said this is karma at work, a theme that pervades the Tzu Chi community: By giving love, the global village of “Great Love” is nurtured.
In Indonesia, Tzu Chi official Sugianto Kusuma, a billionaire property developer has donated 10 hectares in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, valued at $250 million, to the Yayasan Buddha Tzu Chi school, which teaches schoolchildren the tenets of Tzu Chi, such as compassion and love.
Kusuma told us later that the group is putting up a $650-million hospital that would care for the sick with top-of-the-line facilities that include bone-marrow transplants as well as well as ICU stations. He is also donating 10 more hectares to the Tzu Chi community.
The billionaire property developer, who also owns 700 hectares of prime land near the Jakarta airport and 900 hectares of reclaimed land, talked about the meaningful change brought about by Tzu Chi to his family.
During a lull after a tour of Tzu Chi facilities in Jakarta, Kusuma related to Ambassador Chan how he came to know of Tzu Chi and its far reaching philosophy of giving and compassion.
He said his daughter found solace from Tzu Chi after several months of despondency during the 9/11 terrorist attack in the US. His daughter’s boyfriend was aboard one of the fateful planes crashed by the terrorists into the buildings.
Since then, he has embraced Tzu Chi and found out how it has similarly changed his life. In fact, he learned how to deal with the poor when he had to deal with them.
The rehabilitation of the Angke River is also part of the Tzu Chi philosophy.
The Angke River rehab was successful because the squatters in the area were moved just three kilometers from the site, allowing them to still be gainfully employed. This is different from the usual government resettling work where squatters are moved very far from their workplaces resulting in economic displacements and forcing them to return to to the city slums once again.
I noticed that there is an unmistakable glint of happiness in the Tzu Chi Philippines volunteers who went with us to the inspection of Tzu Chi activities in Singapore and Jakarta.
There was Jasper Tan, his wife Paulette Gail and their daughter Jasmine who volunteered onsite and contributed steel fabrications for the houses built in Tacloban; Paterno Ong and his wife; Henry Nunez and Carmelita Sy who, though advanced in years, continues to do volunteer work and, in fact, derives much pleasure in doing so.
Tzu Chi’s overarching reach in its compassionate work is something one cannot trifle with for the kind of charity work that they do does not expect anyting in return and that is what I found awesome in the Tzu Chi community.
The way I look at it, their heart is so full of compassion and love that there is no way any errant thought could intrude into their loving hearts.
Tzu Chi has brought meaning to a new way of charity and compassion and love and its philosophy is simply tops. It is a game-changer.