Sunday, October 29, 2006 Sunstar Essay: It takes a summit By Erma M. Cuizon Sun.star Essay
I looked up to my left and saw that the University of San Carlos is repainting. I said aloud that it wasn’t so long ago that the building was repainted.
“Nag-prepare man na sila, Ma’am.”
“Sa unsa?” I asked the taxicab driver.
“Sa summit, ba.”
There probably was never a time when Metro Cebu dressed up for visitors, some ways workable, others ridiculous. Hotels are face-lifting, even malls and stores. This is how to do it, a Mandaue official’s son showed “informal settlers” how to apply green paint on the new galvanized roof on a shack under the Mactan-Mandaue bridge.
Besides the preparations in terms of graciousness, the city is into A-1 (or so they say) security plans, even while the repaintings go on, the paving of roads, the relocation of squatters, etc.
Other groups are also moving to put in their own share–-such as the paramedic group (Eruf) or the Dilaab project of the Barug Pilipino. The Eruf is doing its share of preparations, streamlining their skills in rescue.
The Catholic group under Barug Pilipino is putting out a primer on how important the summit is going to be in our lives. It’s saying the ordinary citizen can take part in the summit mindset, such as in disposing of garbage properly, or following traffic rules---just a couple of tricks that already can make much difference in the city.
This helps. Then take a simple job-related make-up for manners and safety rules among taxicab drivers who will have foreign visitors as passengers. It’s not just diplomatic protocol you need to learn. Simple lessons on connecting with others go a long, long way.
Protocol simply mean correct, good manners. There are the correct or incorrect manners due to different cultures. So there’s nothing snotty about protocols. You could say they’re special rules that could make smooth the connections---in a party, in trade, in negotiations, especially in international relations. Knowledge of protocols could get rid of the dangers of mind clashes, or gives you confidence in situations that could be tricky. It is something diplomats use, but also the ordinary worker, like the cabbie, whose job could entail simple day-to-day human connection.
The government recently trained about 2,000 taxicab drivers on “courtesy and safety for the Asean summit.” There might be 2,000 more to be trained as soon as the funding for it is released.
Tesda (on skills development), the DOT (for correct manners, etc), and other government agencies, together with the Metro Cebu Taxi Operators, gave the drivers “essential” and “ordinary” information and certain rules to follow.
“Dili man diay ang polis nato estrikto, no?” A cab driver said he realized after the pre-Asean four-hour lectures at Tesda that he should really not break traffic rules for safety.
Another topic taken up was “religious and cultural sensitivity”---like correct knowledge of where the churches are, especially the denominations and religions outside the Catholic church where the passengers might ask to be taken.
“Unya, personal hygiene, Ma’am,” said a cab driver. “Kana bang maligo’g ayo, dili kausa sa usa ka semana lang.” Oh, yes, the cab smelled good, like fresh laundry, and he was smiling on the rear view mirror.
It’s not just for international good manners that cabbies should be clean and fit. You don’t have to know that after you are given a business card with a bow, for one, you accept the card graciously with a smile and put it in the pocket nearest your heart, to be correctly gracious.
There are many more to train on protocol, especially young people hired to be part of the activities of the summit, like as liaison officer who would be assigned to the delegates by countries.
When you think of all this summit groundwork, and if you put it against a timeline of every day, Cebu would be in a Philippine Guinness-style record, a winner in relating and cleanliness. We ought to have lessons on protocols now and then, summit or no summit, if it takes that to make life here like a storybook for happy kids.
But it might really take a summit to make Cebu a paradise on earth, outside a heavenly spa experience.
