APredictably, Australian immigration and health officials sought out the truth, found it, gave it fair value to tennis’ Wonder Boy status, and revoked the man’s visa. world number one in tennis, Novak Djokovic. Victory of the truth over the immoral and false media hype.
THINK ABOUT YOUR PURPOSE
Companies and individuals set aside time for periodic strategic planning sessions that will invariably include the mandatory formulation or revision of mission and vision statements. Such exercises force organizations to go back to basics, so to speak. Participants in such exercises are relieved of the day-to-day concerns of the organization, so these business leaders will literally have moments of silence and lock out all the noise of day-to-day concerns.
It is during these moments of reflection that questions such as these are asked: What is our purpose? Why are we here? What is our goal? What is our job? What service do we offer? What problems does our product solve? In other words, in these organizations, we are actually deeply and systematically engaged in defining purpose and meaning.
In the context of our personal lives, we occasionally pause and reflect and ask ourselves: Why do we do what we do? As we go through the years, we are constantly reminded of our mortality and begin to think about the need for, for example, holographic wills. We begin consulting with relatives, close associates, confidants, lawyers, and peers who are most likely contemplating similar acts.
Reflecting on purpose leads to meditating on one’s destiny and, ultimately, to searching for meaning in one’s life, especially among the super seniors, in the next few years. The search for purpose, mission and meaning becomes more intense and relevant in times of great physical difficulty, of deep longing for loved ones whose presence is denied to us for various reasons, and during times of financial need. extraordinary for materialistic, greedy and greedy people. who have been accustomed to taking over businesses, outmaneuvering others through brutal power and influence. These predators don’t know when to stop fattening their wallets and egos. They don’t care who gets hurt and have no qualms about driving their competitors out of business and putting thousands of people out of work.
While it is common to ponder the meaning of one’s life, there are of course various personal circumstances behind this search.
NINOY AQUINO
During his incarceration of seven years and seven months, Ninoy Aquino was given time by his “Creator to reflect on his purpose and the meaning of life”. Prior to his unlawful arrest in the early hours of a Saturday morning on September 23, 1972, Ninoy was the dreaded tax man who took Marcos and his cronies to task for corrupt deals and obvious attempts to kill democracy. He was seen as the most viable alternative to Marcos and Imelda, for whom Marcos was setting the stage for an eventual takeover of the reins of government.
Ninoy had charisma and could hold the crowd’s attention for hours at rallies and campaign speeches. He was preparing for the 1973 presidential election and had begun to build his organization, even telling me in August 1971 that “I am running for president in 1973 and I want you to join me (after graduating from AIM)”. He brought the most modern campaign technology as he mapped the country and identified leaders, centers of power by region and major cities, and the dynamics and alliances in these areas. He had the financial backing of one of the county’s vast agribusiness empires and other sectors of the economy tired of Marcos’ illegal corporate capture. He had incredible mobility, moving around in a helicopter, which further reinforced his image as a young man on the move who had youth, experience and brought hope.
It all ended when he was transported to Camp Crame by Colonel Romeo Gatan and rounded up with other political leaders, media personalities, student leaders, clerics, religious leaders, peasant leaders, activists and all others identified as anti-Marcos.
In prison, Ninoy was deprived of freedom, a platform and ordinary amenities like his glasses. His family was humiliated and close staff members were tortured into confessing to false accusations against Ninoy. To protest against his conviction by a military tribunal which sentenced him to death by musketry, Ninoy went on a 40-day hunger strike. During his strike, for which Novena Masses were held at various churches in Metro Manila, Ninoy entered into deep prayer, consulted with various clergy, and reflected on the meaning of life. After the hunger strike, Ninoy spoke about his transformation. He was able to commune with the world’s greatest thinkers through books, which was one of the few concessions Marcos allowed in his dark, nearly airless prison cell. Ninoy had plenty of time to think, to pray, to realize that all his successes and the accolades he had won from the age of 17 were just mere outward signs of the power he now believed. being excess baggage in its search for meaning and purpose. .
What mattered now, Ninoy realized, was his mission, which was to help restore democracy to a country that had been terrorized and militarized, that was more intolerant of expressions of freedom, was excessively extravagant and, in the together, went to the dogs. Ninoy had then devoted the last years of his life to the restoration of democracy even if he had to sacrifice his life for it. He had said: “I would like to have the honor of dying for my country.” Months before he finally left Boston on that fateful trip to Manila on August 21, 1983, he asked me if his return to the Philippines would help Marcos move toward democratic reforms. It was clear that Ninoy had made up his mind: he would return to the Philippines even if he was killed doing so.
Ninoy had discerned his purpose in life, his destiny, and his death would be the final act in his search for meaning.
VIKTOR FRANKL
One of the reasons Ninoy and his family survived Marcos’ cruelty and martial law could be attributed to the lessons that can be learned from Viktor Frankl, an Austrian Jewish psychologist who survived the Holocaust.
Frankl, who like millions of Jews suffered under the Nazis and their allies, survived because he adopted the attitude that “everything can be taken from a man, except one thing: the last of human freedoms — choose one’s attitude in any one set of circumstances, to choose one’s own path.
Sean Murray wrote: “Frankl was a keen observer of human behavior and thought. Frankl observed, “We who lived in concentration camps can remember men walking through the huts, comforting others, giving their last morsel of bread. Murray said Frankl and his fellow inmates had lost everything: their families, their friends, their jobs, their health, their possessions, even their names and their body hair, but there was one thing they really did have left. This is what the Stoic philosophers call our inner discourse or our guiding principles. Namely, we can choose how to respond to a given thought, emotion, or circumstance.
Both Ninoy and Frankl chose to react to their respective situations in whatever way suited them. Ninoy viewed what Marcos had done to him and his family as part of the political dynamics in the Philippines. Nothing personal, and yet Ninoy believed that Marcos was the key factor in restoring democracy to the Philippines. That was Ninoy’s mission – to help restore democracy. In this mission, Ninoy found meaning and purpose. He had further strengthened his determination through prayer and the rosary.
Frankl had his own mission as he tried to survive the concentration camps – to finish his book, Man’s quest for meaning, centered around its concept of Logotherapy, a therapeutic approach that helps people find meaning in life and, because it is future-focused, it helps people endure suffering and hardship to achieve a noble outcome to which people are passionately committed.
Those committed to their mission will continue to fight despite all the assets arrayed against them, as Ninoy and Frankl and many unknown heroes have done.
Philip Ella Juico’s areas of interest include the protection and promotion of democracy, free markets, sustainable development, social responsibility and sport as a tool for social development. He earned his Ph.D. in Commerce from De La Salle University. Dr. Juico served as Land Reform Secretary under the Corazon C. Aquino administration.
