IATSS Forum

Ms. Madeline D. Cabauatan, Philippine, Government Statistician,
Statistical Research and Training Center of the National Economic Development Authority.

The Address of Thanks,
A representative of 50th IATSS Forum’s participants.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good afternoon! It is indeed with great pleasure to do the 50th closing speech in behalf of my co-participants. During the 55 days of our stay in Japan, we have learned and experienced so many things and if I have to enumerate all of them, it would take us more than a day or so. But let me tell you of the significant things that we have learned, the things that have changed our perspectives, and the things that we will do when we go back to our respective countries.

The 55 days of exposure to various programs and activities under the theme “thinking and learning together” was very fruitful and meaningful to us. It was a rare yet sophisticated experiential learning which makes us want to seize every moment of it. Every learning experience gives us new perspective of how we see things, of how we deal with situations, and of how we can bring them home with us.

Truly we say it over and over, that we see ourselves as a leader and we believed that the value of the forum is essential to build a leader. From the different seminars and facilitation skills, we have learned that for us to become an effective leader, we must possess the necessary leadership skills. But is it enough? On the other thought, everybody can acquire skills anyway. So is it really enough? From our reflection, we felt that character is much extremely as important as leadership though they are entirely two different things. We believe that the character is the foundation of the leader as well. So when we go back to our countries, we want leadership to happen in our lives in every level – that kind of leadership that comes with true humility and dignity. We want to be a progressive leader not just in form but on substance as well. Someday in the near future, we hope that we will be a catalyst of change to where God has put us in and be able to develop leaders in our own team. We strongly believe that all experiences from the IATSS forum will not only make us a better and effective leader, but a builder of leaders as well. We want to inspire people with what we do and with how we do.

Moreover, the community design concept and process is one of the core essentials of the IATSS Forum which had also changed our perspectives. Most of the times, we get frustrated and discouraged with the current situations and problems that we are experiencing in our countries. We just can’t help but blame our leaders both from the local and national for such conditions. However, the theme of this batch on sustainable community design somehow changed our thoughts and created awareness of our surroundings, that we, the local community people still have many chances to rebuild and recreate sustainable communities. The illustrations and cases presented about Japan’s community designs made us want to do something more for our country and our community. At first, we were hesitant and somehow overwhelmed by the fact that we cannot possibly start a project on our own because of the very limited resources. We even convinced ourselves that Japan’s cases were successful and big projects because they all have the resources and capacity to start and build sustainable communities. But we have learned a lot from the “Machizukuri” that it doesn’t have to big projects, but we can simply start with small ones. Yes, we can actually start from small ones and then create bigger ones later on. We can start from ourselves, from our family, and then later on influence others to do the same effort to improve the community. It doesn’t have to be costly, but we can start with what is given. We can start from what is available in the community. We can start with the people – nurturing and fostering them to care as well for their community.

As a challenge for my co-participants, by this time, everyone must have learned from the entire program. However, the knowledge gained should not stop here. After learning the talk, please walk it. Use the information to the hilt by sharing with colleagues and echoing the experiences gained from this forum in your country. What remains to be done is putting into concrete actions the community projects that we just presented this morning. This is but the beginning of the many steps to tread on, as this forum program is but part of the many steps we now look back to before. Somehow, we are nearing our goal, slowly but surely seeing the mark we have envisioned to achieve when we were just starting in this forum. This 55 days forum has made us more resolute in seeing that changes will take place, and these changes shall be for the better because of our leadership.

Let me take this opportunity to express our deep gratitude to our guests who are here with us to witness and share with the happiness that we have as we conclude the 55 days forum; to our trainers/facilitators who have shared with us their expertise in different forms of group processes including inter-and-intra-group conflict resolution, strategic planning, team building, and other group dynamic learnings; to our sensei’s/resource persons who became our teachers and our mentors – who were very competent enough to guide and provide first-hand information for our better understanding of the community design and on various seminar topics; to the volunteers and homestay families for their tireless efforts in offering their time and services for us to deeply experience Japanese culture; to my co-participants – for all the memories that we have shared; and to the IATSS Forum (Staff) for generously hosting the forum. Let me express our deepest appreciation to the IATSS directors and managers, and the rest of the staff who made this undertaking a complete reality and possibility.

Finally, Japan we will miss you! We were so impressed of your culture – the food, the onsen, among others; the beautiful sceneries; but most of all, its people who showed us the value of time, the “omotenashi” – hospitality, the way of thinking – planning ahead, the working attitude, and the discipline that you have shared with us.

So we say at the end, why do all good things come to an end? But Goodbye is a reality. Remember dear friends, goodbyes are not forever. Goodbyes are not the end. They simply mean “I will miss you”. Until we meet again.

Thank you very much.