THESE DAYS, THE WORDS “Love is stronger than Death” keep coming to mind. Four reasons: (1) Two very moving movies recently, (2) Our bible group is currently studying the Acts of the Apostles, (3) Four days of prayers and meditations during Holy Week retreat (March 19-23), and (4) Today is the third death aniversary of Pope John Paul II (also known as Karol Wojtyla before he became pope).

One of the two movies is famous: “The Passion of Christ”. The other is not well-known but its message is just as touching and powerful. It is “Karol, a man who became Pope”, showing in many concrete ways how love can conquer hatred, violence and even death. Here’re two 10-minute video clips and the English transcripts (click the “Read the rest of this entry” link below) for some of its most moving moments:

Karol, a man who became pope – Part 1 of 5

Karol, a man who became pope – Part 2 of 5

All, have a happy and blessed Easter! JPII, unum corde et anima una!

PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT for Part 1 of 5:

Note: The original dialog is in Polish. The subtitles are in badly translated English. I’ve edited them a little. Words in brackets are the replaced subtitles.

@6:45 – 8:06 min of video
Karol: Why don’t I know how to answer her? Why do men force other men (similar) to live in absolute pain and without hope? How can we answer that? How many million of monsters inhabit this earth, Tomasz? Why are the innocent the ones who pay? How many people have to be born only to fall into an abyss (”be boundless”)?
Fr Tomasz Zaleski: I can only tell you that I have looked at that Nazi in the eyes. The evil I saw was so absolute, so incomprehensibile, obscene, that I’ve felt the desire to kill him. And I am a priest! I’ve felt deeply guilty. We don’t need to hate as they do. Love… only love can prevent men from falling in the abyss.

@9:06 min of video
Girl 1: You are late.
Karol: I’m sorry.
Girl 2: We have decided to enlist in the armed groups. Everyone.
Man 1: Not I. You fight with weapons, I want to fight with the word. We have the theater and the theater has to continue.
Girl 1: And where? For which spectators?
Man 1: It will keep on living in secret (clandestine) in our houses, in the cellars. We needs to save the word.
Girl 2: Poland is prey of terror and chaos, and you talk about the theater? How do you manage not to be ashamed?
Girl 3: There is no alternative. We need to take up fire-arms.
Another voice: Correct!
Man 1: The word is stronger than bullets!
Man 2: Show it with a gun aimed at the head!
Girl 1: What do you think, Karol?
Men: We have decided! Armed resistence!
Girl 1: Karol!
Karol: Stop, wait! I understand and respect those who want to take up [aim] arms. The Nazis are exterminating our people. They also want to exterminate the culture, to cancel the Polish language. The only way to have still a future is to save our past. He who wants to choose the way of the arms, I think, it’s correct that he does it. But he [Man 1] is right, we need to keep our culture alive. We will make theater too, and we will do it secretly (clandestine). Remember: the theater is the conscience of life.
Man 3: You’ll have your theater and we’ll have our arms.
Karol: Ok, let’s fight the same battle… same hope and same enemy. [Embraces man 3]
Man 3: Let’s go!
[All embraces one another, saying] Unum corde et anima una!

FULL TRANSCRIPT for Part 2 of 5:

[Scene: Gunshot rings out. Woman screams. A man pulls Karol into a room.]
Man: Where do you think you’re going? Where do you run? Do you want to be killed like a dog in the middle of the road?
Karol: Who are you?
Man: Ian Tiranoski and who are you?
Karol: Ian, you will burn your fingers…
Ian: A match is ignited and it’s extinguished. It’s not the flame of a match that burns inside me. [Lights a candle.] You have not told me yet what your name is.
Karol: Karol. I have to go. I am looking for a friend, a priest, for a mass.
Ian: A corpse mass?
Karol: Yes.
Ian: We’ll win with love, not with fire.
Karol: Can you say that with the Nazis just outside your door?
Ian: Nazism will end, evil will devour itself, but…
Karol: But… if love doesn’t triumph, Nazism will return even with another name. Do you mean that?
Ian: Exactly! [Gives Karol a book] St John of the Cross, you’ll be surprised by it. It’ll become your preferred reading. Pick it up.
Karol: Thanks.

[New Scene: Karol talking to a priest in a church.]
Karol: I want to look for the same reasons that you have, of hope and of faith, I want to close myself up in a monastery…
Fr Tomasz: Karol, in such times the people need to have priests nearby and not confined in a monastery.
Karol: I have thought a lot about what I want to leave, and I keep thinking about the importance of the choice that I am about to make. I wonder if it’s because I want to hide myself, or because I feel me in a guilt for all the pain that I see, or if there is something deeper… God is calling me.
Fr Tomasz: John has written in his Gospel that Jesus said: “You have not chosen me but I have chosen you”. The door is open, Karol. Now it depends only on you.

[New Scene: Fr Tomasz and Karol get out of a car.]
Fr Tomasz: Let’s go. [The two enter a building and meets a Cardinal.]
Karol: I have seen all the horror around us, and I have been drawn with strength toward a good, the priesthood. In the name of every human being, of his dignity… to know myself through the knowledge of God, to live God in the depths, I want to become priest…
Cardinal: In the darkness of this evil, we have to give testimony that the divine sense of life is more important than life itself.
Karol: I am here for this.
Cardinal: The Nazis have closed our seminary, you are risking your life. Therefore your mother must not even know that you study here. You’ll lead your usual life, but you’ll study and meditate secretly with us every time it’s possible for you.

[New Scene: Soldiers marching forward.]
Commander: Arm! [ Soldiers ready rifles to shoot. Fr Tomasz standing near the wall, talking to a German captain who has earlier saved Karol's life against the wishes of a Nazi leader.] Come back, father! Come back, father!
German captain: Thanks, Father, to have helped me to die. I’m safe now. I can’t see the Germany of my childhood, those white houses along the river…
Commander: Father, come back!
German captain: Go away, father. He has ordered you to walk away from me.
Fr Tomasz: Brother!
German captain: Go away, I beg you. Don’t get yourself killed.
Fr Tomasz: A new day will come when your children will see on the river those same white houses.
Commander: Aim! [ Soldiers raised rifles.]
Fr Tomasz: [Embraces the captain] God bless you.
[Nazi leader gets out of car and waves to commander.]
Commander: Fire!
[German captain dies. Nazi leader points gun at Fr Tomasz.]
Nazi leader: Who has killed him? You or me? You have killed him, Polish priest. And now, I’m going to kill you.
Fr Tomasz: [Controlling anger and grief] May God forgive you!
Nazi leader: According to my god, the world must be governed by honor.
Fr Tomasz: The world must be governed by love!
Nazi leader: [Walks away and tells commander] Kill him.
Commander: Aim! [Fr Tomasz pulls his priestly stole down from his neck and kisses it.]
Commander: Fire! [Fr Tomasz dies.]

[New Scene: Karol walking along a road, turns sharply around and sees the name of Fr Tomasz on a list of executed people. Weeps bitterly.]

[New Scene: Student priests studying in church. An explosion.]
A student [running and shouting]: They have exploded the bridge of Demlikj! the Russians are near! The Germans are going away, Poland is free! Thanks be to God. [The students embraced one another happily.] Poland is free! [Karol smiles and prays with relief.]

[New Scene: Ordination of Karol Wojtyla as priest. In a church, Karol (face flat) lying on the floor. Cardinal in front of him. Choir singing and praying.]
Karol: Come, Creative Spirit, I’ll be on the floor where others walk to arrive where you drive their footsteps.

[New Scene: Grim-looking man walking towards Russian leader.]
Russian leader: Welcome. Julian Cordec, correct? They have told me of you a thing that I judge impossible for a Polish.
Julian Cordec: That I don’t hate the Russians? My best years have been at the university of Moscow.
Russian leader: They say that you are not Catholic. What is it, a joke? An excuse (expedient) to have a career with us?
Julian Cordec: The joke for the socialist revolution would be to let the Catholics act unmolested, don’t you think?
Russian leader: Is there a reason why this should become your desk?
Julian Cordec: [Hands a file to the leader.] The list of the Polish clergy. The Nazis have eliminated one third of the priests, but they are still many, too many. I won’t let them act, think, or breathe. One day, they won’t even have the time to dream about their God.
[Russian leader raises cup and toasts Julian Cordec.]

[INTRO SCENE for the next part of the movie: In a church. Karol turns around and camera zooms in to show a closeup of his face.]
[Voiceover] I am a young face carved on the rocks of the Tatrs. May a grain field grow from my youth, mature in the hopes and the pain so that our joy may glorify You… great mystery.

CWNews:

Instead of the familiar scene of the Baby Jesus laid in a manger, the Vatican’s Nativity scene this year will show the infant Jesus in a home that also includes his father’s workshop. No reason has been given for the change.

Does the it look like this Honthorst painting of St Joseph, as displayed on AmericanPapist.com (with an infant instead of a child looking up at St Joseph)?

AN INTERESTING EXPLANATION from Zenit:

Lev [an art historian] said: “This Nativity is not so much a break with tradition but is presenting a new side of the Nativity, revealing a new facet.

“It is trying to represent Joseph’s experience, his dream of what will happen knowing that Jesus will be born and Mary is with child. He had no idea the way it would all work out as he prepared to take on this task given to him by God through a message of an angel. So it is what he imagines in his home amid his work before it comes to pass.”

“This fits Joseph and the acceptance of his call into the story,” Lev continued. “Joseph is never the star of the Nativity, but his role is crucial. So this is not upsetting biblical tradition, but [giving] a different facet, looking at it in a different light.”

“In the Nativity accounts, a mother figure is always there, but this Nativity makes present the importance of the father figure and the fact that he is essential. It’s a reminder that he wasn’t born only to a mother, while providing a source of meditation during this time when we are faced with the battle against marriage and the family. It is a good way for the Church, in nonaggressive and nonpolitical way, to remind us of the basis of our understanding of family through the Holy Family.

“This is a Nativity very much of Joseph Ratzinger, a teaching Nativity. Instead of complacently laying out the characters, this year they are being laid out in a way so we have to think about what this momentous birthday means, think about the circumstance in which Jesus is born, while reminding us of Joseph’s essential role.”

“R” is for “Renaissance”. On June 11, I suggested to the leader of BNI Renaissance, to hold its weekly meetings at the Geek Terminal. The chapter did so the very next Wednesday.

“C” is for “Crescendo”. As a result, a few days later, Renaissance’s mentor (also a founding member of BNI Crescendo) advised Crescendo to hold their weekly meetings there too. They did so the following Thursday.

“G” is for “Global”. Shortly after, some BNI Global members apparently visited Crescendo at the Geek Terminal and decided to hold their meetings at the cafe too — on Tuesdays.

How did I know of (or rather started noticing) Geek Terminal in the first place? It was through blogs! Many bloggers in Ping.sg (such Ben Koe, DK, Keropokman and many others) had been writing about the Geek Terminal, how customers can surf wirelessly and connect their PCs to power points anywhere within this cafe! And so this was how the “R-C-G” fire started. All because of blogs, and partially thanks to me, three BNI chapters (and thus around 60-80 people) are now having business breakfast at the Geek Terminal every week!

Afternote: BNI, by the way, stands for Business Network International. There are over 20 chapters in Singapore alone. I joined the Renaissance chapter as a member a few weeks ago. The Global chapter, for some reason, has disappeared from the listing.

Now, my 9otta 9et 9oals (aka “9 Worthy 9oals Before I Expire”) are:

1. Complete a PhD program in educational psychology with a world-class professor.
2. Make a positive difference in the lives of the youths in my family and within my church so that they in turn would make a positive difference in the lives of others.
3. Be actively involved in non-profit work for the less fortunate in Asia, e.g. like what Beth Kanter is doing for Cambodia.
4. Establish a successful learning media business headquartered in Singapore with outreach to various parts of Asia.
5. Publish and maintain a very special never-ending “book” that’s a favorite among discerning audience.
6. Spend a few months traveling around (and living in) some of my favorite spots on earth, e.g. the Holy Land, some of the most beautiful islands in Greece; Tuscany and Umbria in Italy; major mountains and rivers of China; hot springs of Japan, the Little Portion Hermitage in Arkansas, USA.
7. Go up in a hot-air balloon, skydive, then scuba dive and finally sleep under the stars — all within a day or two.
8. Spend an afternoon hanging out with John Michael Talbot.
9. Leave a memorable and valuable legacy for my loved ones.

.

TAGTIME: I am tagging these 9eek 9als whom I’ve met so far, either physically (in Singapore) or virtually (via the blogosphere): Beth Kanter (Beth’s Blo9), EastCoastLife, Estee (9eek 9oddess), Nicole (The 9al), Raine (Ar9onaut Aura), Rinaz (Marina’s Blo99ariffic), Su Yuen (Striving to achieve one 9oal at a time!), Tstar (A Replacement to Writin9?) and Veron (9raphics desi9ner at Splarkette.net)

Note: The idea of this meme is to list five to ten goals that you’d like to achieve in your lifetime no matter how outrageous and share them with the world. Then tag others to do the same.

Afternote 27-04-2007: I had my doubts when trying to respond to this meme because this almost looks like a “cheap” exchange of links. However, upon second thoughts, I find some value in writing and therefore rethinking goals that are worth pursuing for me AS WELL AS in reading about the goals of people that I’ve befriended in the blogosphere. So, here it is.

• I’m a rather private and introspective person, which may come as a surprise to certain people. Someone had once commented, “But you’re so outspoken!” Yes, where work is concerned, I am often quite forthright
• In this blog, I write about my faith, inner thoughts and sometimes feelings. Sometimes, I merely quote passages or verses that I like. All these I had presumed that most people wouldn’t be interested in. In fact, this blog is quite religious. More specifically, it’s Christian and Catholic. People who are non-Christian sometimes get rather defensive (even offensive) when they are presented with something religious (or Christian).
• I’ve wanted to migrate this blog to WordPress for months, but have yet to find the time or the specific instructions (or means) to do so.

BUT WHY THIS CHANGE NOW? I’m beginning to notice that many bloggers can get quite personal and many blog readers actually like to read personal details and thereby get to know the author more personally.

Also, some people have mistaken me for a man. They said, “You write so impersonally in your blog.”

PLUS: It would be wonderful if some of you actually like what I’ve written there and start sharing with me more interesting or inspiring stories of similar nature!

So anyway, to stop teasing your curiosity, here’s my “secret” blog: SingleCatholicWoman. Note that this is NOT a Singles ad. I’m simply blogging about the challenges and opportunities (or advantages) of being single, Catholic and female.

SECOND, the Podcast Awards for 2006 are out. Among the winners are three Catholic podcasts:

• People’s Choice: MuggleCast
• Best Produced: The Signal
• Best Podcast Directory: iTunes
• Best Mobile Podcast: Catholic Insider (Catholic obviously)
• Business: Manager Tools
• Comedy: Distored View
• Cultural/Arts: Anime Pulse
• Education: Tips from the Top Floor
• Entertainment: Pottercast
• Gaming: Podtacular
• General: Rosary Army (Catholic)
• Movies/Films: The Signal (again!)
• PodSafe Music: AccidentHash
• Political: Free Talk Live
• Religion Inspiration: Daily Breakfast (Catholic)
• Technology/ Science: DiggNation
• Travel: Mouse Tunes

FOR A LONG TIME, I’ve believed in the free culture espoused by Lawrence Lessig and the open sharing of ideas, theories, studies, research advocated by Terry Vessels (above). I’ve therefore downloaded and consumed (installed, used, read, watched, listened…) lots of free software, ebooks, video, podcasts, news reports, in-depth analyses, research studies, etc. on the Internet over the past few years.

Recently, however, I’m beginning to ask myself, “Do I really believe in free culture and free exchange of ideas? Have I’ve been more the taker than the giver?” Granted that I’m normally a frank and open person. Yes, my work has been almost invariably very demanding. And yes, I’ve been blogging from time to time, sharing new things that I’ve learnt. Still, there were times when I’ve hesitated and held back. For example, I’ve kept my research study (begun in 2005) under wraps on the Net until a few days ago. Another example, I’ve been adding lots of useful information to a wiki on a sub-domain for almost two years now. Yet so far, I have chosen not to link them from my blog.

PERHAPS MISTRUST FIRST set in when a Masters program classmate asked quite pertinently some time ago, “But how could we share our research ideas, especially in a public domain? What if someone else were to steal our ideas and claim them as his/her own?”

Our eminent Trade Minister George Yeo probably spoke for many among us when he said on BlogTV (Episode 12: Big Boys Blogging) a few days ago:

“If they expect me to say things which I’d only say very privately, then they will be very disappointed because the blogosphere is not private space… There are things which you will say to your wife which you would not say to your friends, there are things that you would confide in your teacher which you would not confide even in your classmates. That’s part of life, we all have circles of trust…”

The minister was answering young blogger Gayle Goh’s very frank comments that (1) people who read blogs want fresh new perspectives and a strong, personal voice; and (2) people might find it very difficult to trust what politicians have to say especially when they won’t deviate from the party line at all.

Gayle’s response? She looked quite skeptical, even a little disapproving.

At first, I smiled at her youthful audacity and seeming naivete. Upon reflection however, I think Gayle raised an excellent point. Yes, indeed. Just who, in their leisure, would be interested to read a party manifesto? Even though it comes in blog postings?

Jeremy Wright, in his book Blog Marketing, wrote (paraphrased initially, words in brackets below are mine):

“Most blogs are expected to have these qualities — an authentic voice, honesty, and authority… this holds true even more so for the corporate blog…. This presents unique challenges for business leaders who want to understand blogging (connect with readers), as the concepts of transparency and authencity are not often associated with corporate communications practices….

“Blogging is really about three things:

• Information: Telling your customers what you’re doing and finding out what they are thinking.
• Relationships: Building a solid base of positive experiences with your customers that changes them from plain-old consumers to evangelists for your company and products.
• Knowledge management: Having the vast stores of knowledge within your company available to the right people at the right time.

“Without blogs, company messages can get so filtered by public relations or the media that CEOs and other senior management have decided to talk directly with customers — whether it be in the company’s stores, on the company’s airplanes, or at special events set up specifically for communicating with customers. The value of direct customer feedback is obvious, and blogs provide that [one-to-one and daily] on a global scale.”

In “Chapter 3: The Power of Blogs for Business”, Wright wrote:

Be Real: The Scoble Story

“…sometimes the most important person to be blogging in your company may not be an executive. For Microsoft… the most important blogger is arguably Robert Scoble… Scober started blogging before he joined Microsoft — his existing blog was actually a major force in landing him the job. In his role as a technical evangelist, Scoble has to be both authoritative and honest.

“One of Scoble’s rules is to tell the truth, even if it means admitting that a competitor’s product is better or if it means Microsoft is doing something wrong. This can be scary for an executive to do — though Sun’s Schwartz does it quite successfully (another story in the book). For Scoble, this comes naturally, and the net effect is that he has become one of the most influential people in a company with more than 55,000 employees. The external effect is that Microsoft now has a trusted voice who will give the straight and passionate answer to even the hardest questions.”

Finally, BG Yeo himself had observed in the first part of the BlogTV show:

“It’s strange. The emotion connected with blogging is very different from that connected with say, giving a speech or addressing an audience. For some reason, there’s an intimacy associated with going into the blogosphere which you don’t associate with a public meeting.”

Hmmm…. Can BG Yeo really maintain a public, party-line stance and yet achieve that “intimacy” with young people in Singapore? What do you think?

This is interesting, but very, very counter intuitive:

“In their book Moral Intelligence (Wharton School Publishing, May 2005), Doug Lennick and Fred Kiel say there’s a correlation between moral principles and business success. The companies that perform best, they believe, have leaders with not only a strong moral compass, but also the good sense to follow it.”

Actually, I’m NOT surprised by this.

YES, WORLDLY INTELLIGENCE often suggests that one needs to strategize (or plot), position (or present) oneself and manage (or manipulate) others.

However, the importance of moral intelligence IS intuitive to people who believe strongly in God (or karma) and ethical behavior (or cause-and-effect). On a non-religious note, as customers, wouldn’t (and don’t) we patronize repeatedly those who give good honest value and avoid those who don’t?

N.R. Narayana Murthy (chairman of Infosys Technologies), by the way, had spoken on the correlation between good business and moral principles when he gave a talk at NUS one or two years ago. This article, dated June 1999, gave a glimpse of this and reported how “Leading Indian business houses are witnessing a resurgence of values and ethics that may, in the long run, help turn the tide of recession.”

Another article from Strategic Marketing, dated Oct 2004, also highlighted the importance of moral intelligence. Smart companies, it says, “have a long-term approach to business. Customer retention is the purpose of their business. Profit is just the by-product… In business context, building lifelong relationship between the supplier and the customer means creating a strong bond – a strong bond of love and trust that cannot be broken by any competitor; a strong bond that grows stronger everyday.”

A key difference between Lennick & Kiel and the other writers is perhaps credibility (or authority)?

According to editorial notes at Amazon.com, “Doug Lennick led 14,000 professionals and support teams at American Express Financial Advisors to unparalleled success. Today, in addition to his work as managing partner of the Lennick Aberman Group, he continues to work directly with American Express Company’s CEO, retaining the title of EVP and focusing on workforce culture and performance. He is known worldwide for his expertise in driving business results by improving managers’ emotional competence.

“Fred Kiel, Ph.D., co-founder of KRW International, Inc., brings over 30 years of experience to his work with Fortune 500 CEOs and senior executives on building organizational effectiveness through leadership excellence and aligning organization with mission. Kiel is often called the “father of executive coaching” for his pioneering work in this field. Before founding KRW, Kiel worked with senior executives in private practice, developing a rigorous data-gathering and customized development process designed to provide executives with transformative feedback.”