Lech Walesa on Solidarity

Former Polish President Lech Walesa at the Irwin Theater Podium alongside a translator.

Last September 29, the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and past Polish President Lech Walesa visited Ateneo to talk about solidarity in the face of globalization. As it was a very wonderful opportunity (at least for me) to meet a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, it was rather easy to fanboy over the adorable and brilliant man. His never-ending supply of images to illustrate points were very enlightening and at the same time very playful. 

Three points I will most definitely keep in mind (non-verbatim):

• On the question of true democracy, Mr. Walesa quipped, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world: "Democracy is similar to pregnancy. It is either you're pregnant... or not." Crowd erupts in a laughter of realization: Democracy is absolute and should never be negotiable.

• Solidarity is multi-step. First, you acknowledge that you can't carry on a load by yourself and you inspire/ask everyone around you to help you. They will pass the request on until you are collectively strong enough. 

• With passion and a strong belief in what you are able to accomplish, you can do everything. To illustrate the point, he shares how he grew up with very little education but it never stopped him. Awesome, awesome guy.

And yes (duh) he has a Time Magazine cover.

Solidarity men, solidarity. Of course, even though I was still dust before the Martial Law, I could feel the collective power of recollection in the theatre when Lech Walesa shared his fascination of Former Pres. Cory Aquino and the solidarity she fostered in the Filipino people during World War I. According to him, the Philippines deserved a Nobel Peace Prize in the name of Cory Aquino.

These great men. 

*I acknowledge that his name is spelled with fancier characters but I can't seem to figure out how to put them in this without getting encoding errors. No harm meant. And we actually have a more intimate photo but I couldn't upload it. He was very open to photo ops with the students which he pronounced  his target audience.