Reservoir of Talent

I am continually amazed by the richness of Filipino talent. I was utterly entertained when I stumbled upon two videos on Facebook.

First was the Official Music Video of Lady Gaga's Telephone. Lady Gaga has become an icon of pop culture. I am not a fan or an advocate but I entertain myself with how she and American Pop move together (and how it affects us Filipinos altogether). I have several comments on the music video but this post is not a review on Lady Gaga so I'll proceed on.

The second video that brought me laughing my heart out was the video by Lady Gagita and Haronce. They made a very good parody of the original music video. It was humorous and very entertaining. But what really amazed me was the latent talent in every Filipino that has exploded in these two very young and ordinary Filipino youth.

I couldn't help but admire the video editing that they did. They actually made a very good video flow that matched Telephone's multi-million dollar production. While watching the video, I was continually guessing what software could have been used in this parody. I was shocked to learn later on that they used what was readily available to them - Movie Maker!

One could think they were using expensive video cameras but looking at the shots, you can see they were using a point and shoot digicam. What made the shots really good was how they shot in angles and copied the artistic techniques used in the original video.

Their use of improvised props and costumes was really hands-down creative! The dancing was also good. I could not help but be proud of Filipino talent and ingenuity. I know I am all praises here but the video is really worth commendable.

On a more serious side, I realized that the youth that as educators we don't need to plant the seeds of talent in our young people because they already have it in them. What we need to do is to cultivate the germinating potential of each young Filipino. These two young people from Mindanao took media tools and made a fantastic video out of their own resources plus imagination. This made me promise myself that as a Salesian, I am to bring out the potential of every young person that I meet.

Yet I must also not forget the task of evangelization, one that raises natural talent to its divine fulfillment. Isn't it wonderful to know that God has richly endowed humanity with all his graces so that humanity could reflect the infinite beauty who is God? We need to remember that each person is a treasure of giftedness and talent, and whose potential awaits to be unleashed.