Friends of Fortune
A wise man turns chance into good fortune. — Thomas Fuller
Not only has she managed to make the most poised of models out of reserved ambassadors and cautious businessmen, she also is a model herself — on the catwalk and in diplomatic circles.
Consul General of Monaco and de an of the Consula r Cor ps of the Philippines Fortune Ledesma recently mounted the fundraiser Fashion Harmony, which was music to the ears of many underprivileged Filipinos.
“While the show boasted a variety of fashions, the thing we are proudest of is our models. Not only are they esteemed figures, they have golden hearts as all of them volunteered to strut down the catwalk for free. Because they knew that the funds raised will benefit abused and abandoned children, the elderly, scholars and victims of calamities,” Fortune said of the fashion show presented last month by the Consular Corps of the Philippines, which she heads, at the New World Makati Hotel.
Fortune also believes that the activities of the corps strengthen the bonds among the world’s nations. After all, Presidents may be having problems among themselves at their level, but envoys, consuls and ordinary citizens can continue to strengthen bonds among nations established by their forefathers.
*** The Consular Corps had its regular monthly lunch last week at the Makati Shangri-La, and its special guest was no less than Vice President Leni Robredo. Leni says her idea of luxury these days is a day with no schedules, but that is probably a luxury she cannot afford just yet. After addressing the Consular Corps, she attended the Ramon Magsaysay Awards, which once honored her late husband Jesse. Then last Sunday she flew to Davao to offer comfort for the victims of a bomb blast and condole with the relatives of those who perished in the explosion.
At the Consular Corps lunch, to which I was most kindly invited by Fortune, the vice president told the diplomats present that as concurrent chairperson of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, “we will not just build houses but create livable communities for the poor, where our people will find jobs, where children can go safely to school, attend church, and play safely in their own backyards.”
“In all of these areas, the empowerment of our poorest Filipinos is the bedrock of my agenda,” she emphasized. “I have seen for myself how poverty can paralyze at the earliest stages of life and within the privacy of ramshackle homes, how gut impoverishment can easily take hold and persist into adulthood, how it can limit our countrymen to difficult futures.”
It was a most productive lunch, for after the niceties, all guests were fully aware that it was everyone’s goal to share his or her good fortune with others.
When Fortune’s son RJ Ledesma introduced himself to some diplomats during the Consular Corps luncheon, “Good afternoon, I am the son of Fortune,” one diplomat immediately replied, “How nice to be able to say that of oneself!” And so accurately, too, I must say. Literally and figuratively.