Chapter 18
GETTING UP ON STAGE
ON A BALMY EIGHTY-TWO-DEGREE SPRING day in Southeast Asia, I was at Manila’s Financial Center, nervously sitting in an awe-inspiringly international conference hall. The event was an international forum with industrial representatives, professionals, scholars, nonprofit organization leaders and the like from close to thirty countries; we were all there to discuss how to prevent and solve increasingly frequent natural disasters.
Behind the sprawling stage was a deep navy-blue flannel curtain. It looked as elegant as the blue of a summer night sky. A classic-looking, solid-wood podium stood off to the left side of the stage; it looked like a leaf floating on boundless ocean waves. “When it’s my turn, I will definitely ...
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