Letter to blind musician wins int’l prize

MANILA, Philippines - A letter to a blind musician who sang melodious kundimans (love songs) won for an 11-year-old girl the bronze prize in the 2014 International Letter Writing Competition for Young People.

The Philippine Postal Corp. (PHLPost) announced that Ashley Nicole Abalos, a student of PAREF-Woodrose School in Muntinlupa City, won the third place in the letter writing contest organized by the Universal Postal Union (UPU) on the theme “Write a letter describing how much music can touch lives.”

From the UPU, Abalos would receive a medal, certificate and other prizes, while PHLPost will give her P5,000.

PHLPost said an estimated 1.5 million young people participated in this year’s contest.

Abalos’ contest piece was a letter to a blind musician she saw singing and playing the guitar at the Duty Free store.

Part of her letter read: “True enough, music is not music until it is shared. Thank you, blind musician, for the gift of sight your music has given. At first, I pitied you because your world was so dark and I could not imagine how it made you feel to not be seeing how beautiful the world is. But after hearing you play, I realized that the sense of sight is worthless without imaginative and passionate vision. Through your music, you are able to open the eyes of many, even if you yourself cannot see.”

The international jury commented on her contest piece: “Written with great sincerity, this composition full of emotions and genuine reflections captured the magic of music to connect people.”

The competition was created by the 1969 Tokyo Congress and officially launched in 1971. Since then, millions of young people all over the world, up to age 15, have participated in the competition at national and international levels. The UPU establishes a theme annually, with participating countries choosing an entry for the UPU international competition.

“The contest not only harnesses the skills of young people in letter writing, but is a great way to make the youth aware of the significance of the postal sector, as being strengthened by the UPU and the re-engineering efforts of PHLPost,” Postmaster General Josefina dela Cruz said.

The first prize winner is a 13-year-old from Bosnia and Herzegovina, while the second prize winner is a 10-year-old from China. The winners will receive their prizes on Oct. 9, the anniversary of UPU’s foundation to form part of World Post Day.