As of latest count, there are eight “Dream Cities” in the Philippines according to the Institute for Solidarity in Asia (ISA). Come again? Is there such a thing as a dream city in the Philippines ? At present?

Indeed, it may be hard to believe that dreamlands still exist in a country embroiled in one crisis after another. One of the first casualties of turbulence is hope and, with it, dreams. ISA and its converts however refuse to go along with the tide, choosing to hope and even to dream notwithstanding the prevailing gloom and cynicism. Among its advocates is Tagbilaran City , one of the eight Dream Cities. Critics may dismiss it is as a rather simplistic categorization of cities that have yet to lick poverty in their environs. Nothing to worry about that. The last time we looked, there is no such thing as a perfect city. There are only those that are more desirable than the others. People, and cities for that matter, who look forward to the future with hope are the ones who will ultimately get there. It is better to dream and fail than not to have dreamed at all.

In a world where hopes and dreams are crushed and trampled upon, people must learn to cherish each other's hopes, and to be kind to each other's dreams. After all, a dream is a wish that the heart makes. Just because the past and the present have not been good to the country does not give skeptics and cynics the right to consign the future to a similar fate. And just because they are gaining more and more adherents does not mean they are right. To hit closer to home, those who have packed up their bags to flee the country because they don't want to give their share in helping it rise should not begrudge those who insist to persevere. On any given day, courage can be as contagious as cowardice.

People should never give up on what they really want in their lives. The ones with the biggest dreams are more powerful than those who have all the facts. Dreams that were born in Adolf Hitler's gas chambers in Auschwitz , the killing fields of Idi Amin's Uganda and Pol Pot's Cambodia have since proven that humanity can rise above the pits of inhumanity, brutality and savagery. Khalil Gibran once declared that he prefers to be a dreamer among the humblest, with visions to be realized, than lord among those without dreams and desires. The same can be said of the dreamers among the ranks of the ISA converts. A country's hope lies in its dreamers, not in skeptics and cynics.