Is there hope for Philippines?
It is as if all the good things here in the Philippines have been taken away. They took away our natural resources, they took away our best people, they took away our identity, and they took away our pride as a nation.
Gone are those days that Asia looks at Philippines as a progressive and ideal model of success.
Now, this entire Social and Political malady is being blamed to a corrupt government. We keep on complaining that the government is not doing its job properly. But had we forgotten, “we deserve the government that we have and that we elected”. A government that is corrupt just magnifies the corruption that is happening even to the smallest fabric of our society.
Corruption is everywhere and every one of us is guilty beyond reasonable doubt. Buying of pirated DVDs is corrupt and a crime. Not following traffic rules is corrupt. Bribing and under the table transactions is corrupt. Not properly segregating your waste and littering is corrupt. Any form of stealing is corrupt. Cheating in any form is corrupt. These are some of the corruption we consciously and unconsciously done.
Adding insult to injuries is when other nations look down on our race and discriminate us for being a Filipino. I sometimes can’t blame them because we act such barbaric (sometimes beyond what we can even comprehend). Now our identity as Filipinos, as a race, and as a nation is generalized and stereotyped as Thieves and Murderers just to name a few.
Now is corruption the problem of this country?
It is actually shocking to hear that a Korean can understand well the problem of Philippines compared to other Filipinos. Jaeyoun Kim said: I strongly believe that the problem is the lack of love for the Philippines. I was deeply moved by this because it totally makes sense.
If we really respected our country, we would do anything to protect its integrity. But we did otherwise. We blemished it with inconceivable ways of corruption. We act foolishly and selfishly. We act to serve our self-seeking and egotistical “selves”. We care so much for ourselves that we have forgotten the role we play in a big jigsaw puzzle. What is worse is that this acts becomes callous that will eventually be a tumour deeply concealed to all tenets of our society. And this scares the hell out of me.
Now I ask you, would you rather leave this nation and serve someone else nation than help rebuild whatever is left for this country? Are you willing to give up on our country to earn a small reward of fortune?
I think this poses as a challenge to every one of us. If you feel like making a difference let us start it to ourselves. Small changes will be small steps of revolution, but if everyone is united to changing their lives, it will be a big leap towards a new Philippines.
Now I will leave a question for everyone to ponder upon,
What do you call those people who blames and insults you for a crime you did despite being guilty of the same crime? We call them Hypocrites. In retrospect, how do we call those people who says that our government is so corrupt yet we are corrupt as well?
Now make yourself count for this country…
Friday, November 18, 2011
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Going Green: a mere propaganda?
At this point Global Warming is no longer a myth. We now see in our own eyes Mother Earth’s wrath.
And because of this, we see continuous pressure for a lot of companies to “Go Green”. It therefore sets the bar higher for future innovations in the business operations.
Companies have been more keen and vigilant on reducing waste in their production line. And some take this call more seriously by creating products that are environmentally friendly. One that I am very familiar with is the creation of Prius, a hybrid, fuel efficient car of Toyota. From then on, we see more big companies’ committing to creating Earth-friendly products even to the little things like using of Reusable Canvas Totes instead of plastic bags in the market.
Although this new trend has created such a big fuss, I can’t help but to remain sceptic. Does it really reduce waste? Does it really reduce carbon emission? Does it really make sense? Despite these counter measures, there are still a lot of arguments against it that I somehow find plausible.
They say that green technology is very expensive. You need to invest a lot on research and development. This means you need a lot of money to jump start your green advocacy. But the problem just starts there, a lot of them tried but with only few successes. But even if the prototypes used in the R&D has been put into mass production, very few will be able to buy these products because the prices gets inflated due to high cost and investment. Well, companies still looks at their accounting books for a good ROI. This is the reason why we can see very few Prius along EDSA or elsewhere.
Also, the “Going Green” advocacy has been viral for consumers. They became more sensitive on products that they buy. They check the labels, the facts about it, etc. It is seen as a shaping movement by consumers not just to be informed but to have a direct participation on dictating market trends. At first, it was a consumer nightmare for companies. But, thanks to the ingenious marketing people to see this as another tool to increase their profit.
At first it may seem good. Companies are adopting the “Go Green” advocacy, but not really for the true intentions of it. It somehow became a Marketing race to create a new strategy that revolves in this new consumer craze. It is a race to gain sympathy for consumers to buy their product i.e. is the “Earth hour”.
My fear now is that, Going Green has not really served its purpose because of too much cheap pandering on it by a lot of insincere companies.
In the end, I would like to ask this question: Would we rather depend saving the environment to these profiteers or should we be a bit more sensitive and change our lifestyle? Just have a little sacrifice, a little change to make our home / ecosystem conducive for living for our children.
And because of this, we see continuous pressure for a lot of companies to “Go Green”. It therefore sets the bar higher for future innovations in the business operations.
Companies have been more keen and vigilant on reducing waste in their production line. And some take this call more seriously by creating products that are environmentally friendly. One that I am very familiar with is the creation of Prius, a hybrid, fuel efficient car of Toyota. From then on, we see more big companies’ committing to creating Earth-friendly products even to the little things like using of Reusable Canvas Totes instead of plastic bags in the market.
Although this new trend has created such a big fuss, I can’t help but to remain sceptic. Does it really reduce waste? Does it really reduce carbon emission? Does it really make sense? Despite these counter measures, there are still a lot of arguments against it that I somehow find plausible.
They say that green technology is very expensive. You need to invest a lot on research and development. This means you need a lot of money to jump start your green advocacy. But the problem just starts there, a lot of them tried but with only few successes. But even if the prototypes used in the R&D has been put into mass production, very few will be able to buy these products because the prices gets inflated due to high cost and investment. Well, companies still looks at their accounting books for a good ROI. This is the reason why we can see very few Prius along EDSA or elsewhere.
Also, the “Going Green” advocacy has been viral for consumers. They became more sensitive on products that they buy. They check the labels, the facts about it, etc. It is seen as a shaping movement by consumers not just to be informed but to have a direct participation on dictating market trends. At first, it was a consumer nightmare for companies. But, thanks to the ingenious marketing people to see this as another tool to increase their profit.
At first it may seem good. Companies are adopting the “Go Green” advocacy, but not really for the true intentions of it. It somehow became a Marketing race to create a new strategy that revolves in this new consumer craze. It is a race to gain sympathy for consumers to buy their product i.e. is the “Earth hour”.
My fear now is that, Going Green has not really served its purpose because of too much cheap pandering on it by a lot of insincere companies.
In the end, I would like to ask this question: Would we rather depend saving the environment to these profiteers or should we be a bit more sensitive and change our lifestyle? Just have a little sacrifice, a little change to make our home / ecosystem conducive for living for our children.
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