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I’ve been doing a lot of marketing in wet markets
and grocery stores since I arrived. Not surprisingly, prices of even
basics like onions, garlic, tomatoes, fish, pork, chicken and many
others, even salt and pepper have skyrocketed. And I mean up there
in the sky. I wonder how many of our poor folks are coping.
Vegetables are definitely more
expensive than meat and fish. I haven’t eaten sinigang for more
than a month and so I cooked Sinigang sa Miso and, boy oh boy, the
prices of salmon, mustard and other ingredients have gone up like
anything. My sukis were apologetic but they say there is nothing
they could do; they are just retailers. Hmmmm
My labandera, Aling Cherry,
laments the fact that even the cost of dried fish and galunggong
have become beyond their means. They do not eat vegetables anymore.
They are forced to eat less and less every day. Her bigger concern
is the schooling of her three children. Could they still afford to
send them to finish at least high school?
When I left for South Africa, I
took a cab and the fare went up to P400 from my usual P150, Sta.
Mesa to NAIA. I asked and, like the prior week I’ve been taking
taxis, the drivers told me they have broken the seal and adjusted
the meter so they could collect more and be able to buy gasoline.
The Pasig-Quiapo/Divisoria jeepney drivers have for two years now
raised their fare. For example, the V. Mapa-Crossing (exactly 4
kilometers) used to cost only P7.50, until the jeepney drivers took
the law into their own hands and started to charge P10.00. At first,
there were a lot of arguments, but eventually people need to go to
work and go home, so the passengers simply paid the unlawful fare.
They have taken the law in their
hands? Who else have done this—take the law in their own
hands—to cope with high prices? The loser—the commuter and the
consumer who seemingly have no recourse but to pay outright or we
don’t get the products and services that we need. The apathetic
observer—the concerned government entities that are supposed to
implement the laws and protect the public.
What is happening to our country,
Madame Arroyo? Where is that vaunted economic growth of just a few
months ago? I just learned from a Manila Times article last Thursday
that we produce 90 percent of our rice requirements and import only
10 percent under the National Food Authority. Huh? If that is
the case do we need those numerous offices and hundreds of employees
at NFA? What are they really doing? Why is this crisis upon us?
Where is that 90 percent production? Do I hear the word
“hoarders”? What are we doing about them? Why can’t we catch
them? Who is in-charge?
Sometime ago, I read in an
internet news article that the culprit to the high cost of oil is
not exactly the taxes that all governments impose on them, but more
so the hoarders, the speculators who wait until prices are higher
before they put out their products in the market.
What should we do? The spiraling
cost of everything is worse than the worst natural calamities
we’ve experienced. Because we know that the supplies are there,
only they are being held for profit and that the people responsible
for policing them are (I leave this sentence open for you to supply
whatever adjective or expletive you want to add).
ASTD 2008 INTERNATIONAL
CONFERENCE & EXPOSITION will be held this June 1 though 4 at the
San Diego Convention Center, California, USA. I am excited about
this conference because one of the keynote speakers is Malcolm
Gladwell. He has an incomparable gift for generating value by
interpreting groundbreaking research in psychology, sociology and
neurology and applying it to business.
In 2005, Time Magazine named
Malcolm one of its 100 Most Influential People. He is the author of
two New York Times No.1 best-sellers. With his first book Malcolm
embedded the concept of “The Tipping Point” in our everyday
vocabulary and gave organizations new tools for understanding how
and why change happens, and how to create positive epidemics of
ideas and behavior.
In “Blink” he analyzes first
impressions—the judgments we make unconsciously and
instinctively—and he explores how we can master this important
aspect of successful decision-making. He is currently a staff writer
for the New Yorker magazine.
E-mail us for details.
innovationcamp@yahoo.com; www.learningandinnovation.com
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