Entry #11 - photoSYNTHESIS

           This is my last entry for the term.  Besides COSORES’ obvious connection with my ENVISOC class last term, I realized that three of my business classes this term are also connected.  I always knew that the subjects in my curriculum were interconnected, but I realized just how much they are connected the other day.

            During my COSORES class, we were talking about Green Buildings and how they can be a competitive advantage for a company.  I had been learning about competitive advantage throughout the term during my STRAMAN (Strategic Management) class and I instantly thought of how it can be a competitive advantage for a company.  The term “Green Building” was also familiar to me, as I had just researched it the day before, for my DECIRES (Development of Real Estate) class.  The next day during my DECIRES class, the professor asked what ISO 9001 meant.  No one was able to get it right until I remembered what Ms. Pia wrote on the board during the previous session, and I answered Quality Management (which was correct).

            That short period of time allowed me to realize that everything I am learning now will be helping me in the future.  Our SL project has also inspired me to try and do something similar to it, but on a larger scale.  As I write this, I am planning an event for BMS that will give some of its proceeds to a beneficiary (hopefully Bahay Biyaya Hostel).  The proceeds will be used to buy things that the beneficiary will need to make the residents’ life better or easier. 

            When I was little until high school, all I wanted to be was a rich businessman when I grow up.  I didn’t care how I got the money, but all that mattered was that I had the money.  After these four years at De La Salle University, I have a clear cut vision of what kind of person I want to become.  The goal is still to be a wealthy businessman, but the means of getting there has changed.  I want my business to be green or sustainable, at the very least, it should have CSR integrated into how it operates.  I want to help communities and change how people perceive corporations. 

            Don’t be evil.  Save lives.  Change the world.  This is what I envision for myself.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to achieve this someday. 

Entry #10 - I'm Running Out of Punds

Sustainable development for our country and for the world is the ideal situation, but the reality is that people simply won’t commit to this.  Sustainable development aims to replace the resources we use and minimize the damage to our environment.  Developing countries can’t really do this because green technology is so expensive.  I think that this fact is what hinders the world from switching to green energy.

We can’t deny the fact that people want to reduce their costs.  We all don't want to run out of funds (I guess, I still have some puns left), and this is understandable.  However,  eco-friendly products are usually priced at a premium because they help the environment.  E-jeeps or hybrid cars, organic food, and similar green products have to be subsidized in order for people that are not in the upper middle class to actually buy them.  Which is why, I believe that our SL project can really be successful and sustainable.

People are willing to have these PET bottles installed into their homes because they don’t have to pay for it.  They don’t need to pay electricity to have light in their room.  This obviously lessens their expenses, and people are unknowingly going green.  If green technology or products can one day be subsidized enough to become cheaper than the “normal” products, then I am sure that people will go green. 

The government has to become a catalyst in instilling this change for our country.  We have to start integrating it to our culture.  The Philippines is a country full of natural resources, but they are now being slowly depleted.  If we are all environmentally conscious and use eco-friendly products, then our country will continue to prosper with our wealth of natural resources.  Poverty and corruption is really the line, which hinders our country from progressing to become a better place to live in.  

Entry #9 - Martial Paw

Have you seen the Care Bears before?  They always go on these adventures where they help people and they love doing it.  It is the fact that they WANT to help people, which makes the act almost as adorable as the Care Bears themselves.  Imagine if you had to help a person, not out of your own good will, but because the law said you had to? 

There was a bill or law that waiting to be approved (or already dismissed? I am not clear of the details) which states that all companies MUST HAVE CSR.  No matter how appealing this must sound to environmentalists or communities around corporate buildings/factories, I simply do not think that this bill/law should be passed.  Why? Because CSR is supposed to be done due to the goodness of a company’s heart.  It is to be done voluntarily.  You can’t force a person or require a person to give alms to a beggar.  With that same principle, you can’t force a company to doing good, if they don’t want to.

Even if this bill were to be passed. It wouldn't change a thing. Just like how some companies are able to avoid paying taxes, companies will find a way to circumvent the law anyway.  Existing companies who do not have any CSR programs will just get angry at the government and find a way to avoid doing this mandatory task.  Furthermore, companies who do implement these CSR programs due to the need, will have half-assed programs that might not really help anybody.  We have a saying in our high school barkada that might apply to this situation, “Pag ayaw, wag pilitin, baka pumayag pa.”

Companies that want to help the environment should be able to distinguish themselves from those who are forced to help the environment.  Besides, if our country is serious about helping the marginalized or protecting our resources, they would emphasize sustainable development for our country.  It may not be easy to do this, but if we are able to weed out corrupt officials like PNoy has promised, then it would become feasible to start planning this for our country.  

Entry #8 - A Convenient Lie?

This week we talked about the environmental crisis and watched "The Inconvenient Truth".  When we were discussing the environmental crisis, I couldn't help but think of how our SL project was one of the ways that aims to help reduce the damage to our environment.  The electricity saved when using the PET bottles as a light source does not only benefit the wallets of the residents, but also reduces the use of fossil fuel to generate the electricity.  If people continue to expand this project, it might really be able to make a huge impact on the environment.

During the discussion, I suddenly thought about Earth Hour, or the time where everyone in the word shuts of his or her electricity-using things for an hour.  Aside from showing the effect of how “if one person does it and everybody does it, we can make a difference”, I thought about how helpless we would be without electricity.  With our advanced society, having no internet will already cause people to claim “they will die”; having no electricity will probably spell the death of most people. 

The film, “An Inconvenient Truth,” is a film I have seen 4 to 5 times within my college and high school years combined.  Truth be told, I am sick of having to watch or discuss it.  What is interesting, was the film I saw during my SCIENVC class.  This was a film to disprove Al Gore’s film.  It disproved the global warming phenomenon and said that the climate change is merely a part of the Earth’s cycle, just like how the Ice Age came naturally.  After watching that, I have been a little bit skeptical of Al Gore ever since.  So I tried to research more about Al Gore’s film and there are really people who say that some of the statistics are used improperly and that the “Inconvenient Truth” is actually a convenient lie. 

This just made me realize that you can’t always trust what you see or hear from the media.  You always have to dig a little deeper to find out the truth.  I still believe that mankind is overusing our resources and that we have to reduce our pollution; but don’t just take it from one source.  In case you were wondering, I still believe that global warming is real, as I researched that the people who claim that Al Gore is a convenient liar, don’t have a reliable source of information either.  In the end, it is really up to you to decide what YOU want to believe in.

Entry #7 – Block and White

Last Saturday, we went to do our Service Learning activity for Isang Litrong Liwanag.  I woke up really late that morning, and I thought I was going to be left behind.  I rushed to school and luckily people were just arriving.  When we got to  the community, I could immediately see the difference with the community near DLSU.  You could see and smell the difference. We split off into groups and went to install the bottles. 

 I was the first one in our group to do some manual labor for the people in the community.  It was scary because we were on a rusty roof in the squatter area and the roof was shaky.  I felt that at any time I lost my balance, I would probably fall to my death.  I was sweating like crazy while trying to keep a straight face in front of our group.  After what felt like an eternity, I was able to successfully install a PET bottle with the special formula onto the roof.  My knees were shaking uncontrollably after that experience, but after I saw how illuminated the room was, I felt happy and satisfied with my work.

After that tiring day, I really reflected on how lucky I am and how this project could help even more communities.  I thought that maybe I can be a part of something like this, but as the organizer and the one thought of the project, instead of a participant. 

The discussion for the following week (Thursday) in class was about corruption.  I was able to connect the dots on how corruption is slowly making everyone poorer and the need for more ventures or activities like the Isang Litrong Liwanag.  Corruption in the government, corruption of companies, and the corruption of people is all due to the greed that they have.  Why are people still corrupt, knowing that some “good” companies (Green Companies, Multinationals, etc.) are making money?  This is because people do not see the world as Black and White; we all see a gray area where everything and anything can be justified.  We may view bribery as an evil act, but some view it as a necessary evil to continue running a company.  This is why people have to change, and the change should start with us.

Entry #6 - SAS-sy

            After watching both SAS and Foxconn video regarding their work environment, we can really distinguish a “good” place to work from “bad” place.  We see the seemingly perfect workplace in SAS with everything you need nearby and we see the hellhole and mistreatment of workers in the Foxconn factories.  In this scenario, we know what is right and wrong.  However, in certain places where people are starving and in dire need of money, are things like child labor or underpayment justifiable?

            Let us picture a little child somewhere in a foreign country.  The boy’s family cannot feed him and his siblings.  They live in the slums.  The boy cannot continue his studies.  He can only beg for money in the streets.  Then a corporation opens up near the area and starts to employ children with these backgrounds, providing food, money and maybe even education in exchange for 5-hour work days.  Who are we to say that this company is unethical?  Aren’t the children getting what they need? So what if they may be a little underpaid? At least they can eat.  So what if they have to work as child laborers? At least they can get an education.  This is what I don’t get with “Human Rights” or ethics.

            Some of these practices are in fact justifiable in my opinion.  In fact, if you want to protest something as “unethical”, why not internships?  Most internships or OJTs do not compensate the interns and sometimes even ask them to work more than 8 hours.  Free labor is technically slavery right? Then isn’t this unethical as well?  It is the media that moves people to think about what is ethical or unethical.  As long as the media portrays a practice to be bad, then it is probably bad in our eyes as well. 

            This why media isn’t always a reliable source to me.  If I want to get information on a topic, I always make sure to get a secondary source as well.  I don’t know if my line of thinking is ethical or not, but logic tells me that if a company helps people, then it is “good”.

Entry #5 - The THORax

            Here is my try at reviving the Thor (From Marvel, not the actual Norse God) puns:

  

Courtesy of Tumblr

            Behold the THORAX! Featuring the Once-ler (dressed as Loki). 

            So it was my first time to watch the Lorax, although I had been aware that it was out a long time ago.  Barring the choppy quality of the movie, the lesson was quite clear.  Be concerned for the environment or one day it will run out.  This was quite an amazing lesson/moral from Dr. Seuss, especially considering that during his time, there was no “green movement” yet.

            The meeting following the film discussed the Models of CSR.  While the Economic Model of CSR was being discussed, I was thinking in my head that Friedman’s definition of CSR was so lacking.  I kept wondering if that was the right model to use for companies and if my understand of CSR was wrong all along.  I was glad to hear Miss Pia say that she doesn’t recommend that model, so I felt relieved to know that.  In the end, I guess each person has a different view on how CSR should be implemented.  My idea of CSR is have a mutually beneficial program with a community in line with the vision of the company. 

            That’s all for me this THORsday night. (Really wanted to have another Thor Pun)