Editorial: A great city

AN INVENTORY of the possible, that's how philosopher Rene Descartes described a great city.

It's a place where people who are dreaming of making a better life go to because there are a lot of opportunities there. There is "an inventory of the possible."

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Every Dabawenyo will preen with pride when talking about this city. But a real Dabawenyo will not fail to notice the ever-growing slums, the bigger number of Rizal Park stage night boarders, and the 24-7 'picnickers' of Osmeña Park.

In the fringes of the city we so love, urban blight is nibbling in and that is what we should strive to address, as a city and as residents who have the means.

On the stage of Rizal Park and the grounds of Osmeña Park are people who saw in Davao an inventory of the possible but have come to realize that there is not much possibility for them because there's not much job for the blue-collars.

And so the city has its work cut out: to provide opportunities for those who are falling through the cracks of private sector opportunities, and this goes beyond just providing soup lines and drop-in shelters.

What the new government should crack its collective head on is an economic growth that is spurred by the broad masses, the working class, and not the multinational-multimillionaire few.

To some, such idea would sound communist, but it's not. It's actually just a return to what cities through history have been providing their people, their migrants -- upward mobility, the opportunity to craft a better life.

By not cracking our heads on how to reduce the slums to the smallest possible number, we are undermining what it is that have drawn these people to us. And by not cracking our heads on how to enhance opportunities, we are allowing the poor to remain poor if not go down even further to abject poverty and thus drag our city down with them by overstretching limited resources for social welfare.

How? We have models now like the Gawad Kalinga and the livelihood programs pushed by non-government organizations like Katakus. We just need more of them. And in bringing this up, we hope that civic organizations will respond and think up of programs that enhances the skills and capabilities of the working classes and not just free clinics and Christmas parties.