Sunday, August 19, 2007 Luab: A taste off what is right By Evelyn R. Luab Light Sunday
WE have come to a stage where what we believe favors us is right. How sad!
We all know that times are hard and that Juan is sagging under the weight of a very high cost of living. Yet all businessmen, with very few exceptions, will fight the minimum wage increase tooth and nail because of the many expenses needed to keep a business going. So, where does that leave poor Juan?
Most decent entrepreneurs give to their employees what they call “helps,” like a sack of rice for a group of four, transportation allowance for each employee, or medicine allowance when they get sick. These alternatives may look small; however, in lieu of what is hard to give, these helps are already a taste of what is right.
Many cottage industries allow their employees to stay in. That is already a savings in rent, light and water. What is sad though, in many cases, is the fact that such employees take this privilege for granted and they are the first to denounce their employers in public. Again, how sad!
In the “olden” days, farmer-tenant relationship was good. Today, the tenant is looked upon as a thief, while the farmer is thought of as the unfeeling brute.
My helpers come from the hills of Cebu. They all speak of the day’s wage of a tenant as only P40 a day when it comes to tilling the soil. They are given free lunch. However, most of the time lunch is “monggos and dried fish” or “vegetable and dried fish”. These combinations rarely vary.
The farmer also defends himself by saying: “But I allow them to plant whatever they want in my land. They can always plant bananas, sweet potatoes, string beans, etc. I don’t ask from their harvest. My only concern is the harvest from the coconut trees, corn and cacao.” So how can one improve on this kind of thinking?
About three weeks ago, I called for a dialogue between my employees and their parents. I was really so upset by the fact that every payday, the parents would come trooping to the city to get the pay envelopes of their children, most of the time leaving their children with nothing. I said to myself : “I need to put a stop to this. I must tell them to leave something for their children.”
After the dialogue, I felt small, very small! Here I was eating good food while most of them had to make to do with so little. Of course, we cannot negate the fact that their attitude towards life and the children is very wrong. Most of them, barring those who were sickly, were still young enough to go to work. However, they also believe that once a child is big enough to earn a living, it is his turn to feed the family. My gosh!
Our dialogue turned into my trying to convince the parents that the obligation of their children was not an obligation to them. It was love for parents, which prevailed. Children in turn take care of their own kids when they start having families of their own. This taste of truth was not so palatable to the parents. We then agreed that parents who could still augment the family income should do so.
We ended the dialogue with an acknowledgement that the dialogue was clearly to wipe away all cause for resentment from both parent and child. That particular afternoon, we did not accomplish much. However, the truth about the necessity of teamwork to survive was a fact. The truth of the matter, however, was that both sides—parent and child—could listen and express their thoughts.
It takes a dialogue to discover just what exactly is right!
