Wednesday, November 28, 2007 Editorials: Culture of entrepreneurship
THE motivation that Tsinoy and Pinoy parents imbue their young in school, somebody once said, is actually a matter of orientation.
The Tsinoy parent supposedly motivates their young to study and excel in school so when they graduate they can immediately start a business of their own.
The children are told to be independent as entrepreneurs while still in school.
But a Pinoy parent supposedly urges their children to excel in school, strive to have high academic honors so that when they graduate, they can get regular jobs and receive high salaries.
Revolution
While this may seem a matter of personal choice, in reality it is a deep and life-affecting attitude.
It boils down to a difference between two people who, though living in the same social and economic environment, are pursuing disparate goals through different ways of achieving things.
In a recent talk before students of a Quezon City university, Senate President Manuel Villar advocated what he calls an “entrepreneurial revolution.”
He noted that the Philippines right now is “a nation of employees” and asked the students to become entrepreneurs “and help change the country’s landscape.”
Poverty
Villar averred that, “fifty years ago, we were a poor country; now, we are still a poor country.”
This is because, he said, we are afraid to become independent, to be entrepreneurs.
What Villar hopes would happen is the development among our people of “a culture of entrepreneurship” in order to address poverty.
Indeed, if there is anything more significant and an overwhelming goal, it is the winning of our long-drawn war against poverty.
Many presidents have sounded a “call to arms” against poverty that holds almost 50 percent of our people captive.
Losing war
Yet, it has become a losing war for our leaders.
In 1997, the percentage of the truly poor in Central Visayas was 34.4 percent, but it rose to 38.8 percent in 2000.
Nationwide, it was 31.8 percent in 1997, then rose to 33.7 percent in 2000.
If we go by the trend, it could be much higher today.
