More important things

Watching the program on GMA on the depleting resources of the country in terms of water, fish, forest species and space, also brings attention to the growing population. The speed of reproduction and irresponsible pregnancies, calls for the hasty resolution of the reproductive health bill and a strong advocacy for moral values. It cannot just be the implementation of the RH Bill. It has to be coupled with a grounding on the reasons why people have children and what comes before and after procreation. There is the need to talk about the basics of having a family and all the joy and exciting responsibilities it entails. There has to be communication at home morespecifically among parents and children. That for me is our sacred business. More important than the ringing of the cash registers.

The excuse of “working for my children’s future” that occupies dad or mom to exhaustion may come into waste if there will be no future to talk about. When children come home with a teenage pregnancy, another unwanted contribution to the sagging domestic economy, you may find yourself lost in the “whys” that you know the “becauses” to. Busy restaurants and empty kitchens at home may look good for business but may mean a future of uncertain clientele.

Where is my logic?

Generally, unhappy homes produce unhappy individuals, who may end up demotivated, or disoriented and unproductive. It may mean one or two people walking into your cafe just to drink coffee or have a beer and a smoke than leave.  Compared to more seats to families who come in to share a meal of celebration, or simple family togetherness; families who talk about how to live their lives better; how to help and support each other and how to take tragedies in stride and move on.

The quality of the population determines the quality of business. Too many street children on the road create a hazard to the motorists. Grubby children turn-off a patron as the former beg for food at the glass window. They scare customers by camping at the entrance to your store. Unsupervised, they grow up in the streets and try to earn an easy buck through whatever means and influence the decline in peace and order.

More people mean more mouths to feed, more jobs to fight for, more early workforce retirements to face, more inexperienced workers replacing the able but older generation, more room for haphazard job finishes, more garbage, more pollution, more disease, more deaths.

More people divide farmlands, end up with lesser farmers, lesser fishing ground, lesser food, lesser incomes, lesser businesses, lesser economies, more compromises, greater susceptibility to corruption, more moral decay.

The bringing up of our children to respect what is good and God’s surpasses all pursuits. It surfaces the real motivation behind business and its sustainability.