Big businesses can only thrive in a democratic set up. And a democracy can only survive if at least half of the population are well-educated. Proper education, that is. Not just earning a degree by rote memory. Proper education means being critical. Being able to stand by one’s principles and by denouncing any form of injustice. Not allowing tyrants to reign.
Did the big businesses around help to attain this?
Of late, the President had been insulting the owners of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, ABS-CBN, and the Zobels de Ayala, as if they were just shit.
Did these big business owners ever do anything substantial to help in the education of Filipinos so they would not cower in fear when a politician or leader becomes tyrannical?
For sure they had been performing their so called corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and donations but the value of these are not even a drop from the bucket. Very far from it. These are just molecular in size compared to their billions and billions of pesos worth of assets. Such CSRs are just for press releases and photo-ops.
To paraphrase Mother Teresa on donations, if it does not hurt, you are not giving enough.
So what is the effect of this neglect of big businesses to meaningfully contribute to the proper education of Filipinos? We have a population who are always voting for the wrong leaders, and even would cheer for tyrants.
This is what is happening right now. Millions of Filipinos are cheering for the President whenever he rants against or insults the owners of the aforesaid businesses. They are getting the backlash of their neglect or greed.
Yet they just keep on amassing more and more wealth, even if they are being treated like shit. Nothing more.
This is not earning some profits with honor. It is being dehumanized.**