STRAIGHT FROM THE BIG CITY

Ike ‘Ka Iking’ Seneres
Welcome the waste warriors

After many years of trying to make waste segregation work in this country, we are still far away from successfully implementing it at the household level and even at the commercial level. I do not find pleasure in singling out Baguio City as an example, but since their mounting garbage crisis is now in the news, it should wake us up to the reality that most of our cities are in the same mess that Baguio is in.

If you are thinking that the war against waste is already a lost battle, think again, because a virtual green army is now forming to tackle this old problem with a new approach. How and why did this new group emerge? Just like any group with a good purpose, it started with the firm commitment of its organizers, and let me tell you how and why.

The Lassalian Institute for the Environment (LIFE) is an institution that was born out of the firm desire of the Christian Brothers to do something about the environment in a more meaningful and scientific way. LIFE is the 17th member of the La Salle system. Although it is not a school strictly speaking, it was given the same status as a member of the system, an indication of how serious the Christian Brothers are about this cause.

LIFE is now in the process of organizing the Waste Warriors. It will start as a student organization with chapters in all the 16 schools of La Salle all over the country. Hopefully, the organization will spread out to the other schools as well, powered by its new approach to waste segregation.

The chapters of the Waste Warriors will be soliciting donations from students, parents and alumni, not in the form of money, but in the form of recyclable paper. All types of recyclable paper will be accepted, from tiny paper receipts to bulky paper bundles. All donations will be weighed, and all donations will be credited to the student members who will bring these in. there will be a contest, and prizes will be given to those who brings the most. to “KAPIT-BAYAN” in DWIZ 882 KHZ 5 to 6 PM Mon to Fri.
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It does not make us happy to live in an underdeveloped country, but if we try to look at the good side of our predicament, we could be happy with the thought that in a country with many needs and problems, there are many opportunities for the “not so needy” people like us to help and serve the many people around us who are more needy than we are.

How would you like to take a journey with me, on board a SHIP that will take us to a better country? No, we are not going to leave the Philippines, we are just going to set sail on this SHIP, so that our country will become a better place to live in, where the needy will have more access to the basic services that could improve the quality of their life.

Sickness, Hunger, Illiteracy and Poverty (or SHIP for short) have always been with mankind since the beginning of civilization. As a matter of fact, even the developed countries still suffer from the collective effects of SHIP, except that they are probably doing a better job in keeping it at bay.

I understand that in the Philippines, there are many other problems that are confronting us, but going down to the bottom line, the four problems of this SHIP are perhaps the most pervasive, and are the most pressing, to say the least. Not that the other problems can wait, it is just a matter of relative importance.

I do not propose anything new, except for the idea of convergence and concentration, meaning to say that we should converge and concentrate our resources and energies on these four problems, so that we get these out of the way, in such a way that we could begin to face our other problems.
As a matter of policy and strategy, the Inter-Charity Network (ICN) will now focus on addressing these four problems head on. With new possibilities of receiving donations for charitable purposes, ICN will now invest in social enterprises that would hopefully help us win the war against these four social enemies.

As I have previously written in my previous articles, we need to build specific infrastructure to address our social needs, within a framework of development that is both doable and sustainable. Without this, we would still be running around in circles with no direction in sight.

To be able to address the problem of sickness, we need to build or rebuild our health infra at the community level. To be able to address the problem of hunger, we need to build or rebuild our distribution infra, also at the community level. All the infra we need to build or rebuild has to be at the community level, and the same goes for the schools infra that we need to build or rebuild to address the problem of illiteracy, and the farms infra that we need to build or rebuild to address the problem of poverty. I say that we need to build or rebuild, because there is really no need to build a completely new infra if there is already an existing infra to start with, no matter what condition it is in.

Putting up food stores or grocery stores is the most logical step in building our distribution infra to address the problem of hunger. Rather than give away food, we are going to experiment with the social enterprise of selling food at the lowest possible prices, backed up by our own production. Of course, we shall always be ready to give away food to the extremely needy who could not afford to buy food.

Creation of livelihood is the most practical solution to the problem of poverty, and there is no question that going into agriculture or food production is the easiest and the quickest way to create livelihood. Besides, food production gives us the extra bonus of being able to address the problem of hunger as well.

The high price of medicines is actually one of the biggest problems in the delivery of health services. As a way to address this problem, we are going to include high quality generic medicines in the offerings of our groceries.

Again, I am issuing my call to well meaning people out there to form their own Inter-Charity Circles. As soon as two Circles are formed in a locality, they could already organize their own local Inter-Charity Club.

Email iseneres@yahoo.com or text me at +639293605140. Watch my TV show “KA IKING LIVE” every Friday from 930 to 1030 PM in Destiny Cable Channel 3. Form your own Inter-Charity Circle and build our Nation. Tune in to “KAPIT-BAYAN” in DWIZ 882 KHZ 5 to 6 PM Mon to Fri.