God’s gifts are free
THE bounties from nature are God’s gifts to mankind. It is highly unthinkable for any person to sell them, much less even make profit from that sale.
The sun, the wind, and water are for everyone. They are not for sale.
And if harnessed and offered as a commercial commodity, the fact that these are obtained as free nature’s bounties, they must constitute the smallest item in the cost component.
The first ice-making plant in my hometown of Calbayog City started operation in 1953. It not only offered a refreshing convenience to townsfolk; it also opened a critical outlook for the locals to observe the plant as a business venture.
“How profitable this one is. Water is the only main capital component, and that is pumped out from artesian wells free,” the residents chorused, observing how the liquid was being solidified in huge stainless receptacles.
That curious assessment by my townmates was again replicated when the first commercial radio station in town aired its maiden broadcast in 1959.
It is easy to make money from this. “Hangin lang ang puhunan,” was the wry comment from the townspeople.
In both cases, my kababayans were correct. Ground water and the air around us are God’s gifts to us. And they constitute the main product in the case of ice-making, just as wind is the main factor that brings the radio broadcast to far-away places.
Similar to the trivial observation of residents, both factors are virtually free. They are there for the taking by everyone.
Of course, electricity is the triggering factor for these two items to become saleable to people. But pricing the cost of the products cited above must weigh in favor of the FREE factor.
From that ground water to the winds and air around us, there have been a number of God’s gifts that mankind is now benefiting from as developed by modern technology. They are ours for the taking:
Fossil fuel, coal, fish in the oceans and rivers, timber and forest products, geothermal power, wind and solar power, potable water for safe drinking and for agriculture use.
But entrepreneurs who are harnessing these nature’s bounties are selling them at prices that are not just and fair. They structure costs with no consideration as to how they obtain the products free from nature. They are so callous to charge consumers unconscionable prices.
The naked truth is entrepreneurs continue not only in exploiting God’s gifts to man, but also his vulnerability as a consumer.
* ** LECTURE-DISCUSSION ON SEN. NINOY AQUINO. The Mediaseum board of trustees, the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication, and the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) jointly did a commendable undertaking by putting together a lecture-discussion on the late Sen. Ninoy Aquino on the occasion of his 83rd birth anniversary, Friday afternoon, November 27.
Businessman Paul Aquino, younger brother of the late senator, was the main lecturer. He traced the family tree of the Aquino family in Tarlac, and quite interestingly to the diverse audience, spoke freely on the personal and professional life of his brother.
In the audience were college students from some schools, staffers from the sponsoring institutions, and officers of the UST Philets Foundation, an assemblage of journalism, public relations, and philosophy alumni of the erstwhile Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the University of Santo Tomas.
The venue was the conference room of PIA on Visayas Avenue in Quezon City.
The lecture-discussion focused on the late Tarlac senator as a newspaperman and on his strides as a politician, starting as mayor of Concepcion town.
He was a reporter in the old Manila Times and distinguished himself as a foreign correspondent of his paper, at 17 years old, covering the Korean War at the war zone in the 1950s.
After the program, the crowd made a quick tour of the Mediaseum on the third floor. Displayed are portraits of Filipino journalists in the 19th and 20th centuries, newspaper clippings of their articles, as well as communication artifacts like manual typewriters and early models of TV sets and laptops.
The following participated in putting together the program: Mediaseum Directors Alice Colet Villadolid who acted as moderator and museum guide; Prof. Ramon Tuazon, president, AIJC; Dr. Crispin Maslog; Dr. Georgina R. Encanto, Mediaseum trustee and UP regent; PIA Deputy Director Virgilio Galvez; Dr. Florangel R. Braid, AIJC president emeritus.
Other coordinating institutions are UNESCO National Commission, Philippine Press Institute, Philippine Association of Communication Educators, and the PIA Creative Group.