WORKING for COMMUNITY WELFARE – MAKING ONESELF AVAILABLE (Continuation) Most of us want to play the role of a good host. We expect a visitor, and we go out of our way to prepare for the visit: the premises must be clean, the room ready, and refreshments well stocked, a full meal thoughtfully prepared. No detail is too small to be shoved aside. After all, we have our dignity to keep and our good name to preserve in welcoming a guest to our home or office. It is a pity we do not extend the same concern to our streets, our immediate neighborhood, and to the common places in our wider community. It is as though our streets and our communities are not really ours. They are often thought of as the sole responsibility of local and higher officials, and not ours. The fact, however, is that most of us feel a deep sense of shame when we go through our messy airport, our garbage-strewn streets, our unkempt public buildings and parks, our poorly maintained infrastructure and community spaces. For many of us, our homes are clearly ours to keep clean, to maintain, to make attractive and comfortable. Anything outside our homes is someone else’s responsibility. This has been our long-standing attitude. This we must change because what goes on in our community, in our city, in our country reflects upon us. As Filipinos, we are made smaller and more disreputable by the disorder, dirt, lack of care, and inadequacy of public facilities in our own country. From “Towards a National Culture of Excellence” by Jesus P. Estanislao
Posted on: Mon, 11 Nov 2013 01:07:01 +0000