STONECPS

Integrity: Maintaining moral integrity, and integrating one's professional life and personal convictions.

Tolerance of diversity: Within a broad range, respect for ethnic and religious differences, and acceptance of reasonable differences in moral perspectives

A Line to Papal Audience – An Unfathomable Experience

The first group of Filipinos that we met was in St. Leonard church in Frankfurt. The Alcantara family was one of the Filipino families that we met after the mass and they accompanied us to the bus station where we will take our ride to Prague. They even offered to take us to Heidelberg (where you can find Rizal’s monument because Howell was really interested to go there), but since our bus leaves that evening, we have to beg off their offer.

The next group of Filipinos that we met in Venice was siblings Meg, Danny and Chito and they are traveling together with Fr. Lito (who is base in Rome) and his mother. We had dinner together and we really hit it off and we are laughing like crazy as if we have known each other for such a long time already. Since they are going back to Rome the same time we are there, they even invited us to have dinner at Fr. Lito’s house in Rome.

We learned that they are also planning to attend the Papal Audience and since Fr. Lito’s house is near the Pope’s summer house where the Papal audience will be held the next day (which is 1 hr travel from Rome downtown), they did not let us went back to our hotel but instead they accommodated us at Fr. Lito’s house so we will be early for the Papal Audience.

It was an unbelievable experience, our tears fell down the very second we see the Pope. My husband and I can’t believe it that we are actually in the presence of a human being yet he has that aura of peace and love all over him. You can hear the crowd cheering his name “Benedicto! Benedicto!” as if they are calling him to shower us with God’s love which he did. We are so touch when he said, “I bless all of you and I extend my blessing to your family and love ones who are not with you today, who are at your home, at your country.”

My thoughts…..

During that day, the audience is from different countries and from several continents but cheering only of one name, which is the Pope’s.

He embodied the tolerance of diversity; he embraces all regardless of color, religions and other differences.

Moral reasonableness: The willingness and ability to be morally reasonable.


Poor service at Chinese General Hospital

I have made several posts in my blog on how poor the service of Chinese General is. My family has a history of having high blood pressure and several times, we have to rush our aunt to the emergency room every time she BP rises. And every time we rush her to the Emergency room of Chinese General especially in the wee hours of the morning, we always get bad service from them. Like when we rushed our aunt to ER, there was no doctor present to attend to my aunt as all of them is either missing in action or is sleeping (I was shocked to discover that the person in the bed beside my aunt is indeed the doctor on duty). My cousin got hospitalized just last week and before they were allowed to get a room, they have to be interviewed first. They were asked about their job, their source of income, their salary and they will categorize you based on your salary on what type of room you can get. And I was like, what kind of service is this. Chinese General is the nearest hospital in our area so this is really our first option if we have an emergency but if we only have other options, I will never ever let my love ones be subjected with this kind of service to think that CGH is a private hospital and they should really learn how to treat paying customers well, with respect and with real care.

My thoughts…..

I would like to be reasonable but how can I do it in time of emergency? We should be calm and respectful all the time like what my mom did. She asked my dad to step outside and she’ll handle it from there and good thing that my aunt is ok now but our medical hospitals should be reasonable all the time because they are service providers which accommodate all persons with equal treatment.

Now they have this screening phase where they’ll ask you first of your financial background before they can admit you to a room. If you are poor, no matter what your condition is, you’ll stay in the ward room. Is this reasonable? I don’t think so.

Moral communication: Precision in the use of a common ethical language, in order to be able to express and support one's moral views adequately to others

Subject: FW: FOLLOW THE LAW OF "GARBAGE TRUCKS"


Few weeks ago, I received an email from my former colleague with a subject “Follow the Law of Garbage Trucks.” Below is the message, I’m not sure if it’s his experience or somebody else’s.

One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport. We
were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a
parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his
brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches! The driver of
the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us.

My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. In addition, I
mean he was friendly. So I asked, 'Why did you just do that? This guy
almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!' This is when my
taxi driver taught me what I now call, 'The Law of the Garbage Truck.'

He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run
around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of
disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it
and sometimes they'll dump it on you. Don't take it personally. Just
smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don't take their garbage and
spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets.

The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage
trucks take over their day. Life's too short to wake up in the morning
with regrets, so..... 'Love the people who treat you right. Pray for the
ones who don't.'

My thoughts…..

When you have time, try to search this post at http://www.filipinasoul.com/are-filipinos-rude-by-nature/ and read about an Australian’s view of our nature.

Sad to say, almost majority of his comments about us are true. And another sad thing is that, it only shows in the people living in Metro Manila but if we go to the provinces, the folks and kids still personifies what we used to be known to the world, hospitable, kind, cheerful and has a good command of English language.

Kids here in the metro have no more respect for the elders, for the authorities or even to their peers and friends. You may ask “What went wrong?” The number one answer for that which I can think of is parenting. These people whom they called as parents or guardians are no longer capable of nurturing them because of poverty and the deficiency of proper education.

Because of their empty stomach, they allow them to do petty misdemeanor, until it becomes a habit, they now steal bigger things up until the use a knife or gun to commit crimes. Ultimately they ended up in jail, the parents or relatives seeks now the assistance of a politician, he gives some money, they borrowed from relatives, they sell their property or worst other’s property and he’s back to the society. These types of scenarios go on and on in our community today.

When we stepped out of the taxi, were still talking about that driver inside the pedicab and we just agreed that maybe he’s not happy today but me and my husband are. We are happy because we’re going to see our daughter after being in the office and in Robinson the whole day, we are now kissing her and she will give us that embrace and the “I love you” words...

On the email I receive, I like the phrase “Don’t take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets.” It really makes sense having a positive outlook so you’ll stay happy and I guess, successful…

Moral coherence: Forming consistent and comprehensive viewpoints based upon a consideration of relevant facts

Must business choose between good ethics and financial benefits?

In my opinion, I always believe that good ethics should always be above financial benefits. We can not avoid that there will be really a short term loss for the company but I always believe that good business back by good ethics will always bring long term gains.

One example that I can give is when we are still starting our cell phone and gadget shop in Greenhills. When we are still starting, our sales are always low since we are always beaten by our competitors who sell cell phone units at a much lower price than ours.

Our competitors can afford to give prices that are hundreds (or even thousands) of pesos lower than our price because they are selling second hand units as brand new units to their customers. What they will do is they will refurbish their secondhand units (change the housing, the key pad, etc) so that it will look brand new and will sell it to their customers for the price of a brand new unit. This style is very rampant in Greenhills but it is against our ethics and principles that is why we never engage in those types of acts.

But since the units sold by our competitors are just refurbish units, majority of their clients would come back to complain once the units fail which never happened with our clients since what we are giving our clients are real brand new units which even comes with a one year warranty with the cell phone maker like Nokia and Ericson.

After a while, our clients come to trust us and our sales grew since we have loyal customers who always come back to our store since they know that we are a trustable businessman.

A lot of our competitors’ clients even transferred to us since they know that we are a businessman with good ethics.

My thoughts…..
So, we might even have a short term loss at first but our business has grown now and it is all because we practice good ethics over financial benefits.

On Matthew 22:21 states that we cannot serve two masters at the same time. If we want to serve our fellowmen or provide services, we should be consistent with our ethics and we will harvest goodness in due time.