Saturday, December 03, 2011

Happiness is Feeling at Home

Two years ago, I met a couple of Coca-Cola Consolidated executives, the largest marketers of Coca Cola company products. They are the brains behind many marketing programs. What struck me in my visit was one small group of people seeking to live out their faith in the marketplace. This video reminded me of that visit.

From my interactions with Filipinos, they are one of the most relational, and family-minded communities in the world. Thus, for them to leave home, to earn money abroad in order to send money home to their loved ones, is a great sacrifice. This video clip demonstrates that it is possible to make money on one hand, and to share it generously in giving back to the community.



Have a Coke today!

conrade

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The clip does depict poignancy in the lives of many Filipinos, but I can’t help but thinking it is just a clever marketing ad for Coca Cola aimed to pull at the our heart strings and cover up for the real damage to the family that results from the “Americanization” of God’s world . . . . . Americanization, I can’t even believe my computer recognizes that word as a mainstream term without warning me to check my diction on it . . . . .

My real concern here is how God can release from the Filipino culture, the immense guilt and shame amassed from leaving children to be raised without parents.

Many Filipino parents have been so far separated from their families so much so that they no longer can relate to them from behind a wall of guilt accumulated over years of absence from their families.

This is becoming a culture of Grandparents and Children without parents around to nurture and demonstrate Godly behavior.
Children who are “raising themselves” with only Money for a God. For the most part, parents do not contribute in the day to day lives of their children once they move abroad. Many are apart for decades or more, missing valuable nurturing and mentoring time in the tender growing years. Still other parents get caught up in American lifestyle choices, leading double lives, unable to explain to relatives about the reality of addictive consumerism and disconnection they face as immigrants. This is an immense sacrifice indeed. The fact remains, the Filipino culture is in dangerous need of Spiritual Fatherhood.

I believe companies like Coca Cola, Microsoft, Telecom Orange, etc all know of this tragedy and spend a great amount of money on “Intelligent” Public Relations annually to curve opinion towards their “Giving Back” campaigns.
In the Philippines, Men are being pushed aside because of corruption, adulterous and abusive behavior and women are taking roles of leadership in their place, but as we see in the recent scandals of Filipino President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, gender in leadership is not just interchangeable in God’s eyes.

The real concern for the Filipino People here is that becoming a nation of Fatherless children may not be so Happy.

Conrade Yap, (Dr) said...

@Anonymous,

I share your sentiments about the plight of the economic and social systems of the Filipinos. After all, it is their own system that has led to parents being forced to leave their countries in order to make ends meet. A tough choice has to be made. Either stay and struggle with poverty, or leave and struggle with absence of parental guidance. There is usually a threshold for any such decision-making. Everyone has their different level of tolerance.

Back to the video itself, while there is some form of 'Americanization' or clever marketing ploy somewhere, at least they are trying to do something commendable. Compared to corporations' blanket spending on TV commercials or expensive marketing blitz, why not do both? Here, Coke gets their publicity. A select few get their family reunion. Win-Win.

In our broken world, we can save some people some of the time. We cannot save all people all the time. The latter tends to paralyze us into non-action. The former spurs us at least to take some positive action.

Thanks for commenting.

conrade

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