Ang Magiting - The Official Web Site of Rotary Club Makati North

ROTARY AMID THE GLOBAL CRISIS

By: Rtn Danny Rayos del Sol
October 29, 2008

I look forward to Wednesdays RCMN meetings. Pres Klink manages to make the line-up of speakers and topics every week interesting for everybody. It’s just unfortunate that I missed the Miss Earth candidates’ appearances on September 10, 2008.

Our guest speaker last week is also a Rotarian, PDG Herminio “Sonny” Coloma, a professor of Business Management at AIM. Apparently, he was a dear friend of my father-in-law, the late Efren Bordador. His topic, “Rotary Amid the Global Crisis” was equally fascinating and remarkably inspiring that we all felt the challenge of how to be a good Rotarian.

Part I of his discourse was about the crisis within, Joc Joc Bolante, a Rotarian engulfed in President Arroyo’s worst political scandal. Part II was an insight into the current global crisis / economic meltdown, and Part III What Rotarians can do?

Sonny discussed that radical federal intercession may have prevented the collapse of America’s economy but believed that it will not avert in the long run, the systemic meltdown unless they address what caused the problem to begin with.

He cited examples of how and why the US financial system is so diseased. The housing crisis, for instance, involved an entire web of related problems with essentially a single cause: thousands of buyers lying in their mortgage applications; appraisers inflating valuations; lenders knowingly overlooking suspects’ documentation (since they were selling the mortgage to someone else anyway); credit rating agencies providing triple-A ratings to risky sub-prime mortgages that were 10 times riskier than similarly rated investments; and the National Association of Realtors encouraging people to buy while vigorously denying the existence of a housing bubble even as the bubble was clearly ready to pop.

Another example was the serious breach of trust at Harvard Business School when 100 applicants were caught hacking into a website that stores Harvard’s admission information. Unfortunately, 75% of students in a class on corporate ethics saw nothing was wrong with that! In the words of Business Week, it described the HBS group as amoral strivers willing to sacrifice family and friends for the success they felt they so richly deserved. HBS also churned out some of America ’s most reviled corporate felons. The signs of such criminal thinking are evident all over these latest Wall Street failures.

In his final analysis, this is all because of greed and its associated sins – lying, stealing, coveting. The commandments forbid these sins, yet these have been at the very heart of this financial crisis.

Legions of analysts are trying to find answers: Can the economy survive the looming financial collapse? But the real question is, can the economy survive the widespread moral collapse? No financial system can stand for long when the foundations are compromised by corruption. People do not want to hear about sin, but whether or not they admit it, that is exactly what has caused this current economic suffering.

Back to Basics was Sonny’s recommendation! It is actually simple, the clearest way to wealth and happiness is obedience to God’s Law which he wittingly equated to the four-way test.

He ended his talk with an appeal to be sober, not to be judgmental in dealing with JocJoc Bolante’s case and the Truth to prevail. Finally, he challenged all Rotarians to make a difference using the very basic principles of ethics that guide us: 1. Is it the truth? 2. Is it fair to all concerned? 3. Will it build good will and better friendships? 4. Will it be beneficial to all concerned?