In a recent meeting with the punong barangays, City Mayor Benjie Magalong has expressed hopes to have more interaction with them especially with their association’s officers.
To me, this shows the importance of having and maintaining open communication lines, or the sharing of information, among leaders in the barangay, local and national levels so that the needs of their constituents can be known and hopefully solved in the most effective and efficient manner.
Of course, this presupposes that communication mechanisms are also in place for leaders to know what is happening on the ground via information from their constituents.
This near-sighted Ibaloy writer believes that it is best for our beloved leaders to include the public in the government’s decision-making process, especially on critical issues, so that solutions that are formulated and implemented would be to the satisfaction of their constituency or at least most of them since one can never truly please everybody in this imperfect world of ours.
Still, involving the various stakeholders or sectors in society in making our communities a better place to live and work in will always be better than only having an elect few decide what is best for all of us. The more, the merrier, I guess.
Obviously, keeping communication lines open and honest is also important in geo-politics especially in preventing misunderstanding or worse, among nations.
That is why it is important for officials of the Asian bully China and our nation of delicious coconuts and smiling carabaos to keep communication lines open because it is so much better to see them talking (and even shouting) at each other than not talking at all.
It is when communication lines are closed where the real danger lies. Lack of communication is as dangerous as failure to communicate. So, keep the communication lines open, please, for all our sakes.
Let’s not forget that communication also plays a vital role in maintaining a healthy relationship among husbands and wives including their children. I read somewhere that one of the factors why marriages fail and families break up (including friendships) is due to the lack or absence of communication.
Family members (and friends) just stopped talking to each other, in other words. I could be wrong but it seems that many of us would rather spend more time immersing ourselves in social media, or even with our pets, than interact face-to-face with our fellow human beings. How sad.
May our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ continue to bless and keep us all safe.
May 9, 2024
