For the society to keep going at a steady pace and remain united, the cohesive social elements are of paramount importance. Values of various nature need to come together to accord the society the title it is worth claiming. There need to exist qualities of being useful or desirable to make life for the members of the community easy and enjoyable. Each quality is viewed in terms of character or behavior that makes it worthwhile. Living or being alive is much worthwhile than what man ever desires to obtain and for this to happen, social values serve remarkably great purposes. The remedy for the problem of the inappropriate utilization of the different values, for the safety of the society, is greatly required. For practical purposes, acquiring adequate knowledge about human nature is called into play unquestionably. Some people believe that it would be possible to solve social problems if enough was known about their causes. Such people feel that man-made difficulties can be overcome and at the same time man-made institutions can also be changed, given sufficient time and human ingenuity; and as a result, they want to know what it means to be a human being. Through such endeavors, the needed values can be restored to serve the purpose for the benefits of the people whenever they play the important role in guiding the dayto-day social interactions. Social value motivates the desire to get along with other people. In order to work and live as harmoniously as possible with others, takes a great deal of sacrifice; such a blessed sentiment is less practiced these days for the simple desire of taking economic advantage over others and it is also prioritized uncontrollably. Inhibition, shame and coexistence have filed out of human interaction currently. Values make people think and feel and behave the way they do. The strength of social values circumvents people’s interest passionately. These days, in business, the employers seem to neglect the business values in failing to learn the personality of their employees whether they can most likely succeed in particular jobs. Thus, the value that ‘customers are kings’ becomes dysfunctional simply because the employees do not positively react to the feelings of their customers as they should. In the society, parents want to know what kind of children can gain the most out of life based on the value of the society they are in. Such expectations are rare since values that propagate speculations of such type are rather dying out. Dependable values can determine the height of development that the society can reach. If there is no concept of value in our endeavors, be it business or else, the essence of quality in our day-to-day performances become equally neglected issues. Excellent value dictates of that particular work should correctly and carefully be handled right from the beginning. Build the habit of taking notes carefully on your diary about the work you are ready to be engaged in, but not on a scrap paper. Discussing hastily and without focus and sobriety are the causes of accomplishing things inadequetly. Some people happen to know exactly about what they are doing after it is too late; it is may be, at the point of no return and an attempt to correct it becomes utterly impossible. Lack of the indispensable value of planning the project proactively might indulge them into the problem of restarting it all over again- a situation that demands additional time, materials and budget and other unforeseen expenses. That is lack of the right value of work due to sheer recklessness and negligence. Therefore, when we plan to do something, we need to jot it neatly and carefully in our diary. Such precaution protects us from doing things again, and at the same time it helps us to avoid the wastage of budget, human resource, time and materials. The work that is well accomplished can yield quality and satisfactory output. Such quality achievement can materialize when someone from the childhood is brought up in an environment where the right value of work is inculcated in him. In our country, we daily witness that almost nothing works right and neither is it done well as it should be. This is the slow disappearance of work ethics and the globally accepted work value. Along with this comes the right business value that the customer desires to see in his transaction every time he wants to buy something or get some kind of service. As he enters the shop, at least he is entitled to be offered a smile from the shop owner who bluntly stares at him, the situation which has always disappoints him. The functionality of the commodity is subject to much speculation, sometimes they become dysfunctional a couple of days later. Yet, the prices are irrationally inflated and unabated. There is no way the buyer can reclaim the money he has paid for the commodity; let alone that, even getting an exchange for the good he has bought is utterly unthinkable. The business value is thus defiled by the self-seeking greed of the seller. The enquiry about the reliability of the item bought, once the seller has pockets the money, is out of question. In fact, it is considered foolishness. Even though claiming to get the right thing is perfectly alright. For fear of embarrassment such things remain unmentioned as there is no law that upholds the right of the buyer. Even if there is law, there is little power of enforcement; it is just a paper tiger. As to the reliability the goods, it is up to the buyer to make sure that the item he buys is in good shape before paying for it. Concerning durability, unless the same measure mentioned above is taken, there is no way one can depend only on the fictitious promotion of the seller. The item can, for instance, if the fuse of light bulb may burn out or the chord melts as one switches on, the buyer is forced to buy a new one, no other alternative. The business transaction between the seller and buyer in Ethiopia is like that of the beggar and the alms giver; the buyer, like the beggar, has no choice except accepting whatever he is given. The value that the seller attaches to their goods and services is utterly disheartening to the buyers. Honesty, with such business people, has no relevance to what they do; in fact they do not have the slightest hint of it. In everything they do, they show little respect, fear or inhibition to what the business ethics dictates. The zeal of conformity to the pledge they made when the business first started eventually evaporates; the mind of such people is so much disoriented to listen to the warnings of their own conscience. Honest value succumbs to the down-word hastening trend to moral decadence. For instance, beer, being considered a luxury item, frankly speaking, whereas it is the only beverage accessible to the common man, its price is jacked up unfairly. Due to such sudden price rise, people will be compelled to turn to other alternatives for enjoyment. The homemade alcoholic beverages such as ‘areke’ (which is 48% alcoholic content) and the like, although their price is relatively low, the continual consumption such items is hazardous to health and untimely leads to untimely death. With equal impetus, because of mismanagement, misappropriation and particularly embezzlement, mega electric transformers planted in different parts of Addis Ababa, due to their low durability, cannot function well to supply sufficient electric power. Bought cheaply, far below the budgeted amount of dollars, thousands of city dwellers suffer from electric blackout and often live in darkness. Lack of energy, even for cooking, lasts for days or even weeks on end. Thus, the people are exposed to buying food, particularly ‘injera’ against their will. The value that one sacrifices, on the part of the group that implements the project, for the benefit of one’s country seems to have blown away with the wind. My country and my people, the sentiments that formerly ruled citizens’ nationalism are now supplanted by ‘for me’, ‘here’ and ‘now’. Nobody is concerns about the concepts such as ‘For them’, ‘there’ and ‘tomorrow’. Man has become a cloth-adorned inhuman robotic being. Should the writer take the liberty to say man these days is a social animal rather than a social being? That is all he is worth.
The Ethiopian Herald April 5/2020
BY JOSEPH SOBOKA
