by Lan Daval
SHORT POLITICAL PUNCH – Judging the way events are ongoing nowadays, you would think that the political opposition, notably remnants of the Arroyo administration, had transformed into an infamous group of rabble rousers who seem to use every petty issue under the present PNoy leadership as an opportunity to make sense.
SYMBOLIC OF CHINESE ECONOMIC MATURITY – Ever wondered about the hard work, patience and perseverance of the Chinese entrepreneurs in dealing with their trade, either big or small? On well-paved and crowded streets of a mega city like Toronto, Canada, stands a monument to Chinese entrepreneur spirit: dominating specifically the mini convenience and grocery store business and operating wet markets. Well, I can say this with certainty because I and my wife spent a one-year vacation in Canada’s largest city.
Most Chinese, probably those who migrated to the different places in Canada, are hard-working and well-trainedafter being engaged in obscure jobs in China’s vast state-owned sector in the 60s and 70s. These traits are the key factors why they were able to succeed in their business ventures in foreign lands. Today, in the Greater Toronto Area or GTA specifically, if you go to any convenience and grocery store or prefer a sumptuous meal, you’ll doubtless find a place owned or operated by successful Chinese entrepreneurs. Moreover, in keeping with Chinese tradition, their businesses remain a purely family affair where members have tortuously taken on much of the day-to-day operations of their trade.
Business competition in Canada, similar to the US, is extremely tough therefore leaving big enterprises and other giant publicly owned corporations in the control of mega wealthy Canadian and American business clans. Obviously, Canadians actually are not interested in venturing into small store and wet market businesses. This disinclination opened the opportunity for business-minded Chinese immigrants who ventured into small to medium businesses with other nationalities like the Indians, Koreans, Japanese and Jews filling in the gap and sharing a chunk of it. Clearly enough, the Chinese entrepreneurs’ dream is to make their businesses eventually ubiquitous in all of Canada if not throughout the world.
There is more. Perhaps, not surprisingly, the Chinese entrepreneurs’ deep self-confidence, perseverance and hard work are symbolic of their economic maturity and the kind of opportunity they seized along with other nationalities several years back remain ripe in Canada and other friendly neighboring countries. Hence there is some degree of confidence and faith in the small entrepreneurship enabling the Chinese and their peers to get on with the business of running it aggressively and confidently.
Some renowned economists observed that the entire concept of the migrant entrepreneurs’ way of “making money,” however, seemed foreign: taking them years to earn substantial amount of money until things would start to turn in their favor. That’s where people like the Chinese and other migrants to Canada come in.
Although many if not all them still work long days at their own small business turfs, their greatest desire and aspiration is for the yields to be extremely abundant and manageable and, of course, conducive to a good night’s sleep afterwards.
