The Poverty Mindset
I always have this thought: I dont believe that our country is literally poor, we are just one heck of a mismanaged country. I notice that this particular ‘poverty mindset’ is more dominant during elections. The political advertisements that we have on TV, print and internet are always emphasizing in the poor plight of our countrymen and hailing their candidates as the so-called messiahs that could literally uplift the poor from their ramshackles.
What most people forget to think is this: if your country runs in an economy based on capitalistic foundations, then, inequality to wealth can come as a package with it. Seriously speaking, in a capitalist environment, 20 percent of the population control 80 percent of the world’s resources (a reflection of the Pareto principle, although, this time, its uglier). And it is an acknowledged truth that most businesses out there are never meant to become charities. They always have profits over their heads. Profits and millions of profits. That’s it.
I hate this poverty mindset in our country where poverty is imbibed to all of us: ‘Hindi ako makakapagtapos ng pag-aaral kasi dukha lang kami’ or ‘Anong magagawa namin? E mahirap lang kami?’ Its always like that. I also hear that from my neighbors, saying everyday that they are just poor folks. I hate that in every election season, the candidates that we see on television hail themselves as messiahs or the bringer of solutions to poverty. Or perhaps, a knight in shining armor, ready to rescue a poverty-stricken maiden.
Why I always thought against this poverty mindset? In terms of natural resources, the Philippines is even richer than Japan and other Asian countries out there. We have gold, chromite, nickel, and copper in our earth. We have natural gas and possibly, petroleum in our seas. The best of all, we have an enormous and talented work force that can produce outputs that can be at par with our Asian and European counterparts. Heck, we are even better than the United States, whose economy is just floating on a bubble of debts. We also fare well than Zimbabwe because what we are seeing in that country is the literal definition of poverty (Zimbabwe by the way, is under hyperinflation).
Why cant those candidates inspire the people to think beyond the poverty mindset and instill potentials development? I believe that with our own potentials, we can make this country great. And yes, even greater. Filipinos are gifted with talents. Who knows what the country will become if we contribute our talents for the betterment of our country.
If the country and its social services are well managed, I can tell you that nobody will dare to say that they are poor. However, what we are seeing today is a blatant contrast – I didnt even heard any politician out there who went serious about devising well-managed social services or perhaps improving our current social services. Look at Philhealth – its a total aplomb of all healthcare systems that ever existed.
But with the poverty mindset imbibed by the system of politics here? The people will be exploited and since the common people are the vote rich group, it will be a huge surplus for the politicians to exploit that and continually imbibe that theme “you are poor people and I am the solution to your poverty”.
And the cycle goes on, the country will still be mismanaged. Yes, iilan lang ang nakikinabang instead na tayong lahat. Yan ang problema pag may sugapa sa sistema. Har.
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silver is the blogger behind Dare to Speak Out, a personal and commentary blog.She graduated with a degree in Industrial and Organizational Psychology. She posts blogs that ranges in different topics – from trivial to the political. She currently works as a freelance writer.
“you are poor people and I am the solution to your poverty”
Ironically, a certain political ad has this message. No offense to Villar supporters but if you scrutinize, heto yung message na gusto niyang iparating sa mga mamamayan. Here’s the lyrics of the song:
Nakaligo ka na ba sa dagat ng basura?
Nag-Pasko ka na ba sa gitna ng kalsada?
Yan ang tanong namin,
Tunay ka bang isa sa amin?
Nalaman mo na bang mapapag-aral ka nya?
Tutulungan tayo para magka-trabaho?
At kanyang plano’y magka-bahay tayo?
Si Villar ang tunay na mahirap.
si Villar ang tunay na may malasakit.
Si Villar ang may kakayahan
At gumawa ng sariling pangalan.
Si Manny Villar ang magtatapos
ng ating kahirapan.
Personally, I also don’t think WE SHOULD BE A THIRD WORLD COUNTRY. Sadly, some of those in power are corrupt. Hayun, nauubos tuloy ang kaban ng bayan. Kawawang Juan de la Cruz.
~shrug head~ tsk..tsk…
Nice article Silver! You’ve nailed this one.
Kaya nga surang sura ako sa mga political advertisements ngayon. Puro ganyan ang tema. Susmaryosep.
let me share what Randy David said in his column:
Let’s consider mass poverty. Regardless of how it is measured, poverty is undeniably the lot of the vast masses. Half of our people have no steady or adequate incomes. At least one-fourth periodically experience hunger. They live in crowded shanties or makeshift homes, vulnerable to various types of diseases and natural calamities, with no access to affordable medicines and medical care, and unable to give their children the kind of education that would pull them out of their present circumstances.
Clearly, jobs and livelihood are what they need. The economy cannot provide these to a growing population unless it is itself able to grow. There are many approaches to economic growth, but some that have worked in other countries may not work in ours. Some that worked in the past may no longer work today. We must define a strategy appropriate to our needs and resources, and fine-tune it as we go along. Human capital seems to be our strongest asset
. Filipinos are adventurous, friendly, adaptable, and have a strong will to learn. But their skills are low compared to the requirements of a highly competitive world. We must embark on a program of continuous quality education and training. But this is a costly undertaking. Who and how will we finance it?
We cannot develop our cities at the expense
of the countryside without provoking the kind of mass migration that we are already seeing today. How do we improve the lot of the rural folk so that their progress is in step with the modernization of the rest of the country?
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20100115-247553/How_useful_are_presidential_debates%3F
@carlo,
Thanks for sharing this one.
It is clearly seen that there are a lot of anomalies in our government that prevent the rest of the common people from accessing the support and finance that they need.
We have the resources, we have the talents but why the poverty mindset is still prevailing? It is because some of the people in our government would love to have dependent and so-called poor people as his vote pool. So that in every elections, sila at sila na lang ang iboboto.
Take the education system. In theory it should receive priority in budgetary allocation. Yet despite this Constitutional prescription, we get substandard schools, barely legible and grossly incorrect books, incoherent teachers (some, not all, but the some are enough to declare a state of calamity for this).
But we know that legislators like it that the teeming masses are ignorant and uneducated. keeping them this way ensures a victory on the polls for the trapo who cultivate a mendicancy attitude. Kind of like Mike Defensor is doing. Haha.
May point ka kanto gurl. Its because ignorant people are easy to manipulate. They are easily deceived than the critical thinking and intellectual ones.
Education should receive the biggest allocation and must oversee proper allocation. Education should bring potentials development to the people. Education should empower the people in order to harness the power of our human capital.
For everybody’s info, Villar’s family beginnings (that is, with parents and siblings) is not dirt poor like what he’s trying to portray. His dad was a doctor of medicine and his mom has a store. Si Manny ang panganay na lalaki (may ate siya) so siya ang malakas na tumulong sa Nanay niya na magbuhat ng tinitinda sa kanilang puwesto. Malakas ang kanilang store. His life growing up is more of a middle class in the better side of Tondo.
Di rin mabenta sa akin ang sinasabi ni Villar na siya daw e mahirap. No offense meant sa mga maka-Villar dyan sa tabi-tabi.