For as long as our racial memories allow— our people have been fighting poverty. I’m annoyed. I’m peeved. I’m sick to death with all the negative, hopelessness permeating in the air. I get it that it is so damn hard to see past misery, it breaks your heart seeing a kid kill herself because she has lost hope. I see where people are coming from, looking at the leaves and not the forest. People have been asking and not for the first time nor the last, why hasn’t there been a trickle down effect? The rich are partying and the poor are still poor. And as Jon (who I totally agree with in his post) has put it correctly: the blame game continues.

We blame government and in this case, some people blame Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Now don’t get me wrong, we can blame her for a lot of things— but poverty and hopelessness wasn’t invented by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. If she wasn’t in power, we’d be blaming who was. It was Erap when he was President and we kicked him out for all those illegal gambling activities in that farce we created, remember? It was Ramos when he reigned. It was Cory when she was in charge and it was Marcoss when he ruled. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe they’re innocent because they and, generations of our leaders have some blame, some blood on their hands— but they’re not entirely to blame, not even half the reason.

How easy it is to wear a T-Shirt with the words, “get rid of poverty” or “President whomever sucks!” How is that any different when Jeep drivers call for fare rate hikes but never downgrades when fall. Why shouldn’t that market be deregulated?

For generations we Filipinos have been picketing on some issue, continuously blaming who’s in charge. We carry slogans and have them printed out, splashed across T-Shirts, newspaper ads, the Internet or whatever canvas they could find.

Grant Morrison started his run on Batman with an arc called “Batman & Son”. Batman in his public persona, “Bruce Wayne”, was in London at a high society function. He meets Jezebel Jet, fashion model turned leader of a small African Nation. Here’s a snippet:

BRUCE WAYNE: Tell me more about how a fashion model ended up running a small nation..

JEZEBEL JET: …I’m here to show everyone that Africa is more than just this year’s fashionable cause. It’s easy to wear a t-shirt that says “make poverty history”, until it fades in the wash.

BRUCE WAYNE: I’m all for it. And while we’re at it, let’s make wealth compulsory. It would solve so many of the world’s problems if everyone were a millionaire, don’t you think?

You didn’t think Batman has such a sense of humor, did you?

Speaking of fortunes, The Wall Street Journal has a post saying “Bernanke is Fighting the Last War“. It is a good read. Thought provoking:

“systemic risk” — the notion that allowing one firm to fail will cause a cascade that will take down otherwise healthy companies in its wake.

Ms. Schwartz doesn’t buy it. “It’s very easy when you’re a market participant,” she notes with a smile, “to claim that you shouldn’t shut down a firm that’s in really bad straits because everybody else who has lent to it will be injured. Well, if they lent to a firm that they knew was pretty rocky, that’s their responsibility. And if they have to be denied repayment of their loans, well, they wished it on themselves. The [government] doesn’t have to save them, just as it didn’t save the stockholders and the employees of Bear Stearns. Why should they be worried about the creditors? Creditors are no more worthy of being rescued than ordinary people, who are really innocent of what’s been going on.”

It takes real guts to let a large, powerful institution go down. But the alternative — the current credit freeze — is worse, Ms. Schwartz argues.

“I think if you have some principles and know what you’re doing, the market responds. They see that you have some structure to your actions, that it isn’t just ad hoc — you’ll do this today but you’ll do something different tomorrow. And the market respects people in supervisory positions who seem to be on top of what’s going on. So I think if you’re tough about firms that have invested unwisely, the market won’t blame you. They’ll say, ‘Well, yeah, it’s your fault. You did this. Nobody else told you to do it. Why should we be saving you at this point if you’re stuck with assets you can’t sell and liabilities you can’t pay off?’” But when the authorities finally got around to letting Lehman Brothers fail, it had saved so many others already that the markets didn’t know how to react. Instead of looking principled, the authorities looked erratic and inconstant.

Erratic and inconstant. hmm. Did you think those were just Filipino characteristics? heh. That and other things.

We’re all human after all. It is darn near impossible to change what others think or how they go about their thinking. On Helplessness i posted a comment:

Several years ago, i got a chance to peak at PGH’s numbers. i don’t know how they do it now, but back then they do charge for patients, if only minimally.

There are far too many people who are sick and even at minimal cost— maintenance and equipment can be overcome.

PGH i think is a reflection of how things are. Just like the state of EDSA is a mirror to the Filipino’s soul. There are many things wrong with PGH that can easily be solved. Its problems aren’t as huge as one might think. It suffers from the same disease as any government run agency is.

i humbly submit that PGH isn’t equal to health care, but it is an important aspect of delivering service. That’s not to say there isn’t a challenge in delivering health care in the Philippines, just as there is around the world.

but that’s not the point.

I see where MLQ3 is coming from.

Our nation stands a captive of our apathy and a prisoner of incapacity. Lulled by good intensions and seduced by rhetoric, we’ve permitted our national life to be gamed by politicians.

In this darkness, our Apathy stems from.

We’ve lost faith and that apathy born of broken trust, from young and old, powerful and small– every Filipino, arrogant and greedy, is all for himself now.

It is a universe where heroes are ruined. They fall from grace.

There is no common cause, only anger and fear. There is no one willing to make our world strong and free, to overcome challenges that threaten to overwhelm us. There are no heroes, only the blame game. Always with us what can not be done.

It is the disease of incapacity.

Many quarters are still holding on to hope that this Republic can somehow overcome these challenges. The slate of 2010 is shaping out to be merely the same old game: uninspiring, not surprising. Simply put: old, tired. ancient. Perhaps it is time to consider more vigorously that we must already write this Republic’s epitaph because it would be easier to start anew.

The Future does not wait for the Filipino.

The Frontier ahead of us is a world of profound transformation. It is filled with unknown peril and yet equally, opportunity.

Can you not see it?

Without doubt any future Republic will be born in the same universe we buried the dead one. It would be a universe of undefeated poverty, of unchallenged ignorance, of powerful prejudice and unequal surplus. It is understandable to shrink from that daunting task. Understandable but should be unacceptable.

Are we equal to the challenge?

Can our people draw upon courage that flows naturally in the Filipino? We require vigorous leadership. We require invention, innovation, imagination and most importantly— decision in our politics, in our economy, in education, in health care, in our pursuit of science. I would like to write, “abangan” (trans: wait for it).

I fear the truth is far more bitter. It is a deep “no,” for a Republic that is the land of the dead, the incapacitated where there is no hope at all.

mlq3 is correct.

youth has a right to be arrogant because it inspires innovation. elders have a right to put the uppity in their place but in the end, time takes its toll and todays elders will be replaced by today’s youth -who will be criticized in turn by today’s babies.

My generation fails to see that if we do not hold on fast to our politics. If we refuse to engage our elders with blatant rebellion— rebellion the kind of running for public office. Of challenging the status quo. Of raising the bar of expectation for everyone— not just those in government. We will join generations before us lamenting.

The bitter pill is that it may be the sins of our Fathers, but it is our children’s country. Every generation has its challenges. The bitter pill is that we maybe unwilling and unable to take it, conquer it. And our children shall inherit a nation similar to the one that we entered. That says something about us than it does the generation we critique.

The challenge of why institutions like PGH is the way it is because of the way we structure our assets. Simplistic I know. But a detailed break down would take an entire book that no one would read.

People still read right? Or do our kids simply watch Television?

In Look Ma! Giant Fries! Marck wrote:

Maybe because we have no choice but to content ourselves with the French fries of our society: that we can’t do anything about the poor, that the President deserves her spot because of the rule of law, that we shouldn’t save the poor, that if a free society cannot help the many who are poor then it cannot save the few who are rich…

Many lives have been transformed by the wealth being generated by Filipinos working abroad. It is the refuge of a population where we find so few jobs in country that greater opportunities exist elsewhere. We’re not the only country in the freaking planet to find greener pastures elsewhere. There is no disputing that the lifeblood of this country has been Filipinos living abroad.

Many have looked at the state of the country’s economy for years, and we’ve been drowning in explanation and analysis that hasn’t really changed much has it? Our people are still wondering, why the common public consensus is the hopelessness we breathe in day in and day out.

Have we paused and stopped and thought that instead of wearing black and white and yelling and blaming others— for things we can not change that perhaps, we ought to focus on the things that we can? Yes, standing up against a government that often abuse its power is well and good. Those things are important but that’s not all we need to accomplish and more importantly, can accomplish.

Run for public office! Or build businesses! Create! No matter how seemingly insignificant: they also serve those who stand and wait.

Those of us that do have a bit more, isn’t it our responsibility to grow that wealth? Isn’t it our responsibility to put that work to good use, by building businesses, creating jobs and thus employing people? Didn’t we learn in Religion class or in theology class or in Church that teaching someone to fish is much better than fishing for them?

Poverty is everywhere. It lives in the land of the free. It is living in first world countries and it thrives in countries that are developing. To fight poverty you don’t even have to be an entrepreneur, you don’t need slogans and T-Shirts or to go blame government why there isn’t any tickle down effect.

On What Gross National Product Measures, I wrote this:

This pursuit of material wealth does not include the beauty of our poetry, the depth of our music, the strength of our marriages and the enduring force that is the Filipino family. This GNP does not imbue intelligence in our public discourse nor raise the integrity of our public officials. Neither does Gross National Product measure the deafness of our middle-class and theologians to the fundamental gospel that incapacity is the greater evil gripping our nation, more than our outrage about the true nature of our public officials. Nor does it measure the blindness of our leadership to see beyond their petty concerns and see what our people truly need.

This statistic does not by any standard tell us how mute and hopeless and incapacitated the poor really are.

Gross National Product can not fully quantify the perseverance and level of sacrifice of the Filipino diaspora. It can never weigh the joys of our children at simple play, at simple pleasure. It does not measure our wit, our laugh, our people’s beautiful smile, nor the depth of our religious devotion and The Filipino’s courage that is God’s gift to our people.

Our Gross National Product measures everything in short except that which make life worth while. And it can tell us everything about Our Nation except why we ought to be proud of being Filipino.

Many employ drivers, or maids— that spreads wealth. Some even go far as to help educate their house-help, or the children of their house-help to give those people a change at a better life down the road. Ordinary Filipinos day in and day out help their relatives get on their foot— some provide for the education or give jobs to their relatives. We’re not entirely powerless to fight poverty or to help in the struggle against it. It is the right thing to do, work, grow the wealth, share the wealth: the glass is half-full, not half-empty.

this post is an update of, and borrows heavily from my Poverty: The Glass is Half-Full, Not Half-Empty

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