Third-world poverty means Philippines
Jagnaya National High School
THE difference between where human civilization started and where it is today is mind-boggling. Despite our experiences and great achievements, there are still a lot of problems that plague contemporary society. In order to tackle these problems, innovation is going to be needed.
Third world poverty means Philippines. Can you believe that the poverty issue raised in social science subject some twenty to thirty years back is the same poverty issue being tackled today? The agents causing poverty just keep on recurring. Here, I have searched what goes against the norm or what is expected, but are they too radical? Or could they help save the world?
Imagine, the sky-rise building that suddenly pop out in urban cities in Western Visayas. They are huge, vast, glaring and modern, but in every building is a filthy block relocated somewhere in their barong barong, and/or even worse. Would you notice if a tiny tax, cheaper than a cup of coffee, was tacked on each time you made a large luxury purchase?
For example, would you notice Php100 being taken off a vacation you spent Php 1,500 on? Most people probably would not notice or care, and while it may not be noticeable to the consumer, all of that money combined could mean billions of pesos for people living in poverty. Philippe Douste-Blazy, a French cardiologist and a special adviser to the secretary general of the UN in charge of innovative financing for development, tested this theory using a service charge on tickets for flights out of France.
The service charge was €1 (about US$1.50), and between 2006 and 2014, they made $2 billion and received no complaints about the levy.
Of course, these “invisible donations” can be used to fund a whole host of projects. Currently, Douste-
Blazy has been using the funds from the airline tickets on initiatives to fight HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria in third-world countries. He says that public health is a cornerstone of a good economic system. If people are healthy, they can go to school, get a job, and contribute to an economy, which in turn grows the country’s GDP. Douste-Blazy hopes that this type of financing could lead to greater global stabilization. More than 26 million Filipinos remain poor with almost half, or a little more than 12 million, living in extreme poverty and lacking the means to feed themselves, according to official government statistics for the first semester of 2015.
This is not to lambast the previous administration because all of them since have contributed to the unresolved and worsening Philippine poverty condition. No actions are seen to bring about radical change. Does Philippines have a chance? Critical, and most difficult, will be explaining why drastic action is necessary and will be to the benefit of all in society, particularly the poor and underprivileged. Selling its policies and reforms is something the government (all of them) has been particularly poor at. Government seems unable to bring explanations down to the level of simple people and counter the emotional arguments of the opposition (the irrational, emotional arguments against the power bill, oil prices, and debt abrogation are just 3 current examples).
The quality of life can be good in the Philippines – but only if we face up to the reality that these changes must occur. The trouble is none of them show much in the way of short-term results, which is one (by no means the only) reason they have not been tackled before. Short-term, high impact solutions will not solve the Philippines problems. Addressing these issues will. (