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INTRODUCTION :
One of the major problems that continue to plaque the Philippines is poverty.
Despite the said efforts of both government and business firms many Filipinos
remain in need. It is not a simple problem because now days we are facing mass
poverty. For all the magnificent testimonies to mans superior skill and intellect in
producing todays level of cultural development, he still has to find the solution to
mass poverty. Whether the government would admit it or not, it is very clear even
with our bare eyes that we our suffering a lot from poverty.
But what is poverty anyway?
Let first define poverty so we can have a clear understanding with what are
we going to discuss. From a Webster dictionary, poverty means lack of money or
material possessions. While from the book of Villegas entitled Guide to Economics
for Filipinos he stated that poverty or being poor means experiencing a low quality
of life deprived of both the material and non material requirements that allow an
individual to live like a human being. According to Addison Wesley Economics by
Richard M. Hodgetts said most of people regard poverty as a condition in which
people are unable to buy the minimal amount of food, clothing and shelter that is
required for existence. Over all there are a lot of ways to define poverty, it depends
on how the person thinks or how does the person relate it to his life personal
experiences.
Lets look at three concepts of poverty: first relative poverty, second absolute
poverty and last poverty according to the perception of the people themselves.
Relative poverty pertains to those whose income or consumption share is at the
bottom 4500 or the population. Absolute poverty measures the capacity to meet
specific minimum needs. This refers to the commonly used phrase poverty lines.
And the last type measures poverty according to perceived minimum needs the
satisfaction of which would make a family consider itself as being non-poor. We
based our research more on the second and third concept.
The threshold Family income is the level of incomes that provides at least the
minimum requirements consistent with the dignity of the workers and his family as
human beings. It is above what needed for mere survival and should therefore
provide enough food, clothing, shelter, education, health and personal care, security
savings for emergencies, savings for unemployment and old age, and eventually,
something a man can call his own, a piece of property.
(In this topic we tried to cultivate the main reason or roots of poverty. We
tried to witness the undying agony of the poor. We tried to listen with their long
vulgar emotions that pulling them apart from success yet continuously pushing them
to the deepest level of poverty line. We tried to analyze the different perception of
human beings about their way of living. We tried to emphasize the causes and effect
of poverty. Less that we could do we tried to give some ways how to eliminate
poverty. What are the things we could do to neither have a better living nor somehow
eliminate poverty? But the biggest question left unanswered. Can we still eliminate
poverty? Was there a chance for survival? Most of all the huge echo that stroke us left
our hearts with pain and hope. Whos to blame with our sufferings, whichs to blame
with our unending despair? Is it the government fault? Or are we all responsible for
these shame and despair were facing?
II. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
watching a film. That was and still their opinion and perception about poverty. Let
us now flip the coin, if there were causes of poverty of course there were effects of it.
We tried to swim into the deepest effect of poverty to familys, to children, to
working men and women, to students, to government employees, to ordinary citizen
and to those people who claim the street as their hell of paradise.
Whether we like it or not, admit or not, poverty strikes in us all. Lets first
discuss the effect of the main cause, as they said it loud and clear, CORRUPTION.
*CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF POVERTY*
A. CORRUPTION:
25 % of the Annual National Budget ends up in corruption. (PS Link)
Philippines is the most corrupt in Asia (PERC, 2007)
The effect of corruption on the poor can be gauged through both its direct
impact, (example, increasing the cost of public services, lowering their quality and
often all together restricting for peoples access to such essential services as water,
health and education.) and the indirect impact (example, diverting public resources
away from social sectors and the poor, and through limiting development, growth and
poverty reduction), while this impacts negatively on most of the segment of society,
it is suggested that the poor are more vulnerable both in terms of being easy targets
for being subjected to extortion, bribery, double-standards and intimidations as well
as in terms of being hit by the negative impact of corruption, there is also countrys
overall development processes.
Corruption affects income inequality and poverty: as well as economic
efficiency corruption can also have distributional consequences. This affects income
inequality and poverty by reducing economic growth, the progressives of the tax
system, the level and effectiveness of social programs, and by perpetuating an
unequal distribution of asset ownership and unequal access to education.
B. LACK OF GOVENRMENT SUPPORT:
Government support for the public educational system has been declining and
this is manifested by the severe shortages besetting the sector. We have small and
filthy classrooms, we conquer poor education as a result we became poorer and
poorer. The government lack of support affects our daily life, we encounter poor
infrastructure, heavy traffics due to poor quality of our roads, unemployment,
spreading diseases, expensive medicines, high tuition fees, high cost of living, and
taxes.
Not only to that just last year the whole country was shocked and panicked
with the news that came to town. We had had a rice shortage, how come we
encountered that, considering that our country is blessed by abundant natural
resources; we have a good land for agriculture. But of course due to lack of
government support we cant have a better use of it. Hence that government doesnt
give enough support to our farmers for agriculture. If we give this amount to our
farmers in the form of fertilizers, insecticide, seedlings, irrigation and other support
services, they will be able to produce more than the required rice supply.
C. OVER POPULATION:
Overpopulation has numerous detrimental consequences, mainly to the
environment and to the society. Nature is finite, and therefore, can only support a
limited number of individuals. Natural resources like food, water, and even energy
are slowly running out because of the increasing consumption rate. On the other
hand, the number of garbage people are producing is escalating, which leads to land,
air, and water pollution. The overpopulation crisis also gives way to shortage of jobs,
supplies, space.
D. LACK OF EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT
1 in 10 Filipinos has never gone to school (6.8 million) (Education Network Quick Stats,
2003)
1 in 6 Filipinos is not functionally literate (9.6 million),
4.1 million Filipinos are complete illiterate.
1 in 3 children/ youth is not attending school(11.6 million)
About half(51%) of Filipinos had Elementary Education at most
Among poor Filipinos, only about 70% can read, write and compute.
Only a little over half(54.3%) are fully literate
Among non-poor Filipinos, 45.3% have completed at least basic education.
In contrast, only 14.3% have achieved this level of education among the rural poor
Filipinos.
According to IBON Foundation
One more child out of every 10 school-age children was not able to go to
school, highlighting the need for higher government spending in social services.
Figures from the Department of Education (DepEd) show that participation rate at the
elementary level, or the percentage of children aged 7-12 who are enrolled in public
and private elementary schools, has fallen from 96.95% in SY 1999-2000 to 83.22%
in SY 2006-2007. At the secondary level, only 58.59% of children aged 13-16 were
enrolled in high schools in SY 2006-2007 from 65.43% in SY 1999-2000. Copy from
Census-based projections, the net participation rate of education in elementary was
83.22% as of school year 2006-2007.
E. UNEMPLOYMENT:
When a responsible father cant give his familys basic needs he come across
self destruction and he feel dump. The effect of unemployment is not only seen in
the hopeless face of the jobless but also to the way of living of his children.
Joblessness is certain to increase this year and in 2009 and add to the 4.1
million unemployed estimated to include the jobless statistically removed from the
labor force to lower officially reported figures and 6.8 million underemployed as of
2007. IBON feature
F. LACK OF INVESTMENT:
The effect of lack of investment is clear and seen to our economic crisis.
Since the reputation of our country is more likely unenviable to investors we lack the
income for our economic growth. Investors have a doubt in investing their businesses
in our country and relying to our governments ability to support them with their
transactions. As a result we now have a huge number of Filipinos with no jobs or
income.
H. CHILD LABOR
It is the children that suffer most from poverty. Everyday we see a huge
number of children wandering the dangerous street of Manila selling cigarettes,
candies, rags, or even wiping your shoes when you ride in on a jeepney then asking
for alms. It is very crucial and heart breaking to witness. Yet sometimes we ignore in
result they suffer a lot more.
Every child has the right to the most basic of necessities in life like a healthy
environment, formal education, and most importantly, a loving family to come home
to. Yet, poverty hinders the child to any of these things and forces labor in farming
fields, mining shafts and peddling in the busy and dangerous streets of the country.
The child has the right to be protected from work that threatens his or her health,
education or development. The State shall set minimum ages for employment and
regulate working conditions.
I. CRIME:
In everyday life we wont last a day without even single news about crime. It
seems like our country is known in such remorseless situation. Around the busy
metro manila, we come to hear it every minute, someone had snatched her bag,
someone took her wallet or someone just died because of hold up. When a culprit is
being caught by the authorities the only reason that blurts out to his mouth why he
has done such crime is because of poverty. He was desperate enough for him to
commit such crime or to kill. Then whos to blame?
circumstances we can also see those children trying to sell cigarettes or wipe our feet
when we ride on in a public transportation, the family that sleep in the street, the
victims of poverty that became a master in street eventually end up dead in their own
existence.
But why are we experiencing lack of financial assistance and lack of material
or basic needs? For us it is like a cycle it first started in corruption where in it affects
our basic needs in life. It kills our rights and chances of better living. It pulls us away
from our dream. Corruption has a huge impact on the poor and on poverty reduction.
It processes has now been reasonably widely discussed. So, in addition to the
negative impact of corruption, there is also an element of disproportional. A lot of
people are now saying that its hard for them to survive a day and they all blame it to the
government. At present our government is facing a lot of anomalies and controversies and
because of this the people especially those who are experiencing poverty right now are
saying that Philippines wont solve its problem as long as the corrupt officials remain seated
on their position.
There are several causes of poverty, some of these are lack of education, corruption,
depletion of natural resources, population growth, lack of job opportunities, lack of
government support, lack of investment, laziness of the citizens and lack of discipline and
many other reason .and inequality.
The general recession and the contraction in the labor market in the crisis of today
world causes declining labor productivity and rising underemployment, which hurt the poor
hard. Poverty can also be observed in terms of malnutrition, lack of education, low life
expectancy, high child mortality and substandard housing. Poverty is highly correlated with
landlessness .Most of the destitute mix many different ways of earning a living.
The use of the term minimum highlights the limitations of the government
definition of poverty. The government considers only minimum survival standards to
measure poverty, thus capturing only those who are desperately poor and cannot meet
even their most basic needs. But those individuals and families who fail to meet
decent living standards should also be considered poor. For example, a family with
one or two minimum wage earners whose income fail to meet their needs are also
poor, even if their income is above governments poverty line.
In the Philippines, the range of the number of families living in poverty has been
widening and the entire range itself has been increasing. Being poor means experiencing a
low quality of life deprived of both the material and non material requirement that allow an
individual to live like a human being.
VI. SUGGESTION:
For our own sake how can we help our country get out poverty to makes our
life a little brighter to live?
There is a certain process in which poor people remain poor in society. The
unfortunate continues to run in the rat cage of poverty unless a revolution is done to
break the cycle. Its tragic how the wealth of this world is so unevenly divided and
then how people can go on living each day in their own selfish, abundant riches and
take so many things for granted. But despite of that, people who have nothing at all
are still so happy; they continue to just praise the Lord for life itself and continue to
pour their hearts out, give all they have and more for the glory of God. This is the
attitude we need to have.
Children are meant to be nurtured and loved but we see them with a stack of
newspapers on one hand and packs of cigarettes on the other. Article 32 of Rights of
a Human Child RA7658 (Prohibition of Employment of Children) should be more
properly implemented in our country. To stop this injustice dealt out to our children,
existing laws should be followed with strict implementation and dedicated
commitment. Let us not allow the future of these children, the future of our country
to wither and die away. Our country, our society, each person can do something. Our
help might not end child-labor today, but it could start, with Gods grace, a healing
force which will renew our ailing society tomorrow.
One thing more important factor for subsidizing poverty is the reformation of
our countrys financial infrastructure. By developing our infrastructure and utilities,
the government should offer a multiple job opportunities for the jobless Filipinos and
will afford them ample income to fund their basic needs without enough sayings to
both. And if the government can successfully provide opportunities, it would be more
helpful in subsidizing poverty if those theyre going to hire took re-orientation and
re-education for them to improve their ability and quality as public servants as
assurance for their effective contribution in taking a lift of our countrys situation.
Philippines should need to upgrade its business climate to allure foreign
investors in investing in our homeland. The government should improve political
stability, overcome corruption and uplift the level of governance to make the country
attractive to its investors.
The problem of overpopulation must therefore, be addressed urgently. The
government should provide information about birth control methods and about the
damaging effects of overpopulation, especially to those in the lower class area of
society. Family planning might be contrary to the stand of the Catholic Church, but
the Church should be separated from the state. Like the Church, the government also
should make citizens aware of their stand regarding birth control. The public should
have enough information regarding the stands of both sides, and who they decide to
follow is already up to them.
The effects of the economic downturn must be countered by stimulating the economy
through expansionary and, importantly, equity-building policies. This includes:
1.
Providing immediate emergency food, income and work relief.
2.
Increasing public spending on health care, basic education and housing for the
people and restoring real per capita social services spending to at least 1997 levels.
3.
Increasing public spending on labor-intensive and rural infrastructure projects
that will directly improve people's livelihoods.
4.
Public resources can be freed by:
Suspending debt payments. This can begin with, but not be restricted to, debt to
foreign creditors receiving bail-outs from their governments.
TO:
PROF. REMEDIOS ONG