Death on Swift Wings
In every society and culture, transitions are always present. As well as the existence of a governing body is deemed necessary in the continuation of a society. The Philippines is not exempted to this reality. We have been a tribal people since time immemorial, with a defined heirarchy of nobles and rulers governing the tribe. There exist a set of rules and laws that made the life of early people very orderly. When a crime is committed, a punishment exists to counter that crime.
The evolution of the government in the Philippines was taught to us in our elementary and high school. However, since the conception of the democratic government in our country corruption was born with it. There have been a lot of attempts to eradicate this sickness, however changing the leaders is not enough to wipe the system clean. Since the problem is embedded in the governments structure already. Now why are we talking about this?
The Arroyo administration has been accused of a lot of corruption issues to the extent that cases were even filed in the courts. Though this was a bold move for the detractors of the current administration, the cases filed never went far. A lot of these cases were dismissed, more were diverted to other issues, many were hushed.
How about the title of this entry, what is the connection of this post to the title? Death indeed comes on swift wings to us Filipinos. Though these problems are not exclusive to us Pinoys, I think our government is not doing anything to alleviate the suffering of our people. Let me give you examples of these problems that poses a very morbid threat to us...
The first issue that could bring death to us Pinoys is hunger. Hunger affects more than 2 million people in the country, widening further the scope of the people who are not eating three times a day, or people who are not eating at all. I saw a documentary from GMA 7 called "Kalam" and there are people who are eating leftovers, spoiled food and others are eating nothing at all. There was also a part where Jiggy Manicad travelled around South East Asia, to Thailand, Vietnam and those countries that sold us rice that we eat. I was amazed to know that the leading scientists from these rice exporting countries have studied in the Philippine's own International Rice Reseach Institute (IRRI). There was a time that the Philippines was the leading exporter of Rice in Asia and furthermore the best rice scientists are Filipinos. Isn't it very painful to see countries that send their scientists here to study are using the very same knowledge we taught them and sell their rice to us?
The next issue is the extensive spending of our government. The government spends a lot of money in an unexplainable way. I even saw in one of the documentaries on tv which talkes about the expenses of Malacañan which is very up there. When I opened the newspaper this morning I saw the President graced the front page in a Piña suit worth $3000, a very expensive suit to wear during this time of crisis. It also makes me furious to see all these signs in waiting sheds, bridges and roads which says that the project is worth millions even though the actual price is a third of the officially declared.
Though the list of things that kills us is never ending like gasoline and prices of prime commodities. Probably one of the more serious thing that kills our people is also the people. The population explosion is the greatest problem the country is experiencing. This increase in population causes majority of the problems in the society; poverty, hunger, and unemployment. The average family contains five to six members and the number increase when you trace it down the social ladder. The lesser the income of the family, the more children they have. This problem increases the death of our culture and our society since majority of our problems came out of this issue.
These problems must be addressed immediately if not instantly, and when I thought of this I could actually say that this would be very difficult to solve. Especially if the people who are the source of the solution is the source of the problem in the first place.
-photos from Yahoo!
The evolution of the government in the Philippines was taught to us in our elementary and high school. However, since the conception of the democratic government in our country corruption was born with it. There have been a lot of attempts to eradicate this sickness, however changing the leaders is not enough to wipe the system clean. Since the problem is embedded in the governments structure already. Now why are we talking about this?
The Arroyo administration has been accused of a lot of corruption issues to the extent that cases were even filed in the courts. Though this was a bold move for the detractors of the current administration, the cases filed never went far. A lot of these cases were dismissed, more were diverted to other issues, many were hushed.
How about the title of this entry, what is the connection of this post to the title? Death indeed comes on swift wings to us Filipinos. Though these problems are not exclusive to us Pinoys, I think our government is not doing anything to alleviate the suffering of our people. Let me give you examples of these problems that poses a very morbid threat to us...
The first issue that could bring death to us Pinoys is hunger. Hunger affects more than 2 million people in the country, widening further the scope of the people who are not eating three times a day, or people who are not eating at all. I saw a documentary from GMA 7 called "Kalam" and there are people who are eating leftovers, spoiled food and others are eating nothing at all. There was also a part where Jiggy Manicad travelled around South East Asia, to Thailand, Vietnam and those countries that sold us rice that we eat. I was amazed to know that the leading scientists from these rice exporting countries have studied in the Philippine's own International Rice Reseach Institute (IRRI). There was a time that the Philippines was the leading exporter of Rice in Asia and furthermore the best rice scientists are Filipinos. Isn't it very painful to see countries that send their scientists here to study are using the very same knowledge we taught them and sell their rice to us?The next issue is the extensive spending of our government. The government spends a lot of money in an unexplainable way. I even saw in one of the documentaries on tv which talkes about the expenses of Malacañan which is very up there. When I opened the newspaper this morning I saw the President graced the front page in a Piña suit worth $3000, a very expensive suit to wear during this time of crisis. It also makes me furious to see all these signs in waiting sheds, bridges and roads which says that the project is worth millions even though the actual price is a third of the officially declared.
Though the list of things that kills us is never ending like gasoline and prices of prime commodities. Probably one of the more serious thing that kills our people is also the people. The population explosion is the greatest problem the country is experiencing. This increase in population causes majority of the problems in the society; poverty, hunger, and unemployment. The average family contains five to six members and the number increase when you trace it down the social ladder. The lesser the income of the family, the more children they have. This problem increases the death of our culture and our society since majority of our problems came out of this issue.These problems must be addressed immediately if not instantly, and when I thought of this I could actually say that this would be very difficult to solve. Especially if the people who are the source of the solution is the source of the problem in the first place.
-photos from Yahoo!
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