Poverty: A Social Menace

Green pastures, pristine land forms, crystal-clear watered beaches and all the best that nature has to offer—these are the graces that our country, the Philippines, is blessed with. With the harmonious existence of our floras and faunas, our land is indeed gifted with marvelous abundance of natural resources. However, behind these natural riches that we flaunt to other countries lay a dreadful and shocking reality. A reality so horrendous that one might fall in despair should it make itself known to one.

A paradox, that is what the Philippines can be considered as. A country with vast riches yet fails to manifest through the citizen’s state and ways of living. From the picturesque sceneries that I have put to life in your mind, let me take your imaginations to the deadly streets of the cities, a place which some see as dangerous and full of rubbish. But for others, it is considered to be a source of living, a way of life; and to some, it may even be a home.

With its long existence in our society, poverty is slowly triumphing over our people. Poverty seems to be the new face of the Philippines.

For quite a long time now, it has been the country’s gravest predicament that it is trying to resolve and eradicate. As according to the statistics provided by the National Census and Statistics Office, 6 out of 10 Filipinos are poor. This only shows that poverty is slowly but surely creeping in our countrymen’s basket of problems—it is slowly engulfing our society. There’s proof of it everywhere we look. From the scenes posed to us on the streets, to the unemployed people that we know, to talks of poverty on radios, all the more on televisions.

This social menace, serves as the shovel that digs the hole of deeper problem and the hands that pushes our citizens into an endless pit of quandaries. However, no matter how big this problem is, we have done nothing serious, as citizens; to once and for all obliterate this image of ‘national downfall’. All we have done was complain about our situations, complain about the government’s inability to solve the problem and do nothing, practically nothing about it.

This is one thing that we need to clarify amongst ourselves when we bring out the talk of poverty. Yes, we are getting poor, we all know that. But the gut-punching question is, ‘Are we doing our part to take ourselves out of this situation?’

Do not get me wrong for I do not want to be labeled as one of those administration worshipers. All I want to point out is that, this country doesn’t only depend among our leaders but also to their followers, that would be us.

As a teenager who used to have a narrow view of my own country, I used to base my points of view on what is conveyed by the media. However, being exposed to the bigger world that I now live in; I have learned a lot about the ways of Philippine society.

One of our discussions in my Political Science 1 class really had my attention glued on it. The discussion talked about poverty, its roots and causes and how it can be effectively erased in our ‘country’s record book’. This discussion indeed allowed rays of enlightenment to influence my previously prejudicial way of thinking.

Being the government antagonist that I am, I used to blame most of the problems to the government, including poverty. However, this perception has been changed when I have been served with facts concerning our countrymen’s involvement in the stagnation of our country’s state of poverty.

It always takes two to tango, as they say. And this is very apt to the situation of the poor people of our land. Yes, it’s easy to say corruption and all the other negative attributes that the government has on its reputation is the main cause of poverty. Actually, it is the spark that ignites the perilous flames of this cultural nuisance. Because of the unequal distribution of wealth, resources and opportunities among the citizens of our country, many become unemployed while others become under-employed. The vicious cycle of poverty starts at this point.

It is undeniable that the government plays a big part of initially putting our countrymen below the line that separates poor from the rich. However, it seems as though, that if one gets his foot on the ‘poverty quicksand’, he just stands there and wait until somebody pulls him out (he doesn’t help himself at all), then later on complain that he is almost drowning in the ‘pit of poverty’.

The problem among us Filipinos, as what I’ve learned and realized, is that we are very self-centered and individualistic as citizens. We always complain about our current state as a struggling and poor citizen about the rights that are denied to us by the government. However, this is all we do. Complain, complain and complain. We always see others’ short comings but we never really asked what we have done to help better our own situations and we never really asked if we are doing our duties as citizens to our country. This egotistical attitude then leads us to what we call as ‘culture of poverty’.

Once Filipino people get the slightest stain of poverty, they immediately feel crippled by the fact that they are poor therefore making them think that there is nothing else that they can do about their situations. What’s worse is that this attitude gets passed on from generation to generation, yielding more population on the ‘below poverty line’ limit. Since they are poor, they feel marginalized by the rest of the society and this result to their hesitation to do efforts in bettering themselves or even supporting government projects that might help in uplifting their lowered positions in the society (financially speaking).

A nation is composed of a government and a citizenry that interacts and works hand-in-hand. The progress of the country does not only depend on the perfect governance (if such thing exists) of the leaders but with the people’s cooperation as well. Both the government and we have parts to fulfill in our community. Obliterating the infectious virus of poverty that has infested us is one of them. And this can only be achieved if we worked as one nation; a nation with citizens responsible enough to know their rights and duties to the country.

If the government is incapacitated by corrupt leaders, then why should we sit with our backs relaxed? Instead of complaining and babbling words, we should stand on our feet and act. Poverty indeed is a great enemy that seems to be undefeatable. But nothing is ever impossible for those who are brave enough to risk and try. It doesn’t happen in a split-second, poverty won’t be eliminated overnight. However, with high spirits, let us awaken the sleeping nationalism within each and everyone of and let us take the little steps, as one nation, towards the goal of exterminating this social menace. Tiny steps they may be, but when repeated many times, it will surely go a great distance that will lead to the achievement of not only eradicating poverty but also achieving national progress.

Raf Andrew B. Espenocilla

POSC_1-B

2008-43898