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Opinion:- Poverty! what the hell do you know about it?
A Babel Fish Opinion
Poverty is talked about in the news media, forums and social communities, its causes are many fold, drought, war, over population, a lack of education, corruption and unemployment being the main factors. Most countries that suffer poverty are governed by an elite, rich class. In communist states original the rich elite gave the excuse for communist take over with poverty being the fires of a required change of leadership based on socialism and community reform.
I have seen many arguments that over and increasing population does not cause poverty to expand. The Catholic Church backup this theory, the fact is that much of the third world relates to the wishes of the Vatican. World poverty is not just a religious related problem it’s mainly related to the seemingly non caring attitude of the rich elite. Keep the status quo could possibly be their motto. In the Philippines.
Its seems logic that a poverty stricken family with 8 or 9 children finds it harder to live on low income, than a family with 2 or 3 children. Also the cost of sending 8 or 9 children to school to receive an education is above the means of a very low wage and income. This normally means that only 1 or 2 children if any can achieve high school graduation, the rest of the brood may achieve elementary school graduation.
The lowest educated in a poverty ridden society, have no chance of creeping out of poverty as they are mostly un-employable and find the need to scavenge a living for the rest of their lives, many end up begging on the streets some will revert to a life of crime.
Those that do receive a complete high school education have a hard time finding a good job as the rich elite family’s broods are at the top of the ladder they achieve higher education levels and of course take all the best career positions. Of course some of those that find a mundane (sales clerk, driver, home help, etc) job save and go to college and maybe university. Those that succeed to learn to speak good English have the best chance.
Normally only the high school graduates become the cheap labor in factories or call centers. The poor families rely on money sent back to them from the children that achieve obtaining work. Their hope is to get at least 2 children through high school sometimes they are lucky. 6% hold most of the money here in the Philippines. They also own most of the land, there have been agriculture reforms and small farm allocations, but it does nothing to relieve the problem.
Many poor people live on the coast and earn money from fishing but the seas have been over fished and the prices of fish are rising. Fuel cost have gone up this has also effected the price of food. It’s getting worst as the population increases. Food prices going up, more unemployment with simply less jobs for the next generation.
The Catholic Church blocking family planning the population is growing within the poverty ridden society. Poverty is defiantly on the increase. However our cousins in Africa have much more of a problem with increasing poverty, this factor puts tears in my eyes. Where as when I lived in Europe with a cushy job a nice house, where as I was always complaining about struggling to make ends meet. I now know millions of good people have far more problems than I ever had.
My Filipino partner use to sleep in a wooden hut as a child on the floor. She knows what hunger and hardship is all about, but her poor farming family succeeded in getting her through elementary school and she worked and earned the money to put herself through high school, such a great achievement of which puts tears in my eyes as well when I think of it.
Summary
I now live amongst this poverty, yes I have a nice house, but as soon as I get off this large estate, I see the poverty and the hardship these people go through. Tonight whilst you sleep in your nice soft bed, please think of the millions living in shacks, mud huts in appalling conditions they will be sleeping on the floor, many will be suffering the pangs of hunger.
Crowd Power
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jayr_patron
ParaƱaque, Metro Manila, Philippines -
Babel-Fish
Negros Oriental, Philippines -
Badong
Manila, Philippines













Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (6)
at 20:23 on April 7th, 2008
These people here still smile and joke when they are hungry, they share their food with those that are worst off
at 20:33 on April 7th, 2008
Hi, per NP conventions, could you please add "Opinion" to either the headline or just before the body of your piece, and to the tags as well? We try to differentiate between opinion and the reporting of news. Thanks in advance!
at 20:47 on April 7th, 2008
No problem Pep, sorry for not knowing that I have not been publishing much on nowpublic and I now need to read the code of conduct again.
I noted that I have hit a software glitch some how my pictures from my first publish article have tagged themself to this article. Perhaps when I do the amendment as suggested the problem will sort it self out
best wishes
Bob
at 20:56 on April 7th, 2008
Hey, that's what editors are for--to be helpful (hopefully)!
Check out the Newsroom for the J-tips section and "what makes news news." This really isn't a User Agreement of "Code of Conduct" type thing (flaming would be, and if you haven't visited in awhile you might want to read the Flaming Policy, available in the Forum).
Until the site was re-formatted recently, we had categories for Opinon (as well as Press Releases, and some others). Now it's more streamlined, but to make sure that we let readers know when something is primarily news or primarily opinion, we just add Opinion in as I suggested. Kind of like newspapers that have "editorial" or "letters to the editor" sections, clearly marked, except of course we don't have "sections" to flip through on the table.
Ahhh, the sticky photos thing. I had that happen once--I had a photo of some mechanical equipment follow me from story to story. You might try deleting the photos, and hopefully then they'll go away. Then you can go back in and add the photos to the right story. If that doesn't work, leave a note in the Forums; they're good about checking bug reports.
at 21:54 on April 7th, 2008
Thanks I found out how to get rid of the sticky pictures by using the moderate option and delete the pictures from the story. Then up loading fresh pictures.
at 14:56 on April 8th, 2008
I am sure Pep's okay, I like to keep within the guidelines of any community I publish articles in and her kind remarks where very useful.
Thanks for you kind remarks Ray, of course I will be writing more stories about the poverty I see all around me. Also about the wonderful people I meet here in South east Asia.