The other face of Philippines

Renji · Apr 14, 2009

My Country is famous when it comes to beaches, tourist destinations, medical tourism and being hospitable. But, this video shows the real face of my country.

Note: I'm not the director of this clip..

YouTube - Batingaw (The Bell)

Kungfuzed · Apr 14, 2009

I've been to the Philippines. I love the country and the food and culture, but I've never seen such poverty.

Renji · Apr 14, 2009

Kungfuzed said:
I've been to the Philippines. I love the country and the food and culture, but I've never seen such poverty.

Yes, we do have a lovely culture and delicious food(yum!).

I think our government is so good in hiding our country's poverty.

Kungfuzed · Apr 14, 2009

I didn't visit the garbage dumps, but I did see alot of people living on the street and rows of makeshift dwellings on the sidewalk. I couldn't go anywhere without being solicited by children for change. I wanted to help but there were so many. They opened my eyes to how good my life really is.

cardero · Apr 14, 2009

The other face of Philippines

*waits for mrscardero to come home to view the video*

mrscardero · Apr 14, 2009

Lawrence said:
My Country is famous when it comes to beaches, tourist destinations, medical tourism and being hospitable. But, this video shows the real face of my country.

Note: I'm not the director of this clip..

YouTube - Batingaw (The Bell)

I've never been to the famous beaches, tourist destinations, don't know what medical tourism is or have noticed any hospitality from anyone. The video is true. I've lived there. Even though I was young at the time, I don't miss it at all. But I still remember the rotten smell, filth, heat, hunger, etc. Watching the video brings back memories. I miss my family but I don't miss the life we had. I remember at the age of 7 pushing a wooden cart to collect bottles, cans, and newspapers to sell for chunk change. Just enough to pay for a bag of rice to share with 9 adults and 11 children. People did anything for money just to survive. Kids did anything just to survive. That was the life and some are still living it. I am fortunate that I no longer have that life. That's why I treasure everything that I have.

Comicaze247 · Apr 15, 2009

Fellow pinoy (Filipino) here

Yeah, most of the outside world focuses on the natural beauty of the Philippines, and the scenery is quite beautiful. From the lush green rainforest mountains of the Quezon province to the white-sand beaches of Boracay.

But many people don't know how much people suffer down there. How poor the people are. (The corrupt government doesn't help).

My mom was one child of nine. Her family was so poor that they could only afford one small fish for dinner for eleven of them. A fish the size of what we in first world countries view as part of an entree.
But my uncle, being the joker he is, lightened the mood. He took a flashlight, held up the fish, and shined the flashlight on everyone's plates. "That's everyone's share." he said.

I think that in order to truly enjoy life, one has to make fun of themselves. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

Valjean · Apr 15, 2009

It's so glaringly obvious that when you cram more people into a region than the economy &/or ecosystem will support you're going to get poverty and misery. The underlying problem is population, and, as far as I'm aware, nothing's being done about it.

Kungfuzed · Apr 15, 2009

The population is a big problem, but I thought the main cause of their poverty is a corrupt government. That's what most pinoys tell me anyway. Didn't it start with Ferdinand Marcos?

gnomon · Apr 15, 2009

Lawrence said:
My Country is famous when it comes to beaches, tourist destinations, medical tourism and being hospitable. But, this video shows the real face of my country.

Note: I'm not the director of this clip..

YouTube - Batingaw (The Bell)

Thank you for sharing this.

It reminded me of the situation I've heard of in the West Indies as well. Famous tourist attractions on the beach and beyond the barrier of trees there is poverty.

I watched an independent film called Cavite not too long ago about a Filipino-American and the Abu-Sayyaf. While the story centered around a group that kidnapped family members to force the main character to engage in an act of terrorism the director focused much of the film on the poverty.

cardero · Apr 15, 2009

gnomon said:
Thank you for sharing this.

It reminded me of the situation I've heard of in the West Indies as well. Famous tourist attractions on the beach and beyond the barrier of trees there is poverty.

I watched an independent film called Cavite not too long ago about a Filipino-American and the Abu-Sayyaf. While the story centered around a group that kidnapped family members to force the main character to engage in an act of terrorism the director focused much of the film on the poverty.

I watched that film as well. I can't remember who recommended it to me but there was a focus on the impoverished parts of the Philippines as well as interesting details of their culture.

gnomon · Apr 15, 2009

cardero said:
I watched that film as well. I can't remember who recommended it to me but there was a focus on the impoverished parts of the Philippines as well as interesting details of their culture.

The short film presented in the OP reminded of stories I've read of the slums of Mumbai. Within Mumbai there are people who have built there livelihood around recycling the waste and even some recent news stories of these same people not wanting the governments efforts to move them out of the slums into projects. The reason being that if they were moved from their homes, to make way for development of expensive hotels and the like, they will lose their jobs and what livelihood they have managed to create for themselves.

Most of us in the U.S. could not imagine such.

What struck me about Cavite was the comparison of a Filipino-American coming home and his disconnect from his home culture. I never heard of the Abu-Sayyaf before and I'm somewhat reticent to use the term terrorism because I don't know anything about the political nature of the Phillipines.

Valjean · Apr 15, 2009

Kungfuzed said:
The population is a big problem, but I thought the main cause of their poverty is a corrupt government. That's what most pinoys tell me anyway. Didn't it start with Ferdinand Marcos?

Alas, even the best government can't squeeze blood from a stone. A region only has a certain physical carrying capacity. You can't extract more from it than it produces. If people breed beyond that capacity poverty and environmental degradation must needs result.

I maintain that the struggle for resources is the penultimate cause of almost all mankind's woes. The ultimate cause being the overpopulation that necessitates a "struggle" to begin with.

Renji · Apr 17, 2009

mrscardero said:
I've never been to the famous beaches, tourist destinations, don't know what medical tourism is or have noticed any hospitality from anyone. The video is true. I've lived there. Even though I was young at the time, I don't miss it at all. But I still remember the rotten smell, filth, heat, hunger, etc. Watching the video brings back memories. I miss my family but I don't miss the life we had. I remember at the age of 7 pushing a wooden cart to collect bottles, cans, and newspapers to sell for chunk change. Just enough to pay for a bag of rice to share with 9 adults and 11 children. People did anything for money just to survive. Kids did anything just to survive. That was the life and some are still living it. I am fortunate that I no longer have that life. That's why I treasure everything that I have.

We're not that rich or that poor but I remember what my mom said when I was 5. She said that I should treasure everything that I have because I'm lucky enough to eat more than 3 times a day unlike other people who can't. So what I did is I give importance to every little thing that other people esp. my parents give me (whether it's material or not).

Renji · Apr 17, 2009

Kungfuzed said:
I didn't visit the garbage dumps, but I did see alot of people living on the street and rows of makeshift dwellings on the sidewalk. I couldn't go anywhere without being solicited by children for change. I wanted to help but there were so many. They opened my eyes to how good my life really is.

Yes, there are a lot of people here (even in the cities) living on streets and is doing all the best that they can just to survive their living.

Renji · Apr 17, 2009

Seyorni said:
It's so glaringly obvious that when you cram more people into a region than the economy &/or ecosystem will support you're going to get poverty and misery. The underlying problem is population, and, as far as I'm aware, nothing's being done about it.

Well, you may be right but, Philippines, although not that big country is not yet overpopulated. In fact China ( a smaller country than the Philippines) has greater population than our country. The problem here is the lack of opportunity for those people to have a job and the factors that might caused that are: 1) economic crisis- our country also depends on US, so we are affected by that crisis. Many lost their job because of recession. 2) Some people on our country don't have a good educational attainment- Some jobs here require to have at least a degree on college (and much better if you finished college) and the primary reason (maybe) is 3) corruption- no need to explain.

Renji · Apr 17, 2009

gnomon said:
Thank you for sharing this.

It reminded me of the situation I've heard of in the West Indies as well. Famous tourist attractions on the beach and beyond the barrier of trees there is poverty.

I watched an independent film called Cavite not too long ago about a Filipino-American and the Abu-Sayyaf. While the story centered around a group that kidnapped family members to force the main character to engage in an act of terrorism the director focused much of the film on the poverty.

Well Abu- Sayyaf, a terrorist group is now active again. They've been lost for few years and they're back. They now have three ICRC hostages in Mindanao. 2 are now free but there is still one with those Abu's and is in critical health condition.

Renji · Apr 17, 2009

Kungfuzed said:
The population is a big problem, but I thought the main cause of their poverty is a corrupt government. That's what most pinoys tell me anyway. Didn't it start with Ferdinand Marcos?

You know, they always blame it to Ferdinand Marcos but my parents used to tell me that it is much better in his time . The only wrong thing he did is that he declared martial law.

mrscardero · Apr 18, 2009

Lawrence said:
We're not that rich or that poor but I remember what my mom said when I was 5. She said that I should treasure everything that I have because I'm lucky enough to eat more than 3 times a day unlike other people who can't. So what I did is I give importance to every little thing that other people esp. my parents give me (whether it's material or not).

Your mom reminds me of my father. He made sure that if and when we had extra, to share with those that didn't have any. That's why once a week we would get together with other families to make a big pan of Pansit and a huge pot of rice and put them in plastic bags. Then we would go around to different houses and hand them out to those who don't have enough or any to eat.

Renji · Apr 23, 2009

mrscardero said:
Your mom reminds me of my father. He made sure that if and when we had extra, to share with those that didn't have any. That's why once a week we would get together with other families to make a big pan of Pansit and a huge pot of rice and put them in plastic bags. Then we would go around to different houses and hand them out to those who don't have enough or any to eat.

. I think that you are in a different situation right now. Am I right?

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