Poverty

Read that in the Philippines, a little girl committed suicide due to pessimism over the state of poverty in her home. A day earlier, she'd asked for $3 for schooling and her parents who bring home only $7 a week couldn't afford that.

The article blamed the poverty on a set of circumstances : parents who couldn't make ends meet and had to support many kids. ... employment that couldn't feed the children....The result of the catholic church's supposed opposition to birth control, as what the article seemed to imply.

What on earth is the government doing ? What is the church doing? What are the schools doing? What are the parents doing? What are the people of Philippines doing?

From practical, materialistic Singapore - I think a government that fails to generate employment and circumstances that leads to the betterment of its people - is a poor leader. If the people of the Philippines had been repeatedly putting the worst leaders up there, the democratic vote in their hands is wasted and to some extent, they had been responsible for their fate.

I happen to sponsor a Philippine boy from Bohol through World Vision. Are at least some Filipino doing something for their own people living just beyond their backyard ? Or are they so immune to the poverty around them that the plight of the poor can be brushed off easily, as nonenity?

A friend from Philippines once told me that it requires a lot of monies to run for elections. I wonder if this is what puts off a lot of people from standing for leadership roles. Could an alternative angle be that the Filipinos are hit by an apathetic condition that is worse than Singaporean's?

Singapore's apathy could be blamed on a satisfied people, with our government. There is really not much of a bone to pick with the PAP.

The apathy in Philippines : is it a sense of helplessness or deadened emotions from long years of frustration oor deadened conscience -no amount of human suffering right at the backyard has been able to jerk the able into action anymore.

If this is so, the most able of the Philippine people ~ especially if they are Christians~ owe a lot of explanations to God. They have a moral and Christian duty to be the light and salt of the world but have failed.

By able - I mean anyone who can run the country a lot better than Arroyo or Estrada or Ramos or Aquino. With a sense of obligation and moral tenacity to pull the country up and get as many people out of the poverty trap as they can. Your goal is the betterment of your nation.

Having met so many talented leaders in commerce, in church and art - the Philippines does have a large pool to draft from. I am sure you can find at least a group with the moral fibre that the Philippine need and can count on.

But hey Filippinos out there - do you have the guts to stand up and get out to do something for your country?

If God is in your camp, who can be against you? So what if you are a David meeting the Goliaths ? Our Heavenly Father will be pleased to support you if you are pure in your intentions. And when you stand up as a light for the world, I can't see why the people won't vote for you.