![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
The Philippines was one of the first, if not the first country to become a republic in Asia.
Amazing, isn't it?
Taking a course wherein I am required to attend quite a number of law-related classes, I've found that the Philippines was the first country in the region to have written a Labor Code.
Amusing, isn't it?
I think about how much promise this country held not so many years ago. The potential for greatness was clearly there. So what went wrong? Was it our colonial history? The hundreds of years that we were never given the right to rule over our own land?
Perhaps it is.
All those years of not having power has made us greedy. And then I think, "So much for being a Catholic country."
The irony is so thick.
It scares me. You won't be able to see it from the outside, but from the inside hopefully you'll see a country that's dying. Hopefully because even some of the people who live here are blind to it. It begins with the culture. The Philippines was never ready for globalization. We're not like Japan, or Korea or Thailand with their rich cultures.
Do you know what we do with our culture?
We tear down beautiful historic buildings. We speak English with an American accent because we've been led to believe that if we do so, we'll get better jobs. We can name at least ten European designers but we can't name five local ones. We know the lyrics to all of Frank Sinatra's songs, but we couldn't even sing a single Kundiman. We've read all Paulo Coelho's books but we don't know about Bienvenido Santos or Lualhati Bautista. Someday, there won't be any famed Rice Terraces because the youth in the mountain provinces want to come to Manila where unemployment is high and there are squatters almost everywhere.
And even now, I'm typing in English.
The thing is... The Manila Mayor Lito Atienza, had the Jai-Alai (beautiful in its art-deco style) building torn down to supposedly use the land to build a school. That was at least two years ago. No school has even been attempted to be built. The Macapagal highway that cost the country billions is just so shameful. For one thing, no part of it is elevated, so it sort of makes you think why it cost so much in the first place. The Filipino scientist who invented the water-fueled car... now, that was a travesty. For all that government will say that it does not have the resources to fund such an invention (pshaw!) you just know that the real reason is because of corruption. If water cars were up and running, who will need Petrol in a country surrounded by water?
You may think that these problems happen in all countries, that no government is completely devoid of corruption. But this country's government is the ninth most corrupt in the world and the second most corrupt in Asia. And we're a third world country.
The government builds nonexistent schools across the country. They build nonexistent bridges in the Abra province. They make a mockery of Environmental laws and people die in landslides and floods. In fact, they make a mockery of the very foundations on which this country is supposedly built.
Democracy. Freedom. Laws that are for the people.
And yet every day we are faced with a government that oppresses its own people. And most of the time, we throw our hands up in the air and say, "Who cares? Nothing will change."
Have you ever done that? Have you ever thought that way about your own country's government?
But here, on some days, people decide that they should speak up. And it's amazing. It's amazing that it isn't a small picket line that some of you may be used to seeing in your own countries. But only because this country probably needs a lot more work than yours.
Amazing, isn't it?
Taking a course wherein I am required to attend quite a number of law-related classes, I've found that the Philippines was the first country in the region to have written a Labor Code.
Amusing, isn't it?
I think about how much promise this country held not so many years ago. The potential for greatness was clearly there. So what went wrong? Was it our colonial history? The hundreds of years that we were never given the right to rule over our own land?
Perhaps it is.
All those years of not having power has made us greedy. And then I think, "So much for being a Catholic country."
The irony is so thick.
It scares me. You won't be able to see it from the outside, but from the inside hopefully you'll see a country that's dying. Hopefully because even some of the people who live here are blind to it. It begins with the culture. The Philippines was never ready for globalization. We're not like Japan, or Korea or Thailand with their rich cultures.
Do you know what we do with our culture?
We tear down beautiful historic buildings. We speak English with an American accent because we've been led to believe that if we do so, we'll get better jobs. We can name at least ten European designers but we can't name five local ones. We know the lyrics to all of Frank Sinatra's songs, but we couldn't even sing a single Kundiman. We've read all Paulo Coelho's books but we don't know about Bienvenido Santos or Lualhati Bautista. Someday, there won't be any famed Rice Terraces because the youth in the mountain provinces want to come to Manila where unemployment is high and there are squatters almost everywhere.
And even now, I'm typing in English.
The thing is... The Manila Mayor Lito Atienza, had the Jai-Alai (beautiful in its art-deco style) building torn down to supposedly use the land to build a school. That was at least two years ago. No school has even been attempted to be built. The Macapagal highway that cost the country billions is just so shameful. For one thing, no part of it is elevated, so it sort of makes you think why it cost so much in the first place. The Filipino scientist who invented the water-fueled car... now, that was a travesty. For all that government will say that it does not have the resources to fund such an invention (pshaw!) you just know that the real reason is because of corruption. If water cars were up and running, who will need Petrol in a country surrounded by water?
You may think that these problems happen in all countries, that no government is completely devoid of corruption. But this country's government is the ninth most corrupt in the world and the second most corrupt in Asia. And we're a third world country.
The government builds nonexistent schools across the country. They build nonexistent bridges in the Abra province. They make a mockery of Environmental laws and people die in landslides and floods. In fact, they make a mockery of the very foundations on which this country is supposedly built.
Democracy. Freedom. Laws that are for the people.
And yet every day we are faced with a government that oppresses its own people. And most of the time, we throw our hands up in the air and say, "Who cares? Nothing will change."
Have you ever done that? Have you ever thought that way about your own country's government?
But here, on some days, people decide that they should speak up. And it's amazing. It's amazing that it isn't a small picket line that some of you may be used to seeing in your own countries. But only because this country probably needs a lot more work than yours.
1 comment | Leave a comment