Similar dream, different lives
By Joel Ruiz ButuyanThe latest survey showing Jejomar Binay as still the front-running presidential candidate has stirred the middle class and the rich (the “nonpoor”) to again mouth their pet refrain: The poor are to blame for all that ails this country because they are unintelligent voters who allow corrupt leaders to rule.
MANILA, Philippines — Only 18 percent of Filipinos saw themselves as “thriving” financially, while the rest of the represented population said they are “struggling” or “suffering” in terms of economic security.
The recent Gallup-Healthways State of Global Well-Being Index 2014 reported that Filipinos’ perception of financial security is notably below the Asian and global averages of 25 percent.
While doing field research in the country’s poorest areas, my team came across a community where some residents, when asked why there were so many poor people in their area, matter-of-factly said it’s because many of their neighbors are lazy. We also interviewed the project staff of a national government poverty reduction program; when asked why there were so many poor people in their province, their response was, again, because many of them are lazy. Regional heads of national government agencies that we gathered in a focus group discussion chorused that the reason there are many poor people in their region is that most of them are—you guessed it—lazy.
THERE is no overstating the fact that on the anniversary of Haiyan what is demanded of us is a reckoning. It should be a time to look honestly at what has been done, what remains neglected, and in what state the survivors have been left. It is a time for truthfully assessing what it was that government did wrong, how – despite insisting that they warned the people of Samar and Leyte about the magnitude of the storm – government itself was unprepared for Haiyan.