Poverty

BIG BROTHER

By Alex F. Patio

=== Moral and spiritual perversion is the price of deprivation===

Poverty is being tired – dog tired all the time. We can’t remember when we were not tired. Poverty is asking for help. Have you ever had to swallow what pride you had left and ask for help, knowing your children will suffer more if you don’t get it? Think about asking for a loan from a relative, if that’s the only way you can really understand asking for help. Poverty is an acid that eats into pride until pride is burned out. It is a chisel that chips at honor until honor is pulverized.

While deprivation is not a respecter of race, religion, or national origin, it does befall the lower social economic groups of our society. It is often said that anyone with the desire to do so can climb out of his environment and forever be rid of the deprivations of poverty and needs.

Whether or not millions of our citizens receive adequate medical care is no longer a question to be asked – they do not. The cost of medical care has escalated to the point where even middle-income families can not afford to get sick. The health problems faced by our poor are of an even greater magnitude. They are forced to live under the most unsanitary conditions, exposing themselves to serious diseases. They do not have the financial ability to pay, at least in full, and therefore find themselves forced to depend upon public medical assistance of one kind of another. Among the deprived, physical survival blots out all other needs. Family meals are unknown in many instances. And it’s very appalling and heart riveting to witness this kind of scenario.

Many disadvantaged children are the victims of a poverty so crushing that early in life poor health not only drains the energy, but blights the spirit. Among the economically deprived are many whose health has been crippled. Poor nutrition, insufficient food, inadequate clothing and housing, and lack of simple, routine medical care have made deep inroads prior to children’s full potential and development. Moral and spiritual perversion is the price of deprivation.

The disadvantaged child suffers most when he comes to school. His experience in living has ill prepared him for the demands of the typical school. Shaped by an environment whose harshness has indelibly stamped him in his own eyes as a person of little worth, he now must be able to conform in a situation which places primary emphasis upon verbal skills. Today, standing at the crossroads, the directions we take depend upon our ability to recognize our challenges, our ability to meet them, and most of all, our commitment to children.

Everyone wants a decent place to live. The place we live in and the general neighbourhood in which we dwell says much about our total life style. Not all Filipinos have what we could consider to be the basic necessities for a decent home. The problem of adequate housing is serious. A national commitment to decent housing for every family is essential for our country.

There has been no satisfactory analysis of present housing needs and a similar estimate of probable future needs as guides for housing policy and programs. The basic facts for such studies, in reasonable detail and refinement, are not available. In some respects, this is the most damning indictment against the public concern, including but by no means limited to governmental concern, with housing in this country. Still more elusive, therefore, are the complex questions such as the following: How many presently acceptable houses will slide into the substandard category through the ravages of age, neglect, and shifting land uses? How many presently substandard houses could be made acceptable through rehabilitation? What is the best balance between public and private investment in housing?

Part of the difficulty is centered in the bind in which we find ourselves – wherein man’s vastly accelerating conquest of the universe has left far behind his achievements in the social and spiritual aspects of his world. We find man standing at the crossroads. Here his choice may be, on the one hand, a broad, dual highway in which the achievements of his intellectual might are enmeshed with the needs of his spirit, each supporting and lending strength in reaching his ultimate destination: A world in which men live in harmony with themselves, with others, and with the infinite world. On the other hand his choice may be monorail, deceptive in his speed, single-minded of purpose, and capable of delivering man to his destination: Destruction of himself and his world.

While on the local scene here in our city, concrete steps are being undertaken addressing the aspects of health care, housing, education and employment it still fall short of expectations on a national scale.

The political system gives the poor their political rights and freedoms, but their economic vulnerability prevents them from meaningfully using these rights. What happens is that they use these rights mainly to secure short-term economic benefits, rather than to shape basic economic policy.