Of Evil and Government

The people of the Philippines are beautiful inside and out. They are kind and helpful and generous.

I first visited this wonderful country about 20 years ago and loved it. I recently visited it again after all those years and found the good people unchanged. I stayed with a family in Davao City; the home of a family of five living in a tiny house in a flood prone area.

There are many things that I can and perhaps will say about this country and the people. Nearly all of them are good. However, I want to just mention briefly what struck me in a sad way; in fact it was profoundly sad.

Twenty years ago the Philippines was a developing country on an equal footing economically with Thailand. Today, it lags far behind Thailand and the poverty seems to have increased.

Perhaps the thing that slapped me in the face more than anything else was the cost of food. It was almost on a par with the USA. That is not true in Thailand where food mirrors the overall economy and is relatively inexpensive. In the Philippines I witnessed hunger and when I bought food I knew why.

This is not the fault of the people of the Philippines. In my very humble and uninformed opinion, it is greed that drives this issue. And when one talks of greed, that must include corruption.

I did not do a lot of research on this topic and my feelings are essentially gut reactions. But there is one fact that jumped out at me. The are five billionaires in the Philippines. Many countries that have extremely vibrant economies have no billionaires; Norway and France for example. The gap between the haves and the have nots is a very significant factor in poverty in my opinion.

I love the Philippines and would not hesitate to live there. I just pray that the tiny minority of greedy and corrupt people there wake up and think about those that have so little.