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| Philippine Carabao |
Poverty Porn is defined as a strategy employed by some social media influencers, charitable groups and philanthropists showing to the viewers the miserable life of a particular family or individual in a country to entice donors into giving donations. But in this country, can it help or at least alleviate poverty? And how do Filipinos perceive poverty porn?
Poverty in the Philippines
Poverty has been one of the country's biggest problems since ancient times. Past and present administrations have tried but failed to eradicate this problem in the country.
Although, as a result of the government's poverty alleviation programs, there have been significant reductions in Filipino poor families over recent years.
Poverty in the country is embedded in the daily life of the Filipinos. At the moment, millions of Filipino families are living with income that is lower than what they need for a decent life. Every day, many of these poor Filipinos have endured and suffered involuntary hunger. Their misery was aggravated by high inflation, the Covid-19 pandemic and a lack of jobs.
Causes of poverty
illiteracy, corruption, lack of employment opportunities, corruption and of course the Philippines’ non-prohibition on the number of children in a family.
Life of poor families
Lives of poor families in the Philippines have been miserable. Many of the poorest of the poor just live under bridges, some of them live among the dead in cemeteries, other live along the rivers/creeks in the cities, and some don’t have any dwelling at all; they just sleep everywhere: in public parks, skywalks, or outside business establishments or in their wooden carts.
At night, they sleep on the pavement with just discarded cartons as mat without any pillow or blanket to protect them from cold and nocturnal insects. During the day, they earn a living begging for loose coins from passers-by, scavenging in dumpsites for items to be sold.
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| Paddle boats |
How do poor Filipinos earn a living?
While majority of the poor Filipinos earn, a living selling assorted candies, cigarettes in sticks on busy streets, other Filipinos earn by fishing, selling native delicacies and rice and viands in the neighborhood.
In the provinces, Filipinos live by tilling their farms and fishing. Sari-sari stores (stores with a few thousand pesos as capital) are also popular means of living. These sari-sari stores sell daily needs of the residents in the neighborhood such as instant coffee, noodles, canned goods, bread, edible oil, rice and other basic needs.
Poverty-alleviation programs
Presently, the Philippine government has several poverty-alleviation programs such as the:
● Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), a poverty-alleviation program in which every qualified child in a family is given monthly financial assistance by the government.
● Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations (AICS);
● Medical Assistance to Indigent Patients (MAIP);
● Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD), is a poverty program which gives financial assistance to displaced workers and benefits; and
● Financial assistance for solo parents.
Will poverty porn help the poor?
In the Philippines, poverty porn is manifested in different ways usually by social media influencers and some charitable organizations. These influencers go to provinces or to places where many poor families live to look for their prospects or recipients.
They will give foods such as canned goods, packs of sugar, instant coffee, noodles, chocolate and milk in sachets, sacks of rice, and other basic needs. Other influencers give cash amounting to thousands of pesos.
Some groups and influencers provide both cash and goods to their recipients. Other influencers repair the dilapidated houses of their recipients. In some cases, farm animals are given to farmers.
Sadly, poverty porn is just a “ band aid” or temporary solution to the poverty in the country. The help in cash and in kind provided by these charitable and social media influencers are just temporary. Although, there have been least-privileged children who have been granted scholarships by well-to-do viewers of these social media influencers.
These scholarships granted to these least privileged, yet deserving students is a good start for a family to get out of poverty or at least uplift their life.
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| Philippine Carabao |
Measures to help alleviate poverty in the country.
Students must be responsive to 21st century challenges. Having globally competent graduates is crucial for a country to get out of poverty. But what are globally competent graduates? These are the graduates who have equipped themselves with 21st Century skills in response to the 21st century challenges and employment opportunities.
Unfortunately, surveys show that Filipino students still lagged behind in Mathematics, Science, and in the English language, the subjects crucial to a country’s economic development. Entice investors into the country. Being able to convince and persuade investors into the country.
How to do it? It can be done by easing business in the country, solving heavy traffic by good transport systems, and peace and order.
These are just some of the measures that can help alleviate poverty in the country. Illiteracy and corruption are contributing factors to poverty.
Filipinos who were not able to finish basic education have been forced to work on farms or go fishing without stable income. Corruption in the country is like a century-old tree whose roots are embedded deep beneath the surface.
Even if the branches are cut, other branches will grow. Millions if not billions of pesos as ill-gotten wealth goes to a few greedy individuals which is supposedly used to build hospitals, classrooms, and other public services.
PH poverty rate declines to 22.4% in 1st half 2023 | Philippine News Agency (pna.gov.ph)
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| Author: Samuel A. Escabarte samuelescabarte@gmail.com |