Jesus says, "The poor... they will always be with you. I am going back to my Father." Even Jesus knew that the term "poverty" comes in many shades, shapes, colors, and degrees. Look at the statistics maintained by the US Government, for example. A person who is considered poor has a wide screen television set, a car, a microwave oven, a bath and a bedroom.
Take a look at a poor person in the Philippines and you can readily see the world of difference. Poverty in the Philippines is caused not by people not wanting to work for a living but of people who cannot find work to make a living. In America, we have many people who are poor because they want to be poor. They are homeless because they prefer to be homeless. America is the only place in the world where Freedom exists. You are free to have nothing it that is what you wish.
What is the point of all this? Let us cut to the chase. Mention about a paying job to a Filipino and you will get a million applicants lined up at your doorstep in a heartbeat. Mention about a job picking lettuce in Arizona and you will get no applicants from the US side but will be inundated by braseros from south of the border. So it is an attitude. Poverty and poorness rests on personal attitude.
If you are a Balikbayan (a returning ex-patriate) vacationing in the Philippines, you would do well not to be showing off your bulging wallet, lest you never see the light of another day. Poverty, much like hunger drives people to take desperate measures. How quickly the welcome mat is pulled from underneath your feet. A word to the wise: when in the Philippines, don't flaunt it even if you've got it because the poor will take it away from you.
Just enjoy yourself and the scenery, enjoy the hospitality of a friendly people but do not ever make any pronouncements about how chicken feed money is, or how you are shoveling dollars that line the streets - as if to say that in America dollars grow on trees. First, it is a lie. Secondly, it is very unhealthy for the other Balikbayans who will be coming home after you have left and on a strict budget.
Take a look at a poor person in the Philippines and you can readily see the world of difference. Poverty in the Philippines is caused not by people not wanting to work for a living but of people who cannot find work to make a living. In America, we have many people who are poor because they want to be poor. They are homeless because they prefer to be homeless. America is the only place in the world where Freedom exists. You are free to have nothing it that is what you wish.
What is the point of all this? Let us cut to the chase. Mention about a paying job to a Filipino and you will get a million applicants lined up at your doorstep in a heartbeat. Mention about a job picking lettuce in Arizona and you will get no applicants from the US side but will be inundated by braseros from south of the border. So it is an attitude. Poverty and poorness rests on personal attitude.
If you are a Balikbayan (a returning ex-patriate) vacationing in the Philippines, you would do well not to be showing off your bulging wallet, lest you never see the light of another day. Poverty, much like hunger drives people to take desperate measures. How quickly the welcome mat is pulled from underneath your feet. A word to the wise: when in the Philippines, don't flaunt it even if you've got it because the poor will take it away from you.
Just enjoy yourself and the scenery, enjoy the hospitality of a friendly people but do not ever make any pronouncements about how chicken feed money is, or how you are shoveling dollars that line the streets - as if to say that in America dollars grow on trees. First, it is a lie. Secondly, it is very unhealthy for the other Balikbayans who will be coming home after you have left and on a strict budget.
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