Poverty, hope and a child’s suicide note

I woke up to an ache in my chest as I read the morning paper.

Mariannet, the 12-year old child who hanged herself last Nov. 2, was my daughter’s age. She is one of 11 million Filipinos who share a strange kinship with one billion more across the globe who live on less than a dollar a day. Her diary says she killed herself because she lost hope her family will ever get out poverty. Her wish list found in her diary was short: a bicycle, a school bag and jobs for her parents.

“Gusto ko po sana magkaroon ng bagong sapatos at bag at hanapbuhay para sa nanay at tatay ko. Wala kasing hanapbuhay ang tatay at nagpa-extra extra lamang ang aking nanay sa paglalaba,” she said in her “Wish Ko Lang” letter. [I wish for new shoes, a bag and jobs for my mother and father. My dad does not have a job and my mom just gets laundry jobs.]

This morning, as my daughter asked for her baon to go to school, I carefully looked at the P100 bill and kissed her goodbye. She gave me a warm hug and my heart constricted. I saw Mariannet instead, pleading to her father for P100 she needed for her school project.

A hundred pesos seems like a very small amount. My daughter will probably spend most of it on lunch at the school cafeteria and candies, not aware it could save someone’s life.

A few column inches away from the story on Mariannet, the Philippine Daily Inquirer banner story reads: Senate probes cash gifts. It talks of bundles of cash stuffed in envelopes and brown bags given to politicians one fine day in Malacañang.

Right there, we can see that Mariannet was right smack in the middle of the crux of life’s problems here in our country and around the world. Right there, we can raise our fists at government and say where is your heart? Releasing a P1-billion hunger fund is not the real solution! But Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz has a better answer. He says when an 11-year old child hangs herself because of poverty, somehow we are all to blame. The community is to blame. The society is to blame.

A few months ago, the Asian Development Bank released a study that showed in figures how the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. The middle class is vanishing, it said. A separate article I was writing made it clear that the emerging middle class in this country are, unfortunately, not in this country but working abroad as professionals, seamen, teachers, nurses, caregivers and household workers.

Those in Manila who could buy what they want, send their children to school, save for the future, dabble a little bit in stocks or bonds may feel alienated from the problem of the vanishing middle class. They may say, so what? I have hope. I have money. I am preparing myself for the future.

Unfortunately, rising poverty will affect us all. The more Mariannets there are, the less Filipinos there will be who can buy the products and services you are selling. Who can afford to go to school. Who can be skilled workers in our technology hubs. Who can become retail investors that will buoy up our capital and bond markets. As two songs go, the circle of life ensures that we are all in this together.

It makes sense for everyone’s financial future to wipe out poverty — even the ruling elite’s financial future. Even politicians’ financial future. As you prepare this day to make more money, save more and invest more, please do two things: look around you for someone like Mariannet and do something about it. Then continue to make your dreams for financial independence come true so you can help more like her.

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