When a mother makes her children drink a bottle of toilet bowl cleaner and then drinks the same poison herself afterwards, is it the mother’s fault, society, or government’s?
Is she to blame for not finding another way to put food on the table when her construction-worker husband cannot send home money, or is it the fault of society that is apathetic to the plight of people who are suffering? Or can this sin be placed solely on the shoulders of the government, for the failure of its cash subsidies and other fixits to bring hope to the poor?
I remember hurting this way when Mariannet, a young girl, hanged herself last November 2, 2007 because she was desperate about life itself.
I am not a stranger to poverty. I know how it feels to see a single parent worry about where to get money for the next day. There is no security; no hope. What if your toddler’s hunger brings you to the tipping point?
I don’t have the answers. I’m also not fond of pointing fingers. I just know that something has to be done. And just as I know that we can’t all save the world from cavities, maybe one good deed for others and one intelligent personal finance deed for one’s self tomorrow (we can’t help others if we are not standing on higher plane), could make a difference, if done by 1,000 people all at the same time.
26 Responses to “Tipping point of poverty”
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Pages: « 6 5 [4] 3 2 1 » Show All
September 11th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
sansan, there are plenty of microfinance companies here in the philippines and some have been really successful at reaching the poor. i know that even former president cory aquino has focused on microfinancing for a bottoms-up approach of reducing poverty. but again, i wonder when it will all mean something. sorry, i hope i dont sound too negative.
September 11th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Linoel,
you said: maybe the government could make a step forward fighting poverty by teaching values, entrepreneurship, and basic money management even to elementary students. giving money to poor people would not help them.
that’s just the thing. i see this happening already, maybe not yet widespread. maybe in small packets. maybe little groups doing little things at the same time. but sorry for sounding so depressed, sometimes i fear that all these little good deeds hardly make a dent. sigh. i just hope i’m wrong.
September 11th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
I believe that being broke is a choice. But poverty is not.
Being broke means finding yourself incapable to support your lifestyle, despite the fact that you have the education, resources, and know-how to pull yourself out of that situation.
Poverty, on the other hand, is too big and complex a problem that I believe I’ll be insulting the poor people of the world if I think I can claim to explain poverty in one paragraph.
The woman poisoning herself and her family, I believe that she was not fully equipped to handle that situation. She probably didn’t have the opportunity to grow an entrepreneurial mind, because this is something that is cultivated only in encouraging environments, which this woman probably didn’t experience. She wasn’t aware that as a woman, she did not need to depend on her husband for resources. These things may seem like common sense to you and I, but it’s not. We are only empowered with this knowledge because we have been educated by responsible parents, and went to good schools. Did this woman even finish high school?
If you’re hungry, you get delirious and do things you wouldn’t do if you were fed properly. This is illustrated best by Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which shows that physiological needs such as food and water must first be met before you can expect someone to be self-actualized. In other words, what use is education if the people are hungry? What’s the use of opportunity? And as one of the commenters pointed out, it could also be that the woman had undiagnosed clinical depression.
Have you ever been starving? Do you know what starvation can do to a person?
As for the poor being ‘abusive’ as someone pointed out, there is a reason why they’re like that - because we (or, more accurately, the government) treat them as if cash subsidies and dole outs are the only way out. Because of their desperation, they prefer to eat now rather than look at long term solutions - and because of the lack of education and resources available to them, how will they know about these long term solutions?
Politicians themselves shy away from long term solutions because they take more work and the effects will only be seen years after they have left their position in government. Eh di mamigay na lang ng 500 pesos sa mga tao ngayon, kasi mas maaalala ka nila, at mas iboboto ka nila. Never mind that the 500 is fleeting and unsustainable.
Another reader also pondered the absurdity that we were to blame for the death of this family. I believe that we are partly to blame if we do not contribute to make our country better. And I’m not just talking about paying your taxes, which can go to the hands of corrupt officials. Do sponsor the education of an impoverished child? When was the last time you interacted with the poor and heard their stories from their own mouths instead of the news?
Personally, I still find myself lacking when it comes to contributing to making the Philippines a better place. But to take the story of this woman lightly and not to consider it as a symptom of real, widespread problems means that one isn’t looking closely enough.
September 11th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
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September 11th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
i hope every filipino will have sufficient IQ, EQ and AQ to avoid this kind of tragedy in the future.