Recently….

A few words about blogging. I haven’t really been writing on my blog but I have been posting the usual nonsense on livejournal. I just didn’t feel the need to update my blog as much I suppose.

Lately though I’ve been hooked on podcasting and I realized that hey, what a great combo – blogging and podcasting seems like the right mix, at least it makes sense to me. Anyway, me and my friend are about to start podcasting something soon…hopefully and I’m really looking forward to it since anyone who knows me knows that I’m very opinionated and vocal about a lot of stuff.

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Now on to other stuff. I've recently subscribed to The One Campaign but I have been hearing about them since the start and reading up on some of what they do. I think it's a good cause although there's the usual celebrity component and dumb humanitarian awards that go with it (why do people insist on giving out awards for being human anyway?).

Anyways, I've been trying to compare it with the poverty that we have here in the Philippines. Yes, I think it's admirable that we help people in need. Yes, I think it's part of our responsibility to help those less fortunate than us. But what I don't think we should do is become a country of pity-mongers (if there is such a word, I'm sure we invented it).

There's no denying that the Philippines is a financially incapable country. Not rich? yes. Impoverish? No.

All this talk about who's to blame for the state of the country and all the media hype about how the poor lowly common folk should be heard is just another way of saying " We don't wanna work, we want you to work for us and then give us some of your hard-earned money. And if you fuck up on your payment to us, we'll hold rallies and protests till you can't take it anymore and then we'll find us another idiot who'll do the same."

Now I'm not saying there are no genuine poverty- stricken folk in this country, just that there are no genuine motives that befit the status. Case for example is a "few" years ago when I was still in college. I used to have a loaf of bread in the car with me so I could give it to kids or old people (I never had pity for capable people who still had the full use of limbs begging) who would rap on the car window to beg.

It was another common day as I went home and this kid started rapping on my car window. Mind you now, beggars in most of our streets don't look malnourished (if you want to see malnourished, look at pictures of ethiopian children begging for food), but still, for whatever reason, be it eternal salvation or just a case of the bleeding heart we give when begged for.

So I gave this kid 2 pieces of bread and without even saying thank you, he looked at the bread and threw it back at me. Since then, I've had a different view of how beggars should be "pitied". If they're selling sampaguitas for example, I would oblige them by buying. But if they just rap on the car window and beg, I just ignore them. It sounds cold but maybe that's what we should be doing as responsible fortunate people.

I'm not saying we should stop caring for people in need of our help or that we should stop giving. But in always giving when you know that alot of people are capable of helping themselves with the right shove, we instead make them complacent and always asking for another hand.

I know other people help because it makes them feel good but think about this the next time you feel like helping or giving - Where does it go? Do they use the money you give them for food for the night or for drugs and cigarettes? Do they eat the food or sell it? Do they live in the house you give them or rent it out?

People may want pity, but they definitely do not need it. What they need is a push to help themselves on whatever track they were on. The question is can we give that push?