Poverty And Some Effects Of It That We Do Not Perhaps Think About As Carefully As We Should.

[Methersgate]

It is very easy indeed for foreigners - and actually quite a lot harder for middle class Filipinos, simply because they are in their own country - to say to a girl we are taken with, and to her family, that it does not matter to us that she is poor, and that her family are poor.

 

It probably doesn't matter to us; it matters a very great deal to them - and not always in the ways we are expecting.

First, people may say that they are used to being poor, that they can cope with it, that they don't mind it, but in very truth, everyone who is poor, with the possible exception of perhaps half a dozen Saints-in-the-making, hates being poor.

 

They also hate being reminded that they hate it, and they hate anyone noticing it, and they hate it when they notice it themselves.

 

They hate having to "be careful" with the local bigwigs, they hate having to calculate daily over food and necessaries, they hate bugs, they hate smells, they hate hot sweaty nights with no aircon, and they will do ANYTHING to "keep up appearances", as we British say.,Their children will always go to school in spotless uniforms, with all the textbooks and if at all possible with shoes, Above all, they live in terror of the hospital bill that come come their way at any moment.

 

If they get a chance to be "not poor" even for an hour, they will take it with both hands, because that hour is an escape, that they will treasure in memory for the weeks and months of back breaking drudgery to come.

And that is why they will spend every peso they have, plus quite a few that they don't have, on a "blow out", inviting friends and neighbours and knowing that those they do not invite will come too - because that evening is  a precious escape, and they don't believe for a moment that saving the money will ever be enough to clear their debts and allow them to own their own place and make a living at it.

And all these sensitivities are right beneath the surface, and all the foreigner does is to say "It does not bother me" - it bothers THEM.

Yes, the head of the household is usually delighted to see a foreigner to see a foreigner paying court to his pretty daughter, but he is also worried that the foreigner may just leave her "in the club" and disappear, and he also hates himself for having to hope that that foreigner will give him money.

Edited August 9, 2014 by Methersgate

[Methersgate]

This leads me on to a point that has just been made to me - with some force - by She Who Must Be Obeyed, herself a rice farmer's daughter and the youngest of seven.

People are super-sensitive about poverty, and adding to it is a very widespread belief, in the Philippines, which is almost more like a Protestant belief than a Catholic one.

 

People believe that they are poor because it is THEIR FAULT.

In Protestant Europe and North America, of course, we believe, at the level of technical theology, in the doctrine of double predestination leading to God's Elect, or to put it more plainly we believe that God Helps Those Who Help Themselves, also called "PWE", the Protestant Work Ethic, as discovered by RH Tawney in "Religion and the Rise of Capitalism" and by Max Weber in "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism".

That is not what the Catholic Filipino poor believe, though hey do work  mighty hard (just try ploughing with a carabao, or planting rice).

They believe that they are poor because God is punishing them because they are wicked people.

 

This belief is general.
 

This is why you may see the followers of "brother" Mike Velarde, in the El Shaddai movement, the Philippines' Catholic Church's deliberate answer to "charismatic" Protestant religions, taking out their empty wallets and holding them to the sky so that God may rain wealth into them.

This is why huge crowds follow the Black Nazarene, and similar devotional exercises.

If only they can stop being bad, God will forgive them and they will cease to be poor.   

You can see what a very useful belief this is, for those who are NOT POOR.
 

The thieving bastards in the Senate and in the House of Representatives are there because God has put them there so they must be good people and when they get away, with thieving and very often with murder this is not because the system is corrupt but because it is the Will of God.

Edited August 9, 2014 by Methersgate

[Methersgate]

What this means, of course, is that the burden of poverty is in effect doubled, by the Church itself.

 

To have to admit to being poor is to have to admit that you have done something pretty seriously wrong, and in a society where "face" really matters, that adds immensely to the burden already imposed on you and on your family by poverty.

 

The consequence is that people are desperately sensitive about it,

We need to be very, very careful how we handle this.

 

There is another aspect, too.

 

Since God made the poor the way they are, and he made the rich and powerful too, it follows that the rich and powerful, a group which includes ALL foreigners, were given the blessings they enjoy by God.

 

It follows that those blessings should be shared, since they are the result of luck not the result of hard work (and nobody sweating in a field thinks that sitting in an air conditioned office can be "work" of any sort!)

"You got it for free, so why can't I have some of it?" I'd gladly share my stuff with you, if I had any to spare like you do!"
 

Edited August 9, 2014 by Methersgate

[Miguk]

Very succinct summary.  I do feel their pain...I really do.  But my resources (foreigner thus assumed endless) really are finite and the need is infinite.  There has to be a line drawn somewhere.

[Jake]

People believe that they are poor because it is THEIR FAULT.

That is not what the Catholic Filipino poor believe, though hey do work  mighty hard (just try ploughing with a carabao, or planting rice).

They believe that they are poor because God is punishing them because they are wicked people.

 

This belief is general.

 

This is why you may see the followers of "brother" Mike Velarde, in the El Shaddai movement, the Philippines' Catholic Church's deliberate answer to "charismatic" Protestant religions, taking out their empty wallets and holding them to the sky so that God may rain wealth into them.

This is why huge crowds follow the Black Nazarene, and similar devotional exercises.

If only they can stop being bad, God will forgive them and they will cease to be poor.   

You can see what a very useful belief this is, for those who are NOT POOR.

 

The thieving bastards in the Senate and in the House of Representatives are there because God has put them there so they must be good people and when they get away, with thieving and very often with murder this is not because the system is corrupt but because it is the Will of God.

Hello Andrew,

 

A wonderful essay of the plight of the poor Filipino and his family.  A very discreet vision that could only come

from actual and direct observation of the local social status.  The false prophets always have a lucrative and

deceitful business among the poor and blind sheeps.

 

Well done, my friend! 

[jon1]

The false prophets always have a lucrative and deceitful business among the poor and blind sheeps.

 

Jake, that is because they are in the business of selling "hope". Without despair (poor, adversity, system against them getting ahead, church against birth control=more mouths to feed than resources can support, etc. etc.), there would be no need for "hope". The poor give what they really don't have to their masters who perpetually lead them into dire straits... 

[Jake]

And all these sensitivities are right beneath the surface, and all the foreigner does is to say "It does not bother me" - it bothers THEM.

Yes, the head of the household is usually delighted to see a foreigner to see a foreigner paying court to his pretty daughter, but

he is also worried that the foreigner may just leave her "in the club" and disappear, and he also hates himself for having to hope

that that foreigner will give him money.

Hello Andrew,

 

Another great insight about the weak and the poor!  You are certainly a student of sociology, unique to the

Far Eastern region and their street level culture.  You got into the mind of the poor farmer, thinking about

what to do about his daughters when the whole family is starving.   

 

I wrote a piece a long time ago about my tears flowing freely when I witness this old and fragile Lola and her

niece making the rounds through the Olongapo bars.  The Lola would silently stand at a dark corner of the 

nightclub, while all the sailors and marines were whoopin' and hollerin' -- within 5 minutes of the floor show,

her niece was already naked, dancing to the tunes of Proud Mary (mid 70's).

 

That was their livelihood.  I immediately gave the Lola all my loose change (about 20 bucks) and ask them to

go home for the night.  Their thankful eyes of tears of joy......and I felt so ashamed.    

 

Fast forward to Mt Pinatubo's (1991) devastation of land and people of epic proportion.  Many of those young

daughters ended up in Angeles City.  It was a dark reality for farmers to contract out their little girls.  Again, it

was the matter of sheer survival, deep sacrifice and deeper shame.   

 

Is there a light at the end of their tunnel?  

 

Thank you for a good read, my friend.

Edited August 10, 2014 by Jake
reality check

[Paul_QLD]

Thanks for that, a great summary and it may help me understand a little more of my girl's family history/life in the province and how she always says "we are poor, what to do?" when I ask her to try take some initiative to improve her/their life a little ...

[stevewool]

Its a funny world we live in, some say we are rich when we go over for the first time to find the one we want to be with the rest of our life,

Well we may have a little more then most, but its hard earned and its easily gone too, but what i have learned from my Ems is  yes i am richer in wealth then her and her family but they are way richer in kindness that i will ever be, its trying to get the happy medium between us, just my thoughts

[Coffeehound]

It can be done: let me share a tale of a young Filipino. This young Romeo married and started a family as a day laborer. Once first born came, he realized something had to change. He made his living the next 40 years as a jeepney driver working 14-16 hour days 6-7 days per week.

He raised 7 children:

A physician

A mechanical engineer

An army colonel

An army general

A registered nurse

An international merchant marine ship's master

And professional actress.

All college educated, and most with advanced degrees. This is what came from a determined family of squatters in a shack with no electric or running water.

This is the brief story of one of the men I have most respected and loved in my life: my father in law.

May not be easy, but character can conquer a lot.