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If with the rising costs of living you find yourself in a position in
which you cannot afford to pay for the necessities of life—shelter
and food; and you are in an environment in which everything has to
be paid for (preferably in advance and with a security deposit),
then what are you to do? This problem is faced by an ever-increasing
number of Filipinos these days as the price of oil continues to rise
(and it will always trend upwards), and employment opportunities
become more difficult to find and sustain (as they will due to the
overall economic effects of worldwide oil prices) financial sector
mega-mismanagement, and other things. Hard times are ahead.
People adopt various solutions to this difficult
scenario. Some will say that they must put more effort into finding
jobs outside the Philippines; agent incomes from fees for visas and
job opportunity identification will increase; and the rate of exit
of skills from the Philippines will also increase. Many people will
need to borrow more, so microfinance and “five-six” demands will
increase as will the repayment risk level, so interest rates will
increase. More people will die because they can’t afford proper
medical attention. Along with all this the crime rate will increase
because people will become more desperate; even now there is a
growing business in part-time prostitution of girls who simply
cannot get jobs or earn enough for their basic needs, therefore
supplementing their incomes with earnings from casual prostitution.
The difference between hard times in the
Philippines and hard times in Europe or the US is significant. In
the West you may lose your house or your car when times get
economically tough; in the Philippines, as in other parts of
developing Asia, you may lose your life! When you don’t have too
much to start with, what you have to sell becomes remarkably
personal. In Asia people will exchange their children to work as
“slaves” in order to pay off debts, or pledge body parts in
advance of their death—compared to these a bit of part-time
prostitution could seem like quite an easy option. These examples
tell of really “hard times.” We can but hope that things don’t
get as bad as to create an epidemic of things such as this, but what
can people do when they reach the end of their resources?
There comes a point at which the government must
take serious responsibility and provide properly for the welfare of
its people, not only in relatively short-term natural disaster
situations but it should also take into account the more widespread
and longer-term issues of economic recession. It is time now to
re-look at the social security provisions in the Philippines, and at
the way in which money is spent and distributed. Providing
subsidized rice is not enough; it is a knee-jerk reaction to a
specific problem. Food shortages are forecast as going to increase;
as noted above costs of most things are going to rise to
unsustainable levels because of the rise in oil prices. China and
India are consuming much more in the way of commodities than they
can produce. The price of coal is increasing partially because ships
are difficult to charter due to the use by China of lots of cargo
vessels to ferry grain from South America to satisfy the needs of
its 1.3-billion population.
It is time to have a re-look at the national
budget, I think, as it is clear to see that difficulties are
confronting the people, and it’s better to act sooner rather than
later.
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mawootton@gmail.com
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