There Is a Problem With The Philippines - Steemit Can Fix it.
There is a very real problem with the Philippines, and it's not Drugs, Prostitution, Organized Crime, Political Corruption, or Poverty.
Ok well it's actually ALL of those things, but none of them are the SOURCE of the ultimate problem per-say but a result of the actual biggest problem.
DRUGS
Drug use, even with Duterte's war on drugs, has increased over the past year, not decreased. People are less casual about their drug use, but are still purchasing and using drugs none-the-less. Children are reaching the age of peer-pressure, of rebellion and excitement, and they are experimenting, enjoying it, and becoming addicts or recreational users.
The war on drugs has claimed thousands of lives, some innocent, some guilty, many without being proven guilty, instead relying on grudges and chismis, but again, that is neither here nor there for this particular article. That's not the core problem, it never was.
Yes, the Philippines is one of the highest users of Methamphetamine per population in the world, and that is bad. Meth or "Shabu" as it's locally known, is a very serious drug and it's very unhealthy, extremely addictive and causes more extreme behavior. However if you look at drug use per % population on a global scale, you will see that the Philippines only reaches the top 10 for Methamphetamine, and not by a wide spread. It's not even in first place! It comes in 2nd, behind El Salvador and barely ahead of Australia and New Zealand.
In fact, countries such as the United States, whom appear in the Top Drug-Using Countries By Drug image featured below, have more Shabu users total due to population alone, AND are in the top 10 for 7 of the 8 drug types listed. Listed at #1 for both Opiods and Prescription Opiods, #2 for Cannabis, and #3 for Cocaine (rich mans meth).
The United States government does not have a bloody campaign to eradicate drugs however, even while the problem it faces is very clearly severely worse than what the Philippines faces for the same problem.
In fact, the United States now has Marijuana, "Cannabis", legal even for recreational use in several states. Legal for Medical purposes or at least decriminalized in the majority of the country.
On the flip side, in the Philippines, the penalty for a user being caught with Marijuana is higher than if they are caught with Shabu, according to the law. Life in prison, and incredible fines, no bail, no bond. WHY?
It is very simple why, and it all comes down to what the REAL problem with the Philippines is. It is not drugs. It has never been drugs. That is just the latest scapegoat by the current administration.
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
Prostitution & Mail-Order Brides
Prostitution is RAMPANT in the Philippines. In fact, the country is known for it globally. A ridiculous number of tourist that the country receives every year, are sex-tourist. We may whisper about it in hushed tones, or speak openly and loudly about it when we see a girl in a slinky dress or hanging onto the arm of a foreigner. The truth however, is that prostitution in the Philippines is just as common, if not more-so, with locals as it is with foreigners.
It may not be as easy to spot from a distance, but anybody without their eyes wide-shut, knows about it and just casually accepts it as part of how life is in our country.
Women, men, and homosexuals all participate in prostitution here. There are globally known red-light districts in Angeles City, Baguio, Boracay, Quezon City, Makati, Malate, Dumaguete, and more! Individuals (usually young girls) are recruited at young ages and told that they will only need to sit down, talk with the customers, pour their drinks, etc. As time passes, they gradually cross their own prescribed lines little by little until they reach the point where their former selves would no longer recognize them, and would be disgusted at whom they have become.
Prostitution and Mail-Order brides are BIG BUSINESS here, raking in millions of pesos per month. Police are bribed and paid-off, friends look the other way or even congratulate on the earnings and ask for handouts, family is told they work in a call-center or other vocation that requires nigh-time hours and an apartment of their own away from home.
There are organizations that offer careers abroad for singing, dancing, and other entertainment industries. Young girls whom have been told all their lives how talented they are are sucked into these schemes and believe that they are preparing for a better life.
I'm going to buy my parents a house & lot. They've done so much for me, this is how I can repay them by working abroad. Even If I suffer, they also suffered for me, it is my duty.
Only to find out after they are already overseas (for those that choose to do this work abroad rather than on their home-turf), that they pretty much have no choice other than to spread their legs or become destitute and alone in a foreign country with nobody to help them survive.
It depends how you look at all of this for which you consider to be the worst part. Is it that our innocent young ladies and gentlemen are being corrupted, abused, desensitized, until they are unrecognizable? Losing their youth and godly innocence?
Or is it that they are not using contraceptives, spreading disease (over 4000% in the past 15 years increase versus a global reduction by 40%), bragging about their earnings and achievements having climbed that social ladder while on their backs and their knees?
In addition to the organizations that are facilitating and corrupting our children into prostitution, there are HUGE organizations that promote and encourage mail-order-bride services. This is to arrange marriages with individuals abroad, Japanese, Korean, American, Canadian, Spanish, British, Australian, Middle-Eastern, etc.
Often times the initial pitch is a mutually-beneficial, and illegal, arrangement for the female to provide some sort of "service" for the mail in return for financial stability, ability to work abroad, citizenship, etc. It goes both ways. Sometimes the pinay must pay the man who marries her X amount per month for affording her the opportunity to come to his country and work. Sometimes the male must provide financial support to the female in return for sexual affection.
Regardless, it is not love. It is not true marriage. It is not legal. It is a financial scam preying on the lonely, the poor, the lazy, the ignorant, and the desperate.
Again however, just like with DRUGS, this is not the source of the ultimate problem with the Philippines. It is a symptom. A sad but very true reality, one that many have come to accept and sweep under the rug so to speak. These organizations could be charged with Prostitution, corrupting minors, and even human trafficking, but many are left alone, to operate and continue to corrupt what could be a golden society of beautiful people.
Organized Crime
When we think organized crime we think The Sopranos, The Godfather, Yakuza, The Triads, etc. . The truth is, there is a mafia in the Philippines as well. They are not the street gangsters and 'riding tandem' assassins. They are businessmen, of course with some more traditional gangsters on the pay-roll.
One of the biggest money makers for the Philippines Mafia is not extorting the locals and charging protection money, however they do participate in that, it is more of a sideline and not a focus.
One of the primary points of profit for the mafia here, is real-estate. Have you ever noticed how many people here are squatters? Particularly in the metros? There are millions of squatters here. Many are college graduates: doctors, lawyers, teachers, entrepreneurs and more!
Individuals buy or rent land or homes in squatter areas and invest their life-savings into building a home for themselves and their families. Some squatter communities have been around for over 50 years!
The Mafia here, in addition to their sideline activities likes to encourage the poor to move into certain plots of land that have been purchased by the government or large corporations. They help finance and pull in as many people as possible to settle and build their lives on the land.
When it comes time that the Government or the Corporations decide they want to use the land that they have purchased. They have 2 options: they hire the Mafia to evacuate the residents of the land by force, often times by fire and unsuccessful; or they pay a large settlement to help the residents relocate, for which the Mafia gets a large cut.
Political Corruption
Political corruption comes in many shapes and sizes, but it all comes down to the same core problem. We have popular personalities in office that rarely even show up, many of which have charged or accused each other of high-crimes, deals with well-known terrorists and leaders of organizations that have killed hundreds to thousands of our people, attempted deals to give away portions of the country to terrorist organizations and filipino enemies, the list goes on.
At the end of the day, these people are in power for one reason. The core reason. They are allowed to get away with what they do for one reason, the core reason. From Barangay captains to police, to mayors, senators, and higher office. These are suppose to be the representatives of the people. How many ACTUALLY speak for what the majority desire rather than positioning themselves, building hype and causing drama like a day time soap opera?
Poverty
Poverty is the excuse and the biggest symptom of the core problem. People can not find work there is too much red-tape in order to get a job that pays fair wages, it is easier to do things that are illegal even for honest people. I have literally seen people picking up stepped-on peanuts, chips, and other random at-one-time edible food and putting it in their mouths.
So this is the core problem you may be thinking right about now. It explains it all, why people opt for easier albeit degrading work, why there is crime as it's simpler to rob someone than to work an honest day's wages, why we have no time to read into what politicians stand-for and elect someone based on our actual stances rather than the flow of the wave.
It makes sense. YOU ARE WRONG! While poverty is absolutely a HUGE problem in our country, it is not even CLOSE in comparison to the actual core issue. It is also, as with everything else, a symptom.
The Core Problem Is EDUCATION
To recap the other major problems we've discussed thus far, it all comes down to education in the end. The news and popular community say:
It's because that guy was on Shabu that he and his friends raped his 4 month old baby girl repeatedly until she was dead.
NO! That is NOT why they did it. They did it because they had severe problems in their heads, thought they could get away with it, and did not value that angelic baby for who she was. Would they have done it had they not been on drugs? Probably, was it a very easy excuse to use to blame the travesty on to further a political agenda? YES! Shabu, while a very awful drug, does not make you do things like that. The person already has it in them. The drugs just reduce their inhibitions and worry of consequence.
Many that are fighting for the legalization of Cannabis, if only for medical purposes, are met with stone walls. Not with actual evidence that it is bad, to be frank, I've done the research, it's not. It's because of political and media campaigns to shun it, think of it as the worst thing around, and to stay far away from it.
Because of that very fact, the majority of the population does not even know why it was actually made illegal in the first place, the medical and economical benefits the plant has or the fact that nobody has ever died due to Marijuana, where as hundreds of thousands have from tobacco, alcohol, stds, political corruption, and organized crime.
Our children are not educated of the horrors of the world and what organizations, horny men & women, are actually after, what happens after-the-fact. I have seen fathers and mothers pimp out their daughters to work for agencies locally and abroad, knowing full well what the work actually entailed but keeping it to themselves, just for the financial benefit.
We speak in hushed whispers until after the fact, as if it's better to keep them completely innocent until they have been so corrupted they are beyond salvation. Only then do we change our whispers to speak down upon them, for the things that we encouraged them to do for our own financial benefit, feeding their ignorance until it is beyond repair and they become the very enemy we originally sheltered them from.
Sex-Education is beyond ridiculous. Condom sales are at an all-time low by comparison of how much sexual activity our young and old people are participating in. Our STD rates are literally 10,000 times higher in an increase than the global population. How does that even happen? Our children are dying, WE ARE DYING!
College professors are taking time out of their curriculum to have sexual intercourse with their students, teach them how to manipulate foreigners, and speaking of my all time favorite:
Foreigners are attracted to exotic beauties, ugly men & women, dark skin, flat noses, undesirable features.
That could not be further from the truth and it comes back again to proper education. Every culture has it's own definition of beauty. In asian countries like ours, white and light skin is seen as attractive. In many western cultures, instead of using whitening soap and injections, girls sun-bathe nude to darken their skin.
Our people should know to read the news, pay attention to those running for political office, their records, what they stand for, etc. Only those that truly stand for the people and those things that benefit the people should be elected into office. It is easier to ride the wave, but in the end you crash upon the rocks.
Our entire culture is built upon a lack of education, elective ignorance, and the preference to blend-in, be part of the masses regardless of whether it is actually what we stand for or not. We want to be accepted, even if that means we are ignorant and acting in stupidity. We just want to belong, not to be judged, 1 in the many, not 1 to rise above the many.
STEEMIT CAN CHANGE THAT!
Steemit aims to reward those that are thinkers, that share valuable information and knowledge. Not to promote the latest guy that showed his abs on camera, or that hot nip-slip of some female celebrity in boracay.
With Steemit, our people, all people, can focus on education, on knowledge, on using their minds not their bodies or manipulation tactics. We can learn about how to promote our communities, uplift those that are doing great things,
We can create jobs locally based on this spread of education and knowledge and no longer have to export our greatest minds to other countries in search of higher wages. We can pay the wages our people deserve here, now. We just have to learn to respect and admire quality, truth, and knowledge.
We can put politicians in office that stand for the same beliefs that we do, not just a famous actor, boxer, social media celebrity. We can make laws that make sense to us.
Why are we the only remaining country in the world where divorce is illegal while having such a high percentage of single parents, a president that has had an annulment, why do we continue to put up a false facade that everybody outside of our country recognizes as such? Why do we continue to try to fool ourselves?
LET'S STOP BEING STUPID.
Lets encourage our community to join steemit. Let's teach them about how the community here works, how knowledge and education is rewarded, how reputation is given based on quality original content. Lets fix our country with Steemit. It is up to us. The Filipinos, the steemians. This is our best hope. It is an amazing technology and it can truly fix the core problem which in turn resolves all of the others.
Let's Be Steemians.
This is our future. For education, knowledge, the end of poverty, for a better culture, a better country, a better us! Lets rid ourselves of ignorance in the war on drugs, lets reduce prostitution and mail-order-bride schemes, lets call out the corrupt politicians and organized crime, lets reduce the spread of disease, and lets rid ourselves of poverty and the 3rd world title we currently wear. We are Steemians. We are Legion. Start today, there is no excuse not to.
You are very in-tuned with President Duterte's plans of free tuitions to colleges and universities.
Let education be accessible to remove ignorance and open the eyes of the Filipinos to the pollution brought about by copying what they see on televisions, esp. from imperial countries they idolize.
Steemit can help bring this change. To empowerment!
Wow, very impressive article. I do know first hand about the plight of the Philippines and the struggles of the people there. You have made some very valid points. The Philippine people are some of the best people in the world, however they seem to also be taken advantage of their generosity and trust. It's a shame. I would also add that the government contributes to the plight of their people. The labor rules there are archaic to say the least. Too much emphasis is put on feeding the hands of the wealthy there and no rights for workers. The ordeals young people go through to work for low wages and long hours are something that needs to change.
I applaud your optimism regarding Steemit and I hope your dreams as well as many of your fellow countrymen are met through this vehicle. Also you make friends, acquaintances and business partnerships across the world that lead you to higher paths in life. Nobody deserves it more than Filipinos...I mean that sincerely.
The present government is doing something about these and more. Fighting crimes, drug and corruption made rampant by the previous administrations. A lot of these corrupt officials are still in office opposing the President Duterte. Him having 82% satisfaction from the people with the recent survey means he is being maligned with character assassination by the opposition.
If there was ever a president who was pro-poor, it is president Duterte. Who feels the plight of the Filipinos overseas. Who wants free EDUCATION in the Philippines, it is him and NO ONE else.
Child-trafficking is something the department of social welfare and development is working on.
HOPE is what we see in the president...21 million Filipinos is behind him.
This is very true @origongazer. Thank you for appreciating the article that I wrote, your words are taken to heart. I truly hope that through steemit, we can help to spread education and knowledge to our people, encourage a wisdom society which will in turn becomes one of prosperity.
I believe that steemit is one of the best possible vehicles to bring this into fruition and hope we can all make it happen together. Thank you for your kind words for all of us Filipinos, I may not speak for all, but I personally greatly appreciate all you have said.
you have to go out and explore the world you live in buddy!
This was all written based on 1st hand experience. I'm not sure what you mean?
The above qoute is based on first hand experience? I highly doubt it. Check your facts. And by the way, Filipinos do not have enemies! so you better go out now and explore the world you live in. Be factual and be specific otherwise this is giberish.
First hand observation and close proximity rather.
Filipinos do not have enemies? OF COURSE WE DO! We are enemies of each other, enemies of our neighbors and enemies of ourselves.
What do you call the terrorist organizations, and the criminals that kill our people? The politicians that corrupt? Surely not Friends.
There is so much hate on your heart brother. Let it go and spread the love. Maybe the core problem you are talking about is not the lack of Education maybe we just need a bit of love to spread around rather than hate.
Here's a song while you thinker about it
Thats awesome! Kung talumpati ito, hindi aq mgsawang pkinggan mula umpisa hanggang huli,
At the end, change will start at ourselves,
The problem you mention here is pretty common even at the time I was not born yet!
Sometimes, I wander, how about a total change of political system?
I believe in saying:
Revolutionary government na!!!
This is true @albertvhons. Change does not start with a President or an administration. Those do not get into power without change in the people as has been repeatedly demonstrated.
Increased education so that our people can make proper decisions and help guide both our children, and our government in how best to shape our fine country. Steemit can help us achieve that.
are you looking for this ? https://www.rappler.com/nation/177661-duterte-signs-law-free-tuition-state-colleges-universities
@unknownmnl You have very keen observation and analysis of the Philippines' condition. Education you mentioned is definitely needed; the current education system has to be revamped by going thru needs assessment before proposing solutions and continuous evaluation of such programs are ideal.. Sounds ambitious but it takes truly caring hearts and critical thinking minds to be able to address the situation. Go steemians!
Thank you @lemonchum for reading the entire article and responding as such.
As you mentioned, the education system has to be revamped, but so does our government with it's archaic laws to allow for proper education, in school, and at home. It is a community effort, steemit can help be that community!
very very well said @unknownmnl. This is the words i want to say but my fear makes me don't say it. Im scared maybe people will bash me if i stated all this facts.Thank you for bringing this up! 👏🤗
Thank you @haleyaerith, I fear that as you said, it is difficult some times to speak the absolute truth in our society. That is why I am unknown. The ignorant bash before thinking inward and evaluating the truth, it is a true plague on society as a whole.
I'm glad that you agreed with my points and have found value in the post. I've followed you as well, for your courage to comment regardless of your fears of being bashed.
Steem on, and join me in helping to spread steemit throughout our community to help increase education and knowledge for our people!
@unknownmnl thanks for the wonderful and very interesting and powerful messages you got there.. nice article..for the support..i will follow your post and resteemed..hope you will follow me back also and help each other on this community.let's vote each other post and let's be friends..
kindly see also my poem this it the reality on person character which hide on their conceal mask .
https://steemit.com/poetry/@mrblu/poem-the-power-of-deception-faces
Thank you for your kind words. I very much appreciate the resteem as well. I have followed you back per request and hope that together we can continue to grow Steemit within our community to help solve some of these issues!
I should give it a an upvote, we need a better people to help fixing the problem of the Philippines.
Thank you for your support @bobiecayao, you are absolutely right, better people, better ideas, better education to help to fix the problems in the Philippines.
amen
Salamat.
So detailed and lots of good insights. Good article. :)
Thank you for your support @zararina I'm glad you found value in it.