Less in life
Posted on March 17, 2009, 11:59 AM under Political Spectrum
By this time of the year, some people may be organizing their own paliga or the local inter-barangay sports league. As I have said last year, I encourage everyone not to give away money to those who ask for financial help.
I have nothing against helping. We all have instances where we have asked for help. What I dislike is when it becomes regular, to the point that you feel that you have an obligation to support them.
An example are those informal settlers, or more commonly known as squatters. They live in the places they do not own and yet when you ask them to leave, they feel that they are being harassed. And what do they say? “Eh kasi mahirap lang kami.” The landowner then is obliged to look for a place where the squatters could settle in lieu of the land they occupy, when they shouldn’t be there on the first place. We can then expect politicians to use the Lina Law next year to put a stop in the transfer of families from the squatters area.
It’s often said that those who have less in life should have more in law. Whoever said it might have inspired poor people to depend their lives in the government. A culture of mendicancy is being created. People rely on government dole-outs. Besides, they never run out of funds. People approach politicians and ask for money for lots of reasons: the child is in the hospital, the husband was stabbed during an inuman, needs to go to the metro to look for jobs, pampa-birthday, pampa-bubong ng bahay, nakagat ng langgam, etc. Politicians oblige because they know that leadership is personality-based. Come election time, they think that the people whom they helped would vote for them.
What we need is a system where we make people self-sufficient and rely less on the government. I have yet to see a livelihood project that is successful in our town. We need a system that would check out families living in depressed areas and give, not what they need, but opportunity to have them fulfill those needs. We need to put up a mechanism where we discourage people knocking on politician’s doors and beg for money. They should instead go to the barangay officials or the social welfare office. People should be approaching the correct people and the right department.
People who have less in life should have more in law. But isn’t true that the law applies to all, or none at all?
March 18th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
i think that of all your post, this is the most significant.. thanks..
March 18th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
Same comment as Patrick! Significant… I will reserve comments later on …. Quite busy on this “dog eats dog” venture..
May 9th, 2009 at 4:09 am
It has been our culture and Christian values to help those less fortunate but sometimes they became very much dependent and took advantage when one clearly recognize their needs. The bible says, do not give fish to your neighbor every time they need it, once is enough, instead we must teach them how to fish… When we learn about the difficulties faced by the oppressed people in Africa, and in many other parts of the world, we find ourselves thanking God that we, Filipinos are free people. We are hospitable, we help one another and the term bayanihan is still alive in our culture. But we must also know that each one has an obligation to ourselves, to our family, to the society, to our nation and to God. Sometimes we often say that we don’t want to help them but its in our God fearing conscience that dictates us not to neglect them. In our own little way, we still tend to give them, to help them not because we are obliged to do it but for kindness sake and humanitarian consideration. It depends on how every person conceive the suffering of their neighbors, and cope up with what the situation demands. Lina Law is good only to those Land Lords, but to those less fortunate, Lina Law will never exist. So its difficult to find Law that applies in their situation…because Law is the effort of humanity to create principles, and thats the Law of Good Samaritan, where the less fortunate that they are always focus on the principles of Human Rights. I hope you wont mind If ill give you these phrase in the Bible that says: MAY ISANG MAYAMAN AT ISANG MAHIRAP NA SABAY NANALANGIN SA SA HARAP NG DIYOS…ANG SABI NG MAYAMAN, “PANGINOON, SINUNOD KO ANG SABI MO NA IPAMIGAY KO ANG AKING MGA ARIARIAN AT NAGBIBIGAY AKO NG MALAKING HALAGA SA PAGAWAIN NG SIMBAHAN, TUMUTULONG AKO SA MGA DUKHA, HINDI AKO KATULAD NG ISANG TAONG NARITO NA WALANG SILBI, MAGNANAKAW AT WALA NAITULONG SA KAPWA”, SAMANTALA ANG ISANG MAHIRAP NASA ISANG SULOK AT NANALANGIN NG TAIMTIM, AT ANG SABI “PANGINOON, PATAWARIN MO AKO SA AKING MGA KASALANAN”. Sa palagay nyo, sino sa kanila ang pinagpala ng nasa langit?
Although, helping the less fortunate is never a solution to cover up the mess with what the people in our Government is doing, where we are in the ERA of Graft and corrupt that threatens to envelop in the entire bureaucracy of our government, still we are in the ERA where TOO FEW HAS TOO MANY, AND TOO MANY HAS TOO LESS…WE are in the ERA where there are few islets in our society, in an ocean of extreme poverty, social and economic inequity. What can a certain Juan dela Cruz contribute in making of a nation, to be totally free from hunger, a truly free and just society?? A society that every Filipino can live decently and can never be discriminated by the entire human race…The question is: DO WE HAVE THE BOLDNESS TO BEGIN??
May 31st, 2009 at 6:56 am
HELPING AND GIVING DEPEND ON HOW YOU FEEL. IF YOU FEEL GOOD IN DOING SO, THEN DO SO… AT LEAST YOU DO YOUR PART AND IN GOOD CONSCIENCE.