I believe that the Phils has the potential to do well. But to say that "The Philippines is (currently) doing very well" ...Do we honestly believe that we can tell this statement with a straight face to the thousands of Filipinos living in poverty?
Usually, I belong to the optimistic bunch but with what's happening in the Philippines now...I just feel so frustrated. Got the following from a Newsweek's article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8444215/site/newsweek/ The backdrop to this sordid political soap opera is a country that's become truly bleak. Once at the vanguard of the political change that swept the globe in the 1980s, the Philippines has turned out to be the clown in a class of new democracies. Its economy is growing but hamstrung by a serious debt problem, 25 percent of the population lives in abject poverty and corruption is arguably as bad as during the Marcos era. Perhaps the saddest measure of all is the daily exodus. Last year the Philippines "exported" more than a million people to work fishing boats in the Pacific, build skyscrapers in Dubai or change nappies in places like Hong Kong and Singapore. Ironically, even the chief architect of democratization now perceives "a fatal flaw" in the system. In an essay published last April, former president Corazon Aquino argued that entrenched institutions, including the police, the courts and most ministries, remained arrayed against change in the Philippines. "Even the best and the brightest... could not wrestle governance out of the grips of corruption, patronage, and inefficiency," she wrote. According to polls by Pulse Asia, the public's trust in government has eroded dangerously because successive administrations have failed to deliver what average people want mosta better standard of living. Between 1990 and 2002, the average annual growth of per capita income was 1.1 percent. The country's fiscal condition is indeed dire. Today a third of government spending goes to servicing foreign and domestic debt totaling $55 billion. The country's narrow tax base compounds the problem: of the 31 million workers who are supposed to pay taxes, fewer than a third actually doand most of them are middle class. The country's total population, forecast to top 85 million this year, is growing so rapidly that it eats up much of the annual economic gains. Even with GDP expanding at a respectable 4.6 percent clip in the first quarter of 2005, most of the country's growth is driven by energy exports that do little to boost employment or shrink the ranks of the poor. Unemployment now stands at 8.9 percent. Perhaps most disturbing: the country's middle class has atrophied as entrepreneurs and professionals emigrate in droves to find work overseas. With its weak institutions, rogue military (there have been eight coup attempts since 1986) and near-continuous political turmoil, it's fair to ask if the Philippines is a failed democracy. Were Arroyo to resign, Vice President Noli de Castro would take the helm. The former television news anchor was the top vote getter nationally in his 2001 senatorial race, but he's perceived as a lightweight who would struggle to solve the many problems facing the Philippines. But, then, so has just about everybody else. --- In [email protected], [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Ask our other classmates to subscribe, tell them to send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/4c-math94/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
