NOTE: Pahabol lang po, dahil one week akong "absent":

Is the Philippines really that poor? My answer would be no. I've been to a lot of countries that are poorer. I've traveled their countryside and met their people. Many of them are "mahirap pa sa mahirap na daga". But IMO, the Philippines is generally poor.

Yes, a lot of Filipino households have all the ameneties of a...."comfortable life", if one can call it that. Electronic gadgets and gizmos, automobiles and a whole menagerie of "luxuries" that a lot of Filipinos take for granted.

I used the word "luxuries" becuase only a relatively small percentage of Filipino households in the entire nation have all or any of these. Due to my work, I've been around the Philippines and I've visited places where the poverty and hardship I saw is downheartening. Consider: one family of five living just by a peso of patis for ulam. They only eat two meals a day.

There are a lot of cynics I've met during my travels that say "Anak kasi sila ng anak. Mahirap na nga, tanga pa - hindi nag-iisip" or "Wala naman kasi silang pinag-aralan, kaya wala silang pupuntahan". But the thing is, Who are they to judge? Who am I to judge?

Who's to blame? Oh, everybody blames anybody they can think of: the government, the church, the leftist, the rightists, foreign governments, religion, the noranians, the vilmanians and what have you. Then, who's to blame? Personally, I don't know.