if you think the Philippines is poor..

[Psalm136:2]

Tsk, tsk, tsk.
Tao nga naman, nakaranas lang ng konting kaginhawaan, puro lait at yabang na. Sana malaman nila na wala silang maipagmamalaki sa Diyos pag pumanaw na sila.

Ako, maski wala sa Pinas, saludo ako sa mga taong nagpaiwan at patuloy na lumalaban sa kahirapan, maski anong mangyari. I long to return home someday and be one of them in rebuilding our country.

[badkuk]

sir orly, pagkakaalam ko taiwan, korea and japan also "exported" labor -- including entertainers/call girls -- to other countries nung medyo naghihirap sila. ang nakaganda lang, issues of morality aside, they were able to capitalize on the sacrifices of those people and took a great leap forward. we on the other hand seem to have a habit of falling all over ourselves

[H1Tman]

IMO the philippines is poor. And knowing other countries are worse should not make us feel better. Instead we should strive to outperform countries ahead of us. We should not be happy with the consolation prize. Let's aim for the first.

[need4speed]

i had to go to bangladesh for a business trip a few months back... gives you a whole new perspective in life and be thankful for what you have

[StraightSix]

sir orly, pagkakaalam ko taiwan, korea and japan also "exported" labor

As an example, Kennon Road was built using Chinese and Japanese laborers. A lot of them settled in the Cordilleras after that.

[BoyFerrari]

This thread is just a "feel good" thread by comparing the Philippines with a country that is much worse.

Japan's economy was wiped out after World War 2 - nuked twice at that! You can say that both Japan and the Philippines started at zero after World War 2. Now how come Japan is now a First World Country while the Philippines is still stuck in the 3rd World?

You also cannot use the number of malls in the country to say whether Pinas is poor or not. These malls were financed by billionaire tycoons. Examine the malls, halos lahat pare-pareho ang laman sa loob: Jollibee, National Bookstore, Abenson, .... I bet almost half of the stores inside the malls are food-related. And you also have to consider that many shops inside these malls have not yet recovered their investment - perhaps it will take them 20 years before they can recover their capital.

A good measure to know whether your country is poor is to measure the "buying power" of your currency AND how much of the population can afford the cost of living in that country. If your country still needs to implement an EVAT just to pay-off its galactic foreign debt, your country must be poor.

[bad driver]

As an example, Kennon Road was built using Chinese and Japanese laborers. A lot of them settled in the Cordilleras after that.

really? wow that explains why some people I know from baguio (supposedly igorot) are light skinned and chinese looking.

hmmm. we've had 20 years of "freedom" na from martial law and marcos. I think we need another jolt of some sort. wag naman sana gyera.

[w777]

Mahirap talaga ang Pilipinas na lalo pang pinaghihirap ng mga taong namumuno rito. Magkaroon pa ba ng malaking utang ang bansa kung mayaman ito. Magtataka talaga kayo kung bakit sa paghihirap ng bansa ay yaon namang lubos na pag-unlad ng buhay ng mga leader nito.

[nicolodeon]

Japan's economy was wiped out after World War 2 - nuked twice at that! You can say that both Japan and the Philippines started at zero after World War 2. Now how come Japan is now a First World Country while the Philippines is still stuck in the 3rd World?

A number of reasons for this. After WWII, the Americans had a tinge of guilt over what they did to Japan, which is of course the two atomic bomb drops. Add to the guilt the recommendations of analysts then that the U.S. would benefit more strategically and economically in the future if they help "rehabilitate" Japan first over the Philippines. Of course, then President Truman shared this view. So what did they do? They came up with something similar to the Marshall Plan that helped Western Europe (West Germany in particular) to get up on it's feet again. Through this plan, the US "prioritized" who is on their best-interest-to-help list. Unfortunately, the Philippines was never in ths list. Well, we were was but the ranking was not high enough. Only Gen. McArthur did not share this view. So, through this plan, tons of resources (manpower, money, raw materials, etc.) was allocated for Japan and was eventually given. They American politicians then left the Philippines in the cold. Not all American citizens shared their government's views but unfortunately their voice was not heard. So, while the Americans gave money to the Japanese to jump-start their nation, we were given practically nothing even if the Philippines received the most devastation among allied colonies in WWII.

You can also attribute it to the Japanese people. They decided to work as a nation and suck it up so that they'd be up on their feet in no time. Given the Japanese thousand-years traditions that expounds on hard work, discipline, frugality and dilligence, the nation was able to rise from the rubles of war in within a decade or so after WWII. The Japanese are fiercely nationalistic and love their nation. Even if the Japanese back then did not relish the idea of Hirohito being just a figurehead and McArthur being the "governor" of Japan, they sucked it up because they love their nation even through adversity and hardships. Can we say the same about Filipinos? Admit it, most of us only think on how bad the Philippines is and how bad the Filipino is.

I've a number of Japanese and Singaporean friends. All of them have the opinion that we Filipinos only see the what's bad in our country, that we are not nationalistic, that would glady trade our citizenship for a "fistfull of dollars" abroad, that whatever government we have or no matter who sits in government, the government is always wrong and that we lack pride in being Filipinos. They also mentioned that compared to some Asian cultures (e.g. Japan, Korea, Singapore and Malaysia) we Pinoys lack discipline, and that we are not frugal enough.

[scarab]

...kaya ata pinupush ng office namen yang 5S philosophy.