Poverty...

Poverty is the deprivation of a human’s basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water, all of which determine our quality of life and necessary for maintaining life. And many sociologists try to explain poverty but not many can come to an agreement. Some say it's the lack of jobs, while others say it's the poor who are lazy. But still there are more theories on poverty than these. As for the documentary film, she’s not only the person in the world which had this case like hers. It’s all over the world and it’s gradually becoming one of the worst problems this world would ever have, as Mahatma Gandhi called Poverty as the worst form of violence. On the other hand, poverty has 2 major definitions- Relative Poverty and Absolute Poverty. The condition of lacking of the minimum food and shelter necessary for maintaining life is known as Absolute Poverty. According to the conducted surveys done by the sociologist, today it is estimated that more than 35 million Americans, about 14 percent of its population, do experience and live in poverty. However, these are accompanied with controversies and biases, just like all other social science statistics. Some estimates of poverty in the United States of America range from 10 to 21 percent depending on one’s political inclinations. This is why a lot of sociologists nowadays prefer the Relative one rather than the Absolute, definition of Poverty. They define Relative Poverty as those who live and are experiencing under poverty whose lacking what is basically needed by most of Americans in order for them to live decently. These are also the people who earn less than half of the country’s average income. With this, the standard says 20 percent live in poverty, and this has been in effect for 40 years from then to now. Of these 20 percent, 60 percent of it came from working class poor. Sociologists too gave what are their causes and effects toward poverty. As a summarization, Poverty has many causes. Some of it is just basic that if we think of it, it’s very possible to solve this. Sociologists suggest, for instance, that the world has became too overpopulated, with too few job offers and opportunities and with not enough food for everyone, but such essential causes are obstinate which can’t be easily removed or eliminated. In most cases, Poverty’s causes and effects do interrelate. So what makes them poor will build circumstances that will still keep them as poor. However, major factors that may lead to poverty include overpopulation, unequal distribution of resources, inability to cope with the increasing high standards of living today, illiteracy or having insufficient education, job opportunities, environmental deprivation, economic and demographic development, and welfare incentives. On the other hand, its effects were just summarized. The factors of the effects include being unhealthy or not-well being, leads to homelessness, having debts, lack of educational attainment, which may lead to lesser job opportunities, committing crimes and a stigma for their selves. Nevertheless, there’s a feminist perspective on Poverty as well, that may clearly relate to as what the lead female character in the documentary is experiencing in real life. For long years, at last, this generation and the past decades too have witnessed what they so-called Feminization of Poverty. This is the considerable increase of numbers of single women in poverty alone all over the worlds, which mostly are single –parents. For the past 30 years the decades the amount of poor families headed by women has increased up to more than 50 percent. Most of this mainly affects the group of African-American women. However, this feminization of Poverty may be linked to abundant changes in America today. The boosts in unwanted pregnancy, separations, and divorces have obliged increasing statistics of women to lead poor households. Meanwhile, increases in separated fathers who stowaway child support attached with diminution in welfare support have strained many of these women-headed households to belong in the lowest class of the society. Furthermore, women generally live longer than men, thus growing numbers of elderly women live in poverty. Feminists also attribute the Feminization of Poverty to women's vulnerability brought about by the patriarchal, sexist, and gender-biased nature of the Western society, which does not value on defending women's rights.

http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/CliffsReviewTopic/Causes-and-Effects-of-Poverty.topicArticleId-26957,articleId-26882.html

http://www.fightpoverty.mmbrico.com/poverty/reasons.html#causes

 http://www.childreninwales.org.uk/areasofwork/childpoverty/endchildpovertynetwork/2156/2160/index.html

Poverty...

Poverty is very visible in our society. We can see poor people on sidewalks, streets, establishments, beside rivers, open lots; almost everywhere. As a matter of fact, 32.9% (2006 est.) live below the poverty line which is quite alarming. Poverty is great problem and is somewhat very hard for us to solve. In the past administrations, they always say that they want to fight poverty, to stop it or at least lessen it. Do they succeed on at least decreasing the amount of people that lives in the poor sector? We always blame the government and the system, that people are poor because they are not doing their job well. Is the government the only one to blame? For me, both the government and the poor people are the ones to be blamed for making poverty worst.


So first, it’s the fault of the government because of “CORRUPTION”. We can’t deny that fact that it’s the government’s fault because it’s the job of the government to take care and to make sure that the funds are used for the betterment of the country, not just for a couple of people. Funds are very important because without it, you can’t make “quality” projects and worst, you can’t start a project. Because of corruption, funds that are allocated for education, health, housing, small business and livelihood projects, which aim to alleviate the situation of the poor sector, are put up in vain. With the lack of funds, these projects can’t give out the best, resulting in bad services for the poor. Old and worn out books, chairs, crowded classrooms, not that good teachers, are what the students in public schools get while substandard materials, bad planning and placing, are the things to expect in housing projects because bad financing. Livelihood and small business became eaten by larger groups and companies because of the lack in support. Second, because of corruption and illegal activities, politicians that are good at heart became overwhelmed by the corrupt and twisted officials, making the good ones powerless and eventually, become one with the bad side. They will create laws that are easy to bend and that will benefit them, not the people. Projects that they will pass will have hidden agendas, where they can manipulate every single detail to favor them. With the corrupt officials dominating the system, the outcome would be increase in poverty.


The poor people are poor because of what they are doing with their lives. If we will try to ask them on how many members are there in their family, mostly it will be more than 4. Although they know that they can’t support their basic needs, they still propagate, increasing our population and the poor people. If they can’t manage the family’s basic necessities, then how can they be able to support the most important thing which is education? Most of the poor people didn’t finish High School or even Grade School making them jobless. Because of the lack of opportunities for them and because of their situation, it leads them into committing serious crimes. Another thing that makes them poor is because of their lifestyle. We can see them puffing a cigar almost every day, immersing themselves on illegal gambling, videoke bars, and drinking beer with their fellows. These are vices can ruin the life of a good person; what more if they are poor? Then they will be “poorest of the poor.”


https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2046.html 

Intervention on Humanity...

Intervention on humanity in the world is a particularly crucial thing. It prevents crimes against humanity and deliberate systematic destruction of racial, political or cultural group. Human intervention can commence in a nation’s goal of peace keeping especially during war and as humanitarian aid to countries that are experiencing natural calamities, epidemics and other plagues which endangers the lives of the people living in it. Unfortunately, despite the importance of human intervention, the international community is less likely to undertake meaningful and effective humanitarian intervention in the coming years because of failure to develop an adequate legal basis for the doctrine of humanitarian intervention and by the number of geo-political factors that mitigates against it. As such, the international community has lost one of its key tools to prevent crimes against humanity.


The doctrine of humanitarian intervention in international law typically refers to the threat or use of force by a state, group of states, or international organization primarily for the purpose of protecting the nationals of a particular state from widespread deprivations of internationally recognized human rights, including genocide and crimes against humanity. Because the doctrine is not expressly recognized in the Charter of the United Nations (UN) as a permissible basis for using force, many states and scholars oppose its use, at least when exercised without authorization by the UN Security Council. Nevertheless, some states and scholars favor the use of the doctrine in extreme situations on the grounds that, in any just legal system, the value of preventing the loss of life and suffering must outweigh the value of normative constraints on the use of transnational force.


Throughout this period, however, there was no accepted prohibition on states' resort to the use of armed force in international law, so the concept of humanitarian intervention was not an exception to a general prohibition but, rather, a basis for explaining why an intervention was just. Thus, the basic UN Charter paradigm is that states are prohibited from using force against other states, but may do so when they are acting in self-defense against an armed attack or when authorized by the UN Security Council. The Security Council, in turn, is only empowered to act when there is a "threat to the peace," which was originally conceived as transnational threats. The doctrine of humanitarian intervention does not fit easily within this paradigm, since a state that uses force to protect the human rights of another state's nationals is not acting in self-defense against an armed attack and, in many instances, the deprivation of human rights may not entail a threat to transnational peace. Humanitarian Intervention can either give a positive effect or negative effect on a certain country. Depending on how are we going to use it or the motive of using it. Humanitarian intervention with gravely affect millions of lives that is why there’s still no definite rule on its implementation.

Migration...

Migration in the Philippines seems to be endless because of people who goes abroad seeking for a greener pasture and better life, enough source of income for their families, good education for their children, to own a fully furnished house, a brand new car, a business of their own, and to experience luxury which they find difficult and impossible to have when they stay in the Philippines. This gives a negative effect to our country because we lose our professionals and skilled workers who are supposedly contributing to our countries economy. We lose many of our competent and productive workers. Since early ’70s the Philippines has supplied all kinds of skilled and low-skilled workers to the world’s more develop3ed regions. Many Filipinos were working or residing in close countries. Migration remains an important alternative for many Filipinos on the lookout for a job or better salaries. In the year 2000 the total number of overseas workers deployed abroad increased over the previous year. The figure includes both migrant workers as well as seafarers. Among migrants are both workers going abroad for the first time or with a new contract, as well as workers returning to their job after some vacation at home. Most migrants are deployed either to Asian countries or to the Middle East. Among the top destination countries, Saudi Arabia remains number one, followed by Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates. Millions of Filipinos eager to work abroad, despite the risk and vulnerabilities they are likely to face. The government facilitates migration, regulates the operations of the recruitment agencies, and looks out for the rights of its migrant workers. More importantly, the remittances workers send home have become a pillar of countries economy. Right now, foreign trade and investment relies on overseas development assistance followed by the export of Filipino labor. In fact remittances sent by overseas Filipinos have outstripped both foreign direct investment and overseas development assistance which have declined the past several years.


Filipinos, being extremely family-centered, would above all remit earnings to the family left behind. The standard of living of these families would improve considerably, and their status in the community elevated commensurate to the remitted green bucks. However, migration has also an impact in the social lives of both the migrants and the families left behind. Families may be indefinitely separated. We are well familiar with stories of migrant Filipinas concerning the alienation of their children. They have become the "dollar mommies" with little personal closeness to their offspring. The husband-wife relationship deteriorates as well due to long separation. It is not unusual to hear of extra-marital affairs done by the husband while the wife is abroad. However, this is not the trend. Studies indicate that marriage and family life have generally remained stable.⁴ Women migrants particularly experience isolation especially when language is totally foreign. They are also forced to live in a foreign culture that has low regard for poorer countries. Abuse in many forms is common in these situations.

Media...

Media in the Philippines is widely extended all over the country. There are government run, most of them are privately owned. There are newspaper such as Manila Bulletin, the Philippine Star, Philippine Daily Inquirer, The Manila Times and Business World. There are many television stations, AM and FM radio broadcast stations, shortwave stations. Much Media ownership is concentrated in the hands of prominent families and businesses. We have freedom of speech and freedom of the press so they can express the ideas of the people about what’s happening around them. Media in the Philippines serves as an eye opener to those who are in position or belong to the upper level of the community, those who do not see what is happening to the little and the poor people around them. Media also serves as the voice of the people who are unheard and neglected. Media bridges the gap between the rich and the poor people, the government and the people under them, and also the people seeking their lost ones.

The office of the president is responsible for managing the government’s policy toward the press. Although independent observers credit the government with respecting freedom of the press in general, the government has been criticized for failing to investigate thoroughly summary killings of journalists and for subjecting journalists to harassment and surveillance. The goal of the media may it be a journalist or a newscaster and reporters is to show the people what’s happening around. May it be political, economical, educational, medical, weather, sports and entertainment, and everything that needs to be informed to the people. They wanted to give information so that people becomes less ignorant of what’s happening beyond of what we can see and know of. The media in the Philippines is very transparent in criticizing the wrong doings of prominent people especially the politicians and celebrities. A Person who work with this kind of job does not only work for their families, but for other people as well. They put their lives at risk whenever they cover dangerous incidents, most of them has received death threats by uncovering true stories and illegal activities, to the extent of some of them being ambushed.

In return, we give respect and recognition to the journalists who really give their heart and life to serve the people and the country. They are one of our modern heroes that spend most of their time doing their jobs. We admire their dedication to their work because it’s not easy to work almost 24 hours a day with all the pressure and the danger they go through, the sacrifice they make when they are separated from their loved ones. 

Climate change...

Climate change in the world is the most important threat to the Earth. It affects not only the Philippines but all the countries around the world. Climate change makes our environment unstable. Climate change is the cause of Global warming and Heat wave. It also triggers some natural calamities such as Super typhoons, floods, tornados, earthquakes, landslides, Soil erosions. Climate change is caused by the holes in the ozone layer, because of this the Earth becomes vulnerable to the UV rays coming from the sun. These results to the loss of properties, lives of people and animals, the crops destroyed. It’s all because of our activities which damages our environment. We have abused our nature, and now the nature is taking its course to open our eyes on what we have done. It is our responsibility to take care and manage our Mother Earth and the gifts that she is giving us. Industrialization, deforestation, and pollution have greatly increased atmospheric concentrations of water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, all greenhouse gases that help trap heat near Earth's surface. Humans are pouring carbon dioxide into the atmosphere much faster than plants and oceans can absorb it.

Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather over periods of time that range from decades to millions of years. There are places that have different climates some changes may be limited to specific region or may occur across the whole earth. Some experts point out those natural cycles in Earth's orbit can alter the planet's exposure to sunlight, which may explain the current trend. Earth has indeed experienced warming and cooling cycles roughly every hundred thousand years due to these orbital shifts, but such changes have occurred over the span of several centuries. Today's changes have taken place over the past hundred years or less.

Because of climate change, Glaciers around the world could melt, causing sea levels to rise while creating water shortages in regions dependent on runoff for fresh water. Strong hurricanes, droughts, heat waves, wildfires, and other natural disasters may become commonplace in many parts of the world. The growth of deserts may also cause food shortages in many places. More than a million species face extinction from disappearing habitat, changing ecosystems, and acidifying oceans. The ocean's circulation system, known as the ocean conveyor belt, could be permanently altered, causing a mini-ice age in Western Europe and other rapid changes. At some point in the future, warming could become uncontrollable by creating a so-called positive feedback effect. Rising temperatures could release additional greenhouse gases by unlocking methane in permafrost and undersea deposits, freeing carbon trapped in sea ice, and causing increased evaporation of water. 

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/01/0107_040107_extinction.html

Corruption...

        

        Corruption in the Philippines is an endless battle between the nation and it’s supposedly leaders. These people, who are in position and the power to control, are abusing the people and the community. To this day, corruption becomes a very common activity to some people from the rich and powerful to the poor and little squatters. Corruption is everywhere regardless the economic status. These kinds of people work hard to make a high living. They want material things that resort to harm the environment like illegal logging and dynamite fishing. This activities cause damage not only to the nature but to the people’s lives as well. They even worsen and become greedy with their arrogant ambitions. Throughout history, we have seen how people slowly become corrupt, even though they were not that way before. They began with small sins that seem to be excusable even such wrong doing can develop into deeper forms of evil that destroy a person’s integrity and character. This happens because they are not satisfied to what they have, they ask more and wanted to make themselves famous. Their selfish interest makes it worse. The misuse of public money for private gain poses a very grave challenge to the nation’s development in the Philippines. The magnitude of the problem is staggering both the rich and poor are doing this corruption. Among the challenges to national development in the Philippines are graft and corruption, which are manifest in many various forms including bribery, kickbacks, vote buying, and ghost employees. They collect money every payday as their salaries but they are not real employees. Some government employees use some money for their own needs instead on the project of the government for the infrastructure, for education, school buildings, books and materials for studying, for health centers and medicine, doctors and nurses, additionally, corruptions facilities criminal enterprises such as black marketing and illegal gambling syndicates. They did their evil acts to the extent of hurting other people. They became criminals for their activities, they forget the good values and being a good citizen to our country.  Corruption has both political and socio-cultural roots. The political system and its institution allow graft and corruption to flourish, but its people, not institution who are rubbing government funds. They find ways to kickback from the funds of the government. Our country is one of the most corrupt countries in Asia. During the Marcos regime in the late 1980’s it’s the most corrupt government of all times because of his highest position as a president of the country, he has the power to do so. In every aspect of his life he enjoyed so much being the president of the country.  He has the freedom to do whatever he wants and the power to make people follow his orders. The situations has improved in 2006, there are changes that happen rated the Philippines less corrupt than 51 of 163 nations but ranking among Asian nations is not good. During the term of the ex-president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, corruption is said to be worse than the Marcos regime. She has been tagged as the most corrupt president our country has ever had. She spent too much not only for the improvement of our country but also for her own interest. She went to different countries to borrow billions of money and to invite foreign investors to invest their money in the Philippines.