(I received an email today forwarded by Migrant groups in Europe about the disappearance again of another political activist. His name is James Balao a community organizer and member of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (http://www.cpaphils.org/) I wrote emails to friends to disseminate the information as a way of helping and supporting him and his family. The kidnapping is allegedly perpetrated by the elements of the Intelligence Agents of the Armed Forced of the Philippines (AFP). I wrote this lengthy blog for him and to the countless others who disappeared and got killed)
The Philippines is rich in natural resources. It has fertile, arable lands, diverse flora and fauna, extensive coastlines, and rich mineral deposits. England on one hand is a country rich only in coal (powerful uling), all the rest of their resources are insignificant. Having said that, if the natural resources of the Philippines will be used exclusively by its people, pound for pound, kilo by kilo Filipinos will be one of the richest people in the world. But it is perplexing to reckon that we are one of the poorest economies in the world. That is accurate not only by the measure of the GDP and GNP of our economy, but also by the collective sentiments of our fellow countrymen “kababayans”. So, what am I driving at?
Simple! I am confused and am short of getting really angry knowing that despite of our rich natural resources we are the world’s poorest of the poor. While my adoptive country, England who does not have anything except coals which actually at present have been depleted already is living in abundance. They do not even have spices before that grow here. That is why they have to go to the Far East to trade and to barter whatever produce they have for the spice. Yes, I am talking about the spice trade here my dear. Truth is the only spice that came from England are the Spice Girls.
England conquered and stole almost one third of the world’s resources. India is a good example. England and its distant cousin Spain, Portugal and France plundered the whole world, during the colonialist era. Followed by the emerging powers like Japan, US and Germany. History has not been very good to the people of Africa, South America and Asia. In particular I must say history has been very cruel to the Filipinos.
After the smokes of colonialism cleared up during the World War II. Filipinos had never tasted comfort of our own, except for the very few elite, who took turns in governing vis-à-vis plundering our country.
After the smokes of colonialism cleared up during the World War II. Filipinos had never tasted comfort of our own, except for the very few elite, who took turns in governing vis-à-vis plundering our country.
As far as I can remember since I was a child, most of my playmates have their daddy working in Saudi as a contract worker, digging oils in the dessert or their moms working in Italy as domestic helpers. Almost everyone in the neighborhood have relatives in America, pursuing their American dream.
When l grew up not only my playmates moms, dads, cousins and relatives are going. Ultimately my playments who by then become adults are going abroad as well to look for greener pastures, so to speak. The promise land in the west, where they say it is filled with milk and honey. Even for my adventurous playmates life was still a bit of a mystery. For one even Moses was not able to enter the promise land. Well good thing there is an alternative to the american dream. There is Japan for those who failed get to pass the US Immigration Service. For others Pinoys they can climb the mountains of Morroco to go to Italy and become domestic house maids if they are unsuccessful to be pick by caucassians as mail to order bride in Germany and France.
By some struck of fate, I found myself in England, a place I never really wanted to go in the first place. Here, I found out that while everybody in the Philippines go crazy about the ever worsening crisis. People here have a time to party and relax. It is a maddening discovery for me. While we Filipinos think of saving money so that we will have something to get in times of emergency, like for example getting sick. So you will have the money to pay for the doctor, medicines and hospital. In England such is not the case.
They have the National Health Service where they could get free medical and nursing services and almost free medicines as well (you only have to pay a standard prize usually £7 and you will get all your medicines in their full package, complete dosage for the antibiotics, all in the prize of one). So what my British brothers will worry about is saving up for their holiday to the Bahamas or to Thailand. They will not even have to worry if they get laid off from their job, it is just easy to file a jobseekers allowance and housing benefits to pay off their mortgages or rent. Plus being on benefits they get everything almost for free, dental check up, travel reimbursement. If they have kids, it is even more fabulous, as they can claim for more tax credit (discounts) and further child support benefits and income support for each of their kids, the more the merrier. In numerical terms a job-seeker allowance is on the average £ 60 per week, housing benefit is £150, Income support is a further £60 so in a month an unemployed single individual can get over £1,000. If they have kids they can even double this amount. Talk about the European credit crunch, give me a break.
It is surprising how England can give so much to their citizen. They are already a rich country, their standard of living is one of the highest in the world and the citizen gets a lot from their government.
In contrast, Philippines is one of the poorest economies of the world, health care is not free at most it is privately owned, commercialized and profit driven. The price of drugs in the Philippines is the second most expensive in the world. Health is a commodity that you have to pay. The free service given by government in public hospital is just a token. Only the medical and nursing services is free, you have to buy everything from the cotton balls, cannula, butterfly needles, gauze, name it and you have to buy it. And in a country where 46 million goes hungry (http://www.chdphilippines.org/) or half of the population do not have enough to feed their hungry stomach, Health is not a priority. In fact the people are not a priority of the government. The Filipino people now are the government commodity. They export the people. Philippines have become the number one exporter of Nurses and Doctors in the world.
In the UK, Filipino nurses accounts to over 50,000 or almost 15% of the nursing staff in the whole National Health Services (excluding the senior carers and Health Care Assistant). Nurse’s alones contribute almost £45,000,000 in the UK economy with the taxes they pay to the government that goes on the average 22% of their monthly take home salaries. Double that figure and you get the amount repatriated to the Philippines in terms of their padala to their families at home. We call the nurses and the “OFW” heroes because they keep the Philippine economy afloat in the ever worsening economic crisis that we are in. I call them heroes because they do what the government of the Philippines failed to do, to take care of its own citizenry.
When the mother of my friend Rachab sufffered a stroke, his sister gave him an automatic SOS flag asking for a huge amount of money to pay for the hospitalization expenses of their mother. Unfortunately the Philippines have no NHS to take care of this concerns. Rachab will have to pay for the medicines, for the hospital bed, for the doctors, for the physical therapist and to all the people who could possibly charged her mother with hospital expenses. Rachab will often times cry as he knows he can do a more competent nursing care for his ailing mother he cries because he feels guilty that he can take care of the people here in England, British People for that matter but cannot do it for his own mother.
But he has to work, for himself, for his family in the Philippines. An empty table during dinner is enough to convince him to stay in the UK. He works terribly hard and 22% of the toil he has done will go to the UK government to pay for the social services it gives to its people. The story of Rachab doesn’t stops there, although he is already British, some racist homeboy will pick on him because he looks different, he maybe British but he has a brown skin. He get assaulted sometimes as most NHS workers is prone to assault by patients or relatives. Majority of victims are of ethnic minorities. Violence is not an uncommon thing in the NHS, despite the fact that European’s talks about equal opportunies, racial equality and non-discrimination. Sometimes just like Tony Blair, Brits are good with talks but that’s all about in it. Well, Rachab case is just a subtle one, even if I forgot to mention that his Line Manager is picking on him always to the point of bullying him. His case is just typical of those who came to England legally, but imagine those who came legally and overstayed. This are the most vulnerable Filipinos in the UK they are the domestic helpers, nanny, builders and other piecemeal workers. They do not enjoy the protection of law they are bullied, discriminated and violated. The only crime they committed is that they loved their families so much they would want to give them a future, and the only future they can see is to get away from our country and to work anywhere else except the Philippines. If you take into account those Filipinos who are victims of human trafficking, who works in the most desolated areas of the world selling their labor and sometimes selling their bodies, I will just have to close my eyes and sigh imagining the inhumane and detestable situation they are in.
I remember a political activist in the Netherlands who said in an interview. Ganito na lang ba tayong mga Pilipino, taga hugas ng puwet, taga linis ng bahay, at parausan ng mga dayuhan. Kawawa naman tayo, ano pa ba ang hinaharap nating future.
I get mad of all this things, I get confused. But this is reality. I ask myself the cliche.
Why is it that my country, the Philippines, is the richest in the world in terms of its natural resources and its people, and yet we are one of the poorest among the poor?
Is it because we have brown skin or is it because we are poor?
The issue of colonialism, poverty, inequality, discrimination forever follows me, wherever I go. Its not really a surprise that after working for several years and we qualify for naturalization, we jump to grab the quickest time to swear allegiance to our adoptive country's constitution to get rid of our Philippine passport. Who has become like a scarlet letter of some sort. Or a jinx magnet that says hey I am a Filipino, use and abuse me. Haay!!! Just like all the rest of Pinoy life has become difficult, to start with, it never was easy on the first place.
It would have been a little bearable if our government take care of us. But then it becomes even more difficult and us even poorer not only in terms of material things but also in spirit. When the government starts to disappear and kill their own people who dare speak the language of TRUTH.
By some struck of fate, I found myself in England, a place I never really wanted to go in the first place. Here, I found out that while everybody in the Philippines go crazy about the ever worsening crisis. People here have a time to party and relax. It is a maddening discovery for me. While we Filipinos think of saving money so that we will have something to get in times of emergency, like for example getting sick. So you will have the money to pay for the doctor, medicines and hospital. In England such is not the case.
They have the National Health Service where they could get free medical and nursing services and almost free medicines as well (you only have to pay a standard prize usually £7 and you will get all your medicines in their full package, complete dosage for the antibiotics, all in the prize of one). So what my British brothers will worry about is saving up for their holiday to the Bahamas or to Thailand. They will not even have to worry if they get laid off from their job, it is just easy to file a jobseekers allowance and housing benefits to pay off their mortgages or rent. Plus being on benefits they get everything almost for free, dental check up, travel reimbursement. If they have kids, it is even more fabulous, as they can claim for more tax credit (discounts) and further child support benefits and income support for each of their kids, the more the merrier. In numerical terms a job-seeker allowance is on the average £ 60 per week, housing benefit is £150, Income support is a further £60 so in a month an unemployed single individual can get over £1,000. If they have kids they can even double this amount. Talk about the European credit crunch, give me a break.
It is surprising how England can give so much to their citizen. They are already a rich country, their standard of living is one of the highest in the world and the citizen gets a lot from their government.
In contrast, Philippines is one of the poorest economies of the world, health care is not free at most it is privately owned, commercialized and profit driven. The price of drugs in the Philippines is the second most expensive in the world. Health is a commodity that you have to pay. The free service given by government in public hospital is just a token. Only the medical and nursing services is free, you have to buy everything from the cotton balls, cannula, butterfly needles, gauze, name it and you have to buy it. And in a country where 46 million goes hungry (http://www.chdphilippines.org/) or half of the population do not have enough to feed their hungry stomach, Health is not a priority. In fact the people are not a priority of the government. The Filipino people now are the government commodity. They export the people. Philippines have become the number one exporter of Nurses and Doctors in the world.
In the UK, Filipino nurses accounts to over 50,000 or almost 15% of the nursing staff in the whole National Health Services (excluding the senior carers and Health Care Assistant). Nurse’s alones contribute almost £45,000,000 in the UK economy with the taxes they pay to the government that goes on the average 22% of their monthly take home salaries. Double that figure and you get the amount repatriated to the Philippines in terms of their padala to their families at home. We call the nurses and the “OFW” heroes because they keep the Philippine economy afloat in the ever worsening economic crisis that we are in. I call them heroes because they do what the government of the Philippines failed to do, to take care of its own citizenry.
When the mother of my friend Rachab sufffered a stroke, his sister gave him an automatic SOS flag asking for a huge amount of money to pay for the hospitalization expenses of their mother. Unfortunately the Philippines have no NHS to take care of this concerns. Rachab will have to pay for the medicines, for the hospital bed, for the doctors, for the physical therapist and to all the people who could possibly charged her mother with hospital expenses. Rachab will often times cry as he knows he can do a more competent nursing care for his ailing mother he cries because he feels guilty that he can take care of the people here in England, British People for that matter but cannot do it for his own mother.
But he has to work, for himself, for his family in the Philippines. An empty table during dinner is enough to convince him to stay in the UK. He works terribly hard and 22% of the toil he has done will go to the UK government to pay for the social services it gives to its people. The story of Rachab doesn’t stops there, although he is already British, some racist homeboy will pick on him because he looks different, he maybe British but he has a brown skin. He get assaulted sometimes as most NHS workers is prone to assault by patients or relatives. Majority of victims are of ethnic minorities. Violence is not an uncommon thing in the NHS, despite the fact that European’s talks about equal opportunies, racial equality and non-discrimination. Sometimes just like Tony Blair, Brits are good with talks but that’s all about in it. Well, Rachab case is just a subtle one, even if I forgot to mention that his Line Manager is picking on him always to the point of bullying him. His case is just typical of those who came to England legally, but imagine those who came legally and overstayed. This are the most vulnerable Filipinos in the UK they are the domestic helpers, nanny, builders and other piecemeal workers. They do not enjoy the protection of law they are bullied, discriminated and violated. The only crime they committed is that they loved their families so much they would want to give them a future, and the only future they can see is to get away from our country and to work anywhere else except the Philippines. If you take into account those Filipinos who are victims of human trafficking, who works in the most desolated areas of the world selling their labor and sometimes selling their bodies, I will just have to close my eyes and sigh imagining the inhumane and detestable situation they are in.
I remember a political activist in the Netherlands who said in an interview. Ganito na lang ba tayong mga Pilipino, taga hugas ng puwet, taga linis ng bahay, at parausan ng mga dayuhan. Kawawa naman tayo, ano pa ba ang hinaharap nating future.
I get mad of all this things, I get confused. But this is reality. I ask myself the cliche.
Why is it that my country, the Philippines, is the richest in the world in terms of its natural resources and its people, and yet we are one of the poorest among the poor?
Is it because we have brown skin or is it because we are poor?
The issue of colonialism, poverty, inequality, discrimination forever follows me, wherever I go. Its not really a surprise that after working for several years and we qualify for naturalization, we jump to grab the quickest time to swear allegiance to our adoptive country's constitution to get rid of our Philippine passport. Who has become like a scarlet letter of some sort. Or a jinx magnet that says hey I am a Filipino, use and abuse me. Haay!!! Just like all the rest of Pinoy life has become difficult, to start with, it never was easy on the first place.
It would have been a little bearable if our government take care of us. But then it becomes even more difficult and us even poorer not only in terms of material things but also in spirit. When the government starts to disappear and kill their own people who dare speak the language of TRUTH.
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1 comment:
Greetings of Peace from the Cordillera Peoples Alliance!
In behalf of the Balao Family and the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance, we would like to thank you for helping circulate the information for support generation for the immediate campaign to surface Mr. James Balao.
We also invite you to visit the website of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance at www.cpaphils.org for updates on the campaign, and to sign the online petition or the URGENT APPEAL. If you wish, you may also send a statement of solidarity to the Balao Family through our email: pic@cpaphils.org.
Again, maraming salamat po!
abigail t. bengwayan
public information commission
cordillera peoples alliance
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