Poverty In The Philippines
Skip Kost links poverty to Christianity in an earlier post.
This is a dangerous assertion, and I need to make it clear that there is no linkage between christianity and poverty.
There are three primary drivers of poverty in any nation state.
The first is endemic corruption. In a corrupt state, decisions on the use of the nation's resources are not based on benefit, but on the option which gives the greatest return to the decision maker. Hence national resources are misused.
The second is political instability. Investors will not invest in a country where the political system createsm a high level of uncerainty.
The third is an ineffective land titling system. This means that ownership of land is not clear and guaranteed, hence banks will not lend money which is secured by land, hence land cannot be leveraged to create wealth.
If one of these three exist in a nation state, then the people are consigned to a state of poverty. Forget religion, forget farm subsidies. These are not drivers of poverty.
Don't forget Marcos's legacy!
Do not forget the ongoing and insidious effects of that scary bogeyman of recent Philippine history, otherwise known as Ferdinand Marcos. In the 50’s and early 60's, before he came to power, the country was relatively wealthy, measured in terms of GDP, and in comparison with other Asian countries, ahead of Japan and South Korea and well ahead of Thailand and Indonesia. And then along came Marcos with his inimitable brand of robber baron leadership, systematically stripping the country of much of its wealth and assets and impoverishing the masses, eschewing traditional Filipino democratic systems of politics and installing himself as the all powerful ‘apo’ or godfather to his people. I don’t think that the place has ever really recovered, especially as the political leadership since his overthrow has either been weak and insipid or, taking up the baton from Marcos, corrupt and avaricious, maintaining power through systems of patronage and cronyism. This has stymied foreign investment so the national growth figures has lagged behind its neighbours and in all likelihood will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
And yet, despite his legacy of wrongdoing and the proof of his multi-billion dollar theft, Marcos is still revered to this day by many Filipino’s, particularly in North Luzon where he in viewed as a kind of national hero. I well remember visiting his home town of Sarrat near Laog, in the early 90’s, His birthplace there was (and probably still is) maintained as a shrine to his memory. Gruesomely his dead mother was then still on open display in the house. Her corpse had been badly preserved and stunk to high heaven! Apparently, she had stipulated before her death, that her remains were not to be interred until her son’s body was allowed to be repatriated to his homeland.