Feasible Solutions to Obtain Social Change

During the past three decades of the Philippines, we have seen discernment and faultiness of the Philippine presidents. Instead of progressing, our country becomes degraded and pitiable. These are problems that struck the Philippines, these would not kill us but it would definitely lead to our success if we don’t give up and stay put in this country to spar with it and to overcome its struggles. The problem is Filipinos have lost hope so they leave our country to search for greener pastures.
This essay would present more or less the most suitable solutions/ changes that could reverse the current situation in the Philippines, and the pro’s and con’s of each. The ultimate question now is which would we choose?
Our country bombarded with problems; the economy is nearing bankruptcy, high taxes, poverty is unfixable, Edsa revolutions are unending and government officials are corrupt. My predilection is do we still have the possibility to bring about social change? Moreover, where and how do we begin? After the revelation of the essays provided to help us in this resolution, it makes me think and realize that I am an irresponsible citizen that instead of helping, I act as a deviant of society, which worsens the current status of our god-forsaken country. After a lot of weeks of nerve-wrecking brainstorming on the right solution to our main problem, I recall a statement during our oral communication class that was stated by Mr. Herdy Yumul which goes like this, “We always blame the government, we always blame the church, we even blame the Communist for our society’s ills, but isn’t it time we begin asking ourselves what we can do for our children and our children’s children? Think about it, think about it.” The answer is right there, ourselves, before other people we must bring about change in ourselves first, we should not blame other people for all the damnations, we should set all of these aside and think on possible ways in order to change this pathetic country of ours. It is quite shameful that our dear country became like this, an insect being stepped on by superior countries, larger animals all over the world, to think that we have rich natural resources and globally competitive people. It is quite ironic, we were once one of the richest countries back in the seventies then we are now one of the poorest, a third world country. It is quite nauseating to hear the feebleness of our country over and over. We are subjects of humiliation of the fortunate lands of this damned world, the last joke I heard was from an American stating that our country has the new world record of one hundred meter dash, when our madam president pulled out our people from Iraq. It makes me think a lot on what my future would be in this country. I don’t really intend to leave this country because I want to be a teacher of the future generation but our situation is getting worse by the hour. A lot of people leave our country, stating they will only come back when all are fixed. It is not right for these people to leave the country just like that just because of our condition. The state of affairs makes me more inclined to this decisions, the pressure is getting to me, it makes be decide whether to continue this course or not, to leave or not. It creates such a dilemma for most of the people, to be nationalistic and stay hoping for the country to overcome all its tribulations or leave the country in search for better lives, more pay and less problem. The latter is quite tempting but the earlier is quite impractical, as most people say but in my case I still want to pursue my dream but I want to help my parents so my plan is to work there for at least five years, then return here to teach most probably high school students, most likely on biology but I wont encourage them to take up nursing for I know there is still great hope for our country.
I tried to search for more solutions and the second is making the digital future in the Philippines, preventing corruption especially regarding money matters, it would be so nice to see the businesses of the Philippines in a fast pace, computers govern all, instantaneous communications and connection, finished products at an instant, everything is leading to the higher standard of living. Everything has its pro’s and con’s, as Michael J. Miller (PC Magazine, September 2000) puts it; it’s foolish to think the potential outcomes are all positive. He also stated that although all would be digitized, there would be adverse effects on employees especially in the case of a factory worker, people with a minimum wage, if you fire him and replace him with a machine, what would become of him and his family? Even though it will be beneficial to many because the wage would be higher for those who are left but the father of the family that lost a job would suffer the most. Add to that, digitizing everything especially in the government is definitely costly. There is also inequality for those who have the funds for they would be the only ones who will have access to the so-called information. Thus making the balance of the government and governed very unstable. The picture created by this is discrimination especially to the less fortunate. Another, the privacy and individuality of prominent people would be put to peril for their ideas, identities, photos are found online. Also, we cannot prevent hackers from waging their scheme most likely when a politician is supporting them. In addition to digitizing everything would lead to the failure of voting properly, mass media have favorable help to politicians, it creates landslide victories for its costumers; an instance is the television add of Mr. Palengke, Mar Roxas and Jamby Madrigal who appears to be the best friend of Judy Ann Santos; all of this people reached the senate because of the overexposure to mass media. The government is a big nuisance and influence in all of our lives. We are restricted by the laws created by the government in everything we do and everywhere we go, directly and indirectly, given these situations, crossing the street- follow the pedestrian lane and avoid jay walking and purchasing food- value added tax. There are also five crucial transformations in the Digital Age that are rooted in the internet that will affect governance according to Carlos Bueno in his essay The Digital Future: Ready or not, It’s here. Lets start off with Globalization: it does not only mean our interdependence in our economy but also emerging global culture; Internationalism: world changes in all major fields which are addressed to multilateral organizations; Devolution: local government responsibilities such as community demand and fiscal pressures; Marketization: governments are seeking various solutions to manage fiscal issues and public assets; Digital citizens: most powerful communication tools, information with connected citizens which demands the participation of the government. These transformations are not solely the keys to develop the government, with this five empowerment is also needed. Empowerment has political, social and economic aspects. Politically, our government can be empowered by the people of the Philippines. Socially, the government would be empowered by strengthening and enforcement of the responsibilities of all the people. Economically, the government should give importance to projects that would benefit the welfare of the people.
The Censors by Luisa Valenzuela states, we should always remember our goals and that is to promote social change in our country, in the current condition of the Philippines, many starts and ends like Juanito and end up being killed. They start out good but end up forgetting what they are supposed to do. Its just like, you start off as an office clerk, did your job, impressed the boss and you get promoted, fought struggles, until such time that you became the boss, your main goal is to promote camaraderie and organize your clerks, it gets to the point that you tend to hurt your members, doing your job properly, most likely, too much, thus they begin to hate you, and most probably, they would end up killing you because of you wickedness or rather your too perfect performance. We must always be firm with your goals and stay focused and not forget what we are opted to do in the first place.
Another possible solution is that accepting the fact that we created the government that we have now. Elizabeth Colson remarked, “the societies we study are stream of time, rather than a stable environment whose dimensions can be securely plotted… once and for all” Add to that, the idea of Randy David why we have bad leaders, recall the time of Marcos, Aquino, Ramos, Estrada and Arroyo isn’t it darn painful to remember such memories that caused a lot of conflicts, death and dismay to the country? Marcos stole the biggest amount of money in the world during his reign as president of the country, moreover Imelda, his wife who owned more or less 500 pairs of branded shoes, and designer gowns, building useless establishments that summed to millions of pesos, an example of which is the film center, martial law, unlawful imprisoning of people and the like. This is the cause of the high debts that we are continually paying, also the lack of good judgment for those imprisoned during this period. There are also good things that happen during this era like the building of the San Juanico bridge which connects Samar and Leyte, also the Cultural Center of the Philippines which serves as venues for concerts and anything that involves the performing arts and The Philippine Heart Center, the promotion of family planning. After what happened, we Filipinos are still forgiving and inconsistent. These are the reasons why we stay this poor up to now, we forgive almost all the politicians of all the darn things that they have done and to think that we nearly killed them during their era, and also we are inconsistent, we have this attitude of changing the mood. If a personality creates a mistake, we will just forgive them, as time would pass by. During the time of Cory Aquino was a disaster, yes she saved us form Marcos but hell who cares, her works were not enough, the U.S. bases were in the Philippines, someone stronger and more capable should have taken over. The sole thing that she did that made me hate her is that she told the U.S. that she would pay all the debts of the Philippines, where will she get all the money to pay that huge amount? Why not just be meek and accept that we can’t pay it, swallowing our pride instead of being proud, stating that we can pay. I can’t imagine the amount of my grandchildren’s debt in the future. This is also a plus factor in the worsening the economic situation of the Philippines. This was the shameful episode of our country, consolidation of Aquino after the time of Marcos. This reminded me of Karl Marx, the classless society that he suggested, quite a good solution but quite impractical. In Fidel Ramos time, we rarely see our president in our country for he is always in another country for a conference and the like but one thing that made me admire him is his capacity to make peace talks happen, it was really peaceful during his era. Muslim and Christian relation was quite a blast. Joseph Ejercito Estrada, the maker of all the Eraptions because of his carabao English. He was the impeached president due to his faults in the government like his hidden wealth, grand mansions, gambling exposes and bank accounts that was taken out of nowhere. You see how conceited he is, to think there are a lot of poor people in this country. Although that was the case, during this era, our peso – dollar rate was quite stable but flunked during the impeachment trial of Estrada. The Edsa Dos took place in this epoch and this how showed the pathetic Filipinos can become, the Edsa revolutions followed and appeared as humdrums, coping mechanism that would let a president resign from his post if ever he does something wrong. As Randy David said, we end up having bad leaders because we are celebrity oriented, vote buying is still prominent, we also allow politicians prey on impoverished individuals who need money so they sell their vote just to buy their things. In addition to this we patronize trapos, traditional politicians and charismatic ones rather than finding a bureaucratic politician that is described by Max Weber as the model of modern leaders. Usually trapos are a government official who uses wealth to buy power exploitation of poverty through patronage, treating public funds like his own property. The era after which was the reign of the acting president GMA who was sworn to office due to the Edsa Dos. Her time quite improved but Erap supporters barraged the Malacañang Palace and the Edsa Tres was born, these supporters hated the administration because their idol was imprisoned. The clash of the groups is still the main reason why our recent presidential elections slowed down, a group supported GMA and the other Fernando Poe Jr.
I also read the Powerless Public by Randy David which is definitely a double yes in bringing about social change, and he states here that we lack civility, the art of living with others, businessmen usually remain unmindful of others just to have money. An example of which are the malls being put up by these companies not thinking about the monstrous traffic that it creates when a lot of people flood that place during their leisure time. There are coping mechanisms that could overcome these shortcomings but quite impractical. We have the democratic form of government; they need to hear what we have to say before making a decision especially if it really concerns our well being. They say we have control over our country but I say we haven’t for we solely rely on these measly politicians who decides alone and does not listen to the side of the people during decision making. We are a powerless pubic, living in a lie, not practicing our right to help in managerial process of these local and national problems. I have to say that before they pass a bill regarding the 2-year public service that the nurses should encompass in the Philippines before they leave the country, they must ask all the people concerned. In relation to this, I recall the experience of the dear sister of Mr. Yumul in his article, Teaching Philosophy who worked in public service, but left the country. Her actions were justifiable after all that happened in our country. The reason why Filipinos leave this country is that they are tired of having people decide for themselves, thus limiting what they do and preventing them to grow and prosper. The growing number of nursing students proves that and also people leaving the country by the hour these people go to other countries to work as a domestic helper. They leave and find work not related to their finished course rather than waiting for a shower of jobs to come after getting no vacancy signs when they apply for a job appropriate for their course. A real product of migration is the OFWs who work in other countries, earn money and buy tricycles of jeeps with stickers like, katas ng Saudi and the like, this states that it was purchased because of the hard work of that certain individual in that particular place. Come to think of it, I have never seen anything like katas ng Pinas, it would be good to see that, and an improvement to the Philippine society I may say. Life is unfair really but probably if you were one with an instant productive asset as mentioned by Serafin Talisayon in his essay, Starbucks at Rural Santa Rosa: Transformation from the Inside Out probably you would not complain, for you got an asset because of your inheritance, imagine you would did not waste and sweat for it, an accident of being born in a rich family.
The last key for social change to happen is discipline of every individual of this planet. You cannot bring about change when the person does not want to have social change; it is his prerogative if he wants to act good or bad, help or act as a deviant. You can change his views but decisions that he makes is entirely up to him. There are a lot of deviants including me, not following rules especially the so-called sacred ones, and it is my choice to do it for I believe it will benefit me. Violating laws is what I am fond of, but I realized that when we start to be more disciplined and more concerned we shouldn’t have been ridiculed by Claire Danes when she visited our country. If the people around were become more vigilant, removed the cockroaches crawling around, we wouldn’t have any hated actress who mocked our country. I have been thinking, if My Yumul had asked his question, who wants to be a Filipino?, most probable thing that would happen is that more would agree than the survey before.
Social change is entirely up to us, in addition to that, a little bit of nationalism. For my fellow nursing students who were just persuaded to take up nursing, pursue your own dreams for the Philippines can make it, with your help. As for me, I’ll try to find a job in this country that would fulfill my needs, if there is no hope, I’ll leave but definitely ill come back in order to stop the economy from sinking. The Philippines still has a chance, let us work hand in hand in making our government and country work.




















Bibliography
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Post Modern Crossroads: The Lure and Challenge of the Digital Age. Pp.11-
21
Randy David “Powerless Public” Nation, Self and Citizenship: An Invitation to
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Randy David “Why We Elect Bad Leaders” Nation, Self and Citizenship: An
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Randy David “What is a Trapo” Nation, Self and Citizenship: An
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