Pagpag, A disgusting Glimpse on Poverty
There is no question that poverty has existed in Philippine cities since its inception, nothing new or nothing unusual about that. Crowding, congestion, low level of living standards and desperation are so common that it has numbed people of its existence especially the leaders and the shrinking middle class.
Rapid urbanization in the midst of development brings along increase in high cost of living. Despite the advent of technology, poverty still persist in massive proportion and the potential to increase rapidly should have alarmed the nations’ leaders. if indeed they truly care you would have seen some semblance of effort to improve their lot but it seems greed and corruption prevails over the welfare of its suffering people. Instead of improving or at the least prevent the rapid increase in the marginalization of people, the government would rather promote and encourage people to seek greener pastures in distant lands unaware of their rights or if they even have one in those strange places.
The video on Pagpag is a testament or an exclamation point to the stark reality of massive poverty in the urban jungle of thePhilippines
The extreme poverty in the Philippines means a surge in urban population coming from the influx of migrants escaping poverty in the countryside seeking better opportunities only to end up trapped in misery and desolation. You would think finding themselves in such dire consequences they would have opted to return to the villages they left behind, easier said than done. When you are poor with virtually no possession except perhaps the cloth on your back going back is not an option. With the influx of more people comes the proliferation of shanties and squatter colonies transforming the city they migrated into an urban jungle where survival of the fittest dictates the quality of life if ever we can even use that term for the poorest of the poor in the Philippines.
In order to survive in a city that can employ and accommodate only so much there are some among the poorest of the poor resorting to the grossest gut wrenching indescribable scavenging like bottom dwellers to fill their hungry stomach eating food leftovers from restaurants' trash bins, recycled, washed, and re-cooked.
The disturbing video shows a scavenger gathering recyclables in restaurant trash bins looking for plastics, glass, papers and anything they can sell to recycling plants. Part of the hunt was leftover food thrown in the trash which a scavenger collects and once back home with the help of the whole family sort and separate the trash to be sold.
Most of these leftover food came from junk fast food restaurants as if eating them is not bad enough the same refuse and leftover is then sold to a local Carinderia (eatery) which the cook then washes three times in hot water and then cooked and sold at a “bargain” to regular loyal customers.
The sight is just so disgusting enough to make one squeamishly nauseated that will shock even the most boldest of the bold viewer. I am so dumbfounded not really sure how to react at this indescribable existence and wondering how can we allow people to live such miserable life. What is so amazing is that these people who eat this junk they call food are able to rationalize and even joke about it. I can understand people in the streets doing this out of desperation but what I fail to understand is how and what kind of enterprising people can make a living out of garbage serving them for profit? Is this an indication of the bleak future of Philippine society?
Philippine leaders especially the corrupt which comprises the majority of the politicians should see this and maybe just maybe they still have a sliver of conscience to change the course and destiny of the nation. It makes you wonder if these people will be included in the dole out program of Gloria Arroyo's anti-poverty program........ but then again will the dole out solve the problem?
Rapid urbanization in the midst of development brings along increase in high cost of living. Despite the advent of technology, poverty still persist in massive proportion and the potential to increase rapidly should have alarmed the nations’ leaders. if indeed they truly care you would have seen some semblance of effort to improve their lot but it seems greed and corruption prevails over the welfare of its suffering people. Instead of improving or at the least prevent the rapid increase in the marginalization of people, the government would rather promote and encourage people to seek greener pastures in distant lands unaware of their rights or if they even have one in those strange places.
The video on Pagpag is a testament or an exclamation point to the stark reality of massive poverty in the urban jungle of the
The extreme poverty in the Philippines means a surge in urban population coming from the influx of migrants escaping poverty in the countryside seeking better opportunities only to end up trapped in misery and desolation. You would think finding themselves in such dire consequences they would have opted to return to the villages they left behind, easier said than done. When you are poor with virtually no possession except perhaps the cloth on your back going back is not an option. With the influx of more people comes the proliferation of shanties and squatter colonies transforming the city they migrated into an urban jungle where survival of the fittest dictates the quality of life if ever we can even use that term for the poorest of the poor in the Philippines.
In order to survive in a city that can employ and accommodate only so much there are some among the poorest of the poor resorting to the grossest gut wrenching indescribable scavenging like bottom dwellers to fill their hungry stomach eating food leftovers from restaurants' trash bins, recycled, washed, and re-cooked.
The disturbing video shows a scavenger gathering recyclables in restaurant trash bins looking for plastics, glass, papers and anything they can sell to recycling plants. Part of the hunt was leftover food thrown in the trash which a scavenger collects and once back home with the help of the whole family sort and separate the trash to be sold.
Most of these leftover food came from junk fast food restaurants as if eating them is not bad enough the same refuse and leftover is then sold to a local Carinderia (eatery) which the cook then washes three times in hot water and then cooked and sold at a “bargain” to regular loyal customers.
The sight is just so disgusting enough to make one squeamishly nauseated that will shock even the most boldest of the bold viewer. I am so dumbfounded not really sure how to react at this indescribable existence and wondering how can we allow people to live such miserable life. What is so amazing is that these people who eat this junk they call food are able to rationalize and even joke about it. I can understand people in the streets doing this out of desperation but what I fail to understand is how and what kind of enterprising people can make a living out of garbage serving them for profit? Is this an indication of the bleak future of Philippine society?
Philippine leaders especially the corrupt which comprises the majority of the politicians should see this and maybe just maybe they still have a sliver of conscience to change the course and destiny of the nation. It makes you wonder if these people will be included in the dole out program of Gloria Arroyo's anti-poverty program........ but then again will the dole out solve the problem?
Warning the video contains extremely disgusting materials!
From the gross to the macabre the stark reality of poverty in the urban jungle, this video shows an alarming shortage of housing transforming the cemetery into a village.
While the praise brigade errr press are busy trivializing the upcoming Screw Our Nation Again errr State of the Ration errrr State of the Nation better known as SONA for another bola bola (ball ball errr lies) with speculations and description of her designer "Maria Clara" gown for the event poor people in the Philippines are literally eating garbage and living with the dead......................
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9 Speak Out:
Even the pampered pets in America have better food than the poor in the Philippines!
Ah but it is poverty of the mind that is the greatest tragedy. The point of attack has got to be education, a pugnacious positivist education that rejects superstition and religious ignorance, which covers the populace like a pall, a veil of ignorance. Poverty is an effect. It is the causes that must be demolished.
Mav/DJ, How sad and true, we may have reached the lowest ebb of poverty a sign of failure in leadership in a system that is fraudulent prone favoring the criminal greedy and corrupt politicians. The big question is where do we go from here...... how do we eradicate poverty of the mind when the very people supposedly leading us out of the muck are themselves suffering from moral degradation.......
The discerning and compassionate segment of Pinoy society know that the dole outs of Ate Glue, intended to buy the sympathy of the wretched rummaging garbage dumps, won’t last long (Give a man a fish, etc). Bill Gates had a better method: improve the health of the poor so they can work at their livelihood, and Bill was dispensing his own money, not money from taxes.
The insidious aspect of poverty is the malnourishment resulting from hunger. Studies have shown the irreversible bad effects of nutrition deficiencies on brain development starting with the fetus with the mother’s deficient diet and onto childhood. The visible symptoms are physical – under weight and height. Less obvious is the slow learning capacities. Imagine a community where 40% are poor (economic class D and E) occasionally hungry and developing half-dolt kids.
Orly,
At the rate Gloria Arroyo and her minions mis-manage the country the prospect is not looking good..... a huge portion of mentally challenge people in our society looms in the horizon.
More on dole outs bragged about in the 2008 SONA that included an attempt to entice consumers to join the enchanted queendom (promising consumer protection laws), either I made a boo-boo or her speech writers did. Read Consumers Act http://orly28.blogspot.com/2008/07/consumers-act.html
The Consumer Act cited above is a redux written in 1994, revived as a spoof and smirk at Ate Glue’s PROPOSAL to legislate an existing law. Apologies for any offense caused by the rehash.
Orly,
I don't know if people are offended except that it probably is so hard to find humor on spoofs or satire on Gloria as it seems it has always been the politicians doing the joke on us...... except people are hurting instead of laughing while they laugh at us. I myself find it difficult to write a satirical post which was the intention of this blog but oftentimes get distracted with the perversion we see in the Philippines.
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