Money & Manny For Pinoy and Poverty

Nakaligo ka na ba sa dagat ng basura? Nagpasko ka na ba sa gitna ng kalsada? Iyan ang tanong naming, tunay ka bang isa sa amin? I am in no doubt that you heard these lines, not just once but for a number of times. You may have chuckled at it the first time you heard it but I would pose a question on you, is not this something that was able to picture out the lives of our inopportune brothers and sisters here in our country? Is not this something that is in reality happening in our country? If you say no, I would ask you to think again. Hey, where did you really come from?

Philippines is experiencing economic fluctuations every now and then. For some point in time, we are undergoing an increase in the total production of our goods and services due to various economic factors such as the increase in labor force, increase in capital stock and advancement in technology. During these periods, those who are in the business firms engage in economic expansion. This results to a better standard of living for the Filipinos. But nonetheless, there are also years wherein this positive growth takes place. There are years that we do experience a decline in the real incomes and increasing unemployment rate in the country. During this period, what business firms do is economic contraction. And if this scenario gets worst, it would be a severe recession for the Philippines.

This economic condition does not bring any benefit to the people and to our country. Through the macroeconomic theory, the government will be able to stabilize the economy. The government must make use of the monetary and fiscal policy. If there is low aggregate demand, the government must boost up their spending, cut taxes and inflate money supply. However, if the aggregate demand is high then it must do the other way around. Indeed, the government officials must be able to take full advantage of this macroeconomic theory in order to reach a more stable economy which would be of advantage to each and every Filipino.

Nalaman mo na bang mapag-aaral ka niya? Tutulungan tayo para magkatrabaho at ang kanyang plano ay magkabahay tayo. As a Public Administrator, these are the national issues the 2010 Presidential Candidate, Manny Villar would like to concentrate on. The main driving force of his platform is liberating the Filipinos from poverty and injustice. He would accomplish this by his self-reliant and sustainable development programs which could be made possible through implementing agrarian reform, increasing agricultural productivity and developing domestic industries. He would also move the spotlight on the problems of environmental destruction, climate change and returning calamities. He will provide priority to education, health, housing and other basic social services. Ensuring social equity and respect for human rights are also his main concerns. Lastly, he would want to have a foreign policy which is based on respect for national sovereignty and ensure that these foreign policies would be the benefit of parties concerned and not only of a particular country.

On agriculture and rural development, Manny Villar seeks development of agricultural lands and will provide livelihood opportunities since it would raise the standard of living of Filipinos living in the rural areas and it would increase manpower productivity. He would also provide support to farmers through providing them with agricultural inputs and post-harvest facilities and forward and backward linkages, access to technology, and micro-finance to those who are in the rural industries. If ever elected, he would like to the government official to review the policy on trade liberalization. It would be a good idea if our country would export our good and services if and only if the world price and comparative advantage would be in favor of us. If we do have low domestic price then that would be a sign that our country could be a good competitor and exporter of that particular good or service. However, if we do have a high domestic price then it would be a drawback for us since it is the other countries which would get the comparative advantage and it will make us the importer of that particular good or service. Moreover, Manny Villar would push for the review and corrections of various trade and investment policies of the Philippines which only poses inconvenience to us. Trade and Investment Policies must be based on agreements that would be reciprocally advantageous to the Philippines and the Filipinos.

Undeniably, Philippines has a high poverty rate which means that the percentage of the population whose family income below poverty line is high. To be able to reduce the poverty case here in our country, the government must be able to come up with policies such as minimum-wage laws, welfare programs that would serve as an increment to the incomes of the needy, put up a tax system that would collect revenue from high-income households and give in-kind transfers to low-income households and carry out antipoverty programs and make work incentives available since People respond to incentives.

To give solution to the poverty problems in the Philippines, he sees the promotion of viable manufacturing sector as one of the keys to economic growth. He will prioritize an entrepreneur-friendly and entrepreneur-ready environment. He sees entrepreneurship as a long-term solution to unemployment problems in the country. According to him, we should remove the old epitome of Philippine schools preparing students to be employees. What we need to do is to craft a new generation of entrepreneurs. We need more job providers to respond to the increasing number of job-seekers. He believes that the country’s projected annual employment gap can be bridged by turning to entrepreneurship rather than waiting for the global economy to recover. This is one of his platforms that would really make me vote for him. I do share the same way of ideology with him since I do also believe that Poverty is an Option and there are lots of opportunities out there. If you cannot find one then make an opportunity for yourself rather than sitting around the corner and counting posts.

In his term, he would develop local industries through making subsidies and loans and technical support from the government available. Exploration of the provisions for government subsidies and tax relief for Filipino Industrialists will be done to encourage local investors to engage in manufacturing businesses. The investments for these manufacturing businesses would come from the public sectors alone but also with the help of those in the private sphere.

Manny Villar aims to stabilize the economy to manage the fluctuations in our country. Because if the economic fluctuations would continue, it would have an unhelpful impact on the spending of the government and households and even have an effect on the aggregate demand for goods and services. If this happens, there will also be a decrease the in the production of goods and services. When the outputs produced by the Philippines dwindle, the unemployment cases in the country would amplify. It is for a reason that the output of goods and services are interconnected with the economy’s exploitation of its labor force. Just like for example, if a particular corporation in the country decides to lower its production then it would only need smaller number of people to be employed to be able to meet the projected number of outputs of the company. This is another explanation why he would want to thrust for the support for viable manufacturing sector. Through this sector, jobs will be provided and it would trim down our reliance on products produced outside the Philippines. This would also result to Filipinos having the nationalistic consciousness to make use of and pay money for locally produced goods, domestic jobs generation will be sustained and outmigration of Filipinos to foreign countries will be thoroughly reduced.

Through the years, we have seen how the debt of our country has bloated. And if this continues, the share of each person’s debt would also swell. This does not only impinge on those who are at the present, citizens of the Philippines however it would even have more undesirable effect on the next generations of Filipinos. It would be a burden for them since they will be placed in circumstances wherein they have to decide whether to pay higher taxes or enjoy less government spending just to be able to pay the debt and its accumulated interest. Worse decision is not to bother about it now and let the next generations handle this economic problem. Manny Villar would dynamically pursue a variety of forms of debt relief from global financial institutions and foreign banks and prioritize the distribution of these funds to basic social services and growth of agriculture and industry. As a consequence, the government really needs to have a balanced budget because it would be one way of getting greater national saving, investment and economic growth. It would mean a better future for the next generations of Filipinos.

Another plan of action of Manny Villar is to performance of good governance and exercising public accountability. As stated in the Constitution, A Public Office is A Public Trust. If ever elected, he would hold the President, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and other Public Official who have violated the law for involving themselves in activities such as robbery of public funds, electoral scam, gross human rights violations and the cover-up of these crimes. No one is above the law. Every Public Official who has cases of graft and corruption must be prosecuted and justice must be given to those whose rights were infringed. He would promote transparency by making statement of liabilities and net worth of public officials accessible to the eyes of the public. Through this way, we will be able to improve the way other country see us and not as most corrupt country in Asia.

He does not only focus on economic sectors and political activities within the national territory however he would also want to build good relationship with the external states. He would prop up and enhance trade relations with our Asian Neighbors in the spirit of equal opportunity and mutually favorable agreements.

First principle of Economics, People face trade-offs. In the process of attaining all these platforms of government by Manny Villar, it is inevitable that there would be some things that would not be given too much focus or things must be given up. One example is with the plan of Manny Villar to dynamically pursue a variety of forms of debt relief from global financial institutions. With this, the only fear that I have is when our country becomes too dependent from other financial institutions outside the Philippines in financing the programs of the government. However, this is less likely to happen if the Government will be able to raise enough financial resources and with the backing of other non-government and private sectors in the country to support their programs and activities. Another one is regarding the plan to develop local industries through making subsidies and loans and technical support from the government available. The only danger with this is when the Government releases too much money for lending which results to a negative supply of loanable funds. But nonetheless, this can be prevented if the Philippine financial system would that the loanable funds are in balance and the national savings of the country is not negative. Lastly, the Exploration of the provisions for government subsidies and tax relief for Filipino Industrialists will be done to encourage local investors to engage in manufacturing businesses which has the dangers of posing threat on our environment because of too much exploitation of our natural resources. However, this can be avoided through mitigating measures by the concerned executive department like the DENR.

If Manny Villar will be elected as the president and his platforms of government will be implemented, I would assure you that Philippines in the succeeding years will have a government that upholds the public good, morals, intelligence, social justice, good health, Happiness and prosperity of the Filipinos. Vote for Manny Villar this May 2010 because Si Villar ang tunay na mahirap. Si Villar ang tunay na may malasakit. Si Villar ang may kakayahan na gumawa ng sariling pangalan. Si Manny Villar ang magsasagot sa ating kahirapan. Money and Manny for Pinoy and Poverty.

Eye Love Art

This is a short video presentation of the shirts we have made during our Humanities Class. Enjoy. :D

SEXism and LanguAGE: The Power of Profanity

Are you a writer? If Yes, what pronoun do you usually use – Masculine or Feminine Pronoun? Raising this question, I am beginning to exert conscious effort to be fair and neutral. Is it really trivial for me to worry about such matters?

Some would say no. But for the others, they would say that Language is Exclusionary. There are women here in our society who does not want them to be considered included in the term man. They say no to fall part in that Linguistic pit. They would hate the fact that they are being identified as a matching part of the male species and forced to link their gender identity with ours. When one says man, they say it does not include women. However, Women have no way of describing their person without including men, but men can continually describe themselves without including women. Women are expected to identify themselves with men, while men have the license to have their own identity. And they say that it is totally inequitable. Thus, we must commence to do away with this practice and conception of women identification. Using of man to include woman is no longer up to standard in a society where we are attempting to promote the idea that people are equal like in the Philippines.

That was an example of a Sexist Language. As defined, Sexist language is often found to be offensive and prejudicial, by both men and women. At its crudest and most hurtful, sexist language is a tool used to damage someone. I would make a clean breast that I am guilty of such crime, if you may consider it as one. I do use terms such as like 'bitch' and 'slut', which had been historically used as sexist remarks against females. These are used to refer to a "strong, independent, unattached female" and a "sexually liberal, hypersexual female. Moreover, without awareness, I am also using the term 'dude' which I never thought is also a sexist remark. It is being applied to males.

Thus, I am now making a conscious effort toward lessening the occurrence of sexist language. As the saying goes, do not do to others what you do not want to be done unto you. I would never want to see myself living in this world and struggling against people are really sensitively and psychologically harming me by targeting me with sexist comments. Thus, we must all be cautious of what words break away from our lips

Thus, we really have to be careful of what we say. As someone would say, Words are not Mathematical Equations that balance out. Words are carriers of thought, culture and systems.

BODY IMAGE: Is it a Serious Issue?

Are you contented with the way you look? If you will ask me the same question then I would say NO. In this day and age, the positive self-esteem of individuals has grown to be more reliant on their physical magnetism. As what you can observe in the Media Industry or even just within the UP Community, a number of individuals go to extreme measures every now and then to revolutionize their looks through drugs, radical diets or luxurious cosmetic surgeries.

I am a Victim of Gendered Media. I am one of those who struggle with my self-image because of my daily exposure to the standards of beauty for men and physical ideals displayed throughout the popular media. As the saying goes, every one of us is unique. All of us are one of a kind. But nonetheless, this adage is starting to be outdated. Instead of upholding individuality among human race, what happens now is uniformity. Most of us obey the rules, the ideal standards of beauty set by the society.

I would like better to have a guy who is Tall, Dark and Handsome – More often than not, this is what you hear before from the ladies when they are asked of the qualities of a man that they would want to be with. Perhaps, there may still be some who retains these qualities as the standards for ideal beauty for men but we cannot refute the truth that ladies also fix their eyes at muscular bodies and rock-hard abs. As a result, the self-esteem of Men for this generation has been associated to muscular development and physical strength.

I cannot help but to be flooded with images of what the society considers to be ‘perfect people.’ When I watch the television, look at big billboards and skim some pages in the magazines, what I see are images of what is considered as an ideal body for a man. Then, I begin to raise the question: “Is that what a real man is supposed to look like?” Low body fat and lots of muscle make you look “cut” or “ripped” -- and that is what is portrayed as attractive. Throw in a narrow waist and large shoulders, giving the body a V-shaped torso and you have the idealized male body. If you do not have this, Pop Culture tells you that ‘You are not Worthy unless You Look Perfect.’

Moreover, not being able to meet the ideal Male Body according to the society also affects the way we handle and behave while we are in an intimate relationship. I begin to be paranoid and too much concerned with the way my partner is evaluating me, how I look and smell. I start to be ashamed, detach emotionally and mentally from sexual situations and begin not to be attentive to my partner’s needs or open with my own.

Another issue, it is not just the women who are dissatisfied with their bodyweight. Men do also. The men were evenly divided between two camps. One group of men felt they were overweight. The other group of men thought they were underweight. This study suggests that men have two pressures –- the pressure to be lean and the pressure to build large muscles. Obviously, I belong to the second group.

Now, we see how powerful Media is in shaping the way we think and see ourselves. What we see on TV and in magazines eventually become our standard of reality and desire. If I have a rounded belly or not firm bicep, it will be like a gross or unfortunate flaw for the Media. How can I not feel bad about my own body? This builds pressure to look like the media images that we see and this sometimes brings dangerous consequences.

For my case, I am spending more time, money and energy on looking “good.” I am spending more money on fragrances, facial creams, hair products, , but I have not reached the point of deciding whether to have plastic surgery or not. It is a good thing that I do not talk to my parents yet about crash diets or liposuction. I do not even use performance-enhancing substances such as over-the-counter supplements or anabolic steroids, restricting food to a dangerous degree or taking potentially harmful substances because it would really be a big problem. The only worst moments I had because of not being able to meet the ideal standards of Male Beauty is depression and having low self-esteem.

We need to be live in a world where it is acceptable to be thin and equally acceptable not to be thin. This planet is not just made for those who are considered to be ‘Perfect People’ according to the society. They do not own the earth. I own a part of this world and I should be getting what I deserve: EQUITY and EQUALITY.