Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I have done very extensive research and have uncovered a lot of stuff about Philippines and how the place has been run. I read that the country is actually being dominated by dynasties monopolies clans cartels, whatever you want to call all these terms that come up. Rich families are fighting to hold all the wealth and are not developing the rest of the country, just trying to reap all wealth that comes in. The little wealth that comes in ends up in the pockets of these few families. So the question is, is it likely that after centuries of being this exact same proelite way, there will be a huge reform and this dynasty/elite powering and hogging of wealth from the poor in the Phils will disappear in the elections coming up in 2 years?
I have read a ton of articles from just the last few months and they all give the same depressing story that this is not ending with these upcoming elections. Also saw somewhere, Phils has One: worst inequality in the region and almost in the world and Two: most severe dynastic dominance of any gov in the world.
Also, any ideas about this major mystery I have been wondering: Why is the Philippines so non-manufacturing? I just don't get it! It seems like the best option in the region due to english speaking and massive population. So how could it go all these centuries without ever breaking out in the manufacturing sector? I heard that is what all poor countries have essentially as a prerequisite to get developed. For some reason, Phils' gov is the only one not doing it.
It's hopeless. The rich just get more rich, the poor just get more poor.
It needs a tough government. I know communism is not that good but it is probably what the Philippines needs to have more equality and to be more focused on the infrastructure of the country. Atleast, if it is communist, everyone will be the same and people will have access to education and public health system.
The country mostly rely on manpower resources which is why Filipinos are the most global workers in the world. They are in every continent. Philippines supply nurses and caregivers to America, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Germany etc. Philippines supply engineers and construction workers to the middle East and most of the sea workers in the world are also Filipinos.
I find it interesting how the Phils has a GDP not much higher than Vietnam yet Manila boasts a rather impressive skyline with some of the biggest malls in Asia and gated communities for the rich.
It's hopeless. The rich just get more rich, the poor just get more poor.
It needs a tough government. I know communism is not that good but it is probably what the Philippines needs to have more equality and to be more focused on the infrastructure of the country. Atleast, if it is communist, everyone will be the same and people will have access to education and public health system.
The country mostly rely on manpower resources which is why Filipinos are the most global workers in the world. They are in every continent. Philippines supply nurses and caregivers to America, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Germany etc. Philippines supply engineers and construction workers to the middle East and most of the sea workers in the world are also Filipinos.
From what I just happened to find, you are 100% right. It is actually hopeless. I just read one article saying why "the Philippines will forever be ruled by dynasties" And others said "we are doomed" because they know it is too hard for this to change. And yesterday a source said "Don't expect any reform in the years ahead, especially since the dynasties are getting more entrenched(or consolidated)"
The very root cause for the Philippines' poverty, the dynastic landscape has just grown even bigger, so in theory, the Philippines is actually on an even more sure road to the maintenance of poverty.
I read that a gazillion aspects of the dynasties make the Philippines go very pro rich and anti-poor. If the Philippines ever accumulates substantial wealth from banking and businesses, it will guarantee hold title to being the country with officially the highest inequality in the world. It already is for Asia apparently and considering Asia is considered the worst region for this, I think Phils may already have title as worst inequality in the world. It is the country most conducive to this kind of crisis. It is doing a good job building up the most extensive network of the worlds worst looking slums. Even in Africa where most countries are not actually as overpopulated on small land resources, the poor actually live in separated huts and the urban population live in actual separated houses, albeit poor ones, yet nonetheless, not dangerous seas of slums made up of thousands of tin and scrap makeshift houses crowded in a city. This setting is far dirtier than any other possible living standard in the world.
Manila is chasing away all kinds of investment because of them letting this happen because noone wants to invest in a city that is always going to be like this.
Keep in mind that despite Canada being much much less populated and having far more wealth, the Philippines rich neighborhood Makati is far far bigger in number of houses than Canada's Bridle Path.
I can't think of a single other country on the planet that has a huge district filled with super rich houses and other things, immediately surrounded by dirt dirt poor slums. They have a real issue they need to fix.
Last edited by Santaronto; 04-03-2014 at 05:41 AM..
I find it interesting how the Phils has a GDP not much higher than Vietnam yet Manila boasts a rather impressive skyline with some of the biggest malls in Asia and gated communities for the rich.
That is what you get in a country with such immense inequality. The reason for the huge malls is tycoons monopolising everything from finances to all the major retail in the country. While the people mostly have very little money, these elite are benefiting from the fact that there are many milliosn of them and with the bit of money coming from each of the millions of poor ending up in the pockets of a few elite, they end up reaping enourmous benefits.
And yes, Vietnam despite starting from substantially poorer (And even worse in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos) They all have almost no slums compared to Philippines which shows that inequality makes even a richer nation actually way way poorer for the masses of people that can't call themselves elite. The latter 3 mentioned countries actually don't really have slums and actually have very very well organised cities. A lot of poor countries do. I would say most countries that are slightly poorer in GDP per capita than the Philippines are actuallly significantly less poor looking. Although oddly enough, the poorest country in south america, Bolivia has higher GDP per capita, even without a huge inequality issue.
That is what you get in a country with such immense inequality. The reason for the huge malls is tycoons monopolising everything from finances to all the major retail in the country. While the people mostly have very little money, these elite are benefiting from the fact that there are many milliosn of them and with the bit of money coming from each of the millions of poor ending up in the pockets of a few elite, they end up reaping enourmous benefits.
And yes, Vietnam despite starting from substantially poorer (And even worse in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos) They all have almost no slums compared to Philippines which shows that inequality makes even a richer nation actually way way poorer for the masses of people that can't call themselves elite. The latter 3 mentioned countries actually don't really have slums and actually have very very well organised cities. A lot of poor countries do. I would say most countries that are slightly poorer in GDP per capita than the Philippines are actuallly significantly less poor looking. Although oddly enough, the poorest country in south america, Bolivia has higher GDP per capita, even without a huge inequality issue.
Would you say the same for Indonesia? Is the Philippines poorer than Java per capita?
I wonder if that contributes to the higher crime rate in the Phils compared to the rest of Asia.
Yes, some might attribute the Vietnamese work ethic to their rise, although I hear corruption is rife within the communist party.
Would you say the same for Indonesia? Is the Philippines poorer than Java per capita?
I wonder if that contributes to the higher crime rate in the Phils compared to the rest of Asia.
Yes, some might attribute the Vietnamese work ethic to their rise, although I hear corruption is rife within the communist party.
Philippines is richer than all the other low income nations in the region so just ones like Malaysia and the rich Taiwan ect are richer. So the Philippines case is huge huge inequality.
Is it really rare for a poor country to have a wealthy area surrounded by slums? I feel like that's very common in the world. Wealth inequality is also very common.
And Makati isn't the only wealthy area and it's not surrounded by slums. Fort Bonifacio is to the East and it's much nicer. to the North is the Ortigas business district, with its own set of neighborhoods like in Makati. Amy Chua's family (Tiger Mom) is from that area. Ortigas transitions into Eastwood City, which is like a nice self-contained city. And in the southern part of the metro is Alabang, which is like the neighborhoods of Makati, but without skyscrapers everywhere. It's more suburban. But it's not like the rest of the metro is all slums. There are middle class and upper-middle class areas all over
The thing that makes Manila's slums look so bad is the population density. But if you go into most of the houses, most of them have electricity, a TV, cellphones, and they can access the internet by going to their neighborhood computer shop. If they finally implement the RH Law, I think things will start to improve for the poor.
Anyone have any idea if the Anti-dynasty bill has a chance to pass? Aparently they brought this thing up, but since more than 3 quarters of the members are from dynasties themselves, I have no clue regarding when or if this bill will pass. If it does, there will be huge change to the entire country. This bill will introduced back in the 80s but has so far not been passed. Since the dominance of Dynasties appears to be even more firm now than ever in the history of the country, I wonder what effect this wil have on the chances for this bill to be passed.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
