The now infamous pronouncement coming from a certain Filipino Catholic bishop that overpopulation is good for Filipinos and the world comes at an interesting time when reports of how some Filipinos working overseas as nurses and caregivers have gone bad.
Bishop Gilbert Garcera of the Diocese of Daet, the capital of Camarines Norte, believes overpopulation has been advantageous to the Philippines and to the world because it has increased the number of overseas workers and migrants who could send remittances back home while taking care of ageing people abroad and spreading the Christian faith.
Swiss-based Filipino nurse Blaze Binder in her work clothes
Unfortunately, spreading the Christian faith seems to be not part of Filipino-born nurse Blaze Binder who reportedly spent her leisure time taking photos of herself next to dead or dying pensioners in the Swiss aged care facility she works in, posting these on her Facebook page then asking her followers to guess if that pensioner was dead or alive. Ms Binder also moonlights as a dominatrix and also advertises her “services” on Facebook.
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Then there is the report of Filipino nurses caught on video molesting bedridden patient in the United States. The video also allegedly showed the two of them “other sexual acts with each other while touching the bed-ridden victim.”
So much for that Christian mission of taking care of the world’s ageing people Bishop Garcera envisioned as God’s call to the Filipino people.
Quite unfortunate that a handful of bad apples would taint that noble sector of Philippine society that takes up the nursing profession for the purpose of seeking employment overseas to contribute to the Philippines’ flaccid economy. But then, there is something to be said about the notion of seeing nursing as a ticket to overseas fortunes.
Nursing, after all, is a calling. It is not the easiest nor the most glamorous of professions. Yet it is rewarding work for those to whom being a nurse is regarded as a personal vocation.
The trouble with the way the nursing profession is regarded in the Philippines is that it is seen by many Filipinos more as a stepping stone to a financially rewarding job (by their standards) overseas. As for the rewards to the soul or to a sense of non-financial personal fulfillment that real nurses seek, it is likely that the proportion of Filipino nurses who harbour that ethic is shrinking by the year as the fortune seekers in that profession (those who become nurses for the wrong reasons) utterly swamp the dwindling number of those who enter the profession seeking their vocation.
This is a disturbing trend. As the citizens of affluent societies age, demand for aged care and nursing services will increase. But with a shortage of local talent filling those roles already looming, these societies will increasingly rely on the Third World for such professionals many of whom will be in it mainly for the money.
Hopefully, governments of affluent countries will recognise the risks posed by foreign Third World nurses on its citizens and step up efforts to boost domestic capacity for producing this much-needed skill within their respective populations. Australia, for one, in its national training plan recognises the coming crisis arising from the serious shortage in healthcare professionals highlighted in government forecasts.
Australian Nurses Federation federal secretary Lee Thomas said the forecasts were extremely concerning.
“The federal government must find solutions to the growing demand for nurses by investing in training for new nurses,” Ms Thomas said.
HWA was set up by the Council of Australian Governments to manage planning and reforms to the health workforce.
The United Kingdom which is also a big employer of foreign nurses is taking action to curb its dependence on foreign talent.
[…] the Royal College of Nursing’s South West Regional Director Jeannette Martin said: “Effective long-term workforce planning now is essential to ensure that the UK has the right level of nursing staff without having to recruit from overseas.”
But Bishop Garcera’s proposal that the Philippines step up to its duty as the caregiver to the world’s aged by embracing overpopulation will likely infest humanity with impoverished nurses desperate for a shot at the Filipino dream of overseas employment. “We should stop looking at poor people as a problem,” says Garcera who believes that the impoverishment of the Philippines is part of God’s “plan” for Filipinos to “take care of other nationalities by inducing migration and working abroad.”
[Photo courtesy Mail Online UK.]
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
I feel bad for most people who are taking us Nursing. Not because they are Nurses since I know people who really wanted to become a Nurse even before the demand. But because they are taking it up because it’s their way of working abroad and earning for their family despite being away from them, in a better circumstance they could be doing something they really are passionate about and make that their career.
If China wishes to wage war upon us then we need to match their man power. The clergy may not necessarily have this in mind but “God works in mysterious ways” diba? Besides, having a large population also makes for a large labor force that can also compete with China so we can beat them economically as well.
the conflict with china is not needed with proper preventive measures such as the magic 12 senators booting out the US bases and using proper money to upgrade for the country’s developments. of course it would spell ww3 and chaos if filipinos wanted to fight china in a fire fight. nonetheless, the clergy simply wanted overpopulation due to capitalist motives disguised by religiousity…
Bong….Stop and think for a minute. If we do not have the resources and infrastructure to handle 100 million people: what are we supposed to do with 1.5 billion?
Last I checked Bong, China has 1.3 billion people. The Philippines has a 100 million people. That means China has 13x the population of the Philippines.
A few years ago, China beat Japan and took second place as the world’s second largest economy with a GDP of $9 trillion (nominal) and still rapidly growing. Japan has 127 million people with a GDP of $5 trillion (nominal) while the Philippines has a GDP of $272 billion (nominal).
With these numbers in mind, how can you expect the Philippines to beat China in terms of labor and the economy? The Phils. can’t even effectively solve its own domestic problems, much less compete with a potential superpower.
Oh I get it, “God works in mysterious ways”
i felt that most of the youth today are taking up nursing. i hope for the best it is more of a personal calling like the author said to help those who need genuine care but so far i see its all about going abroad for huge sums of money. noble it seems? but deep inside its more of money talk. sorry for those who wanted to help people that will simply take advantage of them…. the over supply of nurses in this country must be addressed properly because nursing is not the only world the philippines need.
I wonder why Garcera’s quote was being spread around again online, it’s old and I had already written a rebuttal to that. But anyway, saying that it’s the Filipinos’ duty to proliferate and become the servants of other countries comes with the increased risk of producing broken families and abuses associated with overseas work.
I completely agree. My father worked overseas and it put a strained on his relationship to his children and wife. We were not able to relate to him and he to us. It was very sad. He died 2 years ago. He spent more time abroad than with us. Thinking of that makes it difficult for me to have closure on his passing.
I took nursing not as a “personal vocation” but primarily to attain financial security which is second on the list of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Pretty legit reason if you ask me. So far I have been successful. Even if I disliked the profession initially. Now I don’t mind doing it as it puts a roof above my head & food on the table. Nursing is like any other job that you have to be competent and have the skills to do your job. The hospital as well is run like any other business. No need for the nursing occupation to become some “personal vocation” or soul rewarding as you say for you to be successful & respectable in such a field. It’s easy to romanticize the profession but guess what, it’s a job like any other job. Majority of nurses do it for the paycheck and as long as they are competent & do a great job at it, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. Again the keyword here is competence. Not a “calling” or a “vocation”. I’d rather have a qualified & competent nurse who does it mainly for the money than an incompetent, unqualified nurse who thinks nursing or God chose him/her to be a special instrument to alleviate mankind’s suffering.
I understand you. I am in the same predicament. I think you cannot be too romantic with ursing or any healthcare occupation otherwise you’ll be burnt out and disappointed in no time…
According to UNESCO: the number one cause of poverty in the world: OVERPOPULATION
The trouble of Bishop Garcera is: he never worked in foreign country. To be a worker in a foreign country. You are subjected to race and national origin discrimination. You get the lowest paid job and the worst job. Then, they work you like a carabao. A little mistake you make ; can have you fired; right there and then. You have to be ten (10) times smarter than them; to survive in such environment. Your foreign accent is also a factor. There is also a glass ceiling, above your head; that prevents you from going up, in your position.
I believe that God is outrage, by humanizing him. God does not think like us, or like Bishop Garcera.
And it is not God’s plan to bring Children into this world; that you cannot provide for their good future. Instead, you breed OFW slaves, to come to suffer in this world.
You’re absolutely right, HT. I can never put more emphasis on the “10 times smarter”. In my line of work, OFWs like me are expected to carry out tasks which our superiors have the slightest idea what we are on about. Hell, we can replace these superiors if it was even allowed. OFWs like me are always “limited” in the sense that we cannot land in a position/designation/status like what they are afforded because of their nationality. Sending out more nurses, DHs, and the like is not helping us OFWs get “upgraded”.
Instead of nursing or caregiving, why don’t Filipinos try their hand beyond the service industry and into sciences and technology? More physicists, biologists and chemists to export would really raise the country’s reputation above being called a “nation of servants.” It all starts at home with a change starting with the Philippines stand-offish attitude towards these fields.
The problem with most Filipinos is that they just prefer those overrated courses like nursing not because they really prefer them but because of their poverty mentality in which they wanna finish college and grab a job immediately based on their course especially if it’s very demanding only to feed their poor family and those branches of science are the exception.
. Bkit b ngtratrabaho tao? Practical dpat tol Madali lng b nursing? D b high school k p lng. Me ielts nclex prc exams yon. Ikaw bka civil sevice d k mkapasa lmao
*facepalm*
You guys are soo dumb to think we’d fall for that. You guys are desperate enough to impersonate someone here in GRP.
Its so pathetic that you trolls would resort to impersonating us here.
Admins, you guys know what to do with these pieces of trash that keep showing up here.
Am I talking to you? What is your major malfunction you paid hack troll? Ganyan ka palagi noong high school ano? Mahilig mangopya para lang makapasa dahil mahirap ang test sa iyo when in fact hindi ka naman talaga nag-aral after all for that dahil gimik at puro tv lang ang laman ng utak mo.
You know when a malacanang troll is already desperate when he resorts to impersonating a poster.
That style of trolling has failed yet again it seems.
Nice trolling and jejespeak, multi-usernaming faker FRAUD. 😛
Hahaha, copying other’s altnicks but their minds are the same: full of crap.
Yeah, they actually thought that impersonating GRP regulars like me, domo and WinterSoldier would fool the admins of this blog.
Their spam posts are nothing but trash like them.
Well-written.Demand and Supply in Economics can rule over this issue.Right now,Lessened Demand:Maximum Supply=Underemployed/unemployed.I am sick of some of these wanna-be RN’s that discriminate other courses.
It certainly is ironic that for a people obsessed with becoming professionals or holding white collar jobs, the work we do is certainly not up to professional standards.
The US, Europe and all other countries should close their doors to foreign laborers. I say this because it makes it difficult for US students like me to pursue careers without thinking about over saturation. To much influx in oversea workers taking the jobs of people who live within country. I personally feel that it is unfair since for lower income families in the US have government aid while middle class has barely anything to work with since they cant qualify for government support.
Blame it on your Liberal, Democrat, and Politically correct government. When the World Trade was push Im really surprise how the citizens of 1st world countries could benefit since 3rd world countries are willing to work for low salary. Late they realize that it only benefit their super rich, bankers, etc.
all the Filipino nurses I have met are only interested in getting white men to marry them, they are all sluts and whores. They treat other races badly because they think they are superior. They should go back to their own dirty whore breeding country.