Why do Filipinos need to be handed out free condoms? Why can’t Pinoy men just buy them like any other red-blooded guy who works for a living?
At about five to ten pesos per piece (or 15 up to 45 pesos a pack), condoms cost far less per bang (pun intended) than a baby. Simple economics — something that a private individual could understand with Grade One math. So, really, there is no need to get all hysterical about public funding for free condom distribution being cut by Philippine Congress. Mister Juan Obrero shelling out some small change out of his own pocket for a night of noise with the missus makes perfect financial sense. He should see it as an investment rather than a cost.
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One billion pesos out of taxpayers’ pockets to distribute free condoms to Filipinos, on the other hand, does not make sense. Filipinos have already been long-accustomed to the practice of blaming a lack of free stuff for their personal troubles. It is always “the government’s fault” when things don’t go quite right with their personal fortunes. The government “needs to create more jobs” to increase employment. Manila smells like an open manhole “because the government does not clean it up”.
And so now: The Philippines is over-populated because Filipinos don’t have access to free condoms!
Yadda yadda yadda.
Here’s a counter-intuitive idea riding on this free condoms demand fad. The Philippines is a stable country because Filipinos are content to sit around waiting for stuff. So our society is really in perfect equilibrium. On one side of the see-saw are a bunch of people who live — and die — on the basis of how much or how little is handed out to them. Pivoted against these mendicants on the other side are the folk with the means to build their livelihoods upon the back of their own personal abilities and cleverness.
As long as the mendicants are happily resigned to dying (or burying themselves in over-commitments, whichever comes first) when they get no handouts, the people who build profitable businesses (and lucrative political and entertainment careers) on that mendicancy are happy. Everybody is happy.
The only time a country becomes unstable is when a critical mass of unhappy people decide enough is enough. See, being unhappy is not enough. People need to have had enough of said unhappiness.
A lack of a concept of enough is the key missing ingredient in the Philippines. Without it, there can be no change. Realising that flat social brew, it becomes easier to understand why change for the better will never take hold in the Philippines. It is because Filipinos are happy with their unhappiness. It is almost like they prefer misery over progress. Indeed, the assumption that Filipinos are “clamouring for change” as a matter of routine seems to be one unilaterally held by us in the Illustrado classes. But you’d be hard-pressed to find real resolve to see said change through much less push it along coming from the grassroots.
The will to change at that level seems to have been all but extinguished by decades of disensitisation to the banal incompetency and crookedness of everything about life in the Philippines. And while the chattering classes are at liberty and luxury to pontificate about “reform” while sipping their lattes and scrolling up and down their newsfeeds, we forget that the Philippines, at the end of the day, is a democracy. In a democracy, after all, the majority gets to decide how things are done and who gets to do them. So — surprise surprise — the way things get done and the people who get to do them reflect the very same mendicant character of said majority who vote for these people and these ways.
Going back to the “issue” of free condoms for Filipinos, you see this sort of freebie-addicted attitude reflected in the way politicians are now swarming into the “debate” surrounding it waxing populist rhetoric. Woman-senator Pia Cayetano, for one, is reportedly “fuming” over the budget cut on free condoms.
“I am shocked… We work on a basis of trust — that the Chair of the Finance committee would not make significant changes without informing the body, or in the case of RH, no major changes will be made without informing me, knowing that I sponsored the measure.”
Well, that’s not to say condoms are absolutely not available to the Filipino, because, in actual fact, they are. The problem is, Filipinos expect to get stuff like that for free. And that, Madame Senator, is what is really shocking.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
If they’re happy with the size of their litter and still want to enjoy sex with ‘the feel,’ men can even get free vasectomies when foreign NSV missions come to town. Hardly anyone does.
Next time they come I want my free clip job. Then I would not have to buy a hundred condoms a month and could spend that money on beer instead.
Please allow me to change the title a little bit:
Will using condoms really solve the Philippines’ population problem?
Now, the answer should be a YES.
But because the female is responsible for her own body (protecting her egg cells and her womb), she also has to use a form of contraceptives.
We are having sex together (mutually and consentually). I dont have sex with her.
Regardless of whether everything is provided for free or not.
You sort of answered your own question, benign0.
It’s in the nature of the Filipino to sit around waiting for someone ‘rich’ (typically the government) to give him stuff.
Basic ideas like investment or cost/benefit completely pass him by. I’ve never seen a Filipino invest in anything, except possibly half-baked “businesses” like sari-sari stores, or ponzi schemes.
Money is there to be spent on beer, gambling, and Jolibee, not for creating a stable source of future income (or preventing future losses).
So yes, giving away condoms will probably have some small effect because the Filipino won’t even consider the idea of buying them for himself. It’s just not what he does.
But then, you’ve got the CC telling that the Filipino that if he USES that condom, he’s going straight to hell; and if he cranks out more poverty-stricken kids, well, blessed are the poor, rewards in heaven, yada yada yada.
So … my take on the matter is that, if the gov’t has a billion pesos to spend on contraception, I suggest they can put it into little brown envelopes and give it to the priests, who will, if they are good little boys, tell the great unwashed masses that it’s NOT a sin to have only two kids, and that it’s easy to prevent unwanted ones with a little judicious calculation and self-control.
@Marius,
I am not an expert when it comes to church and religious matters (not even in my own country) but I do think some churches/religions have some kind of ‘standards’ that it is compulsory/mandatory that church goers and members of a specific church/religion have to donate an x-amount or x-percentage of the income to the church (maintenace of church, salary priest, parish, headquarters of RCC / CBCP)?
I do think and am convinced that most worldwide religions/churches are quite wealthy/rich.
Robert (and Benign0 too I guess):
I understand the CC is one of the richest criminal organisations, sorry, religious groups on the planet. But individual priests might still like a little something in their back pockets, in exchange for political services rendered.
Let’s say you had to bribe 100,000 priests with 50,000 pesos each to get the message out, from the church pulpit, that it’s God’s Will for Filipinos to stop breeding like rabbits, and that anyone who has more than three kids will go to hell.
That’s only 5 billion (100 million euros). Roughly 100 euros from each Philippine taxpayer ;). I’d say that would be an awfully good investment. And besides, it’s the Philippine Way.
So yes, the poor taxpayer has to subsidise the village idiots who don’t know when to pull out. But what else is new? He also has to subsidize the mayor’s big house, the stolen cash earmarked for nonexistent infrastructure projects, the policemen who don’t police anything, etc etc etc. At least bribing the priesthood will show a return on investment.
Yeah you’re right, Marius. It’s actually a circular question and answer loop. In short, the taxpayers have to subsidise this lack of an ability on the Filipino’s part to think his/her way out of a paper bag.
Meh. Anyway. Look at it in a sour grapey way. Condoms aren’t that effective and you can still get AIDS.
Yo Dick, if you use a condom properly the chances of contracting a sexually transmitted disese decreases dramatically. Especially if the female is not menstruating. Only pigs have sex while the woman is menstruating so using a condom properly(YES, some people do not know how to use them OR put them on) remains the best way to not contract an STD besides abstinence.
@Doug,
then from now onwards, please call me a pig !!!!!
Nah,I’ll pass. Besides, No need….you just did the honors.
@Doug,
its actually very simple. When a GF or wife is horny and hot she will initiate sex regardless of her menstruating or not. In my neck of the woods, women do take the initiative and not called names when they do that. Of course at such moments, oral sex is out of the question. I am not a vampire/Dracula nor Frankenstein. And it has another benefit, she cant get preggy.
There was a comment on another article that said, after he interviewed people in the provinces, he said, there’s no other recreation than sex available. Then I recall something a pastor I met said, that people lack recreational options in the undeveloped provinces, and thus sex is the only thing they can do. The lack of recreation is a sign of other things, like lack of economic development and education, and more. Seen one way, poverty is a lack of options (Dick Gordon’s explanation), and thus, people take on obligations that they are naturally unable to fulfill (Benign0’s explanation). A lot of things need to be done to give people options so they don’t multiply like guppies. The condom isn’t really that effective an option.
Well, there’s an awful lot to do in the provinces.
It’s just that most Filipinos don’t want to do it.
I doubt there’s much geek culture in the provinces, as well as computers, books, comics, different kinds of sports, etc. If you’re stuck in the barrio that’s in the middle of a forest, that probably cuts one off from even more choices in recreation and self-development.
They could farm, climb !mountains or other stuff city people can’t do. Human recreation doesn’t always revolve around gadgets.
What Kin said. You could, like, do some work?
It really winds me up when I hear the bumpkins complain ‘there’s no jobs around here!’. What they mean is that there’s nobody to pay them a salary for goofing off. So stop moaning, get out there, and make your own employment. There’s a LOT you could be doing, especially if you get together with the neighbours instead of inventing petty feuds.
As for entertainment, you don’t need internet or comics or a basketball court. I suspect a good fraction of the bumpkins can’t read anyway. I have none of those things and I don’t feel deprived (after working on the farm all day).
I cook, I read, I write, and I think – now there’s a much-neglected activity in the Philippines! – and if there’s someone else around, I talk to them about life, the universe, and everything.
There are plenty of other things to do besides humping. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but if you’ve already got eight starving kids, it’s probably a good sign you should be doing something else.
Human recreation benefits a lot from modern ideas. The reason why people can’t think of much more is because they’re trapped in the backwardness of antiquated culture. They need some education on more modern lifestyles and ideas. Like these in a previous article of mine.
And hey, “geek culture” proliferated without gadgets back then, using a relatively unsophisticated but effective tool. It’s called the book.
Vasectomy is cheaper. Let us tie all those “red blooded” Filipino males. And stop, their irresponsible way of bringing babies, they cannot feed.
The oligarchs want a huge population so they can fatten their bank accounts even further by sending more and more of the masses into OFW slavery.
FREE condoms might not help alleviate the over-population of the Fail-ippines BUT it can’t hurt either
Capability can handle challenges, it doesn’t accept charity.
Every Filipino is convince he or she is very capable. The problem is those confidence tend to clash with each other, because of our people’s aristocratic mindset and self-serving way of life.
FREE CONDOMS IS A FAILED PROPOSITION.
Filipinos get condom but not use it.
Filipinos wanted bare naked sex so is the partner.
FILIPINOS PREFER BARE NAKED SEX because they think it is the machismo in them. I do not think I am macho I prefer bare naked sex free of plastic BUT I KNOW WHEN I AM GOING TO COME. I yank it out and let it come out.
PLASTIC IS BAD FOR ENVIRONMENT. Use paper condoms. It is biodegradable. FREE OF GUILT !!!
INCOME-BASED PREGNANCY.
Government should propose Income-Based Pregnancy.
The last remaining colonists wanted to have plenty of babies so their business empire does not go to Indios. They prefer marrying Chinese than to brown Filipinos whose only empire they have known for is Sari-Sari Store.
WHO NEEDS CONDOM?
Most sex nowadays are oral
It is safer and more satisfying than vaginal
CONDOM is so sexy 60s. We are now in 21st Century. We now use our mouths, fingers and hands.
SEXUAL TABOO …
These used to be taboo … now no more … except having sex with an animal … the rest of the holes are fair game.