One would think so. Over just the last seven days, Rappler and its hipster “journalists” seem to be all-hands-on-deck kicking up a media frenzy over the gutting of a renowned global ATM machine; the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The Philippines, after all, is dependent on an umbilical cord that delivers cash from the First World to “aid” the “plight” of “the poor”. Do dole outs from the rich to “the poor” really help? That’s debatable at best. Taking stock of what the Philippines had become over more than half a century of receiving “aid” from the First World presents an unpromising picture.
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Not surprising when one considers a rather confronting truth about poverty…
Poverty is a habitual entering into commitments one is inherently incapable of honouring.
Trying to solve a problem created by foreign capital or, worse, “aid”, using more foreign capital (rather than inherent capability) is like trying to pay off debt by borrowing more money. It’s a fool’s way of life.
Albert Einstein once said:
You cannot solve a problem using the same thinking that created it.
Foreign capital (of which “technology” as we define it is one form) will not cure the poverty of societies that remain inherently unable to embrace, absorb, and embed, foreign capital to productive (as opposed to consumerist) ends. Living within one’s means involves aspiring to a living standard commensurate with one’s inherent ability to produce economically valuable stuff to sustain that living. The Philippines, like many Third World countries aspire to live to a standard way beyond that inherent ability. And that is why the Third World remains poor despite the First World’s “best efforts”.
Media outlets that embrace leftist or, worse, woke thinking — such as Rappler — are part of this problem. They send out messaging that encourages people to wallow in their perceived victimhood. If, indeed, Rappler is at the pan end of “aid” from the First World, then it does make business sense to keep its readers’ minds hooked on the notion that USAID is God’s Gift to the world’s “victims”.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
The end of USAID is one of the best things to happen in recent years. Foreign aid absolutely does not help anyone. The elite steal the vast majority of the “aid” and it never gets to the intended population.
Societies need to improve by themselves and if they can’t in the information age they must suffer the consequences.
If you are a government unit paying for worthless employees (which is everywhere in the Philippines) you deserve your fate.
The government unit should be using this money to develop sustainable food and housing. With AI there are now open ways for anyone to see how to solve these problems.
The first mayor in the Philippines to actually make these changes and provide worthwhile food and housing will probably be the president in the next 10 years.
The reason a lot of people love Duterte so much in the Visayas and Mindanao is he created a lot of housing during his time (while I think these houses could have been built more efficiently, the fact remains they were built).
Filipinos all have access to the internet, they can ask any question they want in their native language to various AI systems and they will get well thought out answers to their questions.
If they want to vote for terrible nepotism candidates…. well…. live with it.
The information age should be the end of the excuse age.