Like It Or Not, Poverty in the Philippines Breeds Malnutrition for Many Filipinos!

I still can't forget that stupid Murican who said something like, "How I envy the poor. The Filipinos are happy in spite of being poor. I don't care if I were dirt poor and living on the streets, that we have to dig for food in the trash cans as long as I have lots of kids." It's quite different from the idea that if all you want is a child born but not a child fed and a child educated, you are not pro-life, you are just pro-birth. Likewise, one has to think of it that poverty is not a situation you can laugh at.

A concrete picture of malnutrition can be seen in the poverty scenario. Unlike the poor of the developed countries like Singapore and Taiwan where they can afford the basic sources of protein, fiber and carbohydrates, most poor Filipinos cannot. Looking at the poverty scenario of the Philippines, it can be seen that the poor cannot or do not even meet the needed ratio of nutrients from their meals.

Depending the level of poverty in the Philippines, it may create a case to case scenario. The average laborer can afford to buy some fish, kangkong, mung beans and lower quality rice in the market so he still has enough food to perform his labor properly. However if they are below the working class bracket such as squatters and street children, they are so poor they cannot afford fish, kangkong and lower quality rice to meet the basic nutrients. Most of the poor in the Philippines do not belong to the working sector but to the street children and squatters.

For the poor people below the working caste, one has to consider that they cannot afford to get basic nutrition. Even cheaper fish is already expensive for them. What happens is these people are forced to steal food when no one is looking. They may be eating only one meal a day then when they eat, either they steal food or start digging around in trash cans for "pagpag". Pagpag is a Filipino term for food from the trash can.

May I also mention living conditions is another. Squatters also live too close to each other. Worse, they have their habits of throwing their garbage anywhere, peeing and pooing anywhere they want which may include their water sources. They drink dirty water and eat pagpag. The argument that as long as they eat, they are happy is stupid because they are not taking proper nutrition. Sooner or later, they may be complaining about that they want to have fun but they are too sick to have fun.

Looking at these conditions, it's really time to take poverty SERIOUSLY and not just either be happy with the state of poverty. While one does not need to be rich to be successful, one must think of this, "I don't care if I am not rich as long as I am not poor." instead of "I don't care if I'm poor as long as I'm happy."