Poverty and Population

We are told that poverty in our country is not due to population growth, but due to corruption. No doubt, it is. Corruption of the worst kind: the corruption of self-respect as a people and the corruption of dignity as a nation. Indeed, in our corrupt society, we are not poor because we are corrupt; on the contrary, we are corrupt because we are poor. Via our schools, colleges, and universities we are taught to believe that contraception inside marriage is a sin. Outside marriage, it is immoral. What is not a sin or immoral, however, is to be vocal about the rights of the unborn for as long as one is silent and indifferent to their plight as soon as they are born. In the United States, abortion is legal. In the Philippines, abortion is a crime. But we consider ourselves good and faithful Christians. We do not abort. Instead, we allow babies to be born, we give them a fighting chance, and then kill them with poverty, filth, malnutrition, lack of hygiene and sanitation. In this God-forsaken only Christian country in Asia, we produce 3 babies every minute according to government statistics. That adds up to 180 babies born every hour; 4,320 babies born every day; 126,900 babies born every month; or, 1,522,800 babies are born yearly. Allowing for 20 per cent mortality birthrate, those are still impressive figures. What is even more impressive, however, is that the majority of those babies born under the horrors of religious nonsense will have no purpose in life except that when they are old enough, they too will multiply and replenish the Filipino for the glory of Christianity in the Philippines. Pro-lifers are so proud to teach God’s commandments in this country; especially the fourth - honor thy mother and thy father – to children even those living under subhuman conditions in the streets of our major cities. As if strength of character, or a high I.Q. is a requirement to bring forth children into our sick society. Yet the physical position that a man and a woman must assume in order to increase the human population has got to be one of the ridiculous positions assumed by would-be mothers and fathers. Honor is not something given. It is deserved and earned. In the meantime, since the 16th century, we Filipinos have been carrying Christianity on our backs. We are bent and twisted and crippled by its weight. We love only God up there. For the sake of gaining that better world to come in the next life, we must hate not only life but also hate one another down here. And that, my dear reader, is what poverty is all about in this already 21st century Philippines. Poch Suzara