Thursday, October 21, 2004

wrong priorities

I was driving home early last night and the radio was tuned into the news. The news anchor was talking about a pair of young boys who died. The cause of death was disturbing.

The young boys' father apparently came from a mall the day before yesterday. He picked up some left-over chicken and some roasted pork in the mall's trash. He brought it home. His wife cooked it. Yesterday his 4 year old and 3 year old son passed away from food poisoning. The father was inconsolable.

Another news item was the running story of the past two weeks. A major general of the Philippine armed forces has been accused of graft and corruption. He was the armed forces' controller and had authority to disburse funds. and if stories are true, he has over US$1.4M worth of properties in the United States, at least one day care centre earning US$10,000.00 per month, some 50 motor vehicles registered under his name at the Philippine land transportation office. His son was caught by US Customs entering the United States with US$100,000.00 on him, apparently his father's. A general in the Philippine armed forces makes less than US$1,000.00 a month .

Whats my point? The two news stories are extremes--- kids dying because they ate left-overs found by a father who just wanted his kids to eat something decent and an official of the Philippine armed forces so rich he could afford million dollar properties and lots of cars.

In a country where generals and public officials can afford such abundant luxury, we have kids dying from lack of decent food, such evil, such horridness. Last I checked, this was a predominantly religious country, a predominant Catholic country. Something is seriously wrong with how we live our lives.

What can we do to change this?

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

The ruling families, the well connected military officials, judges and politicians proved to their constituents that stealing and cheating is the fastest and best assured way to fame and power. Therefore, the underpriviliged view this as an example that they should follow. With grumbling stomachs and never ending desperation, graft and corruption became part of the Filipino way of life.

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