Poverty or the inadequacy of basic necessities for decent living is a sociological as well as economic statement and considered as the bane of societies and governments, not only by rich and advanced countries but more prevalent and pronounced in the third world and developing nations. Humankind since the dawn of civilization has conceived and is still tinkering with enumerable governance systems, concepts and isms to eradicate this very snubbing societal affliction yet millennium after millennium poverty with its inhumanity and devastating consequences on man’s existence is still widespread. What might be the root causes of this societal plague? Some say it is the people-their socio-economic-cultural and political institutions. Other says it is the circumstantial and historical underpinnings of a race. Yet some quarters say it is providential and natural consequence of racial ethics and karma-an outcome with cosmic relations on the rhetoric of good and evil. Whatever and wherever it is, poverty with its heinous heads is ugly and bad not to say the least.

        In the Philippines, considered as the “Pearl of the Orient Seas” due to her rich and bountiful natural resources and known Filipino industry poverty or being poor is not only widespread and prevalent but a way of life-meaning it is there and will always be part of our life whether our economy improves or not. Whether we produce abundant harvest of rice or import millions of metric tons no amount of economic principles and rhetoric can remove poverty as socio-economic-cultural factors affecting the Filipinos. Poverty will always be with us, whether we like it or not. Its infrastructures are commonplace-the padyak industry, the shanties and makeshifts along the railroads, wharves, in the fishing villages, squatters and slums in the vicinities of dumpsites and industrial firms and factories and faceless hookers, street children and destitutes.

        Its ugly heads are abominating which form the drug trafficking, sex slavery and sex trade. The prevalence of prostitutions, child labor, mendicancy and a host of social ills continuously haunting our society.

        Impoverishment is evil.

        I have never seen more nauseating heinous and abominable scene than to see small barefooted children called batang mangangalakal walloping joyfully, swimming, dipping and grinning with their teeth, dripping with the murky black greasy and dirty waters of the esteros in search for plastic containers and sheath metals for sale to help their parents to feed their siblings and meet small expenses in school, like ball pens and notebooks. I can’t imagine that somewhere in the North, sex is being bartered for a kilo of fish. A kilo of cooked NFA rice is already a blessing among poor families. However, it will be more palatable when it is accompanied with grilled or simmered fish. And just to have a simple and yet savory viand many young girls, some are even accompanied and permitted by their parents, opt to indulge in sex-fish barter with unscrupulous fishermen and fish vendors. How horrible and despicable! Have we gone to this low? If we are going, then we are not only going to the dogs-we are in the company of the rats!

        The picture is even abysmal than the minors doing hard labor in the dinky mining tunnels of Campustela Valley winnowing soil in search for gold chips and the small half-naked youngsters doing compulsory labor in ceramics firms in the far-flung areas in China and small children with bloated stomachs in Sub-Saharan and African nations. If hell is the scourge of heavens, poverty is the scourge of life.

        Economic destiny is not a matter of birthright. It is a matter of choice and therefore will depend upon how one would like to live his own life. Being poor is a state of mind. If mind and reality will interact in a dynamic interplay and provided with the necessary circumstances to blossom what is in the conscious and even in the sub-conscious, man will be able to attain what one aspires.

        The question of the banishment of poverty is a question to be addressed by humanity which can not be solved by a government, a country, a race and not even by a developed country.

        Poverty can be alleviated to the level of decency if the poor country will muster its efforts and resources to the production of products and services aimed at improving the welfare of its subjects and providing its human resources the necessary conditions and situations for their development while the rich people and nations are willing to share their bounties, expertise and resources in assistance to the needy and the poor. These will only be unity in diversity if the rich and the poor share together in aspirations and purposes to elevate man to level of human beings in the community of nations in the world.