Monday, January 19, 2004
22 students from my section went to San Pedro, Laguna today to work in a construction site. The name of the project is Habitat. It's a volunteer sort of thing whereby students from different schools are sent to the site to help build houses for the homeless or should I say squatter's area. The recipients of these houses we helped build are from the "riles" or railway.
Actually, what we did was dig for the foundation for boys while the girls lifted blocks from one place to another. I'm glad only 22 students came. These were the ones who are not very "maarte!" I would have only been pissed off had there been someone who refuses to work with us.
Anyway, the students learned how hard it is to work with one's hands for a measly sum of money. And to think people do this kind of work eeryday! It was a noteworthy project.
One thing that I am skeptical about is that projects like these for the poor do not materialize. I remember Imelda's project for similarly situated people -- BLISS! These are condo like units that were constructed by then First Lady, Imelda Marcos for the poor. What happened was these people only sold their units to the middle class. You get to see these BLISS projects today and be amazed that the car park is full.
So was the fate of the Land Reform, I was told. The "kasama" who were granted land by the government got into serious debt to the landlord forcing them to sell their share to the same landlord. It's kind of pathetic but it seems that these people will never be elevate from their present stature just because they wouldn't learn. I don't want to think that they are this way because they are lazy and that they are comfortable with just getting a mere pittance of alms and donations. however, it seems like this is the truth. I don't know but at the rate we are going, I think the discrepancy between the rich and poor is getting bigger and bigger. Who do we blame for this? Certainly not the government but ourselves, right?
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Actually, what we did was dig for the foundation for boys while the girls lifted blocks from one place to another. I'm glad only 22 students came. These were the ones who are not very "maarte!" I would have only been pissed off had there been someone who refuses to work with us.
Anyway, the students learned how hard it is to work with one's hands for a measly sum of money. And to think people do this kind of work eeryday! It was a noteworthy project.
One thing that I am skeptical about is that projects like these for the poor do not materialize. I remember Imelda's project for similarly situated people -- BLISS! These are condo like units that were constructed by then First Lady, Imelda Marcos for the poor. What happened was these people only sold their units to the middle class. You get to see these BLISS projects today and be amazed that the car park is full.
So was the fate of the Land Reform, I was told. The "kasama" who were granted land by the government got into serious debt to the landlord forcing them to sell their share to the same landlord. It's kind of pathetic but it seems that these people will never be elevate from their present stature just because they wouldn't learn. I don't want to think that they are this way because they are lazy and that they are comfortable with just getting a mere pittance of alms and donations. however, it seems like this is the truth. I don't know but at the rate we are going, I think the discrepancy between the rich and poor is getting bigger and bigger. Who do we blame for this? Certainly not the government but ourselves, right?
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