1. This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Learn More.

“blessed”are the poor?

Discussion in 'Life in the Philippines' started by Bootsonground, Jul 4, 2017.

  1. Bootsonground
    Online

    Bootsonground Guest

    The CBCP’s fake idea that the poor are “blessed” is the reason the Philippines remains poor

    To Filipinos, rich people are “evil” and a life focused on the acquisition of money is a life to be ashamed of. And so there really is no reason to continue wondering why Filipinos remain an impoverished people today. The very idea of aspiring to be rich seems, to Filipinos, to be a thought to be purged from their minds.

    Rather, Filipinos justify their poverty using the very Catholic idea that to be poor is to be “blessed” before the eyes of God. Indeed, if I were to choose one fake idea ingrained by the Roman Catholic Church in the mind of the Filipino that did the biggestdamage to their psyche, it would be that one. Unfortunately for Filipinos, such wealth-destroying ideas continue to be peddled by their Roman Catholic Church. Filipinos are subject to a constant bombardment of poverty-blessedness drivel everywhere they tune their eardrums and plant their eyeballs — in the Catholic masses they troop to every Sunday, the telenovelas and Filipino films they are addicted to, and the victim-heroes their “activists” and politicians put up for worship.

    The irony that seems to fly above the heads of Filipinos’ poverty-worshipping and wealth-demonising “activists” and politicians is that it is the highly-focused pursuit of capital accumulation (a.k.a. wealth creation) that enabled human civilisation to build the very devices and Web services that allow them to Tweet and Share their poverty porn. Contrary to popular belief, Silicon Valley’s titans are no latte-sipping liberals whose idea of “making a difference” in the world is sitting in a Starbucks café waxing poetic about “world peace” and sending relief goods to war refugees. Bill Gates wanted to dominate our desktop PCs with his software, Steve Jobs wanted to make computers that appeal to affluent artsy people, Zuck wanted to pickup chicks on the Internet, Jack Dorsey wanted to build a Facebook-killer people could use from their mobile phones, and Sergey Brin sought to organise humanity’s collective knowledge into a giant database.

    In case I missed some kind of Catholic pastoral letter on the subject, I really can’t see what is so “evil” about what these five brilliant — and mega-rich — human beings did.

    Indeed, as much as Filipinos would like to attribute everything that is wrong with their society to the “evil” devices of 16th-Century Imperial Spain, it was Spain’s pursuit of gold that brought their ships to the beaches of Cebu and the building of the city of Vigan (among other architectural wonders) that Filipinos now put up as the “pride” of “their” tourism industry. Perhaps, in some fairness to the Catholic Church, there is some evidence that the Spanish conquistadores found the natives of the islands in pretty much the same state as the way Filipinos are even today in 21st Century Philippines.

    In his Inquirer column, Ambeth Ocampo writes how painfully-relevant the observations made by the Spaniards on the natives they found in the Philippines are to this day…

    When I was a student, everything bad in our character was blamed on the colonial experience: on Spain, the United States and Japan. Reading Legazpi made me wonder if we had always been the way we are:

    “These people declare war among themselves at the slightest provocation, or with none whatever. All those who have not made a treaty of peace with them, or drawn blood with them, are considered as enemies. Privateering and robbery have a natural attraction for them. Whenever the occasion presents itself, they rob one another, even if they be neighbors or relatives; and when they see and meet one another in the open fields at nightfall, they rob and seize one another. Many times it happens that half of a community is at peace with half of a neighboring community, while the other halves are at war. They assault and seize one another; nor do they have any order or arrangement in anything. All their skill is employed in setting ambuscades and laying snares to seize and capture one another, and they always try to attack with safety and advantage to themselves.”

    To some degree this revelation that Filipinos already possessed the Poor DNA before the “evil” Spaniards arrived absolves the Roman Catholic Church of some accountability for why Filipinos are imprisoned by impoverished thinking today. But armed with all this hindsight that guys like Ocampo are kind enough to share with us today, there really is no excusing the Catholic Church and its henchmen in the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) continuing to propagate its brain-damaging fake ideas today.

    There is much to be done. As the old cliché goes, you gotta think rich to become rich. Filipinos need to purge their culture of memetic relics that contribute to impoverished thinking — that money and rich people are “evil”, that wealth is more a result of swerte (“luck”) than of hard work and clever ideas, that complex ideas articulated in English cause “nosebleed”, and, of course, the old Catholic notion that the poor are “blessed”. There is nothing “blessed” about being poor. Being poor sucks. As Mae West was said to have said: “I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor, and rich is better.” To be fair, Filipinos who, as a people, have never been rich probably wouldn’t get it. Yet.

    http://www.getrealphilippines.com/b...d-is-the-reason-the-philippines-remains-poor/
  2. Sanders
    Offline

    Sanders Banned

    Blessed are the Cheesemakers.


    Seemingly the Philippines holds the second largest gold reserves in the world (as a natural resource).
    Last edited: Jun 12, 2018
  3. knightstrike
    Offline

    knightstrike Well-Known Member

    I've never been the religious-type really, though ironically I did join a Christian church because of "pakikisama" and I like to sing and play drums.
    I used to rent a room in a house owned by a Christian family.

    Anyway, whilst I did enjoy the music (they were a singing bunch and had a full band and everything), I didn't really like the sermons and preaches.

    As you have already written @Bootsonground they hold on to this notion that being rich is evil and being poor is good.

    The idea is that if you become rich, you will be neglecting "God" and instead focus more on money - physical wealth.

    They like to espouse this saying, "You cannot serve two masters. You either serve one and neglect the other."

    One of the reasons why I cannot really consider myself as religious/Christian is I cannot believe in a "God" that likes to be worship - demands worshiping. If that's the case, then that "God" is a selfish God then and not perfect.

    Second, they say that the Bible is perfect. But the Bible is written by Man which is not perfect. Also the current Bible's contents were chosen by members of a council in Rome back then. So biases.

    Third, they like to attribute every bad thing to the "Devil." Someone got killed, it's the devil. You made a mistake, no it's the devil. Your in-laws are stealing from you, it's the devil. It's like there's no human accountability.

    Fourth, the chismis and payabangan (which is more a part of Filipino culture than religion really). It's quite ironic that for people who are religious and likes to cite Bible passages, they do like to speak ill of fellow members behind their backs. Then if one member suddenly gets a good job or gains money, then they'll sort of entice that person to donate more to Church. Imagine 10% of your earnings as tithes.

    Fifth and lastly the thing I hate the most is that in pursuit of "God", they are forgetting the central element of our existence - we are just humans and we still have to live this life. So much about spiritual this and spiritual that, I mean just being on point about this, if the physical body is dirty and we all sinners, then why bother to live?

    Sure suicide is considered a sin, if so then just stop eating. Go into a cave, fast and live your remaining days there.

    ------------

    But yeah going back to the topic. Being poor sucks. What is blessed about living in a house with no electricity and water? Or being in constant fear of the utility guys passing by your area and then just cutting off your utilities.

    When sometimes you don't have any food in the table? Or when you have to skip school because you don't have any money for transport or food.

    When you had to move from house to house, sometimes in the dead of the night so the landlords won't see you packing up and just ditching the place (good times. hahahaha).

    Living in one small room with your siblings and pets, with no air conditioning and in scorching summer.

    Those were some moments of my childhood.

    But there is nothing blessed about that.

    If that is blessing though, well no thanks. I think I'd rather work and earn things for myself. :lol:
    Last edited: Jun 12, 2018
    • Like Like x 3
    • Winner Winner x 1
  4. Sanders
    Offline

    Sanders Banned

    Interesting because with all that mineral wealth the country need not be quite so poor for the many.

    What’s your view on that? @knightstrike
  5. knightstrike
    Offline

    knightstrike Well-Known Member

    Well corruption and terrorism are what is prohibiting the country from fully utilising the resources.

    I used to work in the mining sector in the Phils, and before you can be granted a license to operate, you had to pay the officials and the nearby Church.

    Yes you read the last part right and it's ridiculous.

    Then in the parts controlled by NPA, MILF or insert whatever group, you also have to pay revolutionary taxes.
    Last edited: Jun 12, 2018
    • Informative Informative x 1
  6. Sanders
    Offline

    Sanders Banned

    Yes, I gathered there are difficulties that way. Without heading into the politics of it all, hopefully the current regime will smooth things out a bit to encourage developers but at the same time without harming the environment. Gold mining can be a lucrative but dirty business in that sense.
  7. bigmac
    Offline

    bigmac Well-Known Member Trusted Member

    MILF!! now thats my kind of religion
    • Funny Funny x 1
  8. knightstrike
    Offline

    knightstrike Well-Known Member

    It's not the kind of MILF you are thinking. :lol:
  9. bigmac
    Offline

    bigmac Well-Known Member Trusted Member

    behave !
  10. Bootsonground
    Online

    Bootsonground Guest

    The resources in the ground are not easy to dig up,separate and refine.. Locals in Mindanao have done so in the past illegally using manual labour and extremely toxic chemicals for the process and many have died (are dying).
    Major professional foreign mining companies like BHP Billiton are not welcome here because the local business oligarchs that are represented in the senate and congress will not allow such competition..They did try once in Mindanao but their nickle ore operation was pretty much a failure and they sold up to a local cowboy.
    Foreign mining expertise that does make it in via a back door are often frustrated into closure because of stiflingly slow local bureaucracy and issuing of permits.. Even if they hold on for a year or two and get their permits,a single Barangay captain or local Mayor can issue them a TRO (temp. restraining order) for a trumped up violation.. This usually happens because the foreign mining executives do not know how to,or are unwilling to bribe.
    Local big money miners do know how to bribe and play the system and break the rules and thats probably why the Marcopper mining environmental disaster occurred in the late 90`s.
    If you ever get the opportunity to invest in a Mining company here in the Philippines,my advise is this..
    RUN FOREST...RUN!!
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 13, 2018
    • Like Like x 1
  11. Bootsonground
    Online

    Bootsonground Guest

    I experienced that kind of poverty here many moons ago for a couple of years..
    It taught me a very valuable lesson..
    Dont EVER be poor again!
    • Winner Winner x 1
  12. Sanders
    Offline

    Sanders Banned

    On being poor.

    Taiex Ltd are poised to develop gold deposits in Taiwan along the Taiwanese stretch of the Luzon Arc ( Luzon Arc seems to include Baguio ) which apparently is a noteworthy stretch of mineral deposits in the Philippines. The Taiwanese section being an extension of the Philippine section of the “arc”.

    Didipio (Oceana Gold ) are or were mining gold - copper, but were shut down last year owing to environmental considerations. Hopefully the powers that be will allow further mineral developement in the Philippines, but in an acceptable way. Oceana Gold has its head office in Australia.

    At the moment much Philippine mineral wealth appears to be being left in the ground in the interests of preserving the countries environmental well being. There is a trade off either way unless and until such time that the mineral wealth can be developed with minimal environmental impact. It is very interesting that Duterte has had the balls and inclination to suspend mineral exploitation.

    It is also very interesting that environmental considerations are being adopted within the Philippines as a whole.
    Last edited: Jun 13, 2018
  13. walesrob
    Offline

    walesrob Administrator Staff Member

    Slightly off-topic, when I saw the name Poor in the title I thought of a song. System of a Down - BYOB with the lyrics Why do they always send the poor?

    If heavy metal is not your thing, you may want to skip this


    However, here's a nice cello version of BYOB, much more palatable, Break of Reality are brilliant.
  14. Sanders
    Offline

    Sanders Banned

    Haha. Heavy metal - bang on thread. Actually I do like a string quartet now and again.
  15. Sanders
    Offline

    Sanders Banned

    How about the metal version of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons?

    Last edited: Jun 13, 2018
  16. Tony James
    Offline

    Tony James Member

    To be poor is to be blessed.

    To be rich is to be evil.

    The Catholic Church is one of the wealthiest organisations in the world.

    QED...

    Seems about right to me.
    • Agree Agree x 2

Share This Page