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Sunday, December 18, 2005
Mercado: Combing grey hair
By Juan L. Mercado
Questions bug us as the old year winds down. Did self-proclamation, for example, make the 80-year old Fortunato Abat president of what he and his motley clutch of followers dubbed: “a transition government”?
No. But Abat, ex-bureaucrats Salvador Enriquez, Roy Señeres and company reminded you of what Huckleberry Finn said:
“Hain’t we got all the fools in town on our side? And hain’t that a big enough majority?”
Did Virgilio Garcillano, Samuel Ong, their assorted backers, rouge military wiretappers, plus tainted congressional probers, tell the truth on electoral fraud?
No. They merely confirmed what the philosopher Democritus of Abdera (460-371 BC) said: “Truth lies at the bottom of a well.”
And failed congressional hearings revealed nobody plumbed that deep---and discover who manipulates these puppets.
We could spin such questions endlessly. But for ordinary folk, the ultimate question is simpler: Will life become better next year? Will more of us live to “comb grey hair?” to crib a line from the Irish poet: William Butler Yeats.
Off fog-bound Martha’s Vineyard, a plane crash snuffed the young John Kennedy Jr.’s life. Some thought this young man could resurrect his parent’s “Camelot.” And the silver-mopped Sen. Edward Kennedy made the family’s response to this early death:
“We hoped he would live to comb grey hair. ”
That is also a deeply held wish of most Filipinos-–-but one that’s been painfully trashed so far.
Out of every 1,000 kids born here, 36 never make it to their fifth birthday. In next-door Malaysia, the under-five mortality rate is seven. Is this “ovarian lottery”? In any case, many never get to comb their grey locks.
Life expectancy tables document that fact, as the United Nations Human Development Report (HDR) 2005 shows.
Singaporeans today live, on average, to almost 79 years. Japanese can look forward to 82, the global HDR states. And skipping differences in provinces, Filipinos now have a life expectancy of 70.2. years--–up from the low 60s half a century ago.
That’s not to be sneezed at. “I urge you on this--–which I think is wisdom---that if you find you can’t make seventy, don’t you go, “ Mark Twain joked at his 70th birthday bash in 1905.
Consider “Progress in Survival,” one of Philippine Human Development Report’s newer indicators. It factors in the impact of nutrition, health services, education, etc. What emerges is a measure for gauging: “Probability at Birth of Not Surviving to Age 40.”
“Life begins at 40.” That’s an admittedly arbitrary threshold. But what results if we compare chances of crossing this benchmark in our 80 provinces (87 if gerrymandering congressmen fragment existing provinces into smaller weaker units).
Consider these jarring disparities:
Those born in urbanized areas, with better health and sanitation, more schools and industrial jobs etc, have the edge.
In Metro Manila, 9 percent may not live to age 40, a percentage point lower than in Pampanga and Bulacan. Rizal, Cavite, Cebu and Nueva Ecija log in at 11 percent while Laguna, La Union, Tarlac and Bataan slip to 12. It is 13 percent in Iloilo, Pangansinan and Misamis Oriental.
But premature graves are more likely for “people of the short straw.” These are in provinces lagging in revenues, services, infrastructure, (and competent governance, some critics say). Bias and armed conflict rack these provinces.
For those born within the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, chances to “comb grey hair” are far slimmer. That’s true also of those wedged outside the “centralized mafia” resource flows in development resources.
Out of every 100 born in Tawi-Tawi and Sulu, 29 are not likely to cross the magic 40 year-old threshold. It is 24 in Maguindano and 23 in Lanao del Sur but a lower 18 in Basilan, 16 in Sultan Kudarat and 15 in Sarangani.
A number of non-Muslim provinces are similarly burdened. The three Samars--–north, east and western---are strapped into the 20-plus category.
Others must call out burial squads oftener: 19 percent in Agusan and Surigao del Sur; 18 percent in Biliran Camarines Norte and Palawan and 17 percent in Aklan, Catanduanes and Romblon.
Cagayan, Occidental Mindoro and Misamis have 16 percent of truncated lives. It is 15 percent in Southern Leyte and Siquijor and a lower 15 percent in Guimaras, Surigao del Norte, Leyte, Oriental divisions of Negros, Mindoro and Davao.
These shortened lives and early deaths are avoidable. Today’s shoddy performance is not destiny. But our “leaders” will have to move beyond their preoccupation with Abat-like charades and Garcillano-Ong farces. Business as usual is not an option, if more of us are to “comb grey hair.”
Both governors and the governed must focus on essentials: reducing child mortality and improving maternal health; pruning poverty levels by half; reducing school dropouts and ensuring full enrolments; widening sharply the access to clean water and shelter for slum dwellers; stopping of ecological plunder.
They call these the “Millennium Development Goals,” adopted by the Philippines and over 180 countries in 2000. But that’s just fancy diplomatic language for decency in governance: compassion for the vulnerable and an insight that social justice is the only basis for a humane society.
(December 18, 2005 issue)
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