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Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Editorials: Exploiting the poor
Majority of the people in this country are poor; government data and independent surveys have pointed to that fact over and over for sometime now.It is not entirely correct then to say that the stampede that killed 74 people and injured hundreds of others that gathered for the anniversary presentation of a television show was an “eye-opener” on the prevalence of poverty in the country.
Filipinos’ eyes have long been opened to that reality.
What the incident exposed, then, is not poverty but this: Many sectors in society, which have seen the vulnerability of the poor to enticements of a better life, are exploiting the situation.
Program strategy
Questions: What prompted the estimated 30,000 people from different places in Luzon to flock to the Philsport Arena in Pasig to watch “Wowowee,” a game show? What made many of them so desperate as to jostle with each other just to be the first on the line?
“Poverty!” one is prompted to shout until one realizes that poverty alone, without the promises of riches announced by the program, won’t make people act that way.
The point there is that “Wowowee’s strategy to compete in the ratings game has been two-fold: first, package it as a provider of “assistance” to the poor and, second, use the image of thousands of the poor joining the show as a promotional tool.
Using the people
To be fair, the program is not the first and neither will it be the last to exploit the widespread poverty in the country for certain goals, dubious or otherwise.
Politicians, for example, are more adept in this game, buying voters during elections or giving “allowances” to their “hakot crowd” during electoral gatherings.
The poor is also the subject of a tug-of-war among different forces—the opposition, the Arroyo administration, even militant groups and renegade soldiers — in their quest for power.
Lessons learned
If there is something that can be learned from that deadly stampede then, it is not only that government should find ways to improve the lot of the poor and make them less vulnerable to exploitation.
With the kind of government officials we have, that may take eons to do.
But for the immediate, the stampede should spark public condemnation of the use of poverty by some sectors to advance selfish ends.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (February 7, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
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