An Eye for An Eye Will Only Make the Whole World Blind - Outsourcing America - Poverty / Endangered Children
40% of the Population of the Philippines Live in Poverty
The Philippines requires all of its children to go to school, however, it is a requirement that is impossible to enforce. With a geographic makeup of 7,007 islands the remoteness of many of those islands makes it impossible for many of the children to get an education.
Others do not go to school because of extreme poverty. The Philippine government in 2005 provided the US equivalent of $118 for grade K-12 education compared to $9,000 provided in the United States.In spite of the poverty 75% of the Filipino youth get college degrees.
Endangered Children
Those that do not, however, face very bleak futures.When I arrived in Davao one of the first things I noticed was the very young street children selling things openly on the street. Children who appeared to be no more than five or six years old. There are no laws against child labor and even if there were the wide spread corruption would make them hard to enforce.
Something else I saw that saddened me greatly was the large number of very young prostitutes. I estimated some were as young as eleven or twelve years old and were openly doing business in front of law enforcement officials.I was told by a taxi driver the police shake down everyone.
Refuse to make a payoff and according to the driver you ended up a victim of the Davao death squads. Thursday we will be hearing first hand from the popular Mayor of the city of Davao about how he supports the Davao death squads. Over 300 kids a year spill their blood in the gutters of the streets of Davao. The mayor calls them criminals and says justice is served. He will neither confirm nor deny he is responsible, but nobody is ever arrested for their murders even though they often occur openly in broad daylight which leads to much speculation that he is directly responsible for the orders to kill the children.
An Eye for Eye Only Makes the Whole World Blind - Outsourcing America continues tomorrow.
The Philippines is certainly a puzzle as Eye for an Eye Only Makes the Whole World Blind - Outsourcing America continues.
Categories: Outsourcing
Tags: Philippines street children child labor
The clip reminds me so much of the film "City of God," the story of street kids and the violence they face daily on the streets of Rio de Janeiro. Thanks for this, David, and for what you're doing to help. -Cindy
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