ENGL Assignment: Argument Essay

Jacob Scott

Rachel Heartly-Smith

ENGL 201

December 2 2011

Technology, Education, and trying to improving the Philippines

With white sand beaches, palm trees and a perfect sunset, the Republic of the Philippines is paradise in a nutshell. Who could ask for more? For a visitor, this beautiful country may seem all well and good, but there is trouble in paradise for the native Filipino.

It seems wise to begin by addressing several specific negative conditions present in the Philippines, and conclude with the subsequent efforts being made in online technology to improve these conditions.

Living conditions in many parts of the Philippines reflect the classic examples of a developing country unable economically, as well as being too corrupt politically, to fully care for its citizens. Long term poverty has led people to develop habits of survival rather than progression. Many families have fallen into the tradition of manual labor, children growing up to follow suit as early as possible. Many children learn how to scavenge for recyclable items that can be turned in for cash (Image 1).

On a more depressing note, street children learn tactics of begging for pesos. Foreigners are a logical target for these efforts. Often, if a foreigner will succumb to the pitiful sight of one of these children and offer money, on looking beggar children will sometimes swarm the giver with pleading hands and sad faces. There is virtually nothing one foreign visitor can do in this situation except throw hands up in the air in frustration and try to keep to the tourist sites where fewer of these incidents are permitted by the tourist industry to occur. (Image 2)

Even children whose parents do have a job and enough money for food, shelter, and clothing will follow the examples of other children take the chance to beg if the opportunity arises. Fr. Shay Cullen gave a testimony to testimony to the U.S. House Committee concerning these conditions in the Philippines. Concerning efforts that are being made to help street children he said “The children are helped to find income–earning activities to support themselves on the streets, such as washing cars, guarding parking areas, working as shine boys, selling products on the streets and selling plastic bags around the markets. Sadly, some are made professional beggars, drug couriers, pimps and child prostitutes”. (Cullen 1)

Another negative condition that exists for Filipinos is employment. An under educated population has led to a saturated workforce in blue collar and manual labor jobs. The subsequent low average salary coupled with the difficulty of attempting to enter any kind of employment is a major discouragement to adults seeking to care for a family. Scraping the bottom of the working barrel, many youth and adults take on work by renting a small motorized or pedal cab which they hire out to passengers. Because of this, public transportation in the Philippines is a particularly saturated industry to try to eek a living out of. It is common for one of these drivers not to make more in a day of driving than they pay for the cost of renting the motor or pedal cab. (Image 3)

Despite strong parental desires to provide a brighter career future for the rising generation, Filipinos often find themselves between the proverbial rock and a hard place. A child or two working to help keep the family alive is the logical course that many fall into. (Image 4)

Even somewhat stable Filipinos find themselves blamelessly dissatisfied with the opportunities available to them, even with a better than average job. So how does a Filipino strike it big? There are two particularly prevalent options that Filipinos commonly hope to eventually fall into. The first, and seemingly most fantastical, is to simply marry a foreign spouse. The general sentiment among Filipinos is that even foreigners who are poor in their own country are rich in the Philippines due to the high exchange rate of many foreign currencies compared to the Philippine peso.

This continues to be a rising stereotype of the Philippines. Even so, this option particularly favors women, who are the vast majority of Filipinos successful in this endeavor. These women are willing to risk just about any foreign extreme on the belief that it simply can’t be worse than living conditions in the Philippines. Even if these women’s lives are more miserable than before, most are still willing to bear it because of the money that they are able to glean from these financially strong foreign countries back to relatives still living in the Philippines.

To facilitate the mass numbers of women seeking foreign men, online dating sites speckle the internet, specifically advertising Filipina online dating. Filipino Brides is one online site which provides some insight to the sheer number of Filipinos desperate to marry abroad, “If you are searching for Filipino brides, there is no question that the Web is the perfect place for you to find them. The issue in fact is, from which internet sites?” (Web. 1). The web site went on to describe some of the characteristics of these women, it said “Filipino brides (although not all of them) tend to be a dependent group of women who like to be led, which means that for the most part, they do expect men (especially Western men) to be financially stable enough to be able to support them.” Lastly, the site gave some percentages of age ratios for marriages from these sites “with 67% of all Filipino women marrying men who are just about as old as them...With 33% of Filipino brides marrying men much older than them.” (Web. 2) For an outsider looking in, this would not appear to be the most ideal way to deal with the problem, but in the mind of a Filipino it is not only potentially the easiest way to financial security, it is also a romantic daydream for many, and for others it is the adventurous pull of the unknown. Either way, it is the idea of “what do I have to lose?” that motivates these actions.

Filipinos who are unable or who chooses not to try for a foreign marriage might attempt the next best thing, which is to try to push into the ranks of foreign labor. With a current exchange rate of 43 pesos per US dollar and 58 pesos per euro, it makes sense for Filipinos to seek employment outside of their own country.

Two of the most common occupations for Filipinos abroad are as seamen, and in the nursing fields. While the first requires less education it is far more dangerous and sometimes a far greater commitment that nursing. Even so, many Filipinos have the ambition but not always the means to get themselves into the stream of foreign labor. Some Filipino families will pool efforts together to provide the means for even one member of the family to have the means to be considered for foreign employment. The salary of that one family member working abroad is often enough to support all of the major expenses for the entire immediate family as well as many extended family and friends. Another website article from the Utrecht faculty of education in Luzon Manila gave this information regarding Filipino work abroad said, “Because of the difficulty in finding a job in their own country, every year many Filipinos find a way to work abroad, with or without an official labor-contract. Many Filipinos will try to lengthen their stay in a foreign country after their official labor-contract has ended. That's one of the main reasons that thousands of Filipinos are not officially registered and stay illegal abroad.” (Utrecht 1)

However, this exodus from the scarce pool of the qualified working population of the Philippines, while benefiting individuals and their families, is having a far greater negative nationwide effect. This shortage, especially in the case of nursing professionals, places the Philippines in a difficult position when it comes to efforts to improve conditions within the country. So it appears that even when education is successful, problems still persist. In her article on past and present Filipino nurses in the US, Barbara Marquand, a freelance writer based in Reno, Nevada, had this to say, “Philippine nurses’ desire to leave their homeland in pursuit of the American dream is, then as now, understandable and even inevitable. There aren’t enough jobs at home for all the nurses who graduate from universities in the Philippines” (Marquand 1). This is certainly a problem focused directly around the economy and other current conditions present in the Philippines.

Given this clearer understanding of the reality of what life is like in the Philippines, it is obvious that there is a need for some major changes in many aspects of the culture, economics, and government of the Philippines.

While this paper cannot provide all of the possible solutions for all of the major issues present in the Philippines, there are programs being implemented which are now beginning to curb the powerful negative aspects presented here. The Philippine people are beginning to expand their horizons with online technology in education as one means of improving conditions within the country.

Perhaps the most compelling question for this argument is whether or not it is ethical, or whether it is even wise at all, to first provide and encourage the use of technology in education, and by so doing improve living conditions. Others would argue that it makes more sense to focus continued efforts to directly improving living conditions, specifically cleaner water, better nutrition, and health care in a country badly in need of these basic essentials. Consider the old saying “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”. There is little difference between a hungry man and a starving man. Each needs the immediate necessities filled, then to quickly be taught and provided the means to support themselves so as not to fall into hunger again. Applying this simple truth to education in the Philippines offers understanding for the reasoning behind programs like “One Laptop per Child”, University of the Philippines online courses, online foreign sponsorships and outreach programs, and other programs that use online resources in education. The future success and development of the country will depend on the improved education of its people.

Addressing the concern of the exodus of qualified Filipino working professionals, specifically in the nursing field, into the foreign workforce, Rosario May Mayor, president elect of the PNAA (Philippine Nurse Association of America) had much to say on the matter. First that “nursing leaders are working on creating more structured visiting programs for U.S.-based nurses traveling to the Philippines” (Marquand 2). In order to accomplish this they developed some ground rules for the exchange program.

After completing the program, the nurses must return to their home countries for at least two years to work as clinical instructors, nurse leaders or administrators to help train the next generation of nurses. The two-year service requirement is one way to help ensure sustainability, says GSA Executive Vice President Ty Nelson. Last year, the Office of the Press Secretary in Manila reported that Philippine nursing schools could produce only one nursing graduate to replace every three trained and experienced nurses who leave the country every year for jobs overseas. “As nurse educators, they will have four-plus years of work experience with inarguably the most advanced health care system in the world.” After the nurses complete the two-year service requirement, they may apply to return to the United States. As an incentive to complete their home-country service, GSA will help with the green card process, says Nelson. “Of course, we prefer that they stay in their home country, but we recognize that the economic forces at work are difficult to resist from the nurses’ perspective,” he adds.

This is just one program which is designed to further improve on conditions in the Philippines, using the internet to broaden awareness, and by so doing, increase the effects of the program nationwide.

The University of the Philippines Open University is a school which offers online graduate programs. Stated in the mission of the University it says “The U.P. Open University seeks to provide wider access to quality higher education. It shall adhere to the highest standards of academic excellence, guarantee academic freedom , and encourage social responsibility and nationalistic commitment among its faculty, staff and student” (UPOU 1) This university understands and accepts the need to improve conditions in the Philippines.

It is common knowledge that the country’s educational system is facing a host of challenges. High population growth, limited school capacity, poverty and other factors have led to high student dropout rates. In addition to the problems of the formal basic education sector, there is large group of learners who are not adequately served by the education system. In 2007, there were more than 11 million out-of-school youth and non-literate adults in need of alternative basic education. Reaching this vast sector requires strengthening the country’s alternative education system (AES) which is based on non-mainstream or non-traditional approaches to teaching and learning, such as non-formal education, distance education, and work-based learning. The government acknowledges the importance of AES in the attainment of the goal of ‘Education for All’.

Even with these two programs in place there are many Filipinos who never even consider the possibility of an education. For these people there is another online resource reaching out to them.

“Outreach Asia” is an online college sponsorship program in place for Southern Leyte State University in the Philippines. This and other sponsor programs allow willing foreign parties to contribute to the education of children and adults of all ages depending on the sponsor’s preference. Concerning poverty and the liberating power of education, Outreach Asia explains, “Only by educating the children in the communities can they ever hope to break the cycle of poverty that has trapped their families for generations.”

Given all of these future driven programs and how they are now affecting the Philippines, we can be reassured that there is a brighter future for the rising generations. As more and more Filipinos gain professional degrees over a wide spectrum of careers the Philippines on a whole will change. An educated people have far more power to govern and care for themselves than does a dependent, needy, and uneducated one. While the Philippines may still need considerable outside support to fight starvation and provide other necessities for the time being, it is by education that this people will raise from poverty and corruption into the developed world.

Change will eventually occur for each of the conditions discussed here, such as poverty, jobs that do not pay, and worker exodus, from the effects of these programs. Each will benefit from these empowering online resources. Every day, rather than let this powerful resource go to waste, more Filipinos continue to use it instead to extend the bounds of education and success , allowing for the power of knowledge to begin the transformation of their developing country. Online resources will continue to refine themselves and become even more accessible and common in everyday use throughout the Philippines. Embracing these online resources is a major key to the basic fundamental problems being faced by the Philippines and other developing countries. As a result, other negative aspects of the Philippines will begin to be addressed as well, especially in the realms of government and corruption. As stated above, an educated people will run a country better.