5 Comments Written by dmeemai on November 15, 2008 – 3:00 am  Email This Post popping..

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The government seems to relish on the idea that there’s going to be $14 billion or more funds coming in every year regardless of the worldwide economic turmoil. What do they do? Easy. They just make sure that enough Filipinos live harder lives, dwell in poverty, continue to work below minimum wage, limit infrastructure, delay building roads so farm to city goods are still as hard to transport as it was 10 years ago. Just do those things and you’ll see, one million more Filipinos will leave the sorry country in no time!

Oh for fun’s sake, throw in bureaucracy all across the board in dealing with government offices too, where it takes days, weeks to finish simple transactions! You know, red tape and processing. Expect further delays when you come by their offices between 9 to 9:30 am or 3 to 3:30 pm because they’re on their snack breaks. Did I mention that they close at noon for lunch breaks? Don’t even bother to come by at 4:40 pm even when office hours says open til 5pm because they need the twenty minutes to finish their office chit chats or retouch on their make ups or just finish up chatting on their computers or over the phone; if you get unlucky you might even come at a time when they’re busy texting that they can’t even be bothered with follow up on when you can get your paperwork!

What is the significance of these lost valuable hours? HUGE! These offices waste over 2 hours of work load, electricity and productivity a day, 10 hours or so a week, 40 hours a month and so on multiply to the number of employees, multiply to the number of government offices all over the Philippines!! Haven’t they heard the concept of rotation yet?! Banks and retail stores have been applying it, their offices/stores don’t shut down every lunch or snack breaks! Imagine the long lines in all government offices cut down to half just for instituting that Jane can take her break while Jack continues to work and then Jack takes his break while Jane substitutes. Is it really necessary for Jack and Jane to go have lunch together while people are lined up outside their windows skipping their own lunches just so they don’t lose their spot on the line?!

I have been a tax payer and a law abiding citizen of the Philippines since I became an adult. Apathy and indolence is what they repay me every time I need something at their offices. I’ve been in and out of government offices for various reasons and over the years it has not changed. I have even tried and worked in the local government for 6 months, right where the action is- the City Mayor’s Office. 6 months is all that my stomach could take! I realized that It’s impossible to put your idealism in a system that’s broken. It will break you first before you can break them!

I revisited the Philippines this year. I haven’t seen the Philippines in 4 years and I come back disillusioned. I know now that I could come back 20 years and everything will be as it was with our government. I’ve experienced the frustration of waiting in line for hours for nothing, they tell you to come back at a certain time and date and you follow and again after waiting in line for hours, you finally reach your turn and what do you hear? oh come back and try again tomorrow- it’s not done yet!!! That’s the kind of government we have supposedly serving its people. So far, I’ve seen them serving themselves! I know, I know there are really government people who actually do their jobs but they’re needle in a haystack and the number is so insignificant that you forget. We need those people. Where are they? They’re now in Canada, the Middle East, the UK and elsewhere.

Clinics and hospitals in rural areas are in dire need of doctors, nurses and other healthcare personnels, the big hospitals in the city need them as well. But these institutions can’t pay them enough to live a decent life for a family. Where else would they go, anywhere but there!

Please don’t tell me that I should be ashamed of myself for being uh “unpatriotic;” that I am just another Filipino ingrate who just happens to land in the milk and honey and think that gives me the right to start bashing at my own country! Well guess what, there’s no more milk and honey where I am!! The supply has ran out! This is the land of opportunity no more! I have every right when what I’m sending supports families in the Philippines. I have every right because I contribute so other people may have food on their tables, enjoy Christmas and have gifts to open!

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