Problem with Poverty

I came back from the Philippines recently and got totally depressed. I mean, really, unconsolably depressed. The first day back found me on my back, about 1/3 of a bottle of scotch, on my living room floor, sobbing. Why? The poverty.

Believe me, my friends, when I tell you that the poverty in India is just as bad. And I'm sure that the poverty in provincial areas *everywhere* in the world is just as bad. I'm sure some of the places deep in the Appalachian mountains are just as bad.

But there's this thing about the Philippines, in particular, that makes me so sad. America has exported some crazy, fucked up version of consumerist mania to the Republic of the Philippines.

The Philippines' largest export is labor.

People.

The Philippines exports people.

These people contribute remittances along the order of roughly $13bn per year. Granted, this is IMF data, and the actual source of the remittances is not crystal clear, but look - it's the third largest inbound recipient of remittances in the entire world, second only to India ($23.6bn) and China ($23bn).

Chances are, if you've been on vacation anywhere in the world, there's been a Filipina near by, cleaning your room, or pressing your clothes, somewhere in the depths of the plush or not-so-plush hotel you've been staying in. If you've been to the UAE (or any other country in the Gulf area), chances are more likely than not that the building you slept in was built on the labor of a Filipino laborer - and that the people who own that building have their children cared for by a Filipina nanny (who is often abused, in the Gulf).

These OFWs (overseas Filipino workers), as they are called, generally send the bulk of their paychecks home through various different channels. The Filipino banks are really good at following the pool of labor - and they do offer some pretty good ways to get money back to the home country. But I digress. The point is that the OFWs send their money home. They send it back to a husband or wife, or to their children, or their grandpas and grandmas back in the provinces.

Now, I'm about to make a very broad generalization, but ...

Where does this money get spent? To be sure, some of it gets spent for subsistence goods. Some for school supplies, school uniforms, etc. But believe me when I tell you that a LOT of this money gets spent at the mall.

THE MALL.

Most of you will never have seen the kind of malls that I have seen in the Philippines. Inside, they aren't a whole lot different than a suburban shopping mall somewhere in suburban America. But multiply the size by about 100x, and you get a general understanding of how big this mall is. I've been to the Mall of America. It's big. I admit. The Mall of Asia is about twice its size. Located in Manila, about a 5 minute jeepney ride from shantytowns made of recycled corrugated aluminum sheeting.

The Mall of Asia is huge. Mobbed with people. Mobbed with some people shopping. Some people looking. Lots of people eating. There is a verb for this action. "Malling." I've actually heard it being used in sentences. As in, "What are you doing this weekend?" "Malling..."

Why? That is the question that I find the hardest to answer. Branding is huge in the Philippines. Everything has about 18 brands plastered on it. The more "American" the brand, the higher the value. (Of course, you can go to the knockoff mall - but EVERYTHING is branded there.)

Is there a good model of micro-finance or micro-lending? Not really. You can go to a pawnshop, to get a short-term loan. 1-3 days loan, charged roughly 8-10%. More than that, and the rate goes higher, and higher, and higher. Not exactly conducive to "revitalizing" the economy. More like loan sharking, but without the "I'll break yo' two fingahs if you don' have mah money by nex' week".

Where does all this money go? Why is is spent like this? Why does a country with a huge poverty problem promote shopping?!?!

*sigh*

More on this topic later.