Reflection on a documentary

It has always befuddled me how the poorer the family, the more children they seem to have. There is definitely something wrong with this equation. After all they do have lesser resources and for them to have more children just plain disturbs me.

After watching this documentary yesterday on the poor Filipino, I started thinking about the problem. There is definitely a core problem but I could not place my finger on it. A lot of people would blame the government and say that all the problems lie in the fact that the government is not providing free food and shelter. Many would say that education is the problem. A lot of Filipinos are not educated enough hence they are not able to land good jobs. But then if you would look at it, the government does provide schooling at lower rates for those who cannot afford. So if this is the case, why are there so many Filipinos who are stricken and suffering of poverty?

I feel that the main problem lies in the ignorance of people. Education does a role in this. Many of the Filipinos especially in the metropolis are suffering because of the lack of opportunities for them. A big reason would be because they left their provinces in search of greener pastures, which they failed to find. With this I feel that the government should play a more active role as our society definitely has a problem. It is a problem on top of other problems. I am really not sure how they would go about. But one of the first steps would be to educate the Filipinos about the number of children they have. Because the government can only help so many people. Another thing that Filipinos ought to know is that the government does not owe them their life. Yes, the government can help them but they have to help themselves. They cannot keep on producing child after child.

It is a very big challenge for our government to turn this around as this societal problem has been long and is deep rooted already.