Hey everyone. I hope you enjoyed reading the "interview of the week" segment. Now I will also be starting another form of daily post called "Documentary of the week." Basically I will write about what documentary I've watched during the week with my reflections and brief description of what to expect. So now to this week's documentary of the week.
Poverty in the Philippines:
*The documentary states, "In 2012, almost 28% of Filipinos remain poor." (1). The definition of poor based on the Philippines government criteria was also stated in the video. But watching that "definition" shown through the video is very thought and emotional provoking.
What to expect:
The film crew including the interviewers are mostly a group of young adults that go around poor-stricken areas in the Philippines from squatter tents to dirty sources of water. A squatter is a someone who settles in a property he/she does not legally own.
**The interviewers ask questions to those living in the poor-stricken areas about living conditions, daily life, and government actions to combat the issue of poverty. Their answers may surprise you.
For the first 2 interviews, the interviewers gave some food and water to the interviewees. It's a way to thank them for participating in the interviews and also to help them out with their current situation.
The interviews will be speaking in Filipino. The video however provides English subtitles when you turn on the captions option.
Though-provoking:
***When I watched the video, the thought of "whose to blame" came to mind. The recent pork barrel scandal was the first thing I blamed on. For those who may not know, the pork barrel scandal is a recent scandal committed by a couple of politicians who had stolen tax money from the government. Creating fake NGO's and ghost projects was how these politicians were able to obtain the tax money (2).
Of course the Philippines also had past series of government scandals stealing tax money from the Filipino citizens which also led to the current state of poverty we see today. According to Fil-Am news media, Rappler, the Filipino government estimates that the Marcoses plundered about $10 billion during the regime of Ferdinand Marcos (3).
Emotional-provoking:
Despite the hardships these interviewees go through, they still have a friendly attitude overall. I felt that seeing how they still managed to maintain their happiness was inspiring for me. Living in a 1st world country, we take a lot of things for granted. Seeing the interviewees and hearing their stories situates myself to seeing life in a certain perspective; Be grateful for the life I have whether good or bad for there are those who have it much worse than me.
****You can say that I was also touched in seeing the film crew donating something to the first two interviewees. It just comes to show that despite having a world ruled by some shady politicians, there are those who are regular-everyday people willing to make a difference in a good way.
The ending is song is called make a difference by Shawn Desman. The lyrics really fit the vibe of this doc.
YouTube Channel, Chemuel Acquiatan:
The YouTube channel that provides this documentary isn't a frequent active You-Tuber. It only has 1 subscriber and posted 3 videos including this documentary. Hopefully the channel will decide to create more content in the future. You can tell they have potential from this documentary alone.
Documentary Link:
References:
(1) Acquiatan, C. David, M.K. Lauronilla, D. Cortes, J. Tabillin, V. Notarte, M.G. Baluyot, M.A. Calumpang, M.J.I. Ramalloza, G. Herminia, C. Uy, J. Pua, J. (2014, March 28). "Kalisud"- A documentary of Poverty in Philippines [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4NaarI9l90
(2) (n.d) Retrieved July 13, 2014, from http://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/rich-media/pork-barrel-special/howitworks
(3) Rappler. (2014, July 3). Imelda Marcos, son plot to reclaim PH presidency [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GerU12swzoA
Picture References:
* http://ak2.picdn.net/shutterstock/videos/6261797/preview/stock-footage-cebu-philippines-march-poverty-in-philippines-a-unidentified-beggar-man-sleeping-on.jpg
** http://www.kevblog.co.uk/blog/38/cainta_squatters_1.jpg
*** http://cebudailynews.ph/image/story/slide/2860.jpg/12717/C
**** https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9_WNLLBqUgr65OZB99QmCuxoOiohpdKYcNtNoXgNjBY9ch4GIMZ2tmQjFKhefZV0TGGdH_IGmMX4Mi7nD6qeyMZYiJjoB8kOiPVxqw-vd6OB73YCc7hqcSp0yFbfAqzfu7Gq6u2re_K8/s400/Mojo+Question.jpg
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