It's all for profit... and that's the problem

We've just returned from Boracay, Cebu and Bohol, three destinations that were significantly different from Manila. While the rain was disappointing in Boracay we spent plenty of time roaming around the village area. Aside from the let down of the rain something that bothered me were some rather sleazy actions that I saw some European tourists engaging in regards to the treatment of women; actions that women had to take to make a profit. I can't say that they were for sure doing what I thought they were, but given the "Las Vegas" nature of the place I highly doubt that they were there just to swim. Cebu, Boracay and Bohol were all nicer then Manila and that’s because there was much more profit to be made there in the form of tourist investment. Look at my picture above and then look at the picture of the biologically dead river in Manila, a city which profits off of industry, that I posted in a previous blog. Its interesting that the type of profit that can made in a place determines how that place is treated.

In "Global Trade and Filipina Wokers", Grace Chang explains that Structural Adjustment Policies, which are basically implemented to maintain a country’s budget, raise the demand for migrant women in low paying middle class jobs in health care, elder care and house keeping (p. 397). This is rather pertinent information to take in considering the new United States Debt Deal which will include cuts towards social programs. This is frightening for those who are advocating socialized health care because not only is less likely of becoming a reality but it could even become more expensive in places that need it most. According to Chang the cost of medicine rose 600% in India after Structural Adjustment Policies were implemented. Due to the undeniable economic ties that exist between the United States and third-world countries it is possible that rises in the cost of necessary social assistance such as medicine will follow the debt crisis. The Philippines is in debt and many of the women who migrate to the United States in search of work send money back to the Filipino government in the form of what are called remittances. These remittances are the Philippines greatest source of revenue to pay off debt to the United States (Chang).

She also explains that land is becoming privatized so that the acreage that could be used for becomes used for food products to be sold domestically will be exported instead of used to feed the hungry. While completing this week's readings I took a break and went to the book store and picked up a copy of the latest issue of National Geographic. Coincidentally, although not surprisingly, there was an article by Amanda Fiegel which explains that experts predict that by 2045, in order to feed the planet's fast growing population food production will have to double. How is this going to happen when land is privatized and utilized for profit which allows the well off to eat food they really don't need in order to survive and keeps the hungry from being able to produce food that they literally need to to survive?

Focal to Chang's article is the exposure of migrant Filipino/as working as nurses abroad. The migrant nurse's only option is to work for two years for an institution that "sponsors" them to come work as nurses in the United States. Yet in reality they are given low wages that American nurses won't take and also have to pay off debt to recruiters that essentially puts them in a less visible form of indebted slavery. Honestly, health care is the last place that I thought would be tainted by labor exploitation but then again even health care has to be for profit so that doctors can pay off their heavy debt load from medical schools which in turn have to make profit off of tuition. Apparently, even our government has programs that allow for questionable labor policies with the In Home Support Services program (Chang, 401).

Rhacel Salazor Parenas adds additional information to the crisis of migrating Filipina workers by explaining the three part process that is created by women performing reproductive labor (care of adults, youth, cleaning the house etc.) at different economic levels. Filipinas will migrate to the United States or Europe (Italy in Parenas' example) and work for families in which the mother works a job that takes to much from her day to take care of domestic chores. Parenas explains that out of the women she interviewed most were mothers who had left their families behind and sequentially had to hire women back home to help take care of their families. Thus a unique and probably often not thought of cyclical process in which women are economically binded is created. It bothers me that one woman works so much that she has to hire another woman to care for her children which means the hired woman can't spend time with her children either. I feel fortunate that I never had to be one of these children. Ultimately the drive by one woman to make profits takes her away from her children and this does the same to women from worse off countries.

In the article “U.S. Racism and Intervention in the Third World, Past and Present” Daniel B. Schermer references a quote that George McNeil said just over a hundred years ago that "monopoly and imperialism are the same thing". This quote is similar to when I said in a previous blog that colonialism still exists in the malls and restaurants trying to emulate America while failing to benefit the majority of the citizens in the Philippines. Striving to be a monopoly derived from trying to make the ultimate profit and this happened when the U.S. colonized the Philippines for market access to Asia and is still happening with the corporations who are hiring people for low wages today. Schermer also writes about how United States intervention in Grenada, Kuwait and Iraq led to vast benefits for United States corporations. Undoubtedly, as we have learned through our readings and from first hand experience, the same thing has happened here in the Philippines. Schermer also says that these wars were inherently racist. While there is no doubt in my mind that issues of racism pervaded these wars and made them even worse off than a war naturally is, it seems to me that the idea of prosperity for the United States has always been tackled with a for profit mind set, which has always been at hand as a leading factor that leads to war. I don't think that racism initiated any of these wars, I just think that certain people who have racist tendencies happen to find themselves in a place were those tendencies are able to be elevated. In the end, whether it be stopping communism, strategic positioning or access to natural resources or cheap labor some one in the United States was always and is always profiting during these wars. Even the U.S. revolution had to do with profit because we wanted lower taxes and then we went beyond where we needed to go and allowed and practiced the exploitation of people around the world. Its frustrating for me to grasp all of this, because the United States is filled with so many good people who hold great values and do amazing things yet this is not the image that the rest of the world sees. If a war comes to their door step and then their destroyed streets are rebuilt by American corporations that is what they see, they don't see those who fought against the war, or are working for charity and trying to do good.

In the end I see this “for profit” mind set destroying the planet. While, yes it is necessary to make money and be competitive for yourself and for your country, it’s equally as important to think about what is going on in the world. The drive to make money tears mothers away from their families in third world countries and even in the United States. The same drive leads us to war and causes the deaths of innocent people as well as the destruction of homes, neighborhoods and cities. Then as I write this I think about what I’m doing and how I can or cannot be part of this, but I remember I have bills to pay, things to accomplish and a life to live and regardless of everything I have to live it within this system, and somehow I too have to profit. Am I still part of the problem even though I'm aware of it and even if I contribute to the problem only to the extent that I need to to survive am I still fueling its destructive flames?

I'll post more pictures later, the internet is still to slow to load anything.