The recent controvery that involved a lifestyle columnist of People Asia ang the Manila Standard Today brought the sensitivity of the millions of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the spotlight. Once again, this goes to show that OFWs are still a dominant force in Philippine society.
What keeps a lot of people confused is that how could a single journalist, unless she just wanted to become popular, could do such a lousy articulation of her wit and wisdom by destroying the emotions and sensitivity of OFWs who have worked hard enough to keep the domestic economy buoyant as ever. In the first place, what sector of society did contribute so much to the economy than the foreign exchange remittances these hapless OFWs sent to the country, simply because the exports and investments hadn’t been so rosy.
The government came out with a 7 plus GDP growth but this was met with negative reactions from a lot of sectors and independent economists who thought that the figure was doctored. Nobody knows if this is believable. But this is what these people thought, knowing that poverty is still rampant for the past several years. Many street children are still running around the metropolis, trying to sell what they could to help their parents keep up with the daily grinds of life.
Look at the squalor and the slum areas. They are sights that are hard to imagine. But go to the rural areas and you will see vast carpets of lands that remained untilled. Rural folks simply move out of the countryside and go to where conveniences are at their best like the urban centers, where crimes, air pollution, lack of housing, noises and heavy traffic are common problems. This is one of the reasons why many people would want to go overseas because they want to improve their lives and that of their families. Yet, what do they get out of their sacrifices? Negative criticisms from an individual who may have been fed through silver spoon when she was raised up. And who knows? Well, there are people who find satisfaction hurting the feelings of other people. And that they think could make them go to heaven. Doubt it. Perhaps, respect to others is the most important virtue that nobody could trample upon. Superior intelligence is God-given and it is not made or acquired. What do we brag if we later find out that some of us are geniuses? Instead, we have to be thankful to Him for having been given a superiod mental faculty. Nothing else is a good substitute than humility itself. Hopefully, some of us would stumble on the thorny paths to Golgotha before they could realize what they did for mankind.
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