Why is the Philippines Poor?
Once upon a time the Philippines used to be the place to be in Southeast Asia. Our neighbors used to envy our bustling economy, the seeming prosperity and the glimpse of the future that we represented for them. Years later, after almost 20 years of dictatorship and what felt like a hundred years of corruption, cronyism and seating leaders of varying degrees of greed and ineptitude, the P hillipines is now left eating the dust of our rapidly progressing neighbors. But is the Philippines really poor? Or are we only poor because it seems more profitable being poor. "India is not a poor country. It's a poorly managed country", a comment made by William Bissel, managing director of Fabindia, as reported by Times magazine on its January 22, 2010 issue. Furthermore he believes that poverty should not be measured by income but by access to water, food, medicine, education, a...