Jonathan Smith - 2

Research Notes:
For each source you use, you should have research notes in the
following format:
1. Citation:
Gonzales, Iris C. "A Counterfeit Life in a Philippines Slum." New
Internationalist All Posts RSS. New Internationalist Blog, 16 Jan.
2013. Web. 09 Apr. 2015.
2. Summary:
This article explains how people who live in Philippiness slums
are living counterfeit lives because they have not been
provided any help in making safe places to live. The article
explains how some people make a living in the slums and talks
about how certain families live in their horrible, unsafe houses.
3. Sourcing:
a. Author/Speaker: Iris is a blogger and also an artist native to
the Philippines. She is a major advocate for human rights
broadcasts economic news for the Manila Broadsheet.
b. Purpose: She wrote this article around election time in
hopes of showing how some politicians promise to help the
slum situation but always vanish after election time.
c. Type of Document: This is a blog post.
4. Evaluation:
a. What problem does this source identify in regards to your
challenge question.
This article completely explains the horrible living conditions
that these people live in inside a few of the countries largest
slums. It explains how small and cramped the houses are and
how their location could not be worse. A family lives next to the
train tracks where trains speed by every 30 minutes and have
killed children before. However there is no place for them to go.
It explains a few reasons as to why people cannot afford a
proper house and why things are so cramped in slums.
b. What new information does this source give you?

Jonathan Smith - 2

This article gives almost exact measurements for what houses

look like in slums and also gives astonishing numbers into how
many people live in slums. It also gives an exact definition of a
slum in the informal sector.
5. Evidence:
Everythings in the name of development but when it comes to
development, poor people like us are always excluded, Elvie
says.
Many slum areas in the Philippines are cramped and congested.
The shelters are 5 to 10 square metres in size and are attached
to each other with very thin walls.
Yet the government tolerates the harsh conditions of life in the
slums for a wide range of reasons, including the lack of
relocation programmes.
Just ask Joey Basilio, a 40-year-old one-legged vendor who lives
by the tracks of the state-run commuter train, the Philippine
National Railways, in the district of Sampaloc, also in Manila.
Joey and his wife live on the periphery of the train tracks, just
spitting distance from the speeding trains, which pass by every
30 minutes.