Foreword (baka lang tanungin hehe)

 
SEARCA
 In the 1970's, they became the first agency to sponsor a professorial chair in development
communication
 
Societal Problems
 
Necessity
 Is the mother of invention
 A need or problem encourages creative efforts to meet the need or solve the problem
 Means that the primary driving force for most new inventions is a need
 
In the 1960s, the need to address pervasive problems in countries with post-colonial backgrounds
prompted the evolution of development communication as a professional and scientific
discipline.
 
A Third World Legacy
 The term "Third World" is no longer in vogue after the fall of the Iron Curtain in Europe,
the problems and conditions represented by this phrase have not disappeared nor, in fact
diminished
 baby boomers attempted to solve 30 years ago are still as virulent as ever.
 
Third World Problems
 
1. Poverty
 Countries that experience poverty:
 India - 350 million
 China - 195 million
 Bangladesh - 93.2 million
 Brazil - 72.4 million
 Indonesia - 47.8 million
 Nigeria - 46.4 million
 Vietnam - 37.6 million
 Philippines - 35.2 million
 Is a problem that brings with it a host of other virulent problems such as societal
instability, vices and diseases.
 Being poor means unable to eat properly, clothe yourself properly, purchase
medicine for your ailments, or dwell in a safe, comfortable shelter; it means being
unable to get an education because of the lack of money and not being able to
support your family or adequately provide them with basic necessities; means
being eternally in debt
 
 Based on optimistic figures of National Census and Statistics Office, 6 out of 10 Filipinos
are poor. If we base our figures on current poverty indices of organizations such as the
University of Asia and the Pacific, we estimate that 8 out of 10 Filipinos are below the
poverty line.
 
 
Examples of What Poverty could do to Families:
 
a. An example of poverty stricken families, parents of sexually abused children in
Pagsanjan, a tourist town in Southern Luzon. They would "lend" their children to
pedophile tourists since these foreigners would spend for their children's education and
upkeep.
b. The parents that exploited Muro Ami boys due to the extreme poverty, allowed their sons
to dive, work the fishing nets and risk their lives.
c. Public school teachers who would gladly give up their teaching jobs to become domestic
helpers in Italy.
d. Dentists an accountants who apply for menial (work not requiring much skill and lacking
prestige) jobs in the US Navy.
e. Young ladies who are forced to sacrifice their morals for a stint in Japan as "japayukis"
f. The barrio lasses whose highest aspiration is to become mail order brides for aging males
in the Australian outback.
 
2. Unemployment
 Do not earn a living
 Underemployed; when your job requires skills that are way below what you
trained for/you are paid way below your worth
 Our national economic experts believe that our unemployment rates are
decreasing, painting a rosy picture of the utilization of our human resource.
 (search up on unemployment rates in the Philippines and how it affects their daily
living.)
 
3. High Population Growth
 World population has reached the 6 billion mark and is rapidly increasing
 At the end of the 18th century, there were only 900 million people in the entire
world
 Malthusian prediction -
In 1798, Thomas Robert Malthus famously predicted that short-term gains in living
standards would inevitably be undermined as human population growth
outstripped food production, and thereby drive living standards back toward
subsistence.
 7 out of the 10 most highly populated nations are developing countries; these countries
have youthful populations, and thus have a staggering potential for even greater
population growth rates.
 The United Nations considers this as one of the biggest problems facing the world today.
 
4. Inequality
  All men are not created equal
 Everyone should be equally provided with the opportunity to develop, to realize
his or her full potential.
 10% of the population in the Philippines controls 90% of its economic resources;
for a poor country it is strange to find people literally wallowing in wealth
 
Globally
a. The wealth of the world's three richest individuals is more than the total GDP of 48
nations
b. The wealth of the world's 15 richest people is more than the total GDP of South Asia.
c. The wealth of the world’s 32 richest people is more than the total GDP of South Asia.
d. The gap between the rich and the poor continues to widen
 
5. Environmental Degradation and the Loss of Arable Land
 The Philippines should not be poor, it is a very rich in natural resources
 Biodiversity is one of the hallmarks of all its major ecosystems --- upland,
lowland, and coastal yet they are being degraded at an alarming rate
 In the past 50 years, 70% of our primary forests have been logged-over
 Agricultural lands are rapidly being transformed into industrial parks and
residential subdivisions
 our cities and inland waters suffer from unabated industrial pollution that causes
an ever-widening range of pervasive skin and respiratory ailments, cancers,
nervous disorders, neurological diseases, and brain damage.
 marine ecosystems are more delicate than upland and lowland ecosystems. A
sudden drop or increase in temperature could spell the death of many organisms.
A carelessly dropped anchor could physically damage coral reefs and
subsequently contribute to depleted fish catch. Consider that more than 50 percent
of our protein intake comes from our coastal resources
 
6. Malnutrition
 An estimation of 68% of our population lived below the so-called borderline
between nutrition and malnutrition
 75% suffer from Vitamin A deficiency
 70% of our children are anemic and an equivalent percentage has internal
parasites
 By 1997, a researcher from the Department of Science and Technology believed
that the malnutrition rate would slow down by 40%
 UNICEF estimates that 160,000 children die each year because of malnutrition
 17 children go blind each day because of Vitamin A deficiency
 Food policy researchers: Frances Moore Lappe and Joseph Collins have stressed
that malnutrition wears two faces: undernutrition and overnutrition
 Underdeveloped countries are cursed with the former while the latter is prevalent
in the West where the poor, who cannot afford gyms and diet programs, are
obese.
 
7. Ethnic Conflict
 Contemporary wars due to culture.
 conflicts in Rwanda, Basque, Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya, Afghanistan, Aceh,
Maluku, East Timur and Mindanao are not political struggles but are cases of
cultural and ethnic strife
 Samuel P. Huntington - political scientist and historians refer to these conflicts
as the beginnings of the clash of civilizations
 The Clash of Cultures
 
8. Societal Priorities
 The Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro (1992)
 the Johannesburg Summit (2002) has crystallized the United Nations Millennium
Development Goals
 he analysis showed that during the late 1990s, the world spent US$ 780 billion on
military hardware/software and US$ 400 billion on drugs while allotting a mere
US$ 8 billion on basic education.
 Europe alone spent US$ 105 billion on alcoholic beverages and US$ 50 billion on
cigarettes while the entire world spent a measly US$ 13 billion on basic health
and nutrition.
 Japanese spent an average of US$ 35 billion per year on business entertainment
while the rest of the world had to be satisfied with US$8 billion on water and
sanitation.
 Europe and the United States spent US$ 17 billion on pet food and US$ 12
million on perfumes while the rest of the world had merely the same amount to
spend on reproductive health care.