THE INEVITABLE: Our Changing World
“I believe in change. I believe in the power it has to unite us and ignite us.” — Uzo Aduba
There was this one line that my teacher back in 8th grade used to tell us often — “walang permanente sa mundo kung ‘di pagbabago” . Which I believe is true because we live in a progressive world where change is constant. I’ve only lived here on earth for the past 20 years and within those years, I’ve experienced a handful of events that have impacted me positively and negatively.
LIFE EVENTS THAT HAVE IMPACTED MY LIFE BEFORE I WAS BORN
1. Martial Law during the Marcos Regime
On September 21, 1971, President Ferdinand Marcos signed Proclamation №1081 declaring the country under the Martial law. This event has impacted not just my life but most Filipinos as well, especially those who have personally witnessed and experienced this as it happened. The Martial law was even considered as a “dark chapter” in Philippine history but Marcos considered it as the “best years” of the Philippines.
My grandmother would always talk about this whenever she had the chance. She would say that it was so suffocating as if you are being watched and told what to do and what not to do. This law abolished human rights and granted the state military power. Though there were benefits such as reducing violent urban crimes and lessened the amount of collected unregistered firearms. According to Amnesty International, there we’re about 70 ,000 prisoners, 34,000 tortured, and 3,240 deaths from 1972 to 1981. While some might say that if you obey and never went against the government, you really had nothing to be afraid of. But honestly I believe that, that statement only works for people who are privileged. My grandmother also mentioned that people would be arrested by the police out of nowhere. Though the infrastructure spending surged in the mid-1970s, it was also evident that the country was going through external debt which took years for the country to recover from.
2. Poverty
Poverty and inequality has been prevalent even before the 2000s and is still expected to rise up to this day. According to Roser and Ortiz-Ospina (2017), In 1990 more than a billion of the extremely poor lived in China and India alone. Studies show that he main factor leading to higher poverty rates is income inequality. Increased percentages of minorities and single-mothered families are frequently cited, but they are much smaller risk factors, as determinants of higher poverty rates. In the 20th century, about one billion people living are still in poverty around the world.
LIFE EVENTS THAT IMPACTED MY LIFE WHEN I WAS BORN
- Rise of Technology
Technology has made everything easier for us humans. Everything would just be a click away. Without a doubt, this has impacts the way us humans communicate, learn and work. This has made learning more immersive and collaborative, helping people to communicate more easily with the content they are learning and have difficulty with. It also allows you greater access to different resources. From searching for jobs, to creating jobs online, to communicating with your loved ones who lives a thousand miles away and ordering food and basic necessities online (which has been very useful during these times in a pandemic). What took days for our ancestors to search for, would only take a matter of minutes for us to find today. As much as there are a lot of benefits that we get from this, we cannot deny the fact that this has also impacted us negatively. Humans have become dependent on technology. There are also some studies stating that too much of this may affect a person psychologically. People tend to become less sociable and has decreased communication and relations between people face to face. Another negative effect that this brings would be loss of privacy which can be harmful to an extent. Having one’s information accessible to the world would increase different crimes such as identity theft and people gaining the power to know where you are at any time of any day.
SOURCE: Allen, M. (2019). Technological Influence on Society. Retrieved from
2. Duterte Administration
President Duterte is known for his war against drugs campaign in the 2016 elections. Which made Filipinos vote for him then. He vowed that he would bring about real and fast changes in the lives of Filipinos especially by fighting crime and corruption vigorously. But as years has passed, these are still evident in the country. His controversial program of Extra Judicial Killings (EJK), which are basically killings without fair justice trials and typically in reaction to the belief of unfavorable ties with corrupt officials or persons, is a man of contention and of much argued exultation and critique. The track record of the Duterte government with respect to human rights and democracy is doubtless alarming. We cannot deny the fact that there has been positive impacts from his administration such as The appointment of the Governor of the Central Bank and the end of the corrupt system of importing rice. In addition to this, the Congress passed the measure and Duterte signed the Bangsamoro Organic Law (Republic Act №11054), also known as Bangsamoro Basic Law on July 26, 2018. But at this time of crisis, the administration has been facing different controversies such as the Philhealth issue and corruption. Filipinos have been criticizing the way the administration governs during the pandemic. From not taking precautionary measures to not giving funds for mass testing after borrowing billions of pesos which have put the country in debt.
SOURCES:
The World Mind. (2017). Defining Duterte’s impact in the Philippines. Retrieved from https://edspace.american.edu/theworldmind/2017/12/04/defining-dutertes-impact-in-the-philippines/
LA VIÑA, T. (2019). [OPINION] Duterte’s best and worst. Retrieved from https://www.rappler.com/voices/thought-leaders/duterte-best-worst-sona-2019-philippines
LIFE EVENTS THAT WILL IMPACT MY FUTURE
- The Coronavirus
This virus has showed us how unprepared we are when it comes to handling such. Aside from the fact that this has been affecting us now, economically, physically and mentally, I believe that this event will change the world permanently. Another factor would be how people interact with one another, we will be more careful and mindful of our actions. This has tested how different goverments and countries combat the pandemic. This will allow us to know what to prioritize in the future since this will not be the last pandemic that we will encounter. Such as giving enough funding for research, strengthen and build a more equitable healthcare system. There will be a shift in how people work, the way they do their mundane tasks such as grocery shopping. Life style change will be another factor since Online shopping and deliveries has been booming during the pandemic. Remote work and remote learning might be the new norm which may minimize person to person contact.
2. 2022 Philippine elections
This pandemic has exposed the glaring shortcomings and negligence of the Philippine government which has awaken Filipinos to different levels of corruption happening in the government such as the Philheath issue. The efforts of the current government has not been enough since the beginning, from not banning flights as a precautionary measure but they were more concerned with our international relations. This has become a spark for the Filipinos, especially the youth, to give importance to the kind of person to vote for in the coming elections.