Over the long weekend (Thanks to Chinese New Year! Kung Hei Fat Choi!), VOA (Volunteers of ACCESS) had its first organized short tour to Perez, Alabat Island, Quezon. It's in this trip that Kuya Onin's camera has shown its getting old so pictures are from my fellow VOA members, Aya and Wakana. ;)
What we did in Perez were...
Participants also did home stay, with one person each home stay family. In this trip, it was second time that I heard the view that the objective of home stay is not clear and uncertain if it would help participants understand poverty. However, in my case, when I did home stay in rice farming village in Batangas and with a fisherman's home at Perez, I felt isolated from my comfort zone at sleeping time. Thus, the feeling of being lonesome and hopeful to change the place where you're in at the moment spurred. Probably, for Japanese students, the experience would be more compelling and surely "you'll never know it unless you try"
In the morning of our last day in Perez, we had a little reflection and discussion of whether "Perez is poor or not." Though it was limited time, it was nice to hear opinions of same-aged people and see the similarities and differences of our points of view. Most said Perez is poor but not as poor as other places like Africa. More so, poverty's sense of meaning is different if you look into other people's mind. Some would say it is when people have "less freedom" or "lack of choice" while some would say, it is when people "don't have electricity in their houses, could not eat thrice a day nor could send their children to school". More over, some would say, poverty is when sadness has struck your life chronically and that happiness beyond the limitation of material abundance is wealth.
So how do we define poverty then? This is where the two ways to define poverty enters.
One is, relative poverty (the subjective one).
Keyword: "in relation"
which measures poverty through the feelings of happiness or contentment of a person in his or her life. For example, a person may be materially unable than another one, but he or she might think his/her life is better since their family is together, their traditional values preserved. On another note, a middle class student may feel he is poorer than his/her classmates since s/he doesn't own the things others own.
Relative poverty is commonly used in surveys wherein opinions of people whether they feel their life is getting better or worse is checked. It's one way for government to know if development is felt by its constituents.
Another one is, absolute poverty (the objective one).
Keyword: absolute equals zero or poverty line
In the realm of social welfare and development studies, a concise and measurable tool to define poverty was invented to know who and where the poor are. In contrast with relative poverty, absolute poverty marks the demarcation between who is poorest of the poor, poor, middle class and upper class. A clear example is explaining that a family earns only 2 dollars a day, thus is considered poor.
During the study tour to Perez, I realized these concepts are nothing if you study it inside the four corners of the classroom. Understanding is abstract and vague if you haven't seen what is outside and real. At the last day, I realized these 2 ways to define poverty are nothing but concepts and what's more important is how to solve the inequality between the land-owner and coco farmer as well as the boat owner and the small fisherman.
Studying isn't practical at all, if we don't use knowledge as way to improve and enhance or invent social technologies to alleviate poverty. Knowledge would be mere concepts, floating in the air and gradually die out, such as the field of philosophy.
So much for thinking, it's time to go say goodbye to Perez.
What we did in Perez were...
Play with children.
Interview with coco farmer
Interview with fisherman
Participants also did home stay, with one person each home stay family. In this trip, it was second time that I heard the view that the objective of home stay is not clear and uncertain if it would help participants understand poverty. However, in my case, when I did home stay in rice farming village in Batangas and with a fisherman's home at Perez, I felt isolated from my comfort zone at sleeping time. Thus, the feeling of being lonesome and hopeful to change the place where you're in at the moment spurred. Probably, for Japanese students, the experience would be more compelling and surely "you'll never know it unless you try"
Roamed around town proper.
Play with children, for these little people possess in themselves a universal language.
Ate delicious food made by our fellow volunteer, Masa.
And lastly, play with Macho. <3
In the morning of our last day in Perez, we had a little reflection and discussion of whether "Perez is poor or not." Though it was limited time, it was nice to hear opinions of same-aged people and see the similarities and differences of our points of view. Most said Perez is poor but not as poor as other places like Africa. More so, poverty's sense of meaning is different if you look into other people's mind. Some would say it is when people have "less freedom" or "lack of choice" while some would say, it is when people "don't have electricity in their houses, could not eat thrice a day nor could send their children to school". More over, some would say, poverty is when sadness has struck your life chronically and that happiness beyond the limitation of material abundance is wealth.
So how do we define poverty then? This is where the two ways to define poverty enters.
One is, relative poverty (the subjective one).
Keyword: "in relation"
which measures poverty through the feelings of happiness or contentment of a person in his or her life. For example, a person may be materially unable than another one, but he or she might think his/her life is better since their family is together, their traditional values preserved. On another note, a middle class student may feel he is poorer than his/her classmates since s/he doesn't own the things others own.
Relative poverty is commonly used in surveys wherein opinions of people whether they feel their life is getting better or worse is checked. It's one way for government to know if development is felt by its constituents.
Another one is, absolute poverty (the objective one).
Keyword: absolute equals zero or poverty line
In the realm of social welfare and development studies, a concise and measurable tool to define poverty was invented to know who and where the poor are. In contrast with relative poverty, absolute poverty marks the demarcation between who is poorest of the poor, poor, middle class and upper class. A clear example is explaining that a family earns only 2 dollars a day, thus is considered poor.
During the study tour to Perez, I realized these concepts are nothing if you study it inside the four corners of the classroom. Understanding is abstract and vague if you haven't seen what is outside and real. At the last day, I realized these 2 ways to define poverty are nothing but concepts and what's more important is how to solve the inequality between the land-owner and coco farmer as well as the boat owner and the small fisherman.
Studying isn't practical at all, if we don't use knowledge as way to improve and enhance or invent social technologies to alleviate poverty. Knowledge would be mere concepts, floating in the air and gradually die out, such as the field of philosophy.
So much for thinking, it's time to go say goodbye to Perez.
And these three sure had great time on the boat to home.
Goodbye and see you again Perez!
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