And the local scuttlebutt there is that dear dad was sexually abusing Mariannet, and that, not crushing poverty, is what drove her to take her own life.

We cannot deny that the government has the power, the resources, and the duty to alleviate poverty! That’s why we are tempted to point the finger at our government. What are they in power for?

A challenge, huh? Sweet!

I’ll get to need my hands on that issue of Newsweek first, though.

Great to see you’re back.

And I am sure you don’t believe that a kid like Mariannete Amper had any chance to rise out of poverty…
What were her odds?

Some quotes:

“There is an increasing worrisome global paradox. In the sixth year of synchronous growth, the global economic pie has expanded at an unprecedented rate. But the rich are eating most of the new slices. What’s more, they’re using their power to ensure the baker keeps delivering the pies to their gilt-edged doors before venturing into poorer neighborhoods.”

“The list of global billionaires is now filled with resource magnates who were effectively anointed by the state. Less progressive tax regimes, privatization policies that have funneled public resources into private hands and a lack of basic protection for labor have helped tilt the balance in favor of the wealthy.”

“When it comes to issues like free trade, the taxation of wealth, the protection of workers and the necessity of redistribution and social welfare, the center has moved to the right – in the United States and globally.”

“Rather than using the tools that we have to counteract the forces, moneyed interests really grabbed US politics in the last 20 years and exacerbated these trends. And so the tax structure became less fair, and the public expenditure side became even less fair. In the last several years, the Bush administration and the Republican Congress slashed and cut taxes on capital gains, dividends and estates- all of which have massively benefited the already wealthy.” “Elsewhere tax regimes are similarly friendly to concentration of wealth;”

Or you might want to buy Joe Studwell’s book: Asian Godfathers: Money and Power in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia.

“Despite now bullish stock markets in the region, the billionaires—with their lousy corporate governance and manipulation of local banks to provide cheap and easy alternative sources of credit—also have contributed to the worst long-term emerging-market-equity performance in the world.”

“For working- and middle-class Asians, the past 10 years are mainly defined by rising and palpable inequality. The two wealthy city-states, Hong Kong and Singapore, today boast inequality as measured by the international Gini benchmark that is on par with urban Argentina. Post crisis, the proportion of people in the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia living on less than the World Bank’s $2-a-day measure of poverty and near poverty is greater than in Latin America. Today, it seems all too possible that the region’s coddled political and economic elites will allow their states to slide into a Latin American morass, as they continue to live high on the hog while the dreams of ordinary people go down the tubes. “
“After the financial crisis in Southeast Asia, in state after state, taxpayers picked up the tab, tycoons picked up the pieces and life went on as before. The lesson of the past decade has been that the relationship between political and economic elites in Southeast Asia is more enduring than almost anyone imagined.”

“Throughout the region, businessmen have been pushing deeper into politics, and Thaksin Shinawatra took this trend to its logical conclusion in Thailand. Backed by other key tycoon families—such as the Chearavanonts of CP Group and the Sophonpanichs, who control Bangkok Bank—he formed a political party and won election as prime minister. As had happened long before in the Philippines, the businessmen overran the political system, blurring the traditional distinction between political and economic elites.”

I CHALLENGE YOU!! Let’s go together to Payatas and show me who has any chance to get out of his circle of poverty.
http://brommel.blogspot.com/2007/10/smokey-mountain-divine-comedy.html

10The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?”

11He replied, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. 12Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 13This is why I speak to them in parables:
“Though seeing, they do not see;
though hearing, they do not hear or understand. 14In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:
” ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
15For this people’s heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.’[a] 16But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. 17For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

Matthew 13:10-16