Saturday, October 10, 2009

Philippines and South Korea: A Comparison

Philippines vs. South Korea: A Comparison
Philippines and South Korea are two nations in the same continent, but with very different historical, as well as economic backgrounds. South Korea , also known as the Republic of Korea, is a country in East Asia, and is found on the southern half of the country’s peninsula. Seoul, the capital of this country, is considered as a major global city. As of today, South Korea is a democratic country and is headed by the president. According to the CIA World Fact book, South Korea’s democracy is described as a “fully functioning modern democracy”. On the other hand, the Philippines is a country in Southeast Asia, with Manila is its capital city. It is an archipelago, which means that it is surrounded by water. Similar to South Korea, the Philippines is a democratic country, and the president is both the head of state, head of government, and is commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Based on the given facts about the Philippines and South Korea, we can say that they are two very diverse countries, with a different geography, and history, which can lead as to why they have become the nations that they are today.

Life Expectancy and Growth
In comparing life expectancy and income per person, life expectancy dropped drastically from 1902 up to 1903, as life expectancy in 1901 was about 31 then in 1902 it dropped to 12.7. Income per person also backtracked from 1903, because in the Philippines, the graph shows that the income level was around 860, and declined to 730 per person the following year. We can also see that South Korea has been increasing not only in its income per person, but also in its life expectancy rate. This may be due to the increasing economic development it has been experiencing as they continue to progress in technology. When North and South Korea were separated, South Korea has undergone a lot of changes in the government, as many republics were established to the point where they were under military rule due to a coup d'état (5.16 coup d'état) led by Major General Park Chung-hee on May 16, 1961 which put an end to the second republic. This, however, did not affect the development of South Korea because they are developing continuously despite the political problems they were facing. On the other hand, the Philippines had a slow development in GDP and Life Expectancy as it was the time of the Martial Law. As we can see, the growth or development of a country may be affected by the social, as well as political issues we are facing.
Economical Development
In the 1960s to 1990s, South Korea has become a fast-growing economy. Its transformation from a low-class country into a developing country was termed as a “Miracle on the Han River” . This growth was achieved by paying low wages to employees who manufacture labour-intensive goods. In addition, South Korea has also developed a high-tech infrastructure, which lead them to have the world’s highest broadband internet access per capita, as well as the fastest average Internet connections. South Korea, too, is investing in the robotics industry, and is technologically advanced when it comes to its facilities and services. This is seen through the products they are exporting, as well as their position in the world’s economy as of today. During the 1960’s the Philippines had a higher per capita GNP compared to that of South Korea, South Korea received foreign aid which amounted to around 350M while the Philippines during the 1960’s only received foreign aid which amounted to about 50M. the divergence in development of the two countries, for South Korea focused more on political and economic policies which were favorable over the next 30 years. When South Korea under a military rule of General Park Chung Hee some of the policies that were implemented was that he instituted a process of economic reform. He devalued the currency, reformed interest rates, imposed tighter fiscal policies, lowered trade barriers, and, especially, he encouraged exports. In many ways, South Korea's exports were the center for its successful development. The government has maintained a relatively open market economy ever since. Ferdinand Marcos being elected the president Philippine in 1966 led the country down a path that was ultimately against long-term development. The Philippine economy experienced a severe crisis, leading to substantial declines in per capita GNP. Corruption on the part of Marcos and his family and friends contributed to the economy's problems. Reforms made by succeeding presidents like Corazon Aquino and Fidel Ramos have made some progress in correcting the damages done by the Marcos era, due to these damages a promising future of the Philippines seems far off. The Philippines’ economy is anchored on agriculture, however, it may also be called a newly industrialized country, with contributions from manufacturing, mining, as well as remittances from overseas Filipino workers, and other service industries such as tourism, and business process outsourcing. It was largely anchored on the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade during the Spanish regime, and the bilateral trade during the United States. Pro-filipino economic policies were developed by Carlos P. Garcia, with the “Filipino First” policy. By the 1960s, the Philippines’ economy was regarded as second largest in Asia, next to Japan. During the martial law, however, the country suffered economic recession, and only recovered in the 1990s, when liberalization was implemented. Today, the Philippines’ economy is considered a mixed economy. Because of the Asian Financial Crisis, the economy was greatly affected with a decline of the value of peso as well as in the stock market. However, by 2004, the Philippines was able to recover and has reported a six percent growth in its GDP, and increased again to 7.3% in 2007. If this growth development continues, we are sure to reach what South Korea has already achieved. From what we can conclude from the basic facts about each country, we can say that South Korea and Philippines are very different in terms of their history, culture, geography and the nature of their economy. Although South Korea is now a well-developed country, and the Philippines is still under the third world developing countries, the only thing they may be similar in would be that they will continuously develop their own economies and strive to improve their performance in the years to come.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Politics and the Philippine Society

Politics and the Philippine Society

The term ‘politics’ originated from the greek word ‘polis’ which means city state, or a form of organization, or a way of organizing ourselves. In addition, it can also come in so many different forms, however, what is important is how it can be utilized. The most basic thing which we may relate to this word is ‘power’. It is the power to lead the people, to govern the state , and most of all, to fight for and protect the rights of everybody in order to bring peace and order. In Philippine setting, when we talk about politics, what comes to our mind is corrupt leaders who stay in their positions because thirst for more power, and a government who is insensitive to what is happening to our country. For the past years, we have experienced so many problems and unpleasant things (oil price hike, impeachment of presidents, leaders not agreeing on certain issues, etc.), and this proves to us that some things should change. We can say that politics in the Philippines is truly fierce. One example of why is the assassination of Benigno Aquino which is one of the most tragic events in politics history. Furthermore, the many cases of money extortion of officials are also present in Philippine politics. In addition the cheating of voting ballots during elections can be considered as a proof of violence and corruption which exists in our country. There are no boundaries in the politics in our country. Deaths, bribery, corruption, cheating and much more can be attached to the politics here in our country. What is more disappointing is that the people, Filipino citizens, cannot do anything about it because of the authority and power given to the government. A lot of revolutions occurred in the history of our country, yes, there have been positive changes, but did it last? Once the newly elected president or any other official seats in their respective ‘thrones’, they are blinded with power and riches attached to their positions. This in turn will affect the welfare of the whole country.

As we can see, the main problem in the field of politics is the abusiveness of power by the government officials. We strongly believe that because of this abuse in power, there are a lot of problems arising in our country, which causes our country to still be at the bottom while other countries are continuously developing over time. With this power, the government officials tend to place themselves over others. They use their power in order to get investments not for the country but for their own sake. These officials are taking advantage of their time in the government as a way of making themselves rich thus making poverty in the Philippines worse. An example would be the president. The president knows that her time as a president won’t last more than 4 years. With such a short period of time, the president would not be able to do many things thus taking advantage of the opportunity of using the power she and her first gentleman has. With the highest position in the Philippines, they can control trade limitation, investments, and do illegal acts without getting caught. They run for a position in government because it allows them to move more freely and thus gain the advantage of getting richer and richer while with this, the people become poorer and poorer. The government has a lot of projects in line for our country, however, these plans remain to be seen. They have this mentality of “It’s not my problem”. What then, can we expect from the leaders of the country? We can say, then, that the money we pay through our taxes is not being utilized for our country’s betterment, but for those who are in the position. This just shows that the desire for power is so great that people fight over it through bribery and selfishness. Through our country’s government and understanding of politics, in power, there is greed, and in greed, is a downfall of not only a country, but also the society.