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TITLE: PHILLIPINES HOMELESSNESS
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Introduction & Importance
Philippines is a Southeast Asian country which has a population of 111 million people. Their current president is Rodrigo Duerte. Philippines’s population rate increases the fastest amongst all the South East Asian countries. (Ordinario, 2020) Phillipines has a conspicuous number of 4.5 million homeless people. A big issue in Philippines is safe and unaffordable housing.
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Fig 1: Philippines is overcrowded in urban areas (Ordinario, 2020)
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It is estimated that 19.2% of the people in Phillipines are suffering from poverty due to the rapidly increasing population and suboptimal economic developments. (Robinson, 2018) This poverty rate has resulted in many people being unable to afford housing. However, even those with houses might not be able to purchase strong, steady materials for their house’s foundation with 2 million people living in unsafe houses. (Chi, 2020)
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Fig 2: People in Philippines staying afloat on furniture in the aftermath of a typhoon (Zahn, 2018)
Furthermore, many natural disasters have destroyed people’s homes, making them homeless. In the year 2019 alone, there were 20 over typhoons in Philippines, destroying countless of homes. (Meribole, 2020) These disasters displace Philippine citizens and force them to find dangerous areas to live in for shelter. Therefore, the target of safe and affordable housing for Philippines is of utmost importance due to the substantial amount of citizens without proper households.
Challenges
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Fig 3: President Rodrigo Duerte giving a speech (Ranjan, 2021)
The suboptimal handling of the housing crisis by the Philippines government has added to the Philippines housing crisis. The government often has budgetary issues to put in enough money for the construction of houses and also have other sectors to consider putting in their money to. This hampers the number of houses and quality of houses being built. Moreover, despite the fact that a substantial amount of people in the Philippines can only afford to rent, reviews in the past years of the Philippine’s housing development laws have addressed rental only once, showing how they have done little to aid Philippine’s citizens in house rental. (Chi, 2020) House rental is crucial for people to obtain safe shelters to live in and yet the government is not doing much to help people rent.
Initiative
Community Mortgage Program by the Social Housing Finance Corp works to help poor Filipino families with poor, dangerous living conditions to live in safe affordable places under the concept of community ownership. The initiative is effective to some extent. The Community Mortgage Program has helped 300,000 households, and have created long-lasting and strong communities. During the Covid era, Social Housing Finance Corp have been putting in even more effort to build inexpensive houses of good quality From January to November 2020, a huge sum of P922.5 million has been loaned in the Community Mortgage Program, helping to aid 11,700 families. (Roasrio, 2021) However, some poor households might not be able to partake in this program due to the community having inadequate money to pay the equity to landowners to acquire their land. The amount of equity is not fixed and could be extremely high especially in urbanized areas like Metro Manila. Therefore, this initiative is only effective to some extent.
(Ballesteros, 2017)
Fig 4: Housing Characteristics in Phillipines (Nil,2018)
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Befriending countries while steering clear from antagonizing other countries has always been done by Singapore. It is a mantra that has helped Singapore to thrive as an economy and navigate tricky foreign relations.I chose case study 1 as it showcases my chosen principle. The case study shows Singapore contributing vaccines to third-world countries such as Indonesia under the Covax initiative.
It helps reduce losses for both Singapore and India’s economy.Case Study 1 shows Singapore inds friendship with other countries important as it contributes vaccines to third-world countries under Covax initiative. It strategically benefits Singapore to be a good neighbour.Singapore relies heavily on other countries for free trade with a conspicuously significant amount of bilateral trade occurring between Singapore and Indonesia at 2019 at 459 billion dollars. (Affairs, n.d.)Singapore also believes in the concept of an open economy where the movement of goods and people are unrestrained.. (Ho, 2021) Covid is one disease which has caused many countries to close off borders to halt infection rates. Even if countries compelled themselves to open up before they were ready to do so, the move will be suboptimal.
Countries with vaccination rates lower than 60% might lose a huge sum of 2.3 trillion dollars from 2022 and2025. (Ng, 2021). with Singapore., it is actually in Singapore’s best interest to provide vaccinations to developing countries. As Singapore relies heavily on migrant workers for jobs like construction workers, it is important for Singapore to receive vaccinated and healthy travellers. (Zhang, 2020) We will have this by donating vaccines to neighbouring countries..Therefore, Singapore wants to contribute vaccines to developing countries to establish good connections with countries so that other countries would help them and support them in return by means of free trade etc.
TITLE: COVAX INITIATIVE AND VACCINE EQUITY
TITLE: TREATMENT ON ELDERLY ORPHANS
Letchime, an elderly lady clad in a thin pale dress, sits in a chiaroscuro of shadows in her empty, dimly-lit apartment. The television is running in the distance, and yet her eyes fixate elsewhere on the bright golden sky outside. The doorbell rings and Letchime hoists herself up on her crutches, revealing herself to be a left leg amputee. She staggers towards the door and rips it open, revealing her Lion Befriender helper Peck Wei at the door.
A smile spreads across Letchime’s face as she lets Peck Wei in.
Peck Wei is a middle-aged volunteer at Lion Befrienders who dedicates herself to supporting the elderly folks living alone both physically and mentally. Letchime is one of the few elderly people she makes regular visits to.
Peck Wei hunches over a seated Letchimei and guides her through the process of using a smartphone. Letchimei scrunches her face in confusion at the bright glare of her smartphone. As Peck Wei patiently guides Letchime with the smartphone, we learn from Peck Wei that a lot of elderly people in Singapore are isolated from society due to their digital illiteracy and language barriers. She tells us that a lot of the old folks have suicidal inclinations. Once Letchime decides to put a hold on using the smartphone app, Peck Wei helps guide Letchime out of her house, to the hectic frenzy of the supermarket.
As both of them browse through the aisles of poultry, we learn from Letchime that she had been adamant against having a Lion Befriender at first. Initially, she thought she was able to manage daily tasks such as going to the supermarket by herself. However, Peck Wei eventually won her over with her cheery disposition and her coloring book gifts.
Under the bright fluorescent ceiling lights of Wicare Centre, a group of elderly women huddle together in a circle on wooden chairs. In the middle of the circle seats a well-kempt psychologist. The elderly women listen intently to her gentle, lilting voice and occasionally burst into laughter at some of her jokes.
One of the women, Nellie Teo, dons a faded floral blouse and dark pants. A light smile plays across her lips as she leans forward eagerly as the psychologist talks. Nellie Teo is an elderly widow who finds her source of emotional support at Wicare. Wicare offers group sessions for elderly orphans with no family or peers. The psychologist points at Nellie and asks Nellie to share how her day was. Nellie stands up and proceeds to rattle on in a chirpy, buoyant voice.
After a while of chattering animatedly, the elderly women shuffle out of Wicare centre. As Nellie boards the bus back home, we learn that Nellie Teo used to be suicidal after her husband passed away. She recalls feeling detached from society, unable to see a purpose in life with her sole companion in life gone. Nellie desperately searched for places that offered counselling services and finally found Wicare. At Wicare, she was able to interact with elderly women in similar circumstances as her and able to find her own community.
It is the start of a brand new day and the golden sun slowly emerges from the clouds, painting Letchime’s apartment in a golden glow. Peck Wei is guiding Letchime once more with her smartphone. This time, Letchime’s eyes do not narrow into slits. A triumphant smile etches its way across her face as she manages to install Whatsapp and add contacts to her phone. She thanks Peck Wei repeatedly as tears begin to well in her eyes. Her digital illiteracy is not going to stand in the way of her connecting with others.
The film goes back to Nellie sipping coffee with her friends from Wicare at a nearby coffeeshop. They laugh buoyantly, often patting each other’s backs.
The film then closes with an inter-title showing statistics of the high elderly suicide rate in the recent years. This film, revolving around isolation and mental health, will be 24 minutes long and shot in HD video. Cinema verité footage of the characters in the film will include their voice-overs and be edited together with interview segments. The film will rely heavily on naturalistic ambient sounds. This film offers a snapshot of a forgotten generation, hoping to shine a light on the struggles they face in everyday life.