The election here is only a month and a half away. After a couple of days or weeks from the election day, we will soon have a new set of officials that will govern our country. Am I excited? Of course I am, and at the same time afraid. I’m afraid that the next set of government officials will be just as the same as the previous ones.
Here’s what I’m hoping could happen to our country in the next few years.
1. New Policies and Stricter Implementation for the Protection of the Environment: The Philippines is one of the most bio-diverse ecosystems in the world. The marine life is just amazingly abundant, but the survival of those places and its inhabitants is threatened by pollution. People are throwing garbage everywhere. Sometimes I think that we already have enough laws to cover every possible misdemeanour but the thing that we lack the most is the implementation of those laws.
I’ll just give a simple equation:
Philippines – (minus) Healthy Environment = Less Useful Land and Water Resources
Less Useful Land and Water Resources = Less Food
Less Food + Big Population = Disaster (hehehe how’s that for an equation)
2. Improve the Social Welfare System: We have a lot of squatters, beggars and vagrants in the city. Where are they from? What’s the plan for them? Are we educating them to be competent productive citizens? What about our health care? Do we still have enough nurses and doctors? A lot of them are working abroad already because the pay here is ridiculously low.
3. Improve the Educational System: What’s the current ratio of students to teachers in our public schools? Maybe we need more teachers and more classrooms? Maybe more chairs and books right?What about the curriculum that we’re following and the teaching styles? I think it’s high time to change it now right?
4. Help Local Industry Flourish: What kind of support do we give our local entrepreneurs? Are they receiving enough support from our government and from us (consumers)? I’ve seen a lot of products that have really high quality and are being exported overseas. But I know we can do more.
5. Highly Competent Staff: There are some positions that are appointed by the palace instead of voted by the public. I hope that we could have more competent staff after the election is done. I’m personally a big fan of people who acted and made big changes to the country. I’m sad to say that they might not win now that they’re running for some higher position because they’re not as popular as those who made big marketing campaigns.
The change that we need and we want will not come to us unless we act. Whoever wins the most coveted power is based on the choices we will make as a group. And whoever gets seated will never be successful regardless how competent he or she is unless we all support them.
The change that we want starts from us. If we want to change our country, we should start by changing ourselves.
The only way to assure our good future is to be at our best on our present.
Photo Credits: Pic by Frameless World
