The Poor in Ordinary Time

In a previous column I asked 2 questions which I promised to answer now. One was on the big material help many friendly governments and secular as well as religious institutions have sent us for the victims of Yolanda typhoon. The other was on the local and international media.

There seemed to be 2 motives behind the humanitarian aid, one positive, the other negative. The positive motive is gratitude to Filipinos working in the donor country. Some wrote that if all the Filipino doctors, nurses and other health professionals leave the hospitals, clinics and health centers in the United Kingdom their health system would collapse. It appears to true also in other countries like the USA and Canada.

The negative motive is the exploitation of our natural resources through irresponsible and illegal mining with the connivance of our unscrupulous business people and politicians.

With regards to media, whether here or abroad, it is common knowledge that this institution is generally profit-oriented. I have mentioned in previous columns the famous reply of Henry Booth Luce, one-time owner of the prestigious TIME magazine, whose answer to the question, “ Mr. Luce, which do you prefer, the truth or the news?”, was the News, the truth does not sell!”.

The poverty and misery and hopelessness of the marginalized in this country in itself newsworthy but the media cannot publicize it because the owners of the big media are friends, or in some instances, relatives of those who are responsible for the social and structural injustices that resulted in people’s poverty, hopelessness and misery. It is a paradox and an irony that this big media empire makes money by not reporting newsworthy situation and incidents. This is also bribery and deception. And it is either blatantly allowed or cleverly abetted and supported by the administration of a sitting president.

The above issues are concerns of our faith communities because true faith is one that does justice. More of this in the next column.