“Social inequality refers to a situation in which individual groups in a society do not have equal social status, social class, and social circle. Areas of social inequality include voting rights, freedom of speech and assembly, the extent of property rights and access to education, health, quality housing, traveling, transportation, vacationing and other social goods and services.” – Wikipedia
As I travel back and forth from Cavite to Manila, I came to realize how fortunate I was to have a good living. I can eat 3 times a day, I have a house to live with full of appliances, few more weeks and I’ll be graduating from college, I have clothes to wear, and I have my family to be with.
I am fond of looking outside the window with my ipod on whenever I am riding in a bus. Something caught my attention somewhere around Sucat. There are astonishing vast buildings, erudite villages and warehouses of different manufacturing firms. But what really caught my attention and made me felt the guilt was the fact that beside these fabulous substructures lays the houses of these marginalized people. Unfair, indeed. The poor get poorer and the rich get richer. Rich people have villas, haciendas, condominiums while the poor can’t even have a decent home to live, not even a clean and safe environment for their families. Rich people have their own malls while the poor can’t even enter a mall because they are suspected as robbers. Rich people buy loads of branded and imported clothes while poor people can’t even wear some nice clothes. Worst, some of them don’t have any clothes to wear. Rich people eat in fine restaurants and have money to spend for buffet lunch and dinner while poor people eat left-overs from garbage or nothing at all. Rich people have businesses and investments while poor people work to have something to eat on their table or “isang kahig, isang tuka”. Rich people spend their free time in gyms, spas, and parties while poor people don’t even have a free time in search for food, for money and for work. Rich people are studying in reputable universities and colleges here and abroad, finishing their masters and doctorate degrees while poor people can’t even afford to go to school and finish their studies.
I believe that rich people were made not to be richer but to help unfortunate people. They were blessed with intelligence, power, and money to support the needy ones. We can’t let government alone to do it. We exist because we have works to do, we have tasks to accomplish. And that is to help each other especially those in need, at least help them to have that foundation to start their lives right.
