So we toured around Highlands and was happy (at least I was) that it was deserted. It was a Tuesday so the place was empty. We were taking pictures of ourselves and breathing in the view when my sister called me. "Tingnan mo 'yong mga ibon oh," she said. I looked at a cage full of lovebirds. I was always a fan of colors so I stared at the cage with my mouth wide open.
Two particular lovebirds got my attention. They were chasing each other from branch to branch. The girl (how I found out it's a girl you will see later) was letting the guy chase her as if saying, "Habulin mo 'ko," with this I'm-ready-for-you tone of voice. They did that for about 3 minutes and again I was staring at them with my mouth open.
Suddenly, they started kissing, chase each other again, and kiss again. It became a kiss-chase-kiss madness in the cage. At one point, one of the birds joined them, but the guy wouldn't let anyone touch his girl. They were doing their thing and no one could ruin or interrupt what they were gonna do next.
After a good 5 minutes of all the chasing and kissing, they finally did what they were thinking of doing even from the beginning. They were going at it like there was no tomorrow. I actually thought the girl was going to die. I covered my sister's eyes because I wouldn't know what to tell her if she asked what they were doing.
It was time to leave when I saw the cage as a whole. Every bird in that cage were going at it. If you have watched the film "Shortbus", it looked a lot like that scene in the bus but prettier, more colorful, and no flesh was showing.
If the birds don't control their "hobby", they would fill the cage with little lovebirds that will eventually go at it and bear more and more birds not considering all the externalities. If the cage is big enough (and almost always it's not) then the only problems would be the safety of the birds and the resources in the cage. Are they healthy enough to keep doing what they're doing? Are they passing diseases while doing what they're doing? How are they gonna provide for themselves and their young? Where are they going to get the resources if they start to run out?
These questions probably never crossed their minds. They are merely paltry little birds. This is why they need someone to educate them what to do and how to do them. They need help and they need it soon.
And yes, this is just another take on that bill that everyone's talking about. I have read the bill and I have to admit that I don't really this bill that much. I don't need to know all about these contraceptives, ligation, vasectomy, etc. because I already know all about them and I'm informed. Even if I happen to not know some of the things it's talking about, I have access to information. This bill is for the people who do not have access to ANY of these information. They are all willing to learn, but no one is helping them. And the time has come for them to learn and be informed. If they keep this pace up, we would have more maternal deaths, abortion counts, and we might become poorer and poorer (yes, the economy is affected and I'll explain in a bit).
Personally, I don't like the idea of ligation and vasectomy unless it's endangering the life of the patient. I don't like having to destroy something that is working perfectly well. [Also, I'm extremely against abortion (which is not included in the bill and is still illegal here in the Philippines, just FYI).] BUT, I am not going to judge someone who has done it or is thinking of doing it. It is that person's choice and I am in no position to tell him/her what's right or wrong. I can only give that person information and it is up to him/her to choose whatever he/she wants to do. At the end of the day, the bill is just offering us a choice. Just a choice. And it's always nice to be offered some.
The bill will not force the people to get a vasectomy or a ligation or even to drink the oral contraceptives. The bill is just going to provide us with information about all these fancy words so we can make intelligent decisions and be educated before we make our "move". Along with the information they will provide, appropriate resources will also be given to be able to plan our families and control the population as a whole. All the bill is offering us is accessibility to all of these. And who wouldn't want that?
I've said earlier that without this bill we might become poorer than we already are and this is why. In truth, there are no inverse or even direct relationship between population and the economy. BUT, there is however, an inverse relationship between poverty and the economy. In the Philippines, there are more poor people than there are rich or average. The rich people can multiply how many they want and it wouldn't be that much of a problem because they can afford their standard of living and eventually, affect the economy positively. BUT, when the poor people start multiplying without knowing if they will produce various externalities, that's when the problem begins. The population is largely clustered in the lower class so if the government provides jobs which require dimplomas, only the upper class or the others who could provide to go to college would benefit. As a result, people tend to depend on investing on tricycles, jeepneys, or sari-sari stores which are very poor investments. Some people would go to other countries to find yet another dead-end job just so their family would get by. Some officials actually prefer this because these OFW's give us millions of remittances every year. Why the hell would we want our citizens to leave our country and be away from their family? You say population is no big deal but when it's getting crowded you let them throw themselves away from our country. It sucks that we are happy when our currency depreciates. We prefer the high exchange rate because we earn more dollars than pesos. It seems like there are no jobs here in the Philippines because a lot of people are not qualified to work. The truth is there are available jobs in the Philippines (Check the classified ads in the newspaper. There wouldn't be a portion alotted to finding jobs if there weren't any.) You just need that piece of paper called a diploma to be able to participate in the working class.
I have nothing against the people who are not in favor of the bill. I actually get some of their points. But their way is obviously not working because we still have the same problems. We are still poor. The bill is just presenting a new solution to the problem, and I hope everyone could get on board. Why don't we just try it and see what happens?
Again, the bill is going to offer us choices and resources to plan our future. It will give us access to information that we might not know we need. This may be a drastic change and it is undoubtedly hard to swallow and digest, but once that we get on the same page, we'll be able to digest it just fine. Time is running out and we have to take action now. Those poor little birds must learn that they are NOT poor little birds to begin with. They are actually free to fly and see what's waiting for them outside that cage.
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