QUALITY OF LIFE

by Wilhelmina S. Orozco

We are nearing a hundred million people and yet the way things are going on, it does not seem to matter at all to those who are anti-RH bill. Where will the government get the money to feed, clothe, shelter, educate and get employment for all those people? Just go to Tondo and as soon as you enter the area of Pritil market, readily you will see a proliferation of children, teenagers. The age there is really young and very young. I saw three kids playing -- by sinking themselves inside a wooden crate. Why these children do not even have a decent toy.

If you go to Tondo actually, you will find people are eating good food -- fresh vegetables as the place is very near Divisoria, bagsakan ng gulay araw-araw. However they lack the cash to pay for their utilities, for their children's education, and for many other things. I remember one family which lost two laptops one day. The following week they were able to purchase two new sets. But in Tondo, if they lose say a tv set, they would probably be able to buy another the following year yet.

Which then brings us to the question of quality of life. What is the quality of the Filipino people? Clothing-wise, many rely on the ukay-ukay which could contain clothes that have not been worn but are just surplus from factories. But then you have to scour through many stores in order to find that. Never mind you say because in those stores, you will be able to find signature clothes which otherwise would be priced in the thousands there in Rustan's or any other Greenbelt fashion stores.

What about the commuters quality of life? How is life on the road for us, pedestrians who cannot afford a car, or even to take a cab everyday? We have to jostle our way through crowds of people who want to cross the streets everyday. The quality of life in the streets is terrible, especially in Manila. Here in Quezon City, there are still spots where you could go promenading without bumping to someone. But in Manila, my goodness, you turn left, or right or go forward, you are bound to hit either another pedestrian, a tricycle, a traysikad (padyak, no engine), a vendor, children playing around, or even the vendors' wares.

No, this is not the quality of city life that I conceive for us. I am looking for a kind of life that is laid back not always in a rush for something.

Now I have been watching these skyscrapers in our midst. In Sta. Mesa, there are those four very very tall residential buildings. I meet some of the residents, some seemingly of Arabic origin and schooling in nearby colleges, and others, young college students whose parents probably have a lot of moolah to spare for their children's housing even if they are just schooling yet. Then I tripped into an idea -- supposing these students have a fight with their boyfriends or girlfriends and the latter walk out of the room. The tension, the emotions brought about by a failed relationship, won't that push the individual to jump out of the window? When I was in Berlin, I asked my host-guide, Rex Hexamer of the German Democratic Republic then, what is the frequent problem of those living in tenement buildings. He replied by putting up his right index finger and then bringing it down, meaning to say suicides. If that happens in a country whereby (this was before the unification of Germany) the State could take care of the individual from womb to tomb, how much more in our country, where poverty stares you everyday? Now don't say that the rich who occupy those condos would be immune to such an urge to meet their Creator when their social lives go awry?

Hence, the quality of life I am really looking for is one that is nurturant of human lives, not always the physical, but the emotional, the mental and spiritual make-up of people.

I am totally against high rise buildings. It is nice to make them as offices but not as residence because that view of seeing the world from a high vantage point, makes flying through so very easy to do. And if one has a lot of emotional problems then most probably he or she would not really mind going down to the grounds the fastest way.

I read in the newspapers way back in the 90's that a woman who had just given birth committed suicide in a building of a bank. She was suffering from a post-partum depression and decided to end her life. Here we see that it is not only economic problems that bring about depression but also the physical illnesses we go through, which then could lead to ending one'
s life.

I suggest that a think-tank group be created to plan how the lives and the environment of the Filipino people should look like in five, or even twenty years time. What quality life are we going to talk about? Are we just going to accept the idea that citylife means overcrowding, or that anyone may do anything that pleases him or her with regard to their real property? It is high time that we know already where we are going; let us not rely on what each executive department thinks but rather, let us put up the plan and discuss with the people per barangay.