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Is the Philippines a Third World Country?
I was talking to a man on the phone a while back about shipping to the Philippines. In our conversation he said he didn't know if the Philippines was still a third world country. I didn't know either but I thought surely it was. So I did some investigating as to what countries qualified as a third world countries.
I am no expert in this area by no stretch of the word and I understand that there is a lot more to this subject than space allows here. But the characteristics of a third world country I found by "Goggling" are:
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High population growth
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Widespread poverty
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Wealthy ruling elite
The Philippines meets all three of these criteria for a third world country. So, yes, I believe it is a third world country.
What I observed during my visits is that the Filipino people are an industrious and resilient people.
There are many examples I could give but on my last visit I met an 18 year old girl named Jhemma who works for the children's home and goes to college full time. She carries out many different duties. I observed her "pitching in" every time something needed to be done. I usually got up at 6:00 AM (The kids were beating on my door). Before I was out of bed this young lady had already cooked my breakfast. At 10:30 PM I went to the office so I could call my family. She was at her desk working. She is very small (around 4 feet 9 inches) although she prefers to be spoken of as 5 feet. I wondered where she put her batteries. She was like an Energizer Bunny. I love to see people work hard. And she did it always with a smile on her face.
Hard times in third world countries don't cause a surge in suicide rates of violence. Things like:
are not an issue for the vast majority of Filipinos. You don't miss what you never had.
I had a conversation with Bro. Rodrigo Valbuena about a certain family that I met while in the Philippines. The husband would leave for Manila for several months at a time looking for work. He was not able to find any and therefore not able to send any money back home. I asked Bro. Rodrigo how do these people survive? They live in a bamboo shack with no running water or electricity and no income for weeks or months at at time. How do they survive? He told me that Filipinos are a resourceful people.
I love my country but one thing that bothers me about living in America is that I see what people think they need. They think they need a new car. They think every child should have his own bedroom. They think air conditioning is a necessity. They think they need wall to wall carpet. They think they need toilet paper (Filipinos take a bath instead. It's cheaper). THEY DON'T! If these things were needs God would have supplied them to all Christians all over the world.
Things like:
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3 meals a day
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Air conditioning
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Carpet
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Toilet paper
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Savings
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A car
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Video games
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Cell phones
are all luxuries. They are things that God has blessed us with overly and abundantly. Many of our fellow Christians in Asia and Africa don't get three meals a day - EVER!
I'm really not knocking any body. Before seeing the conditions our brothers and sisters in Christ have to endure first hand I have to admit that I thought some of these things were necessities too.
There! I have vented my frustrations. My goal is to open the eyes of Christians in our country to what our brothers and sisters in Christ across the sea have to endure. I had to ask my self several times do I really need new carpet? Do I need another car? Do I need to stop by McDonald's for breakfast every morning? And a lot of other stuff I had to ask myself.
I recently had to buy a another minivan. My other vehicle was toast. I started to take the money I had and make a down payment so I could get a nicer van. But I would have had a payment of about a $100 a month. I thought I could buy the nicer van or I could send the $100 to the Philippines. I knew a family of four could survive on a $100 a month. So I decided on the nicer minivan. Just kidding. I got the more used one. No doubt in my mind it was the right decision. | 
