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| Shanties |
MANILA, PHILIPPPIANS: A haircut in Manila costs $1. A good meal
costs $10. To take the jeepkey (the
most popular form of transportation) four kilometers you’ll have to pony up
seventeen cents. Yet, even at these prices, it’s difficult for most Philippians
to get by. Teachers make only $14/day and medical doctors gladly give up their
practices for the opportunity to become nurses in America. The established
minimum wage in Manila is just $11/day, outside Manila $7/day. But companies, apparently
reluctant to pay even these low wages, routinely avoid paying the minimum wage at
all by firing their employees before they complete their six-month probation. As
a result, companies often pay no more than $4/day, which is equivalent to the
subsistence level for a family of four. It’s no wonder you can see run-down shanties
just about everywhere. The irony is that, at 90%, the Philippians has one of
the highest literacy rates in Asia and as my guide assured me, “People here are happy.”
