on our farmers

Our farmers work hard. They just do not know any better way of farming.

It is not their fault for the people in the past, people who were given the responsibility to ensure they 'crawl' out of poverty, saw profit in the status quo. It is easier to get, and buy, votes when the people who elects you is ignorant.

Farmers work hard. Harvest their crops. Get abused when they bring their produce to markets. Do not get the highest margins possible for their hardwork. They stay poor. And then, they work even harder. They stay poorer. And then, it is easier to really get and buy their votes :)

Philippine statistics will show that, on average, a Filipino farmer only reached Grade 5 schooling. It is not because they were lazy. It is because it is not physically possible to go to school if school is so far you spend more than half of a day reaching it on foot.

In this day and age, a grade 5 schooling will bring a person how far?

Will a grade 5 schooling be enough to appreciate what the world's soil experts tell about how rich our physical soil is? Will grade 5 schooling be enough, granting they know how rich our soil, to do something about the fact that our soil is rich? Will a grade 5 schooling be enough to study and to put into use modern day farming techniques?

Will a grade 5 schooling be enough to see that our "oil" is really our soil? That our gold in not yellow but green?

Yes. Our farms need the water system. Yes, they also need the farm-to-market roads. But they also need to have a mind to appreciate, to maintain and to improve upon these various infrastructure that will be built through foreign aid.

It would not be the first time someone wrote this, "... in order for our country to flourish, to progress... the educated people will have to step into our soil and put their heads in it, too!"

What kind of farmers do Japan have? How about South Korea? Do you think they only reached Grade 5?

"... why think like mere men?"