Survey Says

Recently, Lead Philippines sent out a small survey which asks: What is the country’s biggest problem?

In a short time, there were about 40 responses by email and text…

Majority of the responses were (more than 50%), mostly in big bold letters, GRAFT AND CORRUPTION.

The next leading response is POVERTY (10%). However, it could be argued that Poverty is the biggest problem, for among those whom I reach on this survey, many feel that poverty is the result of all the other problems (especially the result of Graft and corruption). More than 60% of the respondents said so.

There are a lot of other answers too. A number of people answered somewhat similarly though when they say Bad Attitude, Moral Bankruptcy (both of the people and the leaders), Moral Decay, Apathy, Political Immaturity, Cultural Shortsightedness, etc. and/or even Godlessness as our biggest problem. It seems to me that these responses are pointing directly at the people themselves as part of the problem… If we group these answers together, then we have about 18% of the answers.

Meanwhile, a number of people also directly pointed at our leaders by saying Lack of Moral Leadership, The Filipino Leader (even suggesting we can just import leaders), and Bad politics. Two people directly said that Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is our biggest problem! If leadership problems are grouped together, it would account for about 12% of the responses.

To think that the leaders and its people could be tied together (we elect our leaders and we are being led by them), then that response account for about 30% of the answers.

One e-mailed uniquely, by saying that Delays in our Justice System is the biggest problem the country has. Another texted that our Laws are Flawed, protecting the politicians rather than the helpless.

So, if we would like to draw some conclusions from this small survey, perhaps we can say that most of us thought that GRAFT AND CORRUPTION is the biggest problem of the country. Next problems are the people themselves (apathy, moral decay, etc), and then our leaders (bad politics, GMA, etc.). Next problem is the system (our laws and our Justice system). But in the end, many thought that all problems lead to POVERTY.

The next question therefore is how to solve these problems. This should be the subject of our next surveys.