The difference between the poor countries and the rich ones is not the age of the country:
This can be shown by countries like India& Egypt that are more than 2000 years old, but are poor.
On the other hand, Canada, Australia & New Zealand, those 150 years ago were inexpressive, are today developed countries and are rich. The difference between poor & rich countries does not reside in the available natural resources.
Japan has a limited territory, 80% mountainous, inadequate for agriculture & cattle raising, but it is the second world economy. The country is like an immense floating factory, importing raw materials from the whole world and exporting manufactured products.
Another example is Switzerland, which does not plant cocoa but has the best chocolate in the world.
In its little territory they raise animals and plant the soil during 4 months per year. Not enough, they produce dairy products of the best quality! It is a small country that transmits an image of security, order & labor, which made it the world’s strongest, safest place.
Executives from rich countries who communicate with their counterparts in poor countries show that there is no significant intellectual difference. Race or skin color are also not important: immigrants labeled lazy in their countries of origin are the productive power in rich European countries. What is the difference then? The difference is the attitude of the people, framed along the years by the education & the culture & flawed tradition.
On analyzing the behavior of the people in rich & developed countries, we find that the great majority follow the following principles in their lives:
1. Ethics, as a basic principle.
2. Integrity.
3. Responsibility.
4. Respect to the laws & rules.
5. Respect to the rights of other citizens.
6. Work-loving.
7. Strive for savings & investment.
8. Will of super action.
9. Punctuality.
10.Discipline
In poor countries, only a minority follow these basic principles in their daily life. The Philippines is not poor because we lack natural resources or because nature was cruel to us. In fact, we are supposedly rich in natural resources.
We are poor because we lack the correct attitude. We lack the will to comply with and teach these functional principles of rich & developed societies. But are we to simply seek riches?
No, Jesus taught us that we should seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.We should seek Christ while we have time as a country and a people.There will always be poor people all across the world.We will always have the poor in the Philippines. Now is the time to seek the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen!
I can’t agree more to your post. If only people would seek Jesus Christ and try to live by his righteous ways, then this would be a better world to live in! The problem is that people lately have become too “worldly” – they think that money is all the riches that there is that they do whatever they can to obtain it, even if it means having to step on, hurt, harm or even kill other people.
I also agree that one of the major reasons why our country hasn’t done much progress is that most of us lacked discipline, which is a value that we learn throughout the years spent in school/education (which unfortunately, a lot of Filipinos are also are not privileged to have).
Jesus is only our real hope. We’ll have to keep praying for our country and in ourselves strive to be/do good to help others.