Filipinos are Rich. We just don't know it (yet).

A recent article in Business Week  showed that Filipinos are #6 in the number of tech immigrants in Silicon Valley and #1 among Asian Countries. We are behind Mexico and 4 other US states and ahead of China, India and, even, Japan.  The population of Filipino technology developers has been growing for the past decade or so but few people know about it.  There are actually a lot of things about the Philippines and Filipinos we don't know that could make us and our Nation RICH. We just don't know it (yet).

The Sources of Wealth in the Philippines are:
1. Rich Natural Resources and Tropical Climate
2. Rich in Educated and Talented Population
3. Rich in Scientific and Technological Capability

Rich Natural Resources and Tropical Climate

We already know since our Elementary days that the Philippines is Rich in Natural Resources.  But one has to travel to places outside Metro Manila and, even, outside Luzon to know how much.  Where as it is difficult and expensive to buy a piece of land in Makati or Quezon City, almost 80% of the the land you will see as you travel from Manila to Baguio fertile land.  On a plane ride from Manila to Cebu, you could see that only a very small percentage of our land is developed and surrounding the island are vast stretches of sea. Living in those lands are poor farmers and poor fishermen living in a Rich Land and bountiful ocean.

Rich in Educated and Talented Population

We have recently been recognized as the No. 1 in the Call Center Industry ahead of India.  This proves that Filipinos can fluently speak English well.  But behind that is the mentality of our parents that education is the key to escape our 'kahirapan'.  Whereas only a small percetage of our grandparent's generation was able to get a college education, they strived despite the hardships to be able to send our parents to school.  In return, our parents make concious promises that their children will have a better education than them.  Because of this our illiteracy rate is almost zero.  I have yet to meet a Filipino from our generation that couldn't read and write by the time they are old enough to work.

Rich in Scientific and Technological Capability

The Philippines is not in the Top 10 or even in the Top 20 when it comes to ranking in Scientific Cability.  But the ranking is based on the number of patents and scientific publications of Local Universities.  Sadly, there is a big Financial obstacles hindering our scientist to conduct research in the Philippines and we couldn't do anything about it.

But this doesn't mean that our scientists are inferior.  They are just doing their research in other universities/companies in other countries that could fund their researches. You could find some of them here.

Now, if we have rich natural resources, talented people and scientific capability, the question is.. Why are we poor? Or rather, Why are we not RICH!