A friend of mine commented yesterday that she didn’t really have much faith on President Obama’s capabilities, and even though he might be showering promises all over, and I quote, “but that doesn’t change the fact that this just might screw us third-worlders over”.

And this got me thinking, how much hold does Mr. Obama have exactly over third world countries like the Philippines?  Personally I think he does have significant effect.  After all, as we’ve seen, whatever happens with their economy will have a directly proportional pull and tug with ours here in our country.

As much as it sucks ass to admit it, we’re totally dependent on the businesses that thrive on the Western fronts.  It’s nothing to be ashamed of right now, I don’t think; were a very young country after all and we haven’t really established our identity as the Filipinos yet.  Now I don’t know what steps we have to take exactly and in what order we have to take them for us to be able to reach that level, but I’m pretty sure that we have to wash corruption out of our systems first. 

Right. And who knows how long that’ll take. 

Thousands of Filipinos are unemployed in our country right now, and many more than that are underemployed.  And when the thick of it all finally hits us around mid-2009, thousands more are going be laid off from their jobs, disrupting their way of lives irrevocably. 

Speaking as a newly (?) graduated and registered nurse, this situation blows.  Big time.  There’s a huge surplus of nurses in our country because of limited visas given out to those who want to work in the United States.  Even though there’s still the high demand for nurses in their country, we can’t get out of ours because really, with the collapsing state of their economy and all, I’m thinking that immigrant visas are probably the last thing on the list of the newly appointed president right now.

Why not just go to other countries and look for work there, you ask?  Well because most countries demand at least two years of experience in tertiary hospitals before they even consider you.  And because there’re no available jobs for us newly grads, you can see the dilemma. 

Why then don’t the already employed nurses just try and apply for work in other countries besides the states, since they’re the ones with the experience, you ask?  Well, and I’m just guessing here, it’s because they’ve already passed all the exams necessary to work in the U.S., that’s why.  And it’s not exactly the cheapest thing, to apply for, review for and pass said exams you know. 

It’s a sad, vicious cycle and I, for one, can’t see the end of it.

Am I sad that I have to live through hard times such as these?  You bet.  But then that’s why I have hope that maybe, just maybe, Mr. Barrack Obama can bring about the change he’s based his whole campaign on.  Do I think that he can do it all in four years?  No, I do not.  It’s too big of a feat, but I am confident that he can lay a firm foundation for America re-designed.

It’s sad that this is what most Filipinos hold on to, but at this point in time, it’s all we really have.