Poverty Porn in Politics

Continue on reading guys, this is a good eye opener for some of you who still lurk in the mist of farts these dirty politicians have been producing.

Poverty Porn Isn’t Much Help in This $1.25 World: William Pesek

May 3 (Bloomberg) -- None of the above.

That’s how many Filipinos responded recently when I asked who they planned to vote for in the May 10 presidential election. Their ambivalence seems equally directed at frontrunner Benigno Aquino III, his closest rival Manuel Villar and Joseph Estrada, who’s third in surveys.

Here we have a nation where one in four lives on less than $1.25 a day, infrastructure is antiquated, corruption is rampant and leaders have one of the worst records in Asia for delivering on promises. Strong growth in China, India, Indonesia and South Korea is leaving the Philippines behind.

The choices to revive things: The son of a former president (Aquino); a lawmaker Forbes estimates is worth $530 million, who was ousted from a leadership role amid graft allegations (Villar); a movie star-president tossed out of power and jailed for corruption (Estrada).

Even Imelda Marcos, wife of the former dictator, is running for Congress, as is boxer Manny Pacquiao. You can’t make this stuff up.

As the Philippines becomes more of an investor-beware economy than usual, get ready for interest-rate volatility.

Candidates in the Philippines are skilled at exploiting what development economists call poverty porn. They’re great at shanty-town photo opportunities and promising prosperity. A fresh sense of betrayal sets in as leaders return to the business of enriching their cronies or doing little.

Investors Beware

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Poverty Porn Isn’t Much Help in This $1.25 World: William Pesek

Oh and just to add up before I forget. F*ck that Noynoy really looks like a retard no matter what he does! LOL