Expletive Deleted

From a blog post by Chet Raymo:

Only a few dozen years ago Ireland was one of the poorest nations in Europe, dominated by a Church that seemed in some perverse way to welcome the people's impoverishment. Today Ireland has one of the highest standards of living in Europe, and the influence of the Church has receded -- in this outsider's view -- to near invisibility.

As luck would have it, the Philippines is one of the poorest nations in Asia, dominated by a Church that seemed in some perverse way to welcome the people's impoverishment. Unfortunately, our education is still crap and is designed to crank out tens of thousands of minimally educated professionals that can be exported as "human commodity" to other nations. Meanwhile, the Church (the same Church that's operating in Ireland) is happily enriching its coffers and manipulating the law to ensure that social (and secular) progress will never get started here.