It used to be photos frozen it time, those snapshots of shabby Americans in line waiting for some sort of employment and some soup during the Great Depression. Now, those photos have come alive.
At a job fair in Manhattan last week, hundreds of unemployed Americans waited in line for a chance to get work. In Jersey City, Filipino Americans stand on a street corner discussing their grim financial futures as the American and global economy stumble further to depths unknown since the 1930s.
“Baka umuwi nalang kami ng pamilya ko sa Pilipinas. Na foreclose na yung bahay naming ditto. Mas mainam na lang na umuwi kami at asikasuhin naming ang lupa na nabili naming dun (I might take my family back to the Philippines. Our home was foreclosed. It will be better for us to tend the small piece of land we bought there),” said Armand, an office clerk who recently got laid off due to his company’s cost-cutting measures.
While Armand thinks of going home, some Fil-Ams are surprised that the economic turmoil is even happening.
“It is frightening,” said one Filipino-American insurance agent. “I never thought I would live to see this kind of economic collapse in this day and age. It is hard to believe that it is happening.”
But it is happening, and New Jersey Governor John Corzine is putting things to work to take New Jersey people out of their financial troubles.
On October 16, the Governor launched an aggressive plan that would provide immediate assistance for Garden State residents and statewide long-term economic growth options to bring the state out the recession.
Governor Corzine announced the plan during a joint session of the New Jersey legislature. “If ever there were a time for a comprehensive, non-partisan economic plan by New Jersey’s elected officials, it is today’s circumstances,” the Governor said. “The unprecedented and evolving financial crisis of the past several months has already significantly weakened America’s and the State’s economy. It undoubtedly will bring more severe challenges in the months ahead.”
The governor said that the plan has four areas of attack:
* Immediate assistance, including foreclosure prevention, energy costs, and food costs;
* Short-term job creation, focusing on expediting public works projects and enabling community banks to loan funds to local businesses;
* Long-term business climate changes, specifically on changes in tax policy and the cultivation of alternative energy projects;
* Continued fiscal responsibility at the state level by keeping state spending in check.
The Governor also stressed that although this measure will not immediately separate the state from the rest of the economically displaced world, it will help position New Jersey for a strong recovery.
“I believe we will emerge stronger, despite the doomsday scenarios being posited right now,” said the Governor. But it will take concerted and sustained effort of policy makers, employers, workers, family members, and neighbors. Our sense of community and our obligation to one another are of paramount importance at this time.”
This clear-cut plan from Trenton might be what most of the Filipino Americans in New Jersey are waiting for. It could act like a balm that will soothe burning wounds caused by the financial crisis. Likewise, it could bring hope to a man like Armand, who appears to have lost all his optimism for greener pastures in America.
However, asked if he would ever change his mind about going back to the Philippines, Armand just shook his head and flashed a smile that, at least, he could still afford to do in the middle of miserable times. Perhaps, for Armand, the global problem that took away his home will never see any resolution and thus decided to just take a chance again to the land where he really calls home.
