The SWS was at it again with these “hopefulness” surveys. If only the economy was built on the basis of being hopeful – the Philippines would be a First World Country by now. Obviously, it isn’t.
Day in and day out, year in and year out, decade in and decade out – Filipinos and the Philippines remains “hopeful” – and yet, for all that “hopefulness”, where are the outcomes?
Does Filipino culture provide a clue? You bet it does.
First things first – let’s get the baseline definitions on Filipino culture based on a statistically significant peer reviewed study that has become a reference for cross cultural management all over the world.
The absence of outcomes ought to have started Filipinos on the path of asking questions on why aren’t things turning out the way it’s supposed to turn out. But it also leads to another question – what do Filipinos want in the first place? After all if you don’t know what you want, how are you supposed to know how things should be. The underlying question to what one wants (i.e. what “I” want, what “you” want i.e.) is the question of who is the “I” or who is the “You” who has a “want”?
Knowing the “I” seems to be a tough question for Filipinos because their sense of self stops at being “Filipino”. For short, their concept of the “I” must emanate from the definition of “Filipino-ness”. In other words, for your typical pinoy, it is more important to be outwardly “Makadiyos, makatao, makabayan” instead of having the self-confidence of a “totoong tao”.
“Juan”, “Pedro” or “Mario” have defined themselves as happy clappy feel-good “Filipinos”. Before they are “Juan”, “Pedro” or “Mario” – first and foremost they are “Filipino”. It shows a lack of self-identity, these guys know what “Filipinos” should be (as if.. they really know – what they know is what’s allowed for them to know) – but they are lost when asked – What do YOU want? What does Juan want? What does Pedro want? What does Mario want? Their typical answer would be – “what everyone else wants” – their definition of personal want is not what they personally want – but one that is dictated upon them.
The thing is – when what’s dictated upon Da Pinoy has negative repercussions, he takes it out on the leaders or the laws passed by leaders to meet “what everyone else wants”. Why can’t Da Pinoy just say what he wants?
Why do Pinoys keep on sacrificing this pursuit of personal happiness – as if life were meant to live as an exercise in eternal poverty for “the greater good”. When all the individuals who sacrificed for the “greater good “are living in abject misery, eating food scrounged from the trash dumps, being executed in foreign lands , have families being torn apart – that does not sound like “greater good” – but more like “greater evil” .
Prudence dictates we need to stop and rethink the proposition.
As far as am concerned, when different individuals pursue their personal happiness, they create value, they create more goods and services -al lof which benefit the greater good.
Sacrifice on the other hand makes amputees out of people and turns them to handicaps who will need to be nannied by a welfare state in order to have “hope” of making it.
As a young fella, I have lost count of the number of times I had to keep my mouth shut at work just so that my Pinoy colleagues will not feel like morons because they couldn’t come up with improvements to defective processes – I had to dumb myself down for some time. When in Rome do as Romans do. When with dumb flips act like a dumb flip – pander to the crowd, do not think for yourself, wait for the boss man to express his opinion, and say YES all the time. That office was hopeless – and since you cannot reason out or have a candid discussion between adults (not in the hieararchical Filipino culture) – all you have is …. hope. And when you run out of hope in the Philippines… take your passport, plane ticket, and take the next overseas job offer that comes along – and hope blooms and flourishes – but not in the Philippines.
So why are Filipinos stuck with hope in this hopeless country? Because that’s the only thing their coconuts can handle.
Filipinos don’t wanna think about the economy – that’s too hard.
Filipinos don’t wanna think about the rule of law that’s too hard – mahirap .
Filipinos don’t wanna think about competition – that’s too hard.
Filipinos don’t wanna think about the future – that’s too hard.
Filipinos don’t wanna think about who they are as individuals – that’s too hard.
Filipinos don’t wanna think about what they personally want out of life- that’s too hard.
Filipinos don’t wanna think about what they need to do in order to succeed- that’s too hard.
Filipinos don’t wanna think about what habits they need to discard and acquire in order to succeed- that’s too hard.
So what’s left for people who don’t want to exert an iota of effort because it’s too hard? They just do nothing and “hope for the best”.
After twenty five years of hoping, doing nothing, and the outcomes to show for it – which is nothing.
Expect four more years of Aquino – doing nothing but “hope”.
Well Pinoys, got what they asked for. In the last May 2010 elections, Pinoys asked for nothing but “honesty”. Well they got their “honesty” alright – and nothing else, no jobs, no income, no improvement in life – in between or thereafter.
Tough luck, to actually have something to hope for – doing nothing ain’t gonna cut it – you actually have to do something.
As Adam Smith pointed two centuries ago – the tragedy of the poor is the poverty of their aspirations. As if on cue – here come the perpetually “victimized” Pinoys and the nothingness of deluded hope – it’s a PERSONAL choice made by Pinoys for #NotFunInthePhilippines.
-oOo-
There are no tyrants, where there are no slaves. - Jose Rizal
I’m not a Filipino, but i admire Lapu-Lapu he fought the invaders to keep the culture of PH alive..The thing is where ever the west showed up, it ended in decline…Western economic is just transitory, its not long lasting…look at America and Europe now..debt and chaos…The western economic model is one of exploitation ..its just that they cover their track well enough for not many to see their cunningness.
Economy, prosperity is just the “buzz word” for exploitation, 45 million that is half of the PH are on food stamps in America…Children go hungry in America, America is not a democracy but a Aristocracy ruled by the royals of Europe..People get sucked into fake left-right paradigm.
PH will be much better off, if they go back to their old roots and seek Shamanic culture, where elders guide their destiny….Economy, Competition, success are just empty words and promises to control humanity….only few people are well off in every country who adopted these measures.
Well Adam Smith was a 33rd degree freemason, there you have it…its all fake and shallow that does not last long…Look at America..its going, going, goneeee
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nice one dude….
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About the collectivism and the hierarchy part, fortunately for me and my siblings, our mom and dad encouraged us to think for ourselves and be individuals, and look where we are now(since my dad promised himself to not be like his dad before him, who according to both my mom and dad, was a tyrant). Hehehe! I absolutely agree with this article. Thanks so much for an interesting read! I dig all your columns guys. Please do keep it up. I feel like a kid again, listening to my lola’s stories! LOL
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Is it our ****ing problem that these race of so called filipinos are lazy……..they didn’t work for ****, all they do was drink beer and eat, and be sissies, and be lazy…….and they think they can get away with it by trying to play the victim card and trying to make us feel guilty for not helping them ? I tell them to **** off, i’ve done just the right amount of help i could give to this race, it’s not my problem my relatives were acting like kids in the first place, daydreaming and gossiping bull**** for 23 hrs. On a serious note, Japan, China and all the other asian countries will definitely surpass Philippines no matter what, seeing these countries have been tested through time and are capable of feeding their own people from their own resources…….without being another country’s bitch.
First thing that comes to mind when I hear philippines, maids, nurses, low-waged race, trannies, disgusting, pussy, and white bitch lol. J4L
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