Sunday, March 18, 2012

The Philippines: A Nation with One Foot on the Brake


This slipped out of my cranium the other day, and it is bugging me. It describes a characteristic of a great many Filipinos:

  • " It is strange that the strengths that are important to generating wealth are the ones that are torn down by those who can’t acquire those strengths. "

The comment "backward nation" is an insult. Yet, this trend among Filipinos - the criticizing of people who have the strengths the Philippines needs - most certainly drives the nation backwards. A young person who aspires to achieve something in his life is ridiculed ("Ambisyoso"). A kid who speaks English well is ridiculed. A youngster who is bold, but slips and falls, is ridiculed. A kid who criticizes wrong-doing is criticized back ("Reklamador").


Ridicule is a skill set among youth in the Philippines. And it forms the groundwork for the envy and hostilities and "tear-down thinking" that will emerge in adulthood.

I lay the blame for the condition of the Philippines, the poverty and the failure to compete, upon three institutions:

The Catholic Church, which promotes unrestrained birthing when the nation does not have the means to feed the crying, hungry mouths that are birthed. Furthermore, Church is the number one example in the world of an organization that accepts zero responsibility for anything at all.

The Department of Education, which sees education as memorization of things rather than getting kids to understand the "soft knowledge" of vision, aspiration, creativity, organization, discipline and honor. It teaches young people how to be narrow and avoid risk; it does not teach them how to expand and be bold and achieve.

Parents, who fail to grasp that wealth blossoms when one's kids are nurtured and taught to reach, rather than cuffed aside and "used" to take care of mama and papa.

If you pick up a twist of anger from the harshness of my words, you are perceptive, and correct.

The Church, which could do so much for the well-being of the Philippines, fails to do anything but give solace to the suffering masses. Never mind that much of the suffering comes from Church values transmitted into such acts as vociferous opposition to the well-being of women (HR and Divorce bills).

The Department of Education, which should represent the genius of mankind, instead represents a nation that dumbs down its kids by stuffing them 45 to a classroom, wields unremitting authority which stifles initiative and innovation, and fails to promote a vision of education as something that reaches for the new rather than memorizes the old.

The Parents, who could do so much to teach principles of generosity and courtesy and determination to succeed, instead teach kids to "shut up and do what you are told." And they often use ridicule to get their message across.

Ridicule. The need to tear others down to raise oneself up. The easy way to argue. The easy way to solve problems: lay them at someone else's feet.

It is a driving force in Philippine society. It is like driving with one foot on the gas pedal and one foot on the brake.

Ridicule is the brake.

You don't compete well, don't win many races for "wealth", that way.

And it's not kind.

4 comments:

  1. It seems that often these words have different meanings in the Philippines:
    Ambitious, complainer, traitor, selfish, cheap, snob.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That second paragraph is poetry.

    Meanwhile, a "viral" video has been making its way around. I haven't seen it yet since it was taken down on Youtube for copyright complaint. (The original link might take a bit of fishing around on google)

    The video is called "20 things I dislike about the Philippines", and is done by an expat who's been living in the Cebu for 3 years. (Example would be peeing in public, ladyboys, etc.)

    As usual, forums are ablaze with all sorts of comments, ranging from the guy's masculinity, to his inauthenticity, and all sorts of nasty, overly-emotional BS.

    I was quite amused by one of the critics who, based on his profile, dedicated the last few days responding to everyone who agrees with the video. Must be one of those "Proud to be Pinoy" types. :P

    -patrioticflip

    P.S.

    Have you been called a "reklamador"?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I've heard about the video. Blunt. I find it astounding that Filipinos are surprised by the rant, given the poverty and pollution, lack of courtesy, favoring of whites, out-of-control birthing, corruption, and on and on. Many Filipinos have been abroad. How come their frank impression of the progressiveness of other nations never gets reported back as something the Philippines ought to aspire to? Like cleanliness. I dunno. Denial, I think.

    I've not been called a reklamador.

    ReplyDelete

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