My column for today is Happiness is a ham .
On a more serious note, Newsstand first brought it up: its been two decades since James Fallows wrote A Damaged Culture: A New Philippines?
I was supposed to speak at the Asian Institute of Management on the subject but the symposium took place at the time I got sick.
My Arab News column, How Fallows’ Essay Gutted Morale of the Filipinos, contains my initial thoughts, originally for the paper I was going to deliver. This is a work in progress, but I thought I’d put the ideas forward, now.
N.B. James Fallows blogs at The Atlantic.com.
And Conrado de Quiros on the endurance of feudalism.
Technorati Tags: ideas, philippines, society
renmin,
“In the Spanish period mestizo was a strictly-defined term referring to someone with mixed racial parentage. The largest and most influential mestizo group back then were the Chinese mestizos”
that explains it. from time to time i come across a spanish-time article describing Rizal as ‘mestizo.’ i was surprised, as Rizal was brown.
but ‘mestizo’ now has a different meaning. spanish-looking with pinoy blood
you didn’t get my point when i responded to that. it was not in defense of bush. rather it was a reaction to how he equated the americans to bush. i even asked ‘how about the other presidents? gloria=pinoy?’. the majority in the US did not vote for bush. in the 1st and 2nd election. he just got lucky and hid behind 9/11. pathological behavior? and why sigle out fil-ams? sure, you’re pointing out the holier than thou attitude which is another trait of the pinoy. pagmamalasakit? pagkamasayahin? that’s all you could think of? what about the bad traits of the pinoys?
I enjoyed immensely “Happiness is a Ham.” Keep up the good work!
Dinapinoy, what i was pointing to was your instinctive defense of the Americans. You and the other Fil-Ams. BTW, Bush won in the popular vote in the 2nd election. That reflects on the American electorate and they share accountability for the damage he has done. As for ‘Gloria=Pinoy’, that proposition would only be tenable if she were legitimately elected.
I’m singling out Fil-Ams because, apart from one Fil-Aussie, that trait is most strongly manifested in your group.
I’ll leave it to you to do that. You’ve had more practice.
dinapinoy, you can say that again! but i think the worst among the worst pinoy traits is ing-git, so pervasive as to make the inggitero wish the most harmful evil upon the innocent object of his/her envy. while insane jealousy may be present in every culture, the pinoy takes it to a different level, especially in the world of politics where it usually ends up in loss of life or lives.
bencard:
on this point i agree. i have never seen envy taken to such heights in any other culture. it’s a pathological, destructive (to the point of even being self-destructive), envy.
tonio, by which i mean, not necessarily by means of virtue or foresight, since cunning, while it achieves results, in itself isn’t something praiseworthy.
iloilo city boy: thanks very much! incidentally carmen guerrero nakpil called me up to point out the spanish mania for ham had a sinister origin: ham was promoted as a means of smoking out jews and muslims who might have only pretended to change their faith in the wake of the crusades in spain.
My oh my, what words! what are these ex-Filipinos doing then in these blog all these time? UNBELIEVABLE. Ano yan curious lang kayo or nagmamalasakit pa kayo sa bayang Pinas? If you could only listen to yourselves! But one thing is clear: your loyalty is not with the Philippines any more, because in any tight spot you would rush to the defense of your adopted country and jump to any opportunity to malign Filipinos or the Philippines in general. Mga walanghiya, I am not sorry to say.
mlq3:
yikes! what a scary historical basis. but then again, the Church at that time was ruthless.
tonio, maybe by the end. but they wouldn’t have won hearts and minds if the church didn’t appeal to something more attractive to the inhabitants.
walanghiya ka rin, bitch!
ham was promoted as a means of smoking out jews and muslims who might have only pretended to change their faith…
Hence we have smoked ham.
(I see it’s about time for another group hug.)
Dinapinoy, which reminds me, another positive trait i can think of among Pinoys is gentlemanly behavior (i.e. pagkamaginoo).
tempers people, tempers…
let’s all sit down for some ham, shall we? 😀
yeah right, cvj. maginoong ipokrito, pakitang tao, tanso!
Bencard, i didn’t realize, emo ka din pala.
if that’s something like you, no way jose, er jugo, i am not!
If you say so, anyway, relax and take up Tonio’s offer for some ham. (parang facebook.)
“let’s all sit down for some ham, shall we?”
Who wants a bone-in ham, I got one?
“walanghiya ka rin, bitch!”
OG:manners please,there is such a thing as blog etiquette( at least in the Philippines)
Tonio,
Filipino envy, while bordering on pathological, is only targetted to those people who Filipinos think are on their level. Kung hindi kalevel katulad nang mayayaman hindi kinaiingitan. Was Imelda ever a victim of this pathological, homicidal envy? Are the conglomerate families, the Ayalas, the Lopezez, Aranetas?
So go figure.
What is “tanso”?
Bencard,
Thanks dear for calling me a bitch. My pleasure if it means telling the truth about a first-rate hypocrite like you manoy, my kababayan in fact from Bicol.
Tanso is copper. Figuratively, it means fake gold. Natanso means you got duped, that is, you thought copper was gold.
Brianb, ‘tanso’ = ‘copper’ or ‘bronze’
Jeg, apir! This is getting to be a pattern.
madonna:respect the elders!Galangon mo an magkasi mo tao nin siring kan paggalang mo man sana saimo.
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas, Equalizer! I do take to heart that thing about respecting your elders. Madly and deeply.
chuck:Merry Christmas partner!
Brian:Isang Paskong DALISAY!
Bencard:Peace on Earth!
Who is the Filipino Grinch?
Apir, cvj.
Dami palang Bicolano dito. I have Bicolano roots myself, my mother being from Pili. She met a Manilenyo seminarian, and the rest is history.
(By the way, from the land reform topic of the previous threads, like MLQ3’s family, my mother’s family submitted themselves to land reform. My mother still remembers their encargado who always brought them fruits from the fields. He happens to be none other than former Senator Raul Roco’s dad. My mother called him Mr. Roco.)
happened, I meant.
Maligayang pasko. Especially to Bencard, who it seems is succumbing to the Christmas pressure.
An tawong dae magsalingoy sa saiyang pinaghalean, dae makaka-abot sa saiyang papadumanan
Jeq, CVJ, Equalizer thanks.
It is amazing that the entire point of evolution is missed in all the discussions.
I am linking two commentaries from the Washington Post, one by Amy Chua, a transplanted Chinese person from the Philippines and a supposed rebuttal to her comments on immigration. The substance of her comments is on the idea that to maintain the empire the U.S. has no use for low quality immigrants forgetting her own experience. A clear case of intellectual apartheid.
She somehow forgets that the idea of the U.S. as Lincoln famously said, “we had formed a government “whose leading object is to elevate the condition of men — to lift artificial weights from all shoulders; to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all; to afford all an unfettered start and a fair chance in the race of life.”
The immigration problem in the U.S. is essentially the problem the U.S. and Europe had created for itself in the Americas, Asia and Africa. Unwittingly also advances in technology have extended human life and made childbirth safer.
Advances in communication have presented to the world’s poor that there are economic opportunities in more advanced economies. You cannot stop that drive for economic survival. Even animals migrate to search for food and water.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/14/AR2007121401333.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/18/AR2007121801183.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
Thanks Equalizer, Merry Christmas as well! Merry Christmas also to Jeg, Brianb, Butch, Madonna, Dinapinoy, Bencard, tonio, anthony scalia, manuelbuencamino, the Ca t, iloilo city boy, atenistakuno, vanko, benign0, renmin, vic, supermo, ay_naku, willy, hvrds and our gracious host mlq3 as well as all the lurkers!
To our gracious host,Manolo,many thanks for your valuable history lessons!Merry Christmas Explainer,from the equalizer
As for Fallows essay, he has made many important observations, I think, most important of which is that the elite (politicians, businessmen, intellectuals) suck hard!
He he. Sorry didn’t refresh. I hope I didn’t ruin the spirit. 🙂
An tawong dae magsalingoy sa saiyang pinaghalean, dae makaka-abot sa saiyang papadumanan — Equalizer
Nakua mo nanggad Equalizer an punto. Amen. Amen.
Respect for our elders who toiled for the land of our birth, both the living and the dead — that’s the bedrock of patriotism.
Merry Christmas to all, especially to mlq3 who bears with all our individual idiosyncracies with much patience and grace.
You should read my post again. The need to belong is lower than the esteem need in the hierarchy.
The Maslow’s theory does not teach us which need motivates the most. It shows us how the different levels of needs are satisfied as we move up the levels of the hierarchy. The higher needs e.g. self esteem only come into focus after the basic physiological needs in the lower levels are satisfied.
Before self-esteem is developed there is a need to belong to a group which is the source of respect and recognition–two important ingredients for high self-esteem.
You know why Filipinos in the Philippines have low self-esteem? Because they believe everyone, foreign and local writers alike who emphasize more on the negative traits (which are not even a monopoly of Filipinos) than the positive ones. They provoke. They invite controversies. Controversies sell just like sensationalized news.
Envy is not a Filipino culture. It is one of the seven capital sins.
I don’t know about you, but over at my end, family fights are in the spirit of the season. 😀
C’mon, Manoy Bencard, don’t think that everyone in the Philippines you’ve left behind envies you. You’re just being arrogant, and arrogance is just as odious as envy.
It’s Christmas and it’s supposed to be a time for humility, not arrogance. The baby Jesus could have chosen to be born in Boston to a lawyer-father, but instead chose to be born in Bethlehem to a carpenter-father. It means humility trumps arrogance.
I think Jeg is right, it’s time for another group hug – a Merry Christmas group hug!
I don’t know about other folks, but in my family — emigrating, migrating is not the norm though we had and we have a lot of opportunities to do so. We may belong to that freak branch of the Filipino middle class. That is not to sound smug over others who chose to leave, and personally, I have a lot of friends who already did. Just saying, we are happy in the Philippines, warts and all.
Madonna, fwiw, i don’t think your family is all that unusual. As i’ve said above, a good number of the A-Team that i belonged to are still in the Philippines. Then again, they’re in the IT and BPO industry so maybe the availability of growth opportunities in that area is a factor.
That’s good to know cvj, as we are bombarded everyday with news, both first hand information and secondary that you know people are leaving. My family’s background and means of living are both in the professions and entrepreneurial activities — it is in the latter that we are focusing our efforts on.
SMEs really have a long way to offer our country, in terms of employment, so that Pinoys don’t have to go abroad to make a buck. I especially think of those who are considered “unskilled” but who in fact toil away in slave-like conditions (our DH compatriots) — and for what? P8 K to P18K a month in exchange for broken families at home and not much in earned self-esteem, not to say, the missed opportunity for contributing to active and direct societal involvement which is the essense of democracy — not a fair deal overall.
BTW, Merry Christmas to Shaman and to devilsadvc8 as well (notwidthstanding your prescription).