I already encountered the article of James Fallows entitled “A Damaged Culture: A New Philippines” when I was a fourth year high school seminarian. During that time, I really had a negative reaction to this article because it spoke a lot of negative things about the country and our culture. For me, it was like inviting an outsider to observe your own house and state the displeasing things inside it. Fallows even said it in his article: “Why pick on people who need help?” However, reading the article eleven years later gave me a new perspective on how the Filipino culture, albeit damaged, can be described in two seemingly contrasting adjectives: indomitable and resilient.
Fallow’s article, a rather frank portrayal or analysis of what was happening in our country more than two decades ago, stated that a failure of nationalism must have caused the “war of every man against every man” as seen in the birth pangs of the Aquino administration after EDSA I and the startling image of the Smokey Mountain in the eyes of a foreigner. He said that the problem in the Philippines was cultural in nature, and I agree with his conclusion that this damaged culture of ours is that which keeps us stagnant compared to our Asian neighbors who have zoomed ahead of us. I agree with him that this is still a concern today, as the so-called “colonial mentality” still prevails upon a lot of our countrymen. However, what I find remarkable in recent years is the rise of a “nationalistic” mindset—though external in nature—through clothing, music and the arts, and Manny Pacquiao. Our search for a national identity, as discussed in our Philippine Church History class, is a search that has yet to move forward; or maybe, it even has yet to start.
Scratching beneath the surface of the problem he presented, what really is the cause behind our damaged culture? It is easy to point a finger at our colonizers – those who have influenced us, in one way or another, to think, act, and even look like them. But how come we never really inherited the traits that could have changed our situation: Spanish national pride, American determination, and Japanese efficiency? Instead, we have our abiding low-esteem, over-dependence to authority, and wide scale corruption. But that is a different story.
Instead, I would like to look at Fallow’s observations from a different perspective. Perhaps, the indomitable and resilient character traits of the Filipino must be also be “a cultural thing.” Using Fallows’ own description, in “a land which a few are spectacularly rich while the masses remain abjectly poor”, how come Filipinos still remain standing on both feet at the end of the day? On a positive note, I think our experience with our colonizers taught us to be indomitable and resilient – to bounce back from adversity and use it to make future challenges more tolerable.
Indomitable and resilient: the first describing invincibility, the other detailing flexibility. Time and again, it is said that Filipinos are able to withstand challenges that the tides of time can throw against them. From simple concerns like the bumps, potholes, and backbreaking traffic jams in our major thoroughfares to national affairs like natural calamities and political turmoil, we find ourselves getting through adversities with a smile painted in our faces. The classic image of Filipinos waving their hands and smiling on camera despite a tragedy like fires and floods present a rather positive mindset of Filipinos in facing the adversities of life.
It seems that statistics from surveys show support to this observation. According to the United Nations Human Development Index, the Philippines is currently ranked as the 112th happiest country in the world despite a sharp unemployment rate (7.2%), a low average family income (Php 206.00/day), and high number of youth that are out of school (16% of 39 million youth). Moreover, the current world suicide rate states that out of 100,000 Filipinos, 2.1 commit suicide, which is relatively low compared to neighboring countries Thailand (7.9), China (13.9), and Japan (24.75). Reading these numbers, I think that our culture shows marks of both indomitability and resiliency – we remain strong and persistent through the trials of life because we know how to roll with the punches, get back with a bang, and in the end be better persons.
Listening to Marlon’s sharing last week and reading the article entitled “Resilience Themes” made me realize that part of resilience is learning from experience. When facing the wall of adversity, one can either hit it with a sledgehammer or learn how to scale it and get over to the other side – in Filipino slang, “ober da bakod.” Using Fallows’ arguments, our “national ambition to change our nationality” can be interpreted as a literal “going over the fence” to the side where the grass seems greener. But the testimonies of the people in the article on children’s resilience show a different way of looking and approaching the wall of adversity. They learned to climb the wall, and even if they fell several times, they kept their wits even when the sky is falling down and got to the other side.
Moving over Fallows’ portrayal of the Filipino culture as damaged, I think the cracks and dents it has are actually scars of indomitability and resilience. There’s still a long way to go to unite the nation to go “ober da bakod” of personal, family, and national adversities. Nonetheless, I remain proud to be a Filipino who, in my own little way, is contributing to get our motherland over the self-created walls that hinder us from finding who we are as a people.
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