A Damaged Culture

"A Damaged Culture" is an article published in The Atlantic in 1987. It is a must read for anyone interested in delineating the reasons for the economic and political failure of the Philippines. It is a an "essay on how a culture of dependence and corruption should be held responsible for the despairing conditions of America’s (former and sole) Asian colony, the Philippines."  An article from 2013 titled "Why the Philippines Failed" references the Atlantic article thereby accepting the fact that nothing has changed and the Philippines remains a failed nation.

Below I have posted a paragraph that sums up a lot of what is in the article.  The author discusses the ousting of Marcos and the newly elected Corazon Aquino as well as Smoky Mountain and what it says about the Filipino spirit. He also touches on the sharp divide between rich and poor.  His main thesis is "a failure of nationalism," a real nationalism that embraces all your countrymen not just those within the family circle and then boasts emptily of a love for country, is to blame for the problems in the Philippines. Read the whole article for yourself and reflect on how little has really and fundamentally changed in thirty years.  

"For more than a hundred years certain traits have turned up in domestic descriptions and foreign observations of Philippine society. The tradition of political corruption and cronyism, the extremes of wealth and poverty, the tribal fragmentation, the local elite’s willingness to make a separate profitable peace with colonial powers—all reflect a feeble sense of nationalism and a contempt for the public good. Practically everything that is public in the Philippines seems neglected or abused. On many street corners in downtown Manila an unwary step can mean a broken leg. Holes two feet square and five feet deep lurk just beyond the curb; they are supposed to be covered by metal grates, but scavengers have taken the grates to sell for scrap. Manila has a potentially beautiful setting, divided by the Pasig River and fronting on Manila Bay. But three-fourths of the city’s sewage flows raw into the Pasig, which in turns empties into the bay; the smell of Smoky Mountain is not so different from the smell of some of the prettiest public vistas. The Philippine telephone system is worse than its counterparts anywhere else in non-communist Asia—which bogs down the country’s business and inconveniences its people—but the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company has a long history of high (and not reinvested) profits. In the first-class dining room aboard the steamer to Cebu, a Filipino at the table next to mine picked through his plate of fish. Whenever he found a piece he didn’t like, he pushed it off the edge of his plate, onto the floor. One case of bad manners? Maybe, but I’ve never seen its like in any other country. Outsiders feel they have understood something small but significant about Japan’s success when they watch a bar man carefully wipe the condensation off a bottle of beer and twirl it on the table until the label faces the customer exactly. I felt I had a glimpse into the failures of the Philippines when I saw prosperous-looking matrons buying cakes and donuts in a bakery, eating them in a department store, and dropping the box and wrappers around them as they shopped."

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1987/11/a-damaged-culture/505178/ 

Every House, Every Shanty a Restaurant or a Sari-Sari Store or Both

What does the Filipino do when he needs a little cash and there are no jobs that will hire him?  He goes into business for himself of course! 

Step one:  Borrow a little cash from a friend or a relative who you will pay back later, honest! Maybe even entice them to invest with the promise of profit sharing.

Step two:  Go to SM Mart or the Central Market and stock up on laundry powder, instant coffee, ramen noodles, and snacks of various kinds. Buy large quantities of viands to prepare.

Step Three: Buy a huge glass display case to show off all your wares.

Step four:  Set up shop!  Start cooking the viands for lunchtime customers.  Prepare a table space where they can eat.

Step Five:  Don't worry about taxes or business permits or health inspectors.  You don't need the hassle. You're just trying to make some money and what's wrong with that?

WARNING: Filipinos at Work!

Some guys from PLDT came by the neighbourhood to install a cable:

Why do Filipino linemen never have a bucket truck? Is PLDT really hurting that much for funds? Why are there three guys just standing around? Why is safety never number one? 

It's amazing how safety here always takes a backseat to getting the job done.  Something tells me that if one were to really study workplace accident statistics for the Philippines the numbers would be quite high.

Filipinos do not like to drive with their headlights on at night

Filipinos do not like to drive with their headlights on at night.  I have seen this time and time again with taxis, cars, trucks, jeepnies, motorcycles, tricycles, commercial trucks overloaded with sugarcane, they simply do not like to turn on their lights at night.  

Some jeepny drivers will drive with their lights on but when they come to a lighted area they switch them off and when they leave the area they turn them back on.  Some will turn them off when they stop for passengers and turn them back on when they start moving again. WHY??  To save power?  That is what the alternator is for!

Other jeepny and tricycle drivers will have their vehicle decked out in green, red, blue, white, or yellow rope lights and the whole thing will be lit up but the headlights will still remain off.  I suppose they think they are looking good but really they look garish and they are putting everyone in danger by not using their headlights.

Others install red, green, or blue headlights.  What good is that??  The point of headlights is so you can see the road and so others can see you.  If other vehicles can see you but you can't see the road in front of you then you have a problem.  Especially if your jeepny is overfilled and you got two guys standing on the back step and hanging on outside the vehicle!  

Driving with no lights on is the most reckless and infuriating driving habit because it is so dangerous and the danger is easily preventable.

TURN ON YOUR HEADLIGHTS!!!!!!!!!

Noise: Garbage Trucks

Twice a week, between 6am and 8am, the garbage truck comes through the neighbourhood. With such frequency and regularity there is no reason anyone should be burning trash.  Fill up a bag, or a few bags, twice a week and get them ready.  The garbage men are even nice enough to let everyone know when they have arrived by blaring the song "Lambada" as they drive up and down each street. This is the ONLY song they play. Over and over and over and over and over and over.  Once they did play the radio but then they put "Lambada" back on.  This is a new development occurring only since the city purchased modern garbage trucks.  Before they would play chimes like an ice cream truck and during the Christmas season they would play Christmas songs.  Well, ONE Christmas song.  Why do they insist on repeating one song?

When the driver was asked why he continually repeats the same song he replied that it was a Mp3 and the boss had only downloaded one song. That's Filipino logic for you.  One high capacity USB drive but only one Mp3.

See the loudspeaker? 

This song "Lambada" is the most annoying piece of music ever written.  It's dangerous to write about it because just thinking of it gets the tune stuck in your head. The Filipinos like this song so much that even the back-up warning beeping sounds of Jeepnies and delivery trucks have been converted to play this song in an even more annoying 8-bit chiptune version. Why do they love this song so much?  It's mindless, annoying, and sticks in your head all day once you hear it.  Kind of like a Filipino.

Look at this guy standing right on the edge.  He could fall in and get crushed.  But when did a Filipino ever care about safety???

Filipinos Don't Know How to Use Escalators

There is new sign posted by all the escalators in the mall:

Yeah sure perhaps proper use of an escalator isn't instinctive but these escalators have been around for quite a few years.  Why didn't they post these signs earlier?  There's nothing more annoying than getting stuck behind somebody when you are on the move. 

But Filipinos aren't the kind to pay attention signs giving instructions.  Chances are this sign won't make much of a difference.

Noise: Churches

Everything in the Philippines is loud.  Even the churches.  The Filipino knows nothing about sacred silence.  Everything he does, even the most solemn religious services, are celebrated with loud noise rather than silent prayer and meditation.

This church does not have a building.  They meet at a basketball court.  At 7am they start playing a CD of church bells through a sound system that is hooked up to a loudspeaker which broadcasts this noise all over the countryside.  It can be heard for almost two miles away.  

For nine mornings before Christmas the Filipinos gather together to sing carols, pray to the saints, and hear a sermon which is usually a political tirade and has nothing to do with Baby Jesus.  This too is broadcast all over the countryside starting at 3am and not finishing until 6am.  Instead of a peaceful sleep you are woken suddenly by the warbling voice of a priest singing "Feliz Navidad" and ranting against the government. And there's no road back to dreamland. Even in your own home you aren't safe from Roman Catholic superstition.

Every church building here has a huge loudspeaker on the top of the building or outside somewhere so that the entire surrounding area can hear their devotions.  They broadcast the entire service.  The singing, the preaching, everything. And it's all garbled.  What's being broadcast isn't even intelligible.  

The Filipino love of noise runs deep. Very deep. Soul deep. He cannot keep quiet for a second.  There is so much noise in this country it is unbelievable.  There is no escape from noise here.  Not even at church. And with the loudspeakers broadcasting each service there's no escape from the church either.