PI Trip Blog 1: It Takes a Rhythm

Filipinos live with contradictions all the time and we are fine with it, R told me. “We go with the flow because the control is not ours.” Plans can change on a whim. Bahala intervenes and your life is not your own. Interdependency limits individual choice. These attitudes contribute to the misdirected criticism that Filipinos are not aggressive enough in the context of First World standards. But are Filipinos truly passive, di ba? A dogged determination to survive is pervasive here. Resilience and hard work are quintessential global Pinoy traits. Getting ahead through education is pounded into the head of every Filipino man, woman and child. And there is much to admire in the Filipino ingenuity for making do with what little they have. Among the jarring contradictions: a sacred nativity scene highlighting Santa Claus; CNN hero Efren Penaflorida and alleged mass murderer Andal Ampatuan juxtaposed in the headlines; a family's humble nipa grass hut next door to a concrete mansion in Tacloban.

Plastered on the campus of a particular private college is a poster advising students, “Think in English. Write in English.” Granted, those marketable skills boost the competitive edge the Philippine economy longs for its work force. But at what cost? Thinking and writing in another language inevitably changes the Filipino spirit and transforms its core values. If, as FSJ, says the Filipino populace is generally shallow and immature—socially and politically, respectively—what is to be made of its core values now? Are those values in danger of being discarded, replaced, transformed? Filipinos here are intensely proud to be Filipino. But there is undercurrent of wanting to be somewhere else, wishing to be someone else. And they are keenly attuned to all of its contradictions and implications.

I don't know what to make of some of my observations of the social, political and cultural life here. From a Westerner's perspective, I am aggrieved, agog, confused and stumped on some gender and justice issues. There is much to love and admire here as well. I will go with the flow. Like Manila's infamous traffic, it takes a rhythm to cross the road.