On lies

One episode from the first season of 3rd Rock from the Sun dealt with lying, a new phenomenon the four alien characters recently discovered about the human experience. It was something that can be used in certain situations for certain purposes. They realized it was quite powerful in making somebody feel like they're something big. For instance, Dr. Albright successfully twisted words to make Dr. Dick Solomon, the high Commander (and father figure) of these band of aliens and hotshot physics professor substitute for her in a meeting with the "Knights of the Living Dead," their co-professors in the university. Dick was oblivious to this, and because he was in love with Albright, he didn't think that she'd do anything like lying to him. Sally discovered this when she went out to buy soap after the boys complained that she didn't smell like the other girls of their acquaintances. She was lured into trying out various potions for an ultimately high maintenance lifestyle via free samples. When she came back to get more, she found out she had to buy them at an exorbitant price. And that's when she clued in that the beauty industry is just out to make women look at themselves and ply them with more products to make them beautiful, thus making them fell good, and that's how they continue bringing in money. The adolescent Tommy meanwhile, is walking through a tightrope as he struggles to maintain his relationship with fellow sensible schoolmate August, and he knows that one wrong word from him will mean she's out of her life - something he wouldn't dream of happening.

They had more insights about it at the usual end-of-the-show group musing while looking up at the stars, previously done in the university parking lot, but later on in the comfort of their own rooftop. I don't remember most of it now, though you should watch this series (download if you must since it's quite old - Joseph Gordon-Levitt is what, 11 years old here?) and see how we would see human nature if we weren't born as one. And then one of them posed this very enlightened (at least, from the Filipino perspective) question:

What if a politican takes hold of it?

And the answer:

It would be horrible.

Exactly.

Propagating colonial education: the undoing of the Filipinos

There are moves to increase the number of years the Filipino student will take up basic education. From the previous 10 years - six years of primary/elementary and four years of secondary/high school, there's a proposal to increase it by two more years, similar to other developed countries in the world. I heard from the news tonight that the two additional years will enable the inclusion of other courses that could pave the way for a vocational career e.g., in agriculture or fisheries. I thought this was similar to the shop classes in the US, where the students either learn woodcraft, metalworks or other crafts that they can make a living out of. I don't know if there are other concrete programs that the government is proposing to justify this move, other than that it will provide the future worker with more means of supposedly earning income.

Now, after reading the Miseducation of the Filipino by Renato Constantino, there begs the question of whether what we are actually teaching our children is what they ought to be learning. The current quality of education the learning public is receiving is not good enough, what with the very low allocation of budget of providing one of the basic rights of the Filipinos. And what's more, it's not the type to foster stability and development in the citizenry, the foremost element a state or sovereignty relies on to ensure its continuity. We are still under the vestiges of the colonial education the Americans have bestowed on us to easily subvert our feelings and ideas so that they could do all they wanted with our country, which after having been under 300 years of Spanish rule also seemed lost as a people culturally, because all vestiges of our Filipino-ness have been removed, and alas, not allowed to flourish. Thus, the lack of nationalism among the Filipinos, the apathy towards what is happening now and what will happen in the future.

We as a people should imbibe what being a Filipino means, and developing ourselves culturally. There are many points expounded by Mr. Constantino in his text, and though it was written in 1959, it is still glaringly accurate today, 50 years after it was written. That shows us how backward everything the government has been doing is, reflecting the values  of our political leaders and our people as a whole that is self-serving and in the long run, detrimental to our development as a state.

Mr. Constantino explains it best. Please, no matter how long it is, finish reading it.


The Miseducation of the Filipino
by Renato Constantino
(text from http://kalamagz.multiply.com)

Education is a vital weapon of a people striving for economic emancipation, political independence and cultural renaissance. We are such a people. Philippine education therefore must produce Filipinos who are aware of their country's problems, who understand the basic solution to these problems, and who care enough to have courage to work and sacrifice for their country's salvation.


Nationalism in Education
In recent years, in various sectors of our society, there have been nationalist stirrings which were crystallized and articulated by the late Claro M. Recto, There were jealous demands for the recognition of Philippine sovereignty on the Bases question. There were appeals for the correction of the iniquitous economic relations between the Philippines and the United States. For a time, Filipino businessmen and industrialists rallied around the banner of the FILIPINO FIRST policy, and various scholars and economists proposed economic emancipation as an intermediate goal for the nation. In the field of art, there have been signs of a new appreciation for our own culture. Indeed, there has been much nationalist activity in many areas of endeavor, but we have yet to hear of a well-organized campaign on the part of our educational leaders for nationalism in education.

Although most of our educators are engaged in the lively debate on techniques and tools for the improved instructions, not one major educational leader has come out for a truly nationalist education. Of course some pedagogical experts have written on some aspects of nationalism in education. However, no comprehensive educational programme has been advanced as a corollary to the programmes for political and economic emancipation. This is a tragic situation because the nationalist movement is crippled at the outset by a citizenry that is ignorant of our basic ills and is apathetic to our national welfare.


New Perspective
Some of our economic and political leaders have gained a new perception of our relations with the United States as a result of their second look at Philippine-American relations since the turn of the century. The reaction which has emerged as economic and political nationalism is an attempt on their part to revise the iniquities of the past and to complete the movement started by our revolutionary leaders of 1896. The majority of our educational leaders, however, still continue to trace their direct lineal descent to the first soldier-teachers of the American invasion army. They seem oblivious to the fact that the educational system and philosophy of which they are proud inheritors were valid only within the framework of American colonialism.


The educational system introduced by the Americans had to correspond and was designed to correspond to the economic and political reality of American conquest.


Capturing Minds
The most effective means of subjugating a people is to capture their minds. Military victory does not necessarily signify conquest. As long as feelings of resistance remain iin the hearts of the vanquished, no conqueror is secure. This is best illustrated by the occupation of the Philippines by the Japanese militarists during the Second World War.


Despite the terroristic regime imposed by the Japanese warlords, the Filipinos were never conquered. Hatred for the Japanese was engendered by their oppressive techniques which in turn were intensified by the stubborn resistance of the Filipino people. Japanese propagandists and psychological warfare experts, however, saw the necessity of winning the minds of the people.

Had the Japanese stayed longer, Filipino children who were being schooled under the auspices of the new dispensation would have grown into strong pillars of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Their minds would have been conditioned to suit the policies of the Japanese imperialists.


The moulding of men's minds is the best means of conquest. Education, therefore, serves a weapon in wars of colonial conquest. This singular fact was well appreciated by the American military commander in the Philippines during the Filipino-American War. According to the census of 1903:

article: the Filipinos' "diseased culture"

Balikbayan Views: A Diseased Culture

By Arlene Babst-Vokey
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 09:24:00 11/09/2008

MANILA, Philippines - I’ve lived away from the Philippines for almost two decades now. Recently, family obligations require my returning to Manila regularly. I dare say that on these visits, some of my observations on and hopes regarding the Philippines reflect those of fellow balikbayan and Filipinos living in the Philippines. The cynics cross out “hopes” and write “delusions” instead. I’m not among them. I am, however, a realist.

I wasn’t a realist in 1980, when I started writing a column that appeared whenever the Marcos censors deigned to allow its publication. Back then, I wasn’t experienced enough to understand that the growth—or stagnation—of a nation is shaped by a force more powerful than a corrupt dictatorship, malignant as that was.

That force is a nation’s culture.

Through the ’80s, I was among many Filipinos who believed that if we could just get rid of the Marcos regime, the Philippines would transform itself into the nation we dreamt of, where the law treated everyone equally whether your name was Marcos, Aquino, Ayala or Sy, or (here, fill in the name of the farmer, janitor, nurse or teacher, etc., as well as Bernabe Buscayno).

We imagined a country where valuable entrepreneurs didn’t have to pay extortion “fees” to a procession of thieves before they could get their licenses or contracts; where government officials weren’t regarded as personal attendants by their bureaucratic bosses or by the Philippine President; where kidnappings and murders weren’t so run-of-the-mill that newscasts breezily squeezed them in between gossip about movie stars, and where the average citizen didn’t harbor such deep distrust of the police, the military, the judges, and most of all, the politicians.

Many of us fervently wanted Marcos out, but we weren’t naïve enough to expect changes to happen overnight. But my exasperation gains context when you remember that hey, more than 20 years have passed! More of those changes should be in place now.

Consider what Japan accomplished between 1945—when the country was on its knees, two of its cities eviscerated by atom bombs--and the mid-60s when it had already taken giant steps towards becoming the world’s second biggest economy. Observe how Thailand tackled problems similar to those of the Philippines within the same time frame of two decades—and compare where it stands today.

What I didn’t understand then was the power of Filipino culture. More than the dictatorship— which it made possible—it is Filipino culture that keeps the Philippines down.

No one need look far to find intelligent, honest, industrious Filipinos—we know innumerable stories of self-sacrificing, courageous Filipinos who beat incredible odds to rise above the poverty and corruption that drown the rest of the country.

But neither do we have to look far to find Filipinos who think that the law applies to everyone—but them. Anyone born in the Philippines, myself included, has acquaintances, friends and relatives, who don’t pay their taxes, steal, cheat in business or elections, or even commit murder. The fact that we all know scoundrels and criminals, and let them get away with their crime, is one of the most common manifestations of the diseased culture that keeps the Philippines in a dismal state.

I use the word culture to mean that discernible pattern of behavior in a group of people or a nation, including those values that are manifested again and again by individuals and the group as a whole until they become the dominant traits, the culture, of that group.

Japanese culture values the hardworking team player. Respect for privacy and egalitarianism are prized in Swedish culture. American culture emphasizes the pursuit of happiness. Italians are proud of the gusto for style in their culture. A strong sense of individual rights and civic responsibility marks British culture.

Even with the inevitable exceptions, there is such a thing as a national culture. And the culture that most Filipinos accept as theirs is (as a much-vilified American writer once wrote) a damaged culture. I call it a diseased culture.

I don’t say that all Filipinos personify the diseased culture of the nation, or that all aspects of Filipino culture are perverse. There’s much that’s positive in Filipino culture, such as the helpfulness innate in most Filipinos; their love for the arts, especially music, dance and painting; their distaste for conflict; their ability to enjoy themselves even under oppressive conditions; and their generosity even when they have little themselves. But I do say that Filipino culture is diseased in some of its fundamental aspects.

Start with the widespread disrespect for law in the Philippines. Too many Filipinos do not hold the cultural value that abiding by the law is essential for nation building, or even for their own self-respect. To cite a common example, many Filipinos laughingly say that traffic lights “are just a suggestion.” Property and lives are endangered or destroyed by such cavalier attitudes towards even basic traffic laws, yet Filipinos don’t recognize the connection between respect for the law and fewer victims. They don’t see respect for law as each citizen’s chance— and duty—to foster the vitally needed sense of community responsibility. With corrosive, disastrous effects, the same attitude is taken towards those laws that govern the very foundation of every nation: the justice system.

Another perverted value: For most Filipinos, family, right or wrong, is more important than law, hence nepotism, political dynasties and unpunished criminal acts flourish; there’s always some relative to spring the family felon out of jail or install the incompetent in-law in public office.

What of the blind adherence to religious dictates? Too many Filipinos feel that a mawkish religiosity is more culturally important than rational, compassionate population planning. Never mind if millions of babies are born in a country without the resources to feed, clothe, shelter or educate them. Policy-makers, starting with the President, won’t put money and resources into population planning for fear of going against the cultural tradition of bowing to the Roman Catholic Church.

Ignoring the teachings of their religion’s founder—Love one another; do unto others as you would have them do unto you—the clerics and their converts condemn those advocating birth control as godless, but don’t feel responsible for the hungry, sick and doomed children.

There’s hope for change, though. Hand in hand with their counterparts working within the Philippines, Filipinos abroad fuel this change with the money they remit so their families can build houses, eat healthier, get medical care, and most of all, acquire an education. With financial relief comes the opportunity to heal those diseased aspects of Filipino culture, as millions of Filipinos abroad experience living in societies where law is actually respected; not in every single case but at least on a regular basis.

In societies where the majority of citizens abide by the law, Filipinos fall in line with the national culture and routinely pay their taxes, refrain from shooting the mayor because he comes from a rival clan, dispose of garbage properly instead of dumping it in a neighbor’s yard, and allow pedestrians right of way instead of gleefully running them down. In such societies, Filipinos experience the sanity of contributing to the community at large instead of working only for the good of those to whom one is personally related by blood or social ties.

As these experiences multiply, Filipinos will expect laws to be obeyed even when they’re back in the Philippines. Having had a taste of how real democracies work, they’ll demand that rational economic planning, not religious opinion, guide public policy. They’ll value the common good over personal gain, while respecting the rights of the individual. In brief, their cultural attitudes towards family, religion and the law will undergo that long overdue sea change.

That’ll certainly take more than 20 years; I said I’m a realist. But what are a few more decades when a nation can be healed?

Why is the Filipino Special?

got this from an ate nex's email. a must read...

Why is the Filipino Special?
By Ed Lapiz

Filipinos are brown. Their color is at the center of human racial
strains. This point is not an attempt at racism, but just for many Filipinos to realize that our color should not be a source of or reason for an inferiority complex. While we pine for a fair complexion, white people are religiously tanning themselves, under the sun or artificial light, to approximate the Filipino complexion.

Filipinos are a touching people. We have lots of love and are not afraid to show it. We almost inevitably create human chains with our perennial akbay (putting an arm around another's shoulder), hawak (hold), yakap (embrace), himas (caressing stroke), kalabit (touching with the tip of the finger), kalong (sitting on someone else's lap), etc. We are always reaching out, always seeking interconnection.

Filipinos are linguists. Put a Filipino in any city, any town around the world. Give him a few months or even weeks and he will speak the local language there. Filipinos are adept at learning and speaking languages. In fact, it is not uncommon for Filipinos to speak at least three: his own local dialect, Filipino, and English. Of course, a lot speak an added language, be it Chinese, Spanish or, if he works abroad, the language of his host country. In addition, Tagalog is not 'sexist.' While many 'conscious' and 'enlightened' people of today are just by now striving to be 'politically correct' with their language and, in the process, bend to absurd depths in coining 'gender sensitive' words, Tagalog has, since time immemorial, evolved gender-
neutral words like asawa (husband or wife), anak (son or daughter), magulang (father or mother), kapatid (brother or sister), biyenan (father-in-law or mother-in-law), manugang (son or daughter-in- law), bayani (hero or heroine), etc. Our languages and dialects are advanced and, indeed, sophisticated!

Filipinos are groupists. We love human interaction and company. We always surround ourselves with people and we hover over them, too. According to Dr. Patricia Licuanan, a psychologist from Ateneo and Miriam College, an average Filipino would have and know at least 300 relatives.

At work, we live bayanihan (mutual help); at play, we want a kalaro (playmate) more than laruan (toy). At socials, our invitations are open and it is more common even for guests to invite and bring in other guests. In transit, we do not want to be separated from our group. So what do we do when there is no more space in a vehicle? Kalung-kalong! (Sitting on one another). No one would ever suggest splitting a group and wait for
another vehicle with more space!

Filipinos are weavers.. One look at our baskets, mats, clothes, and other crafts will reveal the skill of the Filipino weaver and his inclination to weaving. This art is a metaphor of the Filipino trait. We are social weavers. We weave theirs into ours that we all become parts of one another. We place a lot of premium on pakikisama (getting along) and pakikipagkapwa (relating). Two of the worst labels, walang pakikipagkapwa (inability to relate), will be avoided by the Filipino at almost any cost. We love to blend and harmonize with people, we like to include them in our 'tribe,' our 'family'- and we like to be included in other people's families, too. Therefore we call our
friend's mother nanay or mommy; we call a friend's sister ate (eldest sister), and so on. We even call strangers tia/tita (aunt) or tio/tito (uncle), tatang (grandfather), etc.

So extensive is our social openness and interrelations that we have specific title for extended relations like hipag (sister-in-law' s spouse), balae (child-in-law' s parents), inaanak (godchild), ninong/ninang (godparents), kinakapatid (godparent's child), etc.

In addition, we have the profound 'ka' institution, loosely translated as 'equal to the same kind' as in kasama (of the same company), kaisa (of the same cause), kapanalig (of the same belief), etc. In our social fiber, we treat other people as co-equals. Filipinos, because of their social 'weaving' traditions, make for excellent team workers.

Filipinos are adventurers. We have a tradition of separation. Our myths and legends speak of heroes and heroines who almost always get separated from their families and loved ones and are taken by circumstances to far-away lands where they find wealth or power.

Our Spanish colonial history is filled with separations caused by the reduccion (hamleting), and the forced migration to build towns, churches, fortresses or galleons. American occupation enlarged the space of Filipino wandering, including America , and there is documented evidence of Filipino presence in America as far back as 1587. Now, Filipinos compose the world's largest population of overseas workers, populating and sometimes 'threshing' major capitals, minor towns and even remote villages around the world. Filipino adventurism has made us today's citizens of the world, bringing the bagoong (salty shrimp paste), pansit (sauteed noodles), siopao (meat-filled dough), kare-kare (peanut-flavored dish), balut (unhatched duck egg), and adobo (meat vinaigrette), including the tabo (ladle) and tsinelas (slippers) all over the world.

Filipinos are excellent at adjustments and improvisation, managing to recreate their home, or to feel at home anywhere. Filipinos have Pakiramdam (deep feeling/discernment ). We know how to feel what others feel, sometimes even anticipate what they will feel. Being manhid (dense) is one of the worst labels anyone could get and will therefore, avoid at all cost. We know when a guest is hungry though the insistence on being full is assured.
We can tell if people are lovers even if they are miles apart. We know if a person is offended though he may purposely smile. We know because we feel. In our pakikipagkapwa (relating), we get not only to wear another man's shoe but also his heart.

We have a superbly developed and honored gift of discernment, making us excellent leaders, counselors, and go-betweens. Filipinos are very spiritual. We are transcendent. We transcend the physical world, see the unseen and hear the unheard. We have a deep sense of kaba (premonition) and kutob (hunch). A Filipino wife will instinctively feel her husband or child is going astray, whether or not telltale signs present themselves.

Filipino spirituality makes him invoke divine presence or intervention at nearly every bend of his journey. Rightly or wrongly, Filipinos are almost always acknowledging, invoking or driving away spirits into and from their lives. Seemingly trivial or even incoherent events can take on spiritual significance and will be given such space or consideration. The Filipino has a sophisticated, developed pakiramdam. The Filipino, though becoming
more and more modern (hence, materialistic) is still very spiritual in essence. This inherent and deep spirituality makes the Filipino, once correctly Christianized, a major exponent of the faith.

Filipinos are timeless. Despite the nearly half-a-millennium encroachment of the western clock into our lives, Filipinos-unless on very formal or official functions-still measure time not with hours and minutes but with feeling. This style is ingrained deep in our psyche. Our time is diffused, not framed. Our appointments are defined by umaga (morning), tanghali (noon ), hapon (afternoon), or gabi (evening). Our most exact time reference is probably katanghaliang- tapat (high noon), which still allows many minutes of leeway.
That is how Filipino meetings and occasions are timed: there is really no definite time. A Filipino event has no clear-cut beginning nor ending. We have a fiesta , but there is visperas (eve), a day after the fiesta is still considered a good time to visit. The Filipino Christmas is not confined to December 25th; it somehow begins months before December and extends up to the first days of January.

Filipinos say good-bye to guests first at the head of the stairs, then down to the descanso (landing), to the entresuelo (mezanine), to the pintuan (doorway), to the trangkahan (gate), and if the departing persons are to take public transportation, up to the bus stop or bus station.

In a way, other people's tardiness and extended stays can really be annoying, but this peculiarity is the same charm of Filipinos who, being governed by timelessness, can show how to find more time to be nice, kind, and accommodating than his prompt and exact brothers elsewhere.

Filipinos are Spaceless. As in the concept of time, the Filipino concept of space is not numerical. We will not usually express expanse of space with miles or kilometers but with feelings in how we say malayo (far) or malapit (near). Alongside with numberlessness, Filipino space is also boundless. Indigenous culture did not divide land into private lots but kept it open for all to partake of its abundance.

The Filipino has avidly remained 'spaceless' in many ways. The interior of the bahay-kubo (hut) can easily become receiving room, sleeping room, kitchen, dining room, chapel, wake parlor, etc. Depending on the time of the day or the needs of the moment.

The same is true with the bahay na bato (stone house). Space just flows into the next space that the divisions between the sala, caida, comedor, or vilada may only be faintly suggested by overhead arches of filigree. In much the same way, Filipino concept of space can be so diffused that one 's party may creep into and actually expropriate the street! A family business like a sari-sari store or talyer may extend to the sidewalk and street. Provincial folks dry palayan (rice grain) on the highways! Religious groups of various persuasions habitually and matter-of-factly commandeer streets for processions and parades. It is not uncommon to close a street to accommodate private functions, Filipinos eat. sleep, chat, socialize, quarrel, even urinate, or nearly everywhere or just anywhere! 'Spacelessness, ' in the face of modern, especially urban life, can be unlawful and may really be counter-productive. On the other hand, Filipino spacelessness, when viewed from his context, is just another manifestation of his spiritually and communal values. Adapted well to today's context, which may mean unstoppable urbanization, Filipino spacelessness may even be the answer and counter balance to humanity's greed, selfishness and isolation.

So what makes the Filipino special? Brown, spiritual, timeless, spaceless, linguists, groupists, weavers, adventurers; seldom do all these profound
qualities find personification in a people. Filipinos should allow - and should be allowed to contribute their special traits to the world-wide community of men - ah. . . . but first, they should know and like themselves.