I am subscribed to the monthly online Gallup Management Journal and for this month's edition, one of the headlines that caught my eye says "Chinese Among Least Likely in Asia to See Their Job as Ideal: Chinese workers also less likely to get to do what they do best at job." The article basically talks about the results of surveys that Gallup conducted in 22 Asian countries in 2011 for the purpose of studying how employees and workers in different Asian countries perceive their job situations and how these different perceptions (of having or not having an "ideal" job, of whether or not they get to do what they do best in their jobs, of being productive on the job or not, and of whether they receive fair pay or not) are linked to each other. I really don't have much to say about the conclusion asserted by the headline since I have limited knowledge on the Chinese people and their culture, history, and social psychology. But what really surprised me was that if China was on the bottom half of the the list for both rankings (21st for likelihood for employees to see their jobs as ideal and 19th for likelihood of employees to think they get to do what they do best at their jobs), the Philippines was on the top half of the list for both rankings (2nd for likelihood for employees to see their jobs as ideal and 8th for likelihood of employees to think they get to do what they do best at their jobs). Thus, the headline can actually be re-written as "Filipinos Among Most Likely in Asia to See Their Job as Ideal: Filipino workers also most likely to get to do what they do best at job."
But maybe I shouldn't be surprised at all. I remember reading, a few months back, about the results of a study which asserts that Filipinos are among the happiest in the world. And as much as I'd like to be proud and "happy" about this, I can't help but dissect this phenomenon of Filipino happiness and optimism and look into its root and its core and speculate on how events in our history have molded our social psyche to develop the Filipino brands of happiness, optimism, and hospitality.
Much of this I have learned in my Philippine History class in college. This was supposed to be a "progressive" history class which aimed to glorify the Filipino people and to make students proud to be Filipino but honestly, it didn't quite work for me.
Our professor taught us about a modern theory on the origin of the Filipino race, which is very different from the "three waves of migration theory" we were taught in grade school. The modern theory basically teaches that Filipinos are part of the bigger Austronesian race which originated from southern China and crossed the land bridges to the Philippines and eventually spread out to as far as Madagascar in the West and the Pacific Islands in the East. So the Philippines was basically the "first stop" to this spread of the Austronesian people. Our professor also painted a very romantic picture of the Austronesian people being seafarers who are used to living a life in the sea without bounds - adventurous and daring explorers, which supposedly translates to Austronesians, and consequently, Filipinos being naturally inquisitive, creative, freethinking, and innovative. But if that's the case, I guess the proto-Filipinos were among the least adventurous of all the early Austronesians because they were the ones who decided to settle down on the "first stop" instead of setting out to explore and see what more the world can offer.
But regardless of this, the proto-Filipinos were able to establish a thriving civilization in this archipelago of more than 7,000 islands, a civilization with its own distinct culture and social structure although the proto-Filipinos did not think of themselves as one people at this point.
Then the colonizers came and the proto-Filipinos fought back as hard as they could and they would win some battles and lose some like in any other fight. And I know that a lot of people would say otherwise, but I daresay the proto-Filipinos were defeated. And for me, it's not really the opponent's military strength and strategic colonization plan that defeated the proto-Filipinos but the series of betrayals committed by the leaders to whom they relied on. The Babaylans, who were highly regarded as spiritual leaders and who were among the first ones to lead uprisings against the Spaniards, began to incorporate, and eventually fully integrate, elements of Catholicism into their teachings and principles. The datus and rajahs eventually sided with the enemies to preserve whatever power and wealth they had left. It was around the same time that the collective consciousness of Filipinos as one people started to emerge and I believe that this consciousness was born broken and violated, with Filipinos bitter and in despair over the betrayals of their leaders, and Filipinos questioning their identity as a people.
It has not chaged ever since. Ours is a history of betrayals, distrust, defeats, shame, and disappointments. Leaders, whether they come from the ruling class, the intelligentia, or the masses, always fail to turn this country around and to regain the dignity of the Filipino people. We all know this familiar picture of the Philippines plagued with poverty, corruption, and social injustice.
Of course people become ashamed and angry about all of this but for most people, living with constant shame and anger is just too must. And so the Filipino people have to resort to social narcotics to numb the pain of this shame and anger. Apart from religion, mass media, and other social institutions, this brand of Filipino hospitality, optimism, and happiness serves as a more subtle form of social narcotic.
Our country, our land, and our people have been violated and exploited for so long that we have learned to put on the fake smile of a prostitute. We are so tired of dishonest leaders and worsening social conditions that we have learned to settle, to be contented, to accept our fate, to think of ourselves less, and to be more tolerant to failures. Amidst all our suffering, indignity, and resentment, we have learned to be happy.
But there's a reason why social narcotics are called as such - they never really end anything - the shame and anger remains. Over time, we crave for more and more of these social narcotics and we Filipinos have been taking too much that we have become among the most religious and most media-crazy peoples in the world. And we have also become among the happiest and most optimistic.
I guess we are all just waiting for salvation, for the true savior to get us off this addiction and to teach us how to be truly happy. And maybe for some of us, we feel that we were destined to be that savior but we just don't know where to start.
For the meantime, let's take more of this drug called Filipino Happiness.
Okay, I think I've written more than enough so it's time to share my latest drawings.
Marlon! Pwede ka nang maging journalist/editor sa newspaper! I can see your post being an article in the Philippine Daily Inquirer or the Philippine Star. :)
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