Poverty has since been haunting this ravaged country when the Spaniards came and colonized. Although Spain was not the only country that had an influence on the Filipino culture but so did the Japanese and Americans. Due the multitude of foreign cultures that has been passed on to the Filipino people, we developed a sense of inferiority that led to several problems. In the fifties, the Philippines was the most envied country but how come we were left behind? Why did we not strive to prove ourselves like Korea did?
As all the other nations entered a new millennium, such innumerable problems of the past have already been instilled into our system. Why our country became stagnant can be associated with several factors deeply rooted to the unsolved problems of the past. There is external interference in Philippine social, economic, political, cultural and religious life. The colonization of the Spaniards, inheriting their social system where the elite purposefully exploit the masses, made us a colony of our own elite. (Fallows) There is a clear gap between the rich and the marginalized in our present day society. The division of the elite from the common people results to a cultural fragmentation. There is no shared identity, therefore, no common action. The individualistic attitude leads to selfishness and lack of sense of responsibility to fellow Filipinos. It is technically, war against every man. (Fallows) The culture problem derives from the failure of nationalism. (Fallows) The failure of nationalism occurs when the elite fails to help the poor people who are also Filipinos. Only when the elite help the common people, will social cohesion be obtained because the more inequality there it, the less there is democracy.
We also inherited the American’s form of government, democracy. As can be clearly seen, we still experience a strong American influence because our form of government and constitution are heavily based on that of the Americans. The Japanese short but traumatic colonization brought about low self-esteem to women and painful torture to men. With all the different cultures from various colonizers, we have integrated them into the Filipino identity. However, exposure to these various cultures have also made the Filipino perplexed on who they truly are as a culture and nation. The confusion that arises from all these diverse cultures is called thought-behavior dynamism. With various cultures here and there, we tend to take our identity for granted and thus, failure to reflect on who we really are is inevitable. And with the colonial mentality, when the culture of the colonizer matter more than your own, we develop an inferiority complex. As stated by Fallows, the American rule only intensified Filipino’s dependence.
Due to several decades of the Philippines as a colony, the Filipino people have evolved into a nation who exhibits colonial mentality, an inferiority complex and a crab mentality. We also ravage our resources, which are non renewable, instead of doing something better with it. (Jose) The underdevelopment of the Philippines is due to the colonization and miseducation. We are the worst self-bashers because we idealize those of others that we become ignorant of our own capabilities. We are capable of rising above but instead we set our standard so low that it is mediocre, the ‘sakto lang’ mentality.
Another crucial problem in our society that was left hanging is that the Philippine culture tries to put Western theories in our development methods when they do not work. At first thought, such integration of foreign methods can be of high value. However, upon careful deliberation, these methods can be value neutral because such Western methods do not seem to apply effectively within our local context. We try to adapt Western ways but not all of them apply to our surrounding. For example, the Philippines have a tropical climate which is best for agriculture. However, Western ways suggests a monoculture, but it did not take into the fact that it should only be in temperate conditions since you leave the crop for a long time. In addition, even then when there is a lot of horticulture done, there is no surplus and it is even less than what meets the need for our dense population. Due to this mismatch between Western and local methods, poverty has evolved drastically into a very sickening messenger of hunger. Thus, despite the abundance of natural resources in our country, there are still many people who are unable to eat three meals a day. Food getting has since been a troublesome issue where many institutions try to provide efficient solutions but failed. Food getting is even affected by our country’s economic status. However, with our colonial mentality and small-scale tendency, we find it hard to contribute to the development of our present economic situation which leads to food scarcity and widespread starvation. The culture of a country is the society’s life support system. Development is fundamentally linked to its culture. Therefore, productive development cannot be attained without addressing social issues in a cultural perspective.
With long-lost problems left unaddressed, another problem arises. Such is inappropriate management. It is undoubtedly true that there exist problems within the policies that are being implemented and not democracy in itself. It is not the democracy that does not work for the Filipino people but it is the policies that need to be improved or properly implemented. Again we try to incorporate imported management theories when they do not apply to our own. Due to our colonial mentality, we tend to forget the most basic values of a nationalistic Filipino; such values are essential to good governance. Thus, generally speaking, most of our leaders have unsatisfactory character. They cannot help if they do not understand our needs. The Filipinos are so bound by family and friends that they often give position of power without regards to their qualifications. (Jose) Let us all remember, however, that we need leaders that are skilled, and have a good sense with humility. Leaders need to have an influence over the larger good, not favoring the elite for example. True leadership is an imperative prerequisite to good governance and proper management.
Consequently, with inappropriate management, a mismatch of Filipino core culture and social norms makes Filipinos unsure of what it really means to be Filipino. Cultural identity is the basic source of social empowerment and if that is taken away from us we would be powerless and lost. Filipinos tend to group themselves and vote as one. Since they vote in groups, the purpose of having an individual vote is lost. With this comes a lack of personal conviction. The bandwagon effect of voting as a group leads to the loss of the Filipino identity because instead of having an individual voice, we conform to social norms resulting to mimicry of images other than our own. The mismatch of different cultures not only suppresses but weakens our cultural roots.
By the weakening of our roots, we do not have a firm understanding of our cultural background. The lack of knowledge about Filipino culture is due to the massive waves of foreign traditions and technologies that overshadow our own culture. The colonial mentality led to our worsening case of submissiveness. We exert so much effort by so many people for so little innovation. (Joaquin) We work best in small scale, and tend to get fixated when we are good at a particular thing. The status quo is our current mentality values social norms more than innovation; we lag behind in the realms of progress and development.
Last but not least, the Filipinos lack pride in being Filipino resulting in the lack of commitment to the nation. Our pride in being Filipino is inseparable to having commitment and excellence. For some reason, the Filipinos all have the mentality that we have already lost and by having already believed that we lost, we truly have lost before we even tried. Our need for the Philippines is to have governance that is culturally-rooted. We need leaders who understand the Filipino psyche. We should not be embarrassed for being Filipinos but rather work together to define ourselves as Filipinos. We need to prove to ourselves that we are capable of rising like Korea did after being colonized and not fall under pressure. We shouldn’t be satisfied with just being mediocre and should shoot for the stars. We should always strive for the betterment of the country in order to eradicate poverty. We make poverty exist therefore we also have the power to ultimately eliminate it, but I think the true question lies on whether we have the courage and will to change ourselves.
