I welcome Mr. DrPacMan to FV with open arms as he opens up a bright world of opporunity to re-visit the thoughts of the late great Teddy Benigno. Thanks, dude for your comment citing the venerable statesman:
One of the greatest exponents of the Mosquito Press and a true freedom fighter against the fascist dictatorship of Da Apo, was Teddyman Benigno, in whose honor the character and icon, DrPacMan is hereby dedicated, for Teddyman himself began as a sports writer who covered another Filipino refutation of Herr Benig No (who plagiarized a great and honorable name but accurately used a zero to distinguish himself).
DrPacMan is a living refutation of misanthropic curmudgeons like Herr BenigNo. DrPacMan is the Guardian Angel assigned to watch over the dreary and dangerous ideas that Herr Benig No has been infected with and which use him as broadcasting station for racist palaver.
DrPacMan proves the Filipino is a worthy member of the human race, who is however forced to share the democratic space with would-be Fascists and apologists for dictators and tyrants like Herr BenigNo.
But do your homework first, Mr. DrPacMan. Teddy Benigno was no fan of Pinoy culture…
We Filipinos indeed have a damaged culture, more damaged even than we think. Thomas Hobbes, the philosopher of stern social discipline, of crowding humankind into a disciplined cage, was certainly describing the Philippines, among others, when he said without order, life was “nasty, brutish and short.” Ferdinand Marcos had a sense of smell better than most when he said the Philippines was “sitting on top of a social volcano” and that was more than 30 years ago. Historian O.D. Corpuz (Roots of the Filipino Nation) wrote in 1989 that civil war, revolution or a coup could break out in a matter of years. Any day now?
…which ultimately led him to his chosen crusade which he mounted over the remainder of his years on Earth living up to what he wrote; that…
I have chosen the culture of the Filipino as my battleground.
Mine is the conviction that unless we dig deep into our culture, we will never see the pit bull that has torn our pants off, gnawed at our intestines and robbed us of our soul.
In fact he makes his position on the matter quite clear (also an excerpt from the same essay):
What I want to happen is that our culture as Filipinos gets to front and center in a raging national discussion and debate. It’s time we elevated the quality and context of the national agenda. Huge and bigger cracks are opening in our republican armor . . . And unless we move soon, we Filipinos shall all miss the point. The locomotive. We are almost half a century late. Already we are biting the dust of Thailand and Malaysia. Shall we wait for Vietnam to send us to the cleaners?
That was back in 2001. Has that happened since? What do we see today? The same hollow-headed debate that is renowned for its character as droll and unintelligent, focused on the trivial or the irrelevant.
As a matter of historic fact, Teddy Benigno was a “hero” of the original Edsa “revolution”, but what he was then didn’t stand the test of his remarkable faculties for self-reflection (an extremely rare virtue in Filipino society) as he wrote in yet another 2001 article:
It is now clear that our kind of democracy has failed. Our kind.
The many “miracles” attributed to People Power I and People Power II have simply proved to be puffs of roseate smoke. While they toppled a dictator and a phony populist who is charged with largescale plunder, they never improved the lot of the citizenry, much poorer now and miserable than they were before. It is indeed a shame that Filipinos, once proudly ascendant, now bear in hand the biggest begging bowl in Southeast Asia.
The three social institutions presumed to embody and strengthen our value system – the Church, the family, the school – have abdicated their responsibility.
In the first two columns of this series, we blamed our culture more than anything else. It was and remains Indo-Polynesian, its arms lifted to an all powerful, all forgiving and mystical God, a culture moved more by emotions and tradition than by logic and reason. It is a culture that never experienced the cleansing cultural fire of the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution. The Spaniards brought their religion. The Americans the English language. One felt the contrasts of the convent and the constant gaiety of the Mardi Gras, caroused to the entertainment deluge of Hollywood.
The end result was a democracy that had surface exuberance – national elections, a presidential system of government, Congress, the judiciary, an inept bureaucracy. But democracy to be democracy had to be riveted upon a culture of struggle and hard work, social trust, libertarian values, mass and quality education, the rule of law, focus on the future and not just mañana. We Filipinos just didn’t have that. Or if we do – very precious little.
In a community obssessed with credentials, maybe we should have revisited the words of this rare gem of a man a lot earlier. But then I’ll leave it up to that current embodiment of comedies-of-errors Mr. DrPacMan to take credit for opening up this wonderful world of insight to our FV audience.
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Offhand, your passing mention of Thomas Hobbes betrays your ‘malnourished’ understanding of his espousal of men being equal.
Don’t even fool yourself into believing that Philippines is what Hobbes had in mind of what you think of damaged culture.
Certainly and very certainly, Hobbes’ social philosophy does not take its moorings from any conception of a ‘damaged culture’ but again, in fact from a healthy regard of the equality of men. Don’t even try to debate with me now, baka mapahiya ka pa.
Primer : How would you describe Pinas’ culture? And what do you see (or hear from people you respect) as the strengths of Pinas culture?
Eherm, it’s not me who mentioned Hobbes, dude. I was quoting from one of Teddy Benigno’s articles.
Do your homework before you react. :D
Here is (cut-and-paste from various folk’s) presentation of THAI CULTURE:
Thailand culture
Thailand culture is highly influenced by Buddhism in addition to some influence of Hinduism and other Southeast Asian neighbor. Thai art is the main item included in Thai Culture. Buddha image is the main constituent in different period having distinctive styles. At present, there is a fusion of traditional art with modern techniques. India has also laid much influence on Thailand literature. . . .
Spoken drama is not given any importance in Thailand, but instead there is Thai dance, divided into three categories- Lakhon, Likay and Khon. A form of shadow play, Nang Drama, is popular among southern Thailand. Folk music and classical music both are have their significance in addition to pop music.
Apart from it, one of the common customs included in Thailand is Wai, a common gesture that is similar to Indian Namaste. The hospitable and generous people of Thailand pay a lot of respect and homage to their elders, as it is the core of their faith and spiritual belief. Seeking blessings from the elders is considered important mark of respect.
Thai entrepreneurship:
- extremely high prevalence among adults; nearly equal distribution men -vs-women
- identified to be resulting from government policies, positive perceptions of entrepreneurship, and the Buddhist religion
Leadership:
– collectivist nature;
– conflict avoidance;
– uncertainty avoidance;
And Pinas culture:
———
Description(s) of Philippine culture:
—culture …. is servant-leadership, where service is a natural feeling and a conscious choice.
Philippine culture is accustomed to high power where inequality is recognized. The Philippine culture is also very much patriarchal. With regards to collectivism, the bayanihan spirit makes the Philippine culture a “we” culture. Lastly, the culture has low uncertainty avoidance — avoidance of change and risk taking is the norm.
Another (an educator) said this:
three major traits stand out in Filipino behavior and decision-making: personalism, familism, and popularism. Personalism emphasizes interpersonal relations. Familism, the welfare of the family over the community and Popularism, which emphasized popularity as the highest compliment. Amor propio, delicadeza, hiya, utang na loob, and pakikisama also hold true in Philippine organizational behavior.
…the culture of patronage…. which encourages padrino system and violates the principle of merit. Violation of the merit system encourages patronage or political reciprocity. This is through the utang na loob and awa of Philippine culture.
[This is also mentioned recently --- "balato", by MLQ3 .]
Filipinos would rather watch a bad movie together with friends than enjoy a film of their choice alone.
We dont complain about our past. They are gone. They are already
history. If we continue to look to our awful pasts. Then continue
to grieve about what people had done to us. We will never improve
ourselves. History is history, it belongs to the dustbin.
We live in the present. We have our deficiencies. However, we have
our strengths also. Our deficiencies are like our skins. We have to
live with our skins. We cannot jump out of our skins, no matter
what we do.
Any Filipino can rise to the best in the world, if he only believes
in himself or herself; his ability or her ability. We are all given
some talents to cope with life. It is your responsibility to discover your talents. Enhance the and use them.
Manny Pacquiao has already proven, that any Filipino can be the best
in the world. What is the difference between you and Pacquiao. You are both eating rice.
Manny Pacquiao does provide inspiration, doesn’t he?
Si “DrPacMan” nawala na nang parang bula. :D
Pinoy nga naman talaga.
Parang aso.
Matangkad lang kapag naka-upo.
UP n,
You remind on my graduate course in Psych 308 under Dr. Rogelia Pe-Pua which delves on Sikolohiyang Pilipino.
Indeed, all these concepts of hiya, utang na loob, et cetera are well covered in the discussion of the Filipino psyche.
Pinas culture might more complex than we can possibly understand it. I do not subscribe to the notion that there is a typical Filipino mind and therefore that there ought to be a Philippine culture in the context of our collective psyche.
There is a danger of misapproximation since I believe that human nature is universal. Even Americans and Europeans do have this sense of hiya, this sense of utang na loob.
Primer:
There are excuses and alibis for failure.
There are excuses and alibis for success.
Which of these excuses are the zeitgeist?