Here’s a quick status update on our efforts to come up with a manifesto on what “The Filipino” stands for which we started a while back.

Last time I explored the topic, I had two catchphrases that, at the time, I thought pretty much made a comprehensive and exhaustive coverage of what it means to be “Filipino”:

- Bahala na (“come what may”)

- Pwede na yan (“that’ll do”)

I am pleased to brief the Board on the discovery of a third element to be added to this brilliant manifesto. A third element is a milestone. Its addition to the what-it-means-to-be-Pinoy manifesto transforms it from a one-dimensional framework into a two-dimensional framework.

This is cause for celebration! But lest we succumb to that renowned fiesta-first-before-results ethic of Da Pinoy, I will re-visit first the original two elements of the manifesto before I introduce the third,

Bahala na

Ours is a society with a cultural aversion to self-reliance. Specifically, we are always encouraged to rely on “divine providence” for our fortunes. But then it becomes a blanket lifelong cop-out to aspiring for real achievement because, as the thinking then goes:

- When things go wrong – it is because it is “God’s will”

… but then …

- When things go right – it is “by God’s graces“.

Holy gordian knot, Batman!

Where then does an ethic of a deliberate and conscious focus on achieving results fit in in the above equation? The answer is quite simple: It doesn’t. For societies with minds and belief systems imprisoned by the one-dimensional mindset described within the above two-element sub-framework, a trackrecord of chronic failure is not surprising.

A friend of mine actually thought this through carefully and brought to bear on the subject his vast knowledge of history and philosophy:

Pinoys (as well as a few other cultures that are in the same economic quagmire) are somehow stuck in some of Christianity’s old hang-ups vis-Ã -vis the material world which are essentially holdovers from Western Christianity’s Neo-Platonistic influences.

Christendom, especially Western Christendom had, for a long time, been infected by this bias against looking after practical material needs until the Reformation and, later, the Age of Reason (aka “Age of Enlightenment”) came along.

Certain other cultures didn’t necessarily have this over-bearing bias on them. Judaism, for instance, didn’t have such hang-ups (since they didn’t share in Christianity’s syncretistic origins with largely pagan-origin philosophies such as Neo-Platonism or others) and it was because they didn’t have such hang-ups, back in the days when money-lending was frowned upon and Jews banned from taking on work that Christians did, many of them went into money-lending and banking. Besides, it was also in the New Testament (Matthew 19:23-24, Mark 10:24-25 and Luke 18:24-25) where we find the idea that “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

Even until today, Western culture still does have a bias against accumulating wealth, albeit this has been retained in “sayings” such as “Money is the root of all evil.” Christianity – for all the good things it teaches, somehow emphasizes (not literally, of course) that “the sooner we leave this earth and enter the next life”, the better. (in fact, traditional christianity – thanks to the anti-flesh and anti-material biases of Neo-Platonism also had a very anti-Sex bias (even if it was within marriage), something that both Judaism and Islam, from a theological point of view do not share as both Judaism and Islam theologically encourage sex within marriage, while in Christianity, for a long time, marriage was a kind of “license to be tolerated for marital relations”)

But in Chinese culture, you see no such bias against the idea that happiness is achievable through material fortune…

In fact, Chinese culture CELEBRATES, no, WORSHIPS Fortune, Prosperity, and Longevity. These three ideals are represented by three Old Men referred to in Mandarin as “Fu (Good Fortune), Lu (Prosperity), and Shou (Longevity)” The longer one’s time on this earth, the better, and the better one’s material well-being, the better. (Something tells me the Vulcans were modeled on them ["Live Long and Prosper!"] and in the recent Star Trek movie, every Vulcan scene featured a Chinese Erhu playing in the background.)

During new year (both Jan 1 as well as on the Lunar New Year), Chinese always greet each other “Gong Xi Fa Tsai” (Mandarin), or “Kung Hei Fat Choi” (Cantonese) which means, “Congratulations, and may you Prosper!” (sounds Vulcan too).

Again, the Protestant Reformation (and subsequent reforms) changed Western Christianity’s ideas about the material world, while the later Age of Enlightenment superimposed Secularist (or Laicist) ideals on top of traditional Christianity’s biases (which Catholicism generally retained) against the active pursuit of material wealth.

One wonders then, if we have either missed out on or are long overdue for some kind of modernising cataclysm that will put a rocket up Filipinos’ arses and propel us out of the cultural and philosophical bunghole we are in. Certainly Noynoy Aquino and his well-publicised seeking of “divine guidance” in his efforts to decide whether to run for president or not in 2010 isn’t helping in this effort to claw our way out of that rut.

Pwede na yan

Take the time to consider what was achieved in two of the 20th Century’s most unlikely successes: the landing of a man on the moon and the invasion of Normandy which eventually led to the defeat of Germany in World War II.

These efforts — so taken for granted as they are today — were magnificent feats of planning, organisation, and execution at scales that one struggles to even begin to imagine. These were undertakings that, when first envisioned, made even seasoned politicians, engineers, and generals tremble at the very thought of what could go wrong. They involved mobilisation of huge chunks of participating societies’ industrial might and the rather ironic mass production of scientific and technological breakthroughs to meet head-on challenges that had no historic precedences.

In short, what was achieved in those two example did not just happen.

Let’s set our sights back down to the bottom of the pile and regard the quaint aspirations we hold for the future of our sad nation. In the lead up to the 2010 presidential elections (a milestone beyond which lies an utter void in terms of our collective imagination) we see fraud-free polls and the ascent to power of a leader who “will not steal” and “be sincere” as enough strokes to get our rocks off.

And get this — for now the only hope for a force to “unify” the “Opposition” lies in some bozo who has all but withdrawn under a rock waiting for God to make the decision to run for president for him.

Hokay. Enough said on that one, perhaps.

Let’s get the drumrolls going and announce the third contestant, shall we?

The inspiration for this Third Element in our manifesto describing what “The Filipino” stands for comes from everybody’s favourite blockhead of the moment — the honourable Deputy National Security Avdviser of the Republic of the Philippines – Chavit Singson.

It annoys me a bit because this third element rocks the sensibilities I routinely apply around consistency and coherence because unlike the original two elements this one (1) is expressed in English, and (2) is a word and not a phrase.

Here it is, nonetheless:

Impunity.

Impunity is defined as a state of “freedom from unpleasant consequences”. The word describes pretty much what is likely to be in store for Singson in the aftermath of his little lapse in judgment — an outrage that probably won’t escape the usual expressions of “indignation” from the self-inducted members of our “civil society”, to be sure.

But then the Singson Affair, a source of inspiration as it was, isn’t really the primary reason why I now induct the concept of impunity into its illustrious place in our framework of what it means to be Pinoy. Rather it was the post-inspiration-reflection I went through that sealed the deal (which means I take full credit).

That process of reflection, by the way, is something I describe in more detail in my recent piece “Impunity and the Filipino male“, specifically where I conclude that:

The divided views on the aspects of morality surrounding this Singson thing notwithstanding, everyone seems to agree that what happens next is really a function of how the whole thing will play out given the culture of impunity that Philippine society is renowned for. This is specially so, given the very character of Singson himself — a shining specimen representative of the flaccid machismo of the Pinoy male evident in the kind of cinema we enjoy and the sort of people we look up to for leadership.

So while the usual “experts” will have their tongues wagging about that quintessentially-Filipino story of the influential man walking away from a crime with no more than a token slap on the wrist (easy targets for the chronically self-righteous pundit), let us make like more intelligent beings for even one moment and reflect. For that matter, and considering how, for most of us, this moment of reflection is likely to occur inside our cars while stuck in Manila’s traffic, look around and observe the behaviour of the average Filipino driver. How many acts made with impunity do we see transpiring before our eyes within, say, an hour? Or even within a minute?

As the late sage Michael Jackson once say:

I’m starting with the man in the mirror.

While we reserve our harshest judgments for high-profile targets (who get away with their crimes anyway), the Average Pinoy Schmoe behind the wheels of their “Kings of the Road” go scot free with the banal disregard for human life and limb, basic courtesies, and sense of community in road use that characterises their typical day.

I harp upon jeepneys and their drivers because they are MY easy targets (there are many many others) in this corner of the Pinoy blogosphere. But regardless of what our personal targets are, impunity is our common denominator.

As such, I hereby induct the third element into that slow-to-grow list of things that the Filipino stands for:

- Bahala na (come what may).

- Pwede na yan (that’ll do).

- Impunity (e ganun talaga sa Pinas).

Indeed, there is progress folks — but in places where we least expect to find it.

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