WHY IS THE FILIPINOS SPEACIAL?

aznsuperhero_12 · 07-22-2006, 08:46 AM

Hi, my name is Thomas

I hope this will just confirm your observations of us Filipinos. The
piece is almost exact, funny and very light hearted as well, very much
a Filipino way indeed.

Happy reading and have a pleasant day.

Thomas.
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WHY IS THE FILIPINO SPECIAL?

by. Ed Lapiz

(From the Special issue of Light Touch Magazine, vol. 8 number 3,
Copyright
2004, Glad Tidings Publication)

Filipinos are brown. Their color is in 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
inferiority complex. While we pine for a fair complexion, the white people
are religiously tanning themselves, whenever they could, under the sun or
some artificial light, just 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 shoulder), hawak
(hold),yakap (embrace), himas (caressing stroke), kalabit (touch 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
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! It is no small wonder
that Jose Rizal, the quintessential Filipino, spoke some twenty-two
languages!

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! (Sit on one another). No one would ever suggest splitting a
group and waiting 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," in 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
(aunt) or tio (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 are documented evidences 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), p ansit (sautéed noodles), siopao (meat-filled dough), kare-kare
(peanut-flavored dish), dinuguan (innards cooked in pork blood), 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
trysts 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 bisperas (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.

Filipino s say good-bye to guests first at the head of the stairs,
then down to the descamo (landing), to the entresuelo (mezzanine), to the
pintuan (doorway), to the tarangkahan (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.
Indi
genous 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
the 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,
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? We are 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- but first, we should know and like
ourselves.