Filipino culture/behavior compared to other countries

[Kingpin]

I'd say 'dog eat dog' is everywhere else, US, Western Europe, Japan etc. That's where I'd never want my kids growing, especially since the dog with the biggest target in the West is the host population.

Filipino culture is the exact opposite, heterogeneous like Japan, but without the competitive nature. Instead they're taught since childhood to prioritize God, country, family, and most live so tightly packed that they have no choice but to play well with other Filipino friends and neighbors. Of course there's no money anywhere, except with the elites, but the people are generally content with whatever they have, unlike  the 'developed' world today.

 

Edit; Some great points here so I respectfully split this into its own topic.... Dan

 

Edited March 6, 2023 by Old55
Split into new topic

[Old55]

I see very little Filipino cultural improvement the past 25 years. Do any Expats see significant positive changes?

Seems many of the best and brightest Filipinos become OFW's or "get" a Foreigner. 

[Kingpin]

6 hours ago, Old55 said:

I see very little Filipino cultural improvement the past 25 years.

Who said they need to improve? Being traditional is why so many expats flock here.

[hk blues]

7 hours ago, Old55 said:

I see very little Filipino cultural improvement the past 25 years. Do any Expats see significant positive changes?

Seems many of the best and brightest Filipinos become OFW's or "get" a Foreigner. 

I assume the younger generation have been impacted by social media as in most other countries but can't specifically say what those impacts are.  Some good, some bad probably.

[GeoffH]

It's my impression that the younger family members are less traditional, they're tending to adopt western behaviours (with a Filipino twist of course).

Social media has in my opinion caused some of that change.

Edited March 10, 2023 by GeoffH

[stevewool]

On 3/7/2023 at 5:13 AM, Kingpin said:

Who said they need to improve? Being traditional is why so many expats flock here.

Reading and looking at there traditions about family values was a big thing for me ,plus meeting the future wife too I must add, but alas the traditions I had read about seems to had vanished all expect in older generations.

[Possum]

According to one person's opinion in the Inquirer things haven't changed much in the collective culture. I do agree that Fallows 1987 article is accurate. I find the family/village culture to be largely unchanged and on the whole pleasant. I will say that one any sort of wheeled transportation is involved things change to a "me first" culture.

https://opinion.inquirer.net/161514/are-filipinos-too-selfish

Are we Filipinos generally more self-centered and selfish than other Asians? Is this a cultural flaw of ours that has kept our country from progressing at the same pace that most of our neighbors have done over the past decades?

A friend who was in the business of manufacturing wooden butcher-block knife holders once told me of his experience when he received a large order from overseas that he couldn’t possibly service within the time frame specified by the foreign buyer. Knowing who his direct competitors were, he invited them to team up with him in order to meet the volume needed within the required time. Not one was willing. All seemed to prefer going about their business on their own terms, “kanya-kanya (to each his own)” style. That was a major export opportunity lost, which easily could have led to more subsequent orders, sustained business, and possibly even wider opportunities—if only those firms had agreed to band together as a team.

In the 1990s, as head of the National Economic and Development Authority, I was asked by President Fidel V. Ramos to receive a visiting delegation from Harvard Medical School (maybe because he knew I studied at Harvard). The group was here to scout for an institutional partner for a Harvard teaching hospital and must have recognized Filipino medical practitioners as among the best in the world. Thus, our country seemed a logical place in which to establish their brand in Asia. So I helped them with leads and introductions to possible local partners. Months later, I learned that we lost them to Singapore, which, I was told, rolled out the red carpet and even offered building space. Informally, I heard that they supposedly got turned off that among the first questions they consistently faced in their meetings here was “What’s in it for me/us?” I could only shake my head in dismay.

In our troubled agriculture sector, among the most crucial needs is to consolidate operations of our small and highly fragmented farms into cooperatives operating as commercial entities, to gain higher productivity with economies of scale. Our neighbors have had great success with farmers’ cooperatives, yet the track record in the Philippines has been spotty. Why do too many of our coops fail? The all-too-common story is that someone ran away with the money.

Last week, we heard of airport security personnel stealing money and valuables from a Thai and a Chinese tourist. Someone commented that with one act of thievery, these individuals managed to put to naught billions of pesos invested by our Department of Tourism to attract foreign visitors to the country. One can only wish that thieves like these among us would think more and know the much larger harm they are doing to fellow Filipinos, well beyond their direct victims. The same goes for the mastermind in the killing of Negros Oriental Gov. Roel Degamo, or those behind trading cartels who inflict suffering on millions of consumers by manipulating commodity supplies to gain fabulous profits for themselves.

Unpatriotic acts don’t only come from criminals, but also from bureaucrats in the national and local governments who seem to delight in throwing as many hurdles as they can in the way of getting something from the government. My pet peeve is those offices with “development” in their name, but whose primary (and seemingly favorite) function is regulation, ticking boxes in long checklists of documentary requirements that are often redundant, superfluous, or unnecessary. One gets the feeling that their brains are programmed to think of more obstacles they could throw in your way, rather than help enable enterprises or initiatives that pursue the common good.

Will our seemingly ingrained selfishness and lack of regard for the common good ever change? Are we forever condemned to the “damaged culture” that James Fallows graphically described in his 1987 The Atlantic article? Our hope lies in our children and youth, in whom must be instilled the critical value of going beyond one’s self (as embodied in the Ateneo de Manila University’s vision and mission statement), and becoming a person for others, seeking not just the good, but the greater good.

 

Edited March 10, 2023 by Mike J
Added article text

[stevewool]

1 hour ago, GeoffH said:

It's my impression that the younger family members are less traditional, they're tending to adopt western behaviours (with a Filipino twist of course).

Social media has in my opion caused some of that change.

Everyone is a tick tock superstar , do a dance , colour your hair ,add a silly face , all will be millionaires in the coming months , if not let’s live of mum and dad 

[manofthecoldland]

On 3/6/2023 at 1:52 PM, Old55 said:

Seems many of the best and brightest Filipinos become OFW's or "get" a Foreigner.

Possibly. Or it might be that those who are fortunate enough to make it abroad or marry a foreigner, are now in a heretofore  position to develop their potentials that they were not possible in their home culture and economic system. I would not deem many of them I have met as "the best and brightest".  Some are of course, but in my case, I have run into more of the ordinary type of Filipinos who have come here, who do well in this enriched growing environment

That said, many have done so, but it all fairness.... it seems that the majority of my friends here where I live, who have brought their brides home, have found them to be content to just take a lower level economic job and remit their comparably affluent earnings back to their families at home in the PI.  Sometimes to the detriment of their new marital relationship. Their economic fealty often gives precedent to the less economically fortunate back home rather than improving and adding to their own newly formed marital economic situation.

Many of my friends don't seem to care that the wife works hard, but does not add much to their shared economic future. They happily support them, and don't mind that most of their wives' earnings don't advance their shared, joint  economic future in their new home country. They usually indulge them due to compassion for the PI family situation.

That's all well and fine with me, but it seems rather short sighted, since the wives' focus is on the present, with little thought to their long term future. Many do not seem to want to invest in advancing their future opportunities through now available educational possibilities.

Present needs seem to take precedence over long term strategic advancement.  Nothing new with that, since it seems built in to their upbringing and adaption to the PI cultural-economic system and their former economic status within it.

Perhaps it doesn't matter so much to many, but the realities of adapting to this new hybrid of Capitalist individualism and traditional Social group responsibility leaves many new husbands frustrated at times. 

It is truly a mixed bag when it comes to immigrants coming out of the PI, from what I have experienced here.  Just one man's personal observation and opinion. Maybe others have seen it differently and experienced other results where they live.

 

[Kingpin]

3 hours ago, stevewool said:

the traditions I had read about seems to had vanished all expect in older generations.

There's certainly a worldwide fracturing of traditional values, thankfully the Philippines is many decades behind the more "progressive", less Christian nations.