The Strength and Weaknesses of Filipino Culture and Tradition
Like all other nations on earth, our culture or way of life as a people has both strength and weaknesses. Culture, says the dictrionary is "the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively...The tastes in art and manners that are favoured by a social group...All the knowledge and values shared by a society."
Tradition on the other hand, is "the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation, or the fact of being passed on in this way." Culture and tradition thus is a way of life, the practices of our people during a burial rite, a wedding ceremony or the way we view and see things in life.
The Chinese people are governed by Feng Shui in their construction of buildings, for example, or in starting a business. It is a "Chinese philosophical system of harmonizing the human existence with the surrounding environment. The term feng shui literally translates as "wind-water" in English."
Our counterpart to Feng Shui in the Philippines is the belief in the involvement of the spirits of our ancestors in our daily life. All these practices and belief system are handed down to us by culture and tradition, which is the transmitted knowledge, customs, belief and values from generation to generation.
The Strength of Filipino Culture
Why is it that there are many retired foreigners, particularly Americans, who want to live and die in the Philippines? It is because we value close family ties. Call it as emotionalism or sentimentalism, but we simply love to see our children and grand children, even our in-laws, to live harmoniously with us under the same roof as much as possible--finances permitting, so to say.
The Americans on the other hand, believe in rugged individualism such as independence at age 18, or even divorce between couples. The result is that their elderly and grand parents found themselves without a family to call their own at the end of their life journey. We are not like them. That's why many of them came over to our shores, for they appreciate our culture of safeguarding and giving great value on our close family relationship.
We have other practices that are worth emulating. But space limits us to mention them all here.
The Weaknesses of Filipino Culture
The weaknesses of Filipino culture seem to out weigh its strength. For example, our culture of corruption in this country can be traceable back to our close family ties and sense of dependence on our elderly. As such, we have a sense of dependence on our political leaders and boss--our political "father," so to say.
Our nation's Catholic religion is also a factor or cause why do we trust more on connections and bribery, the main elements in all forms of corrupt practices. For example, we want some connections with our patron-Saints such as San Isidro Labrador or San Lorenzo Ruiz. We want a connection to Mother Mary, for her to somehow "influence" Christ.
The strength and weaknesses of our culture and tradition cannot be contained in just a book or two, so much that we seem to embrace also the culture, both the negative and the positives ones, of other nations.
Conclusion
In sum, I should say that it takes dozens of years yet to inculcate effectively into the minds of our people what is good and what is not to our country and nation. The recent pork barrel scam in the Philippines and the involvement of our brilliant leaders, including some highly respected media men who are enjoying national prominence, is one proof that great knowledge alone from great schools of learning is not enough to make a great Filipino leader corruption-proof.
I like this quote from Theodore Roosevelt. It's good for all our corrupt Senators and Congressmen: “When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer 'Present' or 'Not Guilty'.”
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