The Filipino Attitude
Danrell Dean Gronifillo Sanggalan
Ms. Novak
American Literature, 11th Grade
November 26, 2013
The Filipino Attitude
In the early 1990s until around World War II in the 1940s, the Philippines was the second richest nation in Asia, next only to Japan. But everything changed during the 1960s when the economy stagnated and other Asian countries began overtaking the country. The Philippine economy sharply declined in the following decades and with the Marcos dictatorship, democracy began failing. How did this all happen? A closer look on the attitudes and social values of the Filipino people may give an explanation.
Attitude, you see, has a powerful influence to the performance of the society as a whole. Wrong attitudes would, of course, drastically affect the outcome of the nation. For example, individualism, or seeking to improve one’s self instead of relying on the authorities or other people to do the job will indeed improve the individual first and then the nation later. If the individual would just rely on others for work, he will not improve himself and this will eventually affect the nation if this is the attitude of the people. Now, let’s take a look at the cultural attitudes of the Filipino people (and how where they inherited from the Spanish) and how this affected the economic and overall performance of the Philippines.
The Philippines was a Spanish colony for more than 300 years and that profoundly influenced the values and traditions of the Filipino people. The Spanish had lots of positive influences but they also instilled bad attitudes. But these views need to change. The Spaniard’s dislike for manual labor, for example, influenced Filipinos to think this way. Manual labor and working hard to “reap the fruits of your own labor” are important cultural attitudes which could result in a good economic performance for any country. This is the kind of cultural attitude that enabled Koreans and Japanese to rapidly recover their economies after World War II.
Ms. Novak
American Literature, 11th Grade
November 26, 2013
The Filipino Attitude
In the early 1990s until around World War II in the 1940s, the Philippines was the second richest nation in Asia, next only to Japan. But everything changed during the 1960s when the economy stagnated and other Asian countries began overtaking the country. The Philippine economy sharply declined in the following decades and with the Marcos dictatorship, democracy began failing. How did this all happen? A closer look on the attitudes and social values of the Filipino people may give an explanation.
Attitude, you see, has a powerful influence to the performance of the society as a whole. Wrong attitudes would, of course, drastically affect the outcome of the nation. For example, individualism, or seeking to improve one’s self instead of relying on the authorities or other people to do the job will indeed improve the individual first and then the nation later. If the individual would just rely on others for work, he will not improve himself and this will eventually affect the nation if this is the attitude of the people. Now, let’s take a look at the cultural attitudes of the Filipino people (and how where they inherited from the Spanish) and how this affected the economic and overall performance of the Philippines.
The Philippines was a Spanish colony for more than 300 years and that profoundly influenced the values and traditions of the Filipino people. The Spanish had lots of positive influences but they also instilled bad attitudes. But these views need to change. The Spaniard’s dislike for manual labor, for example, influenced Filipinos to think this way. Manual labor and working hard to “reap the fruits of your own labor” are important cultural attitudes which could result in a good economic performance for any country. This is the kind of cultural attitude that enabled Koreans and Japanese to rapidly recover their economies after World War II.