A Bird's Eye View of Philippine Culture and Society

Warmth and.....Sensitivity?

I agree 100%

The Philippines is amazing! I love this place. I don't wanna live anywhere else! Sure it gets scorching hot in the summer and during the monsoon season we tend to get huge swimming pools outside our houses. At the end of the day, There is no other place I wanna be. But what else makes me want to stay here other than the amazing unpredictable weather, the wonderful tourist destinations, and the awesome food? (yes, let us never forget the awesome food) It's no other than the Filipino people.

Heart-warming smiles  :)

 There's just something different about the aura of Filipinos. It might be how they always find a way to smile and laugh no matter how tough life gets. Maybe it's the way Filipinos are generally known to be hospitable people. Welcoming guests and opening their homes without much hesitation whether to relatives, to loved ones or even to foreigners and to strangers. Where did this Friendliness and hospitality come from anyway? 

Filipinos are so hospitable!
Did I already mention about Filipino food? :P~

When we tackle this in a Psychological perspective we can see some explanations for our warm behavior. Geert Hofstede came up with four basic dimensions of personality which varied among cultures. (Hofstede, 1980)  These are the four dimensions: 

• Individualism/Collectivism (How a group of people think whether individually or as a group)
• Power Distance (The degree of which less powerful people in a culture accept or expect a few people to be in control)
• Masculinity/ Feminity (How a culture distributes gender roles)
• Uncertainty Avoidance (How much tolerance a country has for uncertainty and unstructured situations)

Filipinos generally think collectively. We have characteristics and mindsets that we share throughout the whole  archipelago. We like to remain close and loyal to our family members stick together no matter how old we are. Our collective thinking could be a reason why we as a nation show genuine care for one another and even to strangers because of the values most of us share together.

In terms of power distance, Filipinos generally are okay with a few people holding power in our country. This could be seen with the number of political dynasties that we have that seem strong as always even as time passes. In historic times, we also opened our land to many colonizers. In a way it could be said that we welcomed these colonizers because we always wanted a powerful nation to rule over us. It may sound a little far fetched to say we became hospitable because of the colonizers but it could still be a reason. 

The Philippines is a patriarchal society meaning that men are the usual heads of institutions whether it be in the family or in the government. However, this does not necessarily mean the the Philippines is a "Masculine" nation. Our caring nature actually shows how feminine our culture can be. 

Lastly, the Philippines has a high tolerance for uncertainty. Even though we are a Catholic nation, we are still open to many beliefs and opinions and different kinds of people. This is probably one of the biggest reasons why we're a very hospitable nation.

People expect us to be defensive every time
anything offensive about us is posted online

Yes, We Filipinos are warmhearted people, but sometimes we have the tendency to be over sensitive. When you get on a Filipino's bad side, get ready to face a whole nation going against you, casting you away as far as possible from our land. It's so sad to hear that we are a country that welcomes all kinds of people with arms wide open but still keeps a wide record of personalities that we shun namely: Claire Danes, Alec Baldwin, The Beatles, Justin Beiber(well yeah I'd shun him any day XD), Adam Carolla (the radio jockey from the US who dissed Filipinos), and the most recently Miss Devina Dediva. Although these people have said  some very cruel (and sometimes stupid) things about our country, does getting mad at them do anything better for us? Can't we find pieces of the truth that lie in our country and in our society? Our sensitivity to hurtful comments have been very contradictory to the warm, loving Filipinos that everyone has come to know. Instead of being the bigger more mature people, we resort to psychological defense mechanisms (A. Freud, 1946) that make us retaliate our anger instead of fixing the problems in our Society. 

Here's an old funny spoof video of a Filipina defending herself from Haters: (Not that suitable for children, Rated PG, hopefully you don't find it offensive, it's just for laughs :D)

Instead of stepping down to the level of the name callers or instead of bad mouthing those who reveal the ugly truths we have as a nation, why don't we step up and accept the truth? And if we really can't let things go then why can't we learn to retaliate in a constructive non-childish manner? Hopefully in the future, the Philippines won't be "conditional" in giving warmth and instead be more understanding and mature about all the criticisms we receive from other nations.