Culturally Speaking

I was reading a post from Tarot (you can find her blog link on the right side) about abortion and there was this news about a woman dropping 3 of her kids off a bridge. Now, I don't know if she was insane or desperate or whatever but I came across a line about the report that said it might be in some cultures to kill their children before commiting suicide. Great.

People have been writing off alot of differences as a difference in culture and frankly speaking, it's annoying the hell out of me. I had a professor in English once who said that people speak the English language differently because of culture. Particularly, the Chinese and Japanese because they had difficulty pronouncing the letter "r". I obligingly told her off of course, explaining with subtlety that I am Chinese and my English was perfect. She flunked me.

Culture is defined as the totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought. Well, it's one of the definitions anyway. It's usually derived from necessity or just plain simplicity. Take for example, the Japanese tradition of tea drinking. It's in their culture to enjoy the simplicity and complexity of it because they never really had much to do in those days and the tradition was just handed down as an art.

Take another example the tradition of the Filipino people of "mano po". It's in their culture to show their respect to their elders in this manner. What culture would teach you to pronounce "r" like "l"? That's just a matter of getting the right education. What culture would teach you to drop your kids off a bridge? Sure the Islamic fanatics kill in the name of Allah but that's a belief. In a time of oppresion and turmoil, they had to have some form of inspiration to defeat their enemies. Sadly enough, it is mostly a perversion now of how it started.

Culture is just another word to most of us but it should embody the best of what people represent, not the worst. It's so easy to just say that a person would rape and murder their own children and go "Well, it's in their culture". If that's the case, then is it in our culture as humans to act like animals? Maybe it's not a case of culture. Maybe it's just our nature.

Recently….

A few words about blogging. I haven’t really been writing on my blog but I have been posting the usual nonsense on livejournal. I just didn’t feel the need to update my blog as much I suppose.

Lately though I’ve been hooked on podcasting and I realized that hey, what a great combo – blogging and podcasting seems like the right mix, at least it makes sense to me. Anyway, me and my friend are about to start podcasting something soon…hopefully and I’m really looking forward to it since anyone who knows me knows that I’m very opinionated and vocal about a lot of stuff.

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Now on to other stuff. I've recently subscribed to The One Campaign but I have been hearing about them since the start and reading up on some of what they do. I think it's a good cause although there's the usual celebrity component and dumb humanitarian awards that go with it (why do people insist on giving out awards for being human anyway?).

Anyways, I've been trying to compare it with the poverty that we have here in the Philippines. Yes, I think it's admirable that we help people in need. Yes, I think it's part of our responsibility to help those less fortunate than us. But what I don't think we should do is become a country of pity-mongers (if there is such a word, I'm sure we invented it).

There's no denying that the Philippines is a financially incapable country. Not rich? yes. Impoverish? No.

All this talk about who's to blame for the state of the country and all the media hype about how the poor lowly common folk should be heard is just another way of saying " We don't wanna work, we want you to work for us and then give us some of your hard-earned money. And if you fuck up on your payment to us, we'll hold rallies and protests till you can't take it anymore and then we'll find us another idiot who'll do the same."

Now I'm not saying there are no genuine poverty- stricken folk in this country, just that there are no genuine motives that befit the status. Case for example is a "few" years ago when I was still in college. I used to have a loaf of bread in the car with me so I could give it to kids or old people (I never had pity for capable people who still had the full use of limbs begging) who would rap on the car window to beg.

It was another common day as I went home and this kid started rapping on my car window. Mind you now, beggars in most of our streets don't look malnourished (if you want to see malnourished, look at pictures of ethiopian children begging for food), but still, for whatever reason, be it eternal salvation or just a case of the bleeding heart we give when begged for.

So I gave this kid 2 pieces of bread and without even saying thank you, he looked at the bread and threw it back at me. Since then, I've had a different view of how beggars should be "pitied". If they're selling sampaguitas for example, I would oblige them by buying. But if they just rap on the car window and beg, I just ignore them. It sounds cold but maybe that's what we should be doing as responsible fortunate people.

I'm not saying we should stop caring for people in need of our help or that we should stop giving. But in always giving when you know that alot of people are capable of helping themselves with the right shove, we instead make them complacent and always asking for another hand.

I know other people help because it makes them feel good but think about this the next time you feel like helping or giving - Where does it go? Do they use the money you give them for food for the night or for drugs and cigarettes? Do they eat the food or sell it? Do they live in the house you give them or rent it out?

People may want pity, but they definitely do not need it. What they need is a push to help themselves on whatever track they were on. The question is can we give that push?

Clarity

There are days when everything just clicks in your head and your surrounding seems so clear. It's not pleasant, it's not depressing, it's just...clear. This is one of those days for me. It's one of those days where you know that every decision you make is right and made without hesitation. Where you just keep going until the adrenaline fades and you're sitting back and thinking..."God, I wish I had more of these days."

And then it's back to simple old you.