Filipino Discipline- An Eye Opener For The Youth

Friday, 20 May 2011 05:48

Written by Aaron Benedict De Leon

Have you ever wondered why the Philippines, our country, despite the vividness of our natural resources, despite the strength of our human capital labor force, despite the distinct virtues of hospitality and patriotism we display and despite- still remain growth laggard?

We always point at so many directions, which is our natural inclination, to our government, to the marginalized people we call lazy, and to the criminals we see on the street. Yet, what we don’t realize is that it is a collective fault we must take accountability for and be responsible with.

Behavior wise, financially speaking, structurally looking, our discipline is just all over the place.

When we say behavior, you don’t have to go anywhere else but in your own locality and community. How many people out of 10 individuals, for example, would not cross the street when the stop light signals red? Yes, most of us will offer so many excuses and will cut corners for doing it, just to get what- temporary relief. But this behavior becomes gradual and it escalates into situations that result to serious repercussions.

A total of 99 vehicles were caught by the MMDA overspeeding yesterday, even after the incident involving the death of UP Professor and Journalist Chit Estella. We really don’t learn our lessons, right? And here’s one showbiz icon, who gets frequently involved in car accidents, getting involved again in another traffic mishap, for the same violation of overspeeding? I don’t get it why the general public still idolizes someone who can’t even follow simple traffic rules. Is this the benchmark figure the youth looks up to? The Filipino Youth is better off than that. Of course, seeing vehicles of politicians violating traffic rules isn’t news anymore. I think we’ve grown numb over abuses of politicians when it comes to the laws they make, right?

In a study by the National Center for Transportation Studies (NCTS) of the University of the Philippines (UP) , 57 percent of accidents in Commonwealth Avenue were caused by “human error, primarily by overspeeding, overtaking/excessive lane-changing, inattentiveness and aggressive driver’s behavior."

Let’s take away the excuses, because behavior dictates that, whenever there is uncertainty in anything, it is better to be careful than to be impulsive. This is our behavioral deficiency.

Financially speaking, our proportions in consuming are at maximum, while our proportions to saving range from minimal to nil. Again, we offer excuses that the daily wage is insufficient to cover for the daily expenses.

While that may be true, and while prices of basic commodities and services continue to hike, we can still afford life beneath and beyond what is prescribed as basic.

How come when you go to a squatter’s area for an instance, a family whose home’s foundation is unstable can still afford to have a video player, a laptop, 2 television sets within the household? Then what’s funny about this is that they’ll complain their wages are not enough to compensate their lifestyle.

And to make matters worse, when emergency situations arise, they cannot let go of these luxuries, and resort to lending right away. If only had the family saved, they would have had money to their disposal to tend to that situation. What would aggravate the situation further is that the family will fall into a trap of indebtedness to a point they are not capable of meeting the ends and paying for their obligations.

Our spending patterns, our lifestyles, do not match our sentiments about life’s hardship most of the time, and have we had financial discipline to save for the future, then we could have been better off, at least.

And you have structures and institutions behaving badly, of course represented by duly esteemed authorities.

In the midst of RH bill discussions, we have been reduced to standards of argumentation seeking to name call, degrade and dishonor the opposing party, where as the debate should be focused on matter and substance. I will not echo this further, because the heated exchange between Sen. Santiago and Mommy D already epitomizes the entire situation, futile.

The occurrences that happen around us is indicative of the kind of discipline fiber we have as a people.

I am suddenly reminded of the Nestle commercial which aired during the 1990’s, saying:

“Kung anong mali ang nakikita ng bata, na palaging ginagawa ng mga matatanda, ay nagiging tama sa kaniyang mga mata”

I hope that the Filipino Youth would be discerning enough not to idolize/imitate the act of this showbiz icon, the habit of a few law breaking politicians, the promiscuity of some Filipino families and the behavior of our institutions.

There is hope, because the Filipino Youth is smart enough, not to die and survive.

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