Culture is also applied to national culture, namely the value system of the nation and the normal tendency of the people’s behavior. The Bushido culture of Japan promoted honesty, hard work, shame for failure in the leaders. A leader would rather slit his belly and die rather than live in shame of having caused problems to the community. The Filipino culture is less exacting nor as violent. There is bravery to the death, so we have many war heroes. Filipino culture is more tolerant and forgiving of wrongdoing. The Filipino can be expected to help those suffering or are weak. He will help the stranger but prefers not to get involved in problems that surface around him. The tendency is to decry the rapacity of politicians but forgiving of personal offense and/or forgetful of sins committed against the community.

Culture is a system of values often subconscious that guides a group’s behavior. It consists not only of good values but also of detrimental values, like vestiges of the revenge syndrome in the “rido” of Muslim areas, less prominent in the Christian areas but still existing there. It may be a human weakness that we instinctively find satisfaction in revenge. We seek to save face. We don’t want to “mapahiya.” Our “maratabat” or “pagkalalaki,” ego or pride is still present. Some say that we have a damaged culture. What does that mean? If it means that there are scoundrels among us and corrupt politicians. We have to accept. So have other nations except that we focus on them so much that we forget we have the 99 percent who seek the common good, welfare of all, especially the revenge syndrome in the “rido” of Muslim areas, less prominent in the Christian areas but still existing there. It may be a human weakness that we instinctively find satisfaction in revenge. We seek to save face. We don’t want to “mapahiya.” Our “maratabat” or “pagkalalaki,” ego or pride is still present. Some say that we have a damaged culture. What does that mean? If it means that there are scoundrels among us and corrupt politicians. We have to accept. So have other nations except that we focus on them so much that we forget we have the 99 percent who seek the common good, welfare of all, especially the poor. Do we focus on them because corruption is so alien to our aspirations? Does our poverty produce the crooked politicians or do the bad politicians produce the poverty in our land? We have a culture of kindness and mercy, a culture of happiness (mababaw ang kaligayahan), a culture of individuality that even induces disunity. We have a culture of industriousness though it constantly seeks for approval or reward. We have a culture that can be the envy of others. We only have to focus on the neglected good traits of our people. Can we try to improve our culture?<emeterio_barcelon@yahoo.com>