I thank my many readers who sent me a response to the article I wrote about the patriotism of South Koreans. There were those whose personal contacts with Koreans living in the Philippines confirm my observation that the ordinary Korean has an above-average degree of patriotism, especially when compared to the ordinary Filipino. Some disagreed and said that there are Filipinos who, like Jose Rizal and Ninoy Aquino, can give their lives for their country, living patriotism to the most heroic degree. I see their point because my own grandfather, General Miguel Malvar, was willing to sacrifice his own life and the lives of the members of his family when he fought, first the Spaniards and then the Americans at the turn of the twentieth century. Indeed, there have been Filipinos whose patriotism was put to a test in extreme circumstances.

What I find missing, though, is the love for country among the ordinary citizen of the Philippines. Let me give another series of examples about the patriotism of ordinary Koreans. During the East Asian financial crisis of 1997 and 1998, South Korea was one of those hardest hit. The country was close to being bankrupt and ran out of international reserves. Without any prompting from their government, numerous women in Korea offered their precious gems and gold, which they took out of their respective vaults, to their Central Bank in order to bolster the reserves. When told to tighten their belts, thousands of ordinary workers started to cut down their lunches (Koreans are big eaters) to a simple bowl of soup which got the monicker the "IMF Soup." These actions were not as spectacular as the sacrifices of Rizal, Malvar, Aguinaldo, Bonifacio, and our other national heroes. But they are the stuff out of which the patriotism of everyday life is made. These are the actions that will build the economy of a nation. I am not suggesting that patriotism is the highest of all virtues. It may co-exist with other human weaknesses that may characterize a people. For example, Koreans are not well known, at least in the Philippines, for refinement and gentleness in behavior. Many of us complain about their boorish behavior and loud-mouthedness in public places, especially in the golf courses. With notable exceptions, Korean males can be overly aggressive and egotistic. Some of them tend to mistreat their female colleagues. In fact, some of my Korean friends tell me that staying in the Philippines for a long period can help them refine their manners by exposure to our culture that assigns a high premium to smooth interpersonal relations.

There are also imperfections of Korean society that show the Philippines in a better light. When I visited South Korea recently, I heard a lot of lamentation about how the Korean population is vanishing because of a very low fertility rate, one of the lowest in Asia. No one objected when I told an audience of young MBA students at the prestigious Yonsei University that it is their patriotic duty to have three or four children each when they get married. They were very aware of the demographic winter that their country is already facing and will increasingly face in the future. To make matters worse, there are tens of thousands of them migrating to other countries like the Philippines (I am told that there can be as many as 200,000 Koreans living in the Philippines today). The Philippines should avoid like the plague introducing a contraceptive mentality among the youth of today.

Another glaring imperfection of Korean society is the very high rate of suicide – today the highest rate in the world, already surpassing that of Japan. During my stay in Seoul, The Korean Herald (September 14, 2009) carried a story about this sad phenomenon: "In Korea, suicide was the fourth-highest cause of death last year, after cancer, cerebrovascular disease, and heart disease. According to the National Statistical Office, the number of people who committed suicide in 2008 was 12,858, equivalent to 35 per day. Experts say the total number of attempted suicides is eight to ten times more than that of the deaths confirmed." The bad news is that these same experts foresee that the suicide rate is likely to worsen, considering the nation's rapidly aging population and increasing divorce rate. They say older people kill themselves at a higher rate than younger people and divorced people do so more frequently than those who are happily married.

It is clear that no culture is perfect. We have to emulate the virtue of patriotism that we observe among the ordinary Koreans. We should do everything possible, however, to avoid the demographic winter now hanging as a sword of damocles on Korean society and the conditions that have led to the highest suicide rate in the world. At bottom, our task is to strengthen the Filipino family, especially outlawing abortion and divorce forever. For comments, my e-mail address is bvillegas@uap.edu.ph.com