Many Filipinos are earning a minimum wage of 481 Philippine Peso or $9.27 per day, but the curious thing is the jolliness of the Filipinos in spite of the poverty. Some people believed that it’s because of the ray of sunshine coming from the sun that is the source of vitamin D wherein it increases the serotonin which is a hormone that causes the feeling of happiness. These trait of the Filipinos are being passed down genetically and will not fade throughout the time. The Philippines is the 71st happiest country in the world, according to the United Nations’ annual World Happiness Report for 2018.
Philippines is a country that is often visited by a number of typhoons every year. There are eight or nine tropical storms on average that make landfall in the Philippines each year and another 10 that enters the Philippine waters. It had already experience the most strong and devastating typhoon ever recorded in the history of the world which is the “Typhoon Haiyan” with a total of 6,340 fatalities and hundreds of thousands residences lost their properties. Fortunately our place was not greatly affected by the typhoon and we are all safe. But we did encounter a signal no. 5 typhoon before. I remember arriving at home and electricity is out because of strong wind, there was no rainstorms yet because it will land at 12 am. The only people left at home is me and my father because my mother and my niece were at my grandparents’ house to be with them during the typhoon. I woke up at 1 am and I heard the loud noise coming from our roof, the wind is too strong that night. Fortunately nothing bad happens, it’s just that, some of the trees fell down, there was a flood outside but inside the house it’s not and our roof is slightly damaged. We were still thankful that all of us are safe that night.
Despite all these yearly turmoil that the Philippines had been facing, still, nothing beats the “Filipino spirit.” Filipinos are known to be strong and tough in whatever calamities they might face. Even at the lowest peak of their lives, they still manage to show a smile on their face and what is more inspiring is, in spite of their shortcomings they also put a smile on other’s faces.
There’s nothing funny about floods.
Some Filipinos, however, have shown great strength of character by posting either funny or inspiring photos or videos of people helping one another or simply having fun even in the middle of flooded streets or houses.
I’m on my way, boss! I just need to cross this river… I mean street!
These group are about to get drunk!
Aye matey! Always look at the left before crossing.
I don’t mind the heavy rain and flood, I got boots and umbrella.
GG Boys! One more round!
Young Filipinos inside the classroom with the teacher during flood. This boys believes that Education is the key to success! Even though the class is already suspended during this time.
Flying to the hoops, Pinoy version of water basketball.
These boys are pro at surfing!
This person is prepared to dive in deep flood!
These guy wants to stroll using his jet ski.
They also want to get drunk!
I think this mermaid is lost.
We have been in some of the worst calamities in our lives but this doesn’t mean that we have to be devastated because of that because after every storms comes a rainbow.
According to a study of an American developmental psychologist named Emmy Werner, he described the Filipino’s characteristic of being tough in times of chaos as “internal locus of control” the degree to which people believe that they have control over the outcome of events in their lives, as opposed to external forces beyond their control, or simply, resiliency. There are a lot of positive outcomes of resilience like being successful and other than that, resilience is also connected to happiness of a person.
In the case of the Filipinos, our strength has been proven over time just like when we encounter the typhoon Haiyan that causes the death of almost 7,000 people. Notwithstanding the strength of the typhoon, the Filipinos were not moved.
The Filipino family is different in the West countries. In a country like the United States, when a person reaches the age of 20 or 21, they are expected to live separately in the family or to attend the university without or even small assistance from the parent. This is more common in the country with a good economy unlike the Philippines.
It may have a negative effect on it but then, you can’t blame the Filipinos because maintaining strict relationships with our families is in our culture. There are Filipinos who are at the time to marry and start their own families. Yet, most often they still live with their parents even when they have their own family. The setup is, we have a large area or compound where we build our houses so that the family will still be living as neighbors next to each other’s home.
In the Philippines, it is a custom that we accompany our parents when they get old so that they won’t have to go to home for the aged. This kind of living can be considered difficult but it is one way the Filipinos maintain their enjoyment. The Filipino family has a different kind of joy. The more, the merrier, that’s what they use to say, thus, it is known to a Filipino family to live together.
I’m currently away from my parents now, given the fact that I’m already 22 and have my full time job that is far away from my home, but as much as possible I have to be at home at least twice a year wherein I would stay there for at least 3 days for my vacation. There are currently 4 people in our house which is my mother, my father, my brother and my niece and from time to time they go out and visit our relatives because their houses are not far away from ours. They sometimes gather in every celebrations like birthdays and anniversaries.
According to Robert Waldinger’s Ted talk “What makes a good life?”
“Good relationships keep us happier and healthier. Period.
We’ve learned three big lessons about relationships. The first is that social connections are really good for us, and that loneliness kills. It turns out that people who are more socially connected to family, to friends, to community, are happier, they’re physically healthier, and they live longer than people who are less well connected. And the experience of loneliness turns out to be toxic. People who are more isolated than they want to be from others find that they are less happy, their health declines earlier in midlife, their brain functioning declines sooner and they live shorter lives than people who are not lonely. And the sad fact is that at any given time, more than one in five Americans will report that they’re lonely.
And we know that you can be lonely in a crowd and you can be lonely in a marriage, so the second big lesson that we learned is that it’s not just the number of friends you have, and it’s not whether or not you’re in a committed relationship, but it’s the quality of your close relationships that matters. It turns out that living in the midst of conflict is really bad for our health. High-conflict marriages, for example, without much affection, turn out to be very bad for our health, perhaps worse than getting divorced. And living in the midst of good, warm relationships is protective.
Once we had followed our men all the way into their 80s, we wanted to look back at them at midlife and to see if we could predict who was going to grow into a happy, healthy octogenarian and who wasn’t. And when we gathered together everything we knew about them at age 50, it wasn’t their middle age cholesterol levels that predicted how they were going to grow old. It was how satisfied they were in their relationships. The people who were the most satisfied in their relationships at age 50 were the healthiest at age 80. And good, close relationships seem to buffer us from some of the slings and arrows of getting old. Our most happily partnered men and women reported, in their 80s, that on the days when they had more physical pain, their mood stayed just as happy. But the people who were in unhappy relationships, on the days when they reported more physical pain, it was magnified by more emotional pain.
And the third big lesson that we learned about relationships and our health is that good relationships don’t just protect our bodies, they protect our brains. It turns out that being in a securely attached relationship to another person in your 80s is protective, that the people who are in relationships where they really feel they can count on the other person in times of need, those people’s memories stay sharper longer. And the people in relationships where they feel they really can’t count on the other one, those are the people who experience earlier memory decline. And those good relationships, they don’t have to be smooth all the time. Some of our octogenarian couples could bicker with each other day in and day out, but as long as they felt that they could really count on the other when the going got tough, those arguments didn’t take a toll on their memories. ”
In other words, our relationship with other people is what the reason of our joy and strength, and it is the exact perspective of the Filipinos. The majority of us may be in the utmost poverty but we are abundant with love and relationship in our family and it further increases the character of resilience.
Sources:
https://acfc.asia/blogs/funny-things-pinoys-flood/
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1011660/for-some-filipinos-even-floods-seem-more-fun-in-ph