The Philippine Online Chronicles

Why is it that when a person becomes successful in the Philippines, people would attribute it to luck? Filipinos are fond of saying “Ang swerte naman nya” when they find out that a certain individual has achieved something in his or her career as if luck is the only way you can attain success in life. If one would ponder about it, such kind of mentality has something awfully disturbing about it. Its repercussions can be serious enough to hinder a growth in an individual.

Pertaining luck to as the only way a person can have a fruitful life can lead so serious complications. Yes, we are in the 21^st century already but there are Filipino cultural norms that should not be practiced anymore as they harm and obstruct development. Relying on luck as the only salvation from the miseries of life is the very antithesis of working hard to reap what one deserves.

Seldom do I come across Filipinos who react accordingly every time another person’s triumph is mentioned. This belief eliminates the kind of thinking that there are bigger things that should be considered when one wants to attain a certain degree of success in life.

The culture of luck is the very reason why I think we’re still living in the medieval ages. Moreover, it depicts the obvious which is that hard work has no place in the Filipino culture. For many people here, hard work is not that important. What’s more important is how “lucky” a certain person is whether or not the person has something going on for him or her. Luck is what people in the Philippines think will save them from being poor and it is only through this that they will be able to gain entry in a more comfortable life.

If you have been told that you were lucky when you graduated or when you were promoted by your boss, you should be insulted for it means that the person who told you that is undermining your capabilities of getting what you worked hard for. Being told you are lucky should not be taken as a compliment especially when that success does not have anything to do with gambling. What about the hard work you did in order to achieve something? Is it right to relate it to just luck that you were successful in getting what you worked hard for? You graduated because you studied and you passed all the requirements and not because you’re some sort of luck-driven person.

Is it envy or something far worse than envy?

Also there are a lot of instances when one can be regarded as “lucky” which proves that being industrious or doing what is right has no place in the minds of the Filipino people.One of them is having political connections. How many times have you people heard the line “Oh I know someone from City Hall. We can skip all the processes needed to apply for this document” or “I know this councillor in our district so we can get away from having to pay for this fine”? You’re lucky when you have such connections because you can get away with anything and that you wouldn’t have to undergo the same processes like other people. Not following the right processes, which is unknown to many, is a practice of corruption. Truly, corruption starts not from the top but from below.

Perhaps I should consider that Filipinos prefer short-cuts to success and so depending on luck is perfect for this way of thinking. Luck after all is one short-cut to achieving something.

Filipinos want everything to be spoon-fed to them. They are very much dependent on trivial matters. Stressing about how one thinks that it is luck that is the reason behind every person’s success is just so horrible it delineates how severely flawed our culture is. Since Filipinos do not value hard work and perseverance, they would rely on sheer luck to get them out of poverty and other circumstances.

It’s as if we are swimming in a vast sea of misfortune which is being Filipino. Imbibed in the Filipino culture are a lot of beliefs which do not necessarily help us move forward or yield to good results. Subconsciously, we do know that some of our attitudes in life are not beneficial to our well-being but we would still swim the sea along with our countrymen without duly knowing we would be drowning. To not swim with the rest is enough for people to regard you as deviant even if you are in the higher moral ground.

Of course, there is one way on how one can avoid being drowned in oblivion with the rest of the Filipinos and that is to not swim with the rest of the Filipinos who think they know better when they don’t know a zilch.

Ria "Iya" Justimbaste is the co-host of DWBL's Sentro ng Katotohanan which airs every Tuesday and Thursday at 8:30-9:30 pm at 1242 KHz. She is a 21 year-old girl who believes that the Filipino Culture is what keeps on impeding the country's progress and that Filipino cultural values are resistant to development. She blogs at http://iya-j.co.nr and writes for http://antipinoy.com.

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