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Filipino time and looking to the future
The July 2005 issue of the Philippines Dreams Newsletter is out. I have selected an extract related to Filipino time. Like most of the Latin world the Filipino’s have a very relaxed attitude to time and punctuality. This is one aspect that anyone living in the Philippines needs to adjust too in order to survive with any sanity.
Extract from the July 2005 issue of the Philippine Dreams Newsletter:
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...Let’s start with time, or more accurately the perception of time. The attitude to time. Time is simply a way to measure the gaps between events that affect our lives. In the west we value time. We savour our free time and begrudge our wasting of this precious commodity. So much so there are any number of books on how we can better manage our time. Being “on time” is a virtue, being late almost grounds for capital punishment. Not so here in the Philippines.
The Filipino has a totally different attitude to time, at least as far as using it as any kind of benchmark for getting anything done. The national version of the inane “have a nice day” is “for a while”. What for a while? Wait for a while? Stand there for a while? Hold your breath for a while? Nope, simply “for a while”. People say it in lieu of “please hold the line and I will connect you”. Or “just a minute”. Here it is “for a while”. I hate it and it gets up my nose but then whose problem is that? Mine, of course. If I let a simple phrase like that upset me then these people have POWER! All the same, no amount of rational thought eases the frustration that I suffer when I hear that phrase.
Time here is of little importance. Meetings always start late, yet if a foreigner arrives late then the meeting is over. Go figure! Even the government adhere to this delayed reaction type timetable. In fact the more important you think you are then the later you arrive after the agreed upon time. Last one in wins, apparently. If you are invited to dinner for 7pm and you have the temerity to turn up on time then you will embarrass your hosts who are probably still in the shower at 7.05. Maybe the traffic has something to do with this, but more about that later.
So what have I learnt to combat the gap in the space/time continuum? I thought about why time is of so little importance. I came up with an appreciation of what the average Filipino has to look forward to and realised, in western terms, the answer is not a lot. In the west we are forever looking forwards so we fail to appreciate the here and now. The weekend, next month, this Christmas, next year. We are forever waiting for the next major event in our lives. We fail to stop and smell the Durians. What has the average hundred and fifty peso a day Filipino got to look forward to? They work six days a week, minimum. Many work seven days and then keep on working, glad to have the chance to make some money. Employers can get away with pretty much anything they want to as there are a dozen people for every job.
If you earn a few thousand peso’s a month and you spend at least that merely keeping body and soul together, then there is nothing left over for leisure pursuits. All you have to look forward to is more of the same hard graft. If you need an advance you feel you are working for nothing once the money has been spent. So what does it matter if you work hard or easy if you are paid by the day. You drag the job out so it lasts as many days as you can get away with. And for many the work is hardly inspiring, challenging work. Often it is dreary, repetitive and life consuming.
Many work from early morning into the night. They get home so tired they can hardly put the rice on their spoon. Sleep. Then up again to face another day. So why rush? No matter what the job, there will always be tomorrow. Another day, another few hundred peso’s. The cost of living goes up faster than their income, so they are always playing catch up. What is there to look forward to?...
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You can down the complete July 2005 newsletter for FREE from Streetwise Philippines here:
Streetwise Philippines – Information and Travel Guides
Posted: Monday 4th July 2005, 9:25 PM
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