We are not only branded as the "Worst Airport and Aviation safety" and [one of the] "Most Corrupt Country", but we are also now the "MOST EMOTIONAL COUNTRY". Not to put a negative concept on the title, it might be good for the image of the country as well. Actually, it has good and bad effects in our country and to our individuality on a micro concept of the society as well.
GALLUP, a U.S. based poll/survey entity revealed that 60% of the Filipinos responded positively in the recent survey of "Countries with Emotions". Meaning - how people perceive and feel their way of living, given the economic stability of the country, freedom, openness, and general setting of life.
Some of the questions are:
1. Did you feel well rested today?
2.Were you treated with respect all day yesterday?
3. Did you smile or laugh a lot yesterday?
4. Did you experience the following feelings during a lot of the day yesterday?
5. How about (enjoyment, physical pain, worry, sadness, stress, anger)?
While Singaporeans are ranked the lowest at 36% which is the trade-off of an industrialized and prosperous society where emotions are very limited because the focus of the government and society are all about sucess; the Philippines got the top spot.
In spite of that statistics and ranking, what is the effect of this in the Philippines? Yes, it is true, that we are one of the most happy places where you would see people laughing in every corner and in anytime of the day; but how about dealing with other emotions - pain, worry, sadness, stress?
In my perception - being engulfed in so many emotions affects the society in a good and a bad way. I created a list of my PROS and CONS on how Filipinos carry their emotions in different situations and manner.
ADVANTAGES:
1. Most Filipinos can adapt to any stress. Naturally happy, Philippines is famously known of smiling despite problems. The high poverty rate, together with calamities, made the Filipinos tough enough to surpass many life's challenges. So SMILE! :D
2. Our nation can symphatize. We are easily affected by someone's tragic event. Just like in the series of typhoons that we had, Filipinos are kind enough to reach and to give anything that we have in our hands. This kindness unite us and the whole nation in time of crisis. This results to our BAYANIHAN system.
3. We are united. Filipinos are very close to their families and relatives. Family ties is very important to us and we do treasure them a lot.
DISADVANTAGES:
1. We are too emotional. When bad things happen, we tend to over react. When someone's been hurt - we get FURIOUS. When someone succeeded - we are ENVIOUS enough to drag them down; which resulted to CRAB MENTALITY.
A perfect example is the AMALAYER - she rant out of a public place just because she failed to comply with the security checks. On the other hand, netizens bombarded her with harsh and cruel words just to point her mistake.
Because we are too emotional over almost everything, we FORGET how to be LOGICAL. How to use our brains and get them working whenever needed and highly appropriated.
2. Filipinos exaggerate gratitude (UTANG NA LOOB). We are helpful to others - it is a fact. However, it is not always a good thing. When the time comes that we need to return the favor, no option is there but a YES. Even when the favor being asked is totally wrong and inappropriate, most of the times we couldn't say NO because we are indebted to that person. Our capability to think is again SUPRESSED.
3. We give and do favors a lot than necessary. Political dynasty, Palakasan system among other bad Filipino traits happen because of this. Since we value our ties, we often favored wrong people. Like in politics and business, 90% of the time, we choose our family and friends rather than picking the rightful one. This is again driven by our emotions than critical and logical thinking.
4. We are always concern with someone's emotions. Mostly in business, we are not straight forward because we always overthink what harm it can do to a person. We cannot point what's wrong directly and go long routes of flowery statements.
Overall, being too emotional hinders our growth - personally and economy wise. Every decision is affected by our emotions thus, intelligent thinking is clouded most of the times. We supressed ourselves to succeed and prosperous by putting our emotions first. Filipinos have this system when doing something critical - EMOTION + THINKING = EMOTIONALLY DEPENDENT DECISION. For once, why don't we change the formula? THINKING + EMOTION = WISE & LOGICAL DECISION. It is true and only proper that brain is higher than the heart because you need to think first, subsequently feeling your own decision [putting yourself in someone's shoes] and filter or revise any inhumane and harsh parts of your logic before arriving at your final judgment.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-11-20/singapore-confronts-an-emotion-deficit
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