Are You Happy?

Pinoy Kasi : Happy Filipinos

Michael Tan opinion@inquirer.com.ph
Inquirer News Service

THE COVER reminded me of one of the Mainland Chinese propaganda magazines back in the 1970s. It showed a couple beaming, the woman with a bouquet of flowers and the man wearing heavy-duty gloves, presumably a worker.

But, it turns out, the photograph was of Filipinos. This was the Sept. 4 issue of the Chinese magazine Yazhou Zhoukan (Asiaweek). In large Chinese characters, the magazine announced its theme to go with the photograph: HAPPY FILIPINOS. Inside, there was an editorial, plus nine pages of articles about the Philippines, all more or less revolving around the theme of the happy Filipino.

Yes, it's that "happiness survey" again, conducted in the Philippines by the Social Weather Stations poll group as part of a World Values Survey coordinated by the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research.

Yazhou Zhoukan had a table giving figures from that World Values Survey showing the Philippines on top of other Asian countries, supposedly because 93 percent of us are happy, with Japan following at 90 percent, Taiwan at 89 percent, China 84 percent, Pakistan 83 percent and Indonesia 77 percent.

To make sure the message of the happy Filipino got through, the article cited World Health Organization statistics for suicide, with the Philippines having the lowest rate in Asia.

Fairly happy

The Feb. 28, 2005 issue of Time (Asian edition) also had "happiness" as their theme, and mentioned the happy Filipino, together with an article by Alan Robles.

Should we be proud of the Yazhou Zhoukan and Time features? Are we about to dislodge the Dalai Lama with sound advice on keeping happy?

I'm not sure. Let me start by wearing my hat as a social researcher and give some caveats about the figures floating around, which all mention the World Values Survey as their source.

I checked the SWS website where they have a media release dated March 14, 2005, clearly stating we're not at the top of the global happiness league. The latest round they did for the World Values Survey was in April 2001, when 38 percent of Filipinos said they were "very happy" and 49 percent were "fairly happy" for a total of 88 percent (probably rounded off).

How did we fare in the global league? The Social Weather Stations (SWS) notes: "When using the Very Happy and Fairly Happy responses, Filipinos ranked 31st, slightly above the international average of happiest people. Among its Asian neighbors, the Philippines placed 7th, after Indonesia (95 percent), Singapore (95 percent), Vietnam (92 percent), Taiwan (91 percent), Japan (89 percent) and Republic of Korea (88 percent)."

When it comes to using the "very happy" responses, the Philippines ranked 19th globally. Even in Asia, we trailed behind Vietnam, where 49 percent said they were "very happy."

What then were Time and Yazhou Zhoukan using? It seems the World Values Survey people eventually came up with a "subjective well being" index that combines "happiness" and "life-satisfaction" scores. Now that's where we seem to fare better than our Asian neighbors, as the Yazhou Zhoukan table showed.

Global perceptions

How did this idea of the happiest people on earth get propagated? The SWS press release said that the World Values Survey results were "inaccurately reported by the Office of the Press Secretary in its February 23, 2005 media release 'Filipinos are among the world's happiest people -- Survey.'"

So, now we know. But I think there's more to this than zealous press secretaries. First, I don't remember newspapers picking up on the SWS' clarification; instead, I had friends calling me to agree with the rosier Malacañang version. Deep down, I think we truly want to believe we are the happiest people on this planet and maybe eventually that belief helps to generate even more happiness in our hearts.

I suspect, too, there is a global perception that we are indeed one of the happiest people in the world. I've mentioned that Time magazine featured the happy Filipino as well earlier this year.

The global perception is there because, well, Filipinos are now to be found everywhere in the world and wherever we're found, people will say we are a "happy" people. Whenever I'm abroad and people learn I'm Filipino, they'll go, "Oh, Filipino" and start naming traits they associate with us: always laughing, always cracking jokes, always singing and dancing.

So poor, so happy

I'm ambivalent about these compliments, and that ambivalence came back to me as I read the Yazhou Zhoukan articles, which paint a picture of a country buckling under the economic crisis, with widespread poverty (yes, they had pictures of Smoky Mountain) and serious political problems, referring to the clamor for Ms Arroyo to resign. One Chinese phrase used in the article summarized it all: "amid great suffering, happiness."

And to show that happiness, the lead article has a half-page photograph of several men drinking, one of them toasting with a bottle of what looks like brandy. The most startling part of the photograph is that they're drinking with floodwaters swirling around them, almost as if to say, "Let's drink to the floods!"

On the next page is another photograph, showing a band of musicians with a large crowd watching them. There, Filipinos are always singing and dancing ... and drinking.

The lead article's text has a bit of social analysis, referring to our values, especially to "bahala na," often wrongly translated as fatalism, but in the Yazhou Zhoukan article interpreted as a happy-go-lucky attitude. But the magazine's main thrust is clear in the focus of the other articles: they all deal with our massive deployment of overseas workers, with specific stories on Filipinos in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Malaysia.

Yazhou Zhoukan's insights are therefore more pragmatic: we're surviving through overseas deployment and, abroad, our Filipinos are a happy lot. The magazine has photographs of Filipinas in Hong Kong playing the violin, competing in a singing contest, and congregating in one of Hong Kong's plazas. For Malaysia and Taiwan, the pictures are again of Filipinas, this time in churches.

I'd say I generally agree with Yazhou Zhoukan's thrust, which is to show that Filipino happiness is really part of our coping mechanisms, rather than being the product of a good life.

I started this article Monday, before the congressional hearings began. By coincidence, on Tuesday the Inquirer had one of my former students, Skilty Labastilla, contributing a Youngblood column with the title "Pessimistic but happy." Skilty's article got me thinking that I'd need two columns to dissect Filipino -- and Filipina -- happiness. (There's a difference, as you might have noticed from my description of the Yazhou Zhoukan photographs.)

On Friday, I'm going to write about that elusive term "masaya," which was used by the SWS in its surveys and deal, too, with this "subjective well being" concept. For now, let me ask you: Were you happy with the congressional proceedings?