The Filipino Attitude

I always believed that Filipinos have this "opportunist" attitude. By "opportunist," I mean they always seem to be very aggressive in every circumstance that would probably be beneficial to them. Sometimes this is what I call the "this-may-be-good-for-me-therefore-I-should-grab-this-opportunity" attitude.Well anyway, who wouldn't? But what sets the Filipino apart from all the other races is the MEANS to get what they want. Some people break their moral and ethical standards, or even go as far as breaking the law just to grab that "wonderful" opportunity in front of them.

Let me give you an example. This morning on my way to work at the MRT station, there were only 2 ticket booths open. Because of the large number of people wanting to buy MRT passes, a long line started to form. Then suddenly, the third ticket booth opened. I was on my way to the third booth (tinawag ako nung babae, "Miss dito na po"), and I was about to give her my money, but there was this guy who just arrived at the station and who suddenly ran in front of me and gave his bills to the lady. What an ass. See the attitude there? He saw the small space between my bill and the ticket booth lady and grabbed the opportunity of buying first instead of me, even if it meant totally disregarding the people who have already been in line for a couple of minutes.

This morning, I finally realized why only Filipinos are like this. My answer is that, we are in a country where people are not given equal opportunities. And so with that, people find ways and means to grab every opportunity that comes their way, because they might not get that chance again. In other countries, everyone has equal opportunities. They don't have to be so aggressive and disregard their ethics because they know that they will have a fair share of what's there. When I was in the States and in Singapore, people calmly line up and wait for transportation to arrive, because they know that the next bus or the next train or the next taxi will be there in a few minutes. Here in Manila, you'd have to push your way to the swarm of people just to get in front of the line.

Hay Buhay.