PROF ARGONZA’S TV5 INTERVIEW ON FILIPINOS’ HAPPINESS

PROF ARGONZA’S TV5 INTERVIEW ON FILIPINOS’ HAPPINESS

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Good day, fellow global citizens!

Yours truly was interviewed anew by the TV5 program Tayuan Mo at Panindigan, with the topic focused on Filipinos’ happiness. Hosting the episode were Aida Uy, Wilma Dosent, and Izza Litton whose magnetic stage presence did give life to the occasion.

Interestingly, an urban poor woman agreed to be interviewed too, as a living witness to what makes Filipinos happy. She brought along her four (4) daughters who joined her in the customary Pinoy ‘salo-salo’ treat to guests offered by the Channel 5 network.

The latest research of the National Statistics Coordination Board or NSCB, chief government survey agency, showed that Filipinos put top priority on family, health, and religion in that rank order, when asked what are the topmost indicators that make them happy. The same research showed other important happiness sources as friends, financial security, education, love life, and work. Sex was among the bottom 5 happiness indices, which surprised the NSCB.

Being the sociologist/expert for the occasion, I was asked to explain the patterns that make Filipinos happy. I first had to weigh the results of the latest research, before I could present my own analysis.

In standard sociological discourse, values provide frames for individual choices. Values are those matters that people regard as social premiums, they are the core foundations of culture, and they are largely shared across classes and ethnicities. They are also the ones that define what is happiness for persons and aids them in prioritizing happiness indicators.

Filipinos put a great premium of relationships—to fellow Pinoys, family members, God & divine beings. Kapwa and loob are the pillars of our values, with kapwa governing the interpersonal domain while loob guides the intrapersonal.

By social relationships we refer here to the personalistic, traditional, informal ties in the domain of the ‘private sphere’. That contrasts to the that are impersonal, segmented, utilitarian valued highly in Western, industrial societies, ties that may enable one to shine career-wise but do not necessarily make people happy.

Happiness, as a positive intrapsychic state, can range from contentment to euphoria and bliss. Jobs and money do make Filipinos happy, but they matter only insofar as these enable Pinoys to have the means to face people, satisfy the needs and caprices of their fellows, and pay homage to Supreme Deity (payback through some donations to church or humanitarian groups).

Asked about the ranking of Pinoys in the global happiness surveys, I shared the facts that Pinoys would rank in the range of middle-to-high ranks. Pinoys never fell short of the middle range in happiness, and are among the happiest peoples in Asia.

No wonder that suicides don’t occur in the Philippines as high as they occur in Western/industrial countries, where as high as 5,000-10,000 deaths per year happen in major cities. Loneliness and depression are often the driving forces behind suicides, so the message is clear that Pinoys don’t do suicides a lot given their middle-to-high happiness inclinations.

It was another truly informative exchange of ideas and opinions. TV5 audiences surely will have much to benefit from such an informative program as the Tayuan Mo at Panindigan.

[Philippines, 07 July 2011]

COÑO PALACE LOTHARIOS, REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH BILL: BEDFELLOWS?

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

The Coño regime is up, and certain coño palace officials are true to their coño colors: lotharios who would play with girls and even pass them on to their pals after using the sex goddesses for some time. A top level official unabashedly exhibits his true colors in the presidential palace, disturbs palace workers at night to prepare delicacies for drinking session, and may we not add some girls in his company or so?

Did I not forewarn the public of the lothario side to the then presidential candidate Noynoy Aquino, who today behaves like a “student council officer” (to use Sen. Arroyo’s sarcastic description of his government) while in office? Well, the lothario president has a flashy car going, worth millions of bucks. Doesn’t he go about seeing girls behind the scenes, with some secretive “girl scouts” or so, together with his pal cabinet coño?

Such must be the most exemplary behavior one can make of a president and his beloved crony officials. Is it really a coincidence that the coño president is supportive of the reproductive health bill? Do the cabinet coño kids truly understand responsible parenthood, or are they merely quacking a nice advocacy to conceal what truly is theirs: pro-active gonads seeking actively for pro-creation with sex maniacs of loose moral women?

Let’s take a look at a related note I wrote about last year.

[Philippines, 20 April 2011]
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NOYNOY’S REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH, PRODUCTIVE LOTHARIO?

Prof. Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Magandang hapon! Good afternoon!

Noynoy Aquino of the Liberal Party, the country’s emerging conservative-to-fascist pro-global elite political formation, had delivered his piece about reproductive health. I wonder how deep is the senator’s knowledge about the issue, given the fact that his academic prowess and empathy are mediocre. He never had graduate schooling, did he? And does he not suffer from low emotional intelligence, being ill-tempered as his former classmates describe him?

Whenever Noynoy talks about the issue, one wonders whether he is unconsciously speaking from where he is situated women-wise. His verbiage reveals how he perceives and treats women, in other words. He does project a reduction of reproductive health to being healthy enough to procreate with women, with the subtle message that, for bachelors and single women, be careful enough to avoid unwanted pregnancy no matter how much you consummate sex.

The public knows for a fact that the father of Noynoy—the late Ninoy Aquino—was a lothario. Given the fact that Noynoy hasn’t married yet, and he isn’t getting any younger, observers are behooved to think that this senator regards women as mere toys who should be circulated among men, more so the men he knows.

It just doesn’t sound nice to talk about the private life of politicians, but since the issue of reproductive health and women’s issues are among the raging public issues, we cannot avoid scrutinizing the way political candidates have manifested their relationships with the opposite set.

A liberated man perceives a woman as co-partner in family, community, society. In contrast, a machismo or feudal man regards women as mere subordinates, as objects for man’s control and manipulation. A sociopathic man would normally beat a woman so sadistically, and a such a man is the stuff that makes up an ‘authoritarian personality’ or fascist.

I just wish that women’s groups would do their job to administer a ‘gender relations audit’ on the top political candidates to check out whether each one of them makes to the grade of normal, gender empowering kind of persons. A person like Noynoy, who suffers from psychiatric maladies as per reports filtering out as internal information, is hardly any man who would fit into a normal gender-empowering partner.

Let’s take that narrative about Charlotte Datiles, a graduate of Miriam College (she was my former student in ’84 when I taught in Miriam). Datiles was having an amorous relationship with Noynoy when she tragically died during a coup attack by the RAM-YOU in the late 80s. Just what sort relationship was that one, women should ask? What was the circumstance that led to that tragic event? Wasn’t Charlotte one of those being circulated among men (bless her departed soul)?

Now, how about Korina Sanchez, whose nuptials with Mar Roxas finally ensued (thanks God!)? Didn’t Korina got involved in an erotic bond with Noynoy Aquino for some time? And after Noynoy, didn’t Korina get involved with another Aquino, a brother of Butz, for eight (8) years or so? After that affair (to remember? to forget?), Ms. Sanchez finally landed in the hands of the Don Quijote d’ Cubao estate, Mar Roxas?

If you’d complete the jigsaw that comprises Noynoy’s women, notably their circulation among men, one would think that they are akin to the indigenous women of Brazil that were studied by the late social anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss. Prof. Levi-Strauss theorized that the “circulation of women” explained the complex kinship and marriage structures among his subjects.

Quite revealingly, Noynoy and the men that he represents seem to have more in common with ‘primitive’ men of Brazil than with the post-modern, urban men of the present. And yet here is Mr. Aquno exuding the image of a contemporary man, isn’t he?

For an unsolicited advice, the women’s groups led by Gabriela should better investigate the ‘gender relational performance’ of Noynoy. And investigate now, before it would be too late. That test should be done in addition to administering Noynoy the ‘Adorno scale’ to test his level of ‘authoritarian personality’ (scale of fascistic behavior).

If Noynoy is manifesting pro-choice and pro-population control standpoints, and he is not passing in psychiatric health and shows fascistic (authoritarian) tendencies, then his behaviors dovetail on the manner of his handling of women.

Noynoy is nobody’s Mr. Clean woman-wise, he is no Mr. Clean for that matter even as he is no spiritual seeker who had quite ascended in the Path. As I articulated in a previous article, his moralistic inquisitionism is a manifestation of fascistic tendencies, akin to the fascistic tendencies of the ancient Knights’ Templars and Teutonic Knights (Nazis’ exemplars for their hubris, sadism, arrogance).

I wonder what the pro-Noynoy women’s groups (are there any true feminists there?) will counter if the mass media will pick up the questions raised, do investigative journalism, and expose the true nature of Noynoy in his handling of women. For now, they are lucky that no howl has been raised yet about the matter by Noynoy’s political adversaries.

[Philippines, 25 April 2010]
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ECHOING FAMILY PEACE ON XMAS 2010

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Kapayapaan! Peace be with you!

This social analyst and guru of self-realization already discoursed on the ‘peace project’ in so many previous articles (academic, spiritual, blogs). I will re-echo the ‘peace project’ as a fitting message for the Christmas holiday, an event that had already begun in the Philippines with the dawn mass or simbang gabi.

I will focus my peregrination though on the family aspect of life, on family peace, which admittedly was left behind in my past discourses. My previous writings were reflections about meta-narratives, about macro realities of war, peace accords, hostilities, discord among classes, ethnicities, and nations.

Wellness and the absence of it take place at many levels, so does it take place at the family level. Since this morph of wellness involves social relations and their affective manifestations, we will refer to it as psychosocial wellness. The term sounds like health-related, and it is: total wellness is the characteristic jewel of health, and health characterizes the quality of family relations.

Christmas celebrates peace in its universal sense, so does it celebrate family peace. The absence of hostilities at the family level—both nuclear and extended families—isn’t the only focal goal to attain as a wellness challenge. The greater challenge is to sustain healthy relations that will redound to growth-inducing bonds.

In philosophical terms, family living should strive to veer away from ‘death principle’/nihilistic state and traverse towards ‘life principle’/creative state. The family should be a ground to take stock of and repair the imbalances and disordered state (relative to dysfunctional) that all members invariably suffer from, rather than a ground for mere passive acceptance of each one’s weaknesses and defects. Coming to terms with such a state is the challenge of family living.

To substantiate my point, let me share to you a narrative about an old friend of mine who is couples of years my junior. Let me call him by a code name Phoenix. I met him in my campus dorm—at the University of the Philippines (Diliman)—while I was in graduate school in ‘84-‘86, he a young man who was intellectually inclined and ambitious. We instantly clicked with one another, became discussion partners and developed a lingering friendship. We both dreamt of authoring our own books in the future, a goal that both of us have already achieved.

While intellectually capable, I noticed that he couldn’t demonstrate his love for a woman and build a granite-strong Eros. A female student shed tears before me, as her love for Phoenix seemed burnt right away in the cold heart of the man. I have to appease the young woman no end, as she kept coming to me for comfort and let me read the poems she wrote for Phoenix (I was already into listening-counseling vocation then).

To my real shock, I found out from Phoenix’s own tongue that he grew up with a father who showed no compunction in beating him up. From childhood through his college years, Phoenix was cruelly abused by his father, who was without mistake a dangerous sociopath. Were it not for Phoenix’s own high-achievement predisposition, his learning could have been badly impaired by the demonic hostility of his own father.

Phoenix eventually finished his masteral degree, took up law which he also finished (U.P. College of Law), became a successful professional, and authored his book (it was published later). Good looking and conversationally engaging, he was the epitome of success that a woman would find in a man. But the shock of it all is that his capacity for Eros, for loving a woman, had been impaired forever by the arid child-rearing he received from a sociopathic father.

There are too many persons out there whose life trajectories are similar or parallel to Phoenix’s. Many of them may have built families of their own, but chances are that, with the dysfunctionalities in them remaining un-addressed (via psychosocial therapy), their families could have disheveled. Some who parented kids have committed crimes of killing their own children/babies, others have committed fratricide, and still others killed their respective spouse. Truly catastrophic endings for families begun with good intentions!

If the personal imbalances in each family member remain un-addressed, they will become the cause of absence of peace internally and among family members. The dense energies within each one will simply keep on recycling and manifesting in hostilities and even suicidal ideation (intrapersonal hostility).

Christmas is a very fitting occasion for renewing bonds. Though bonds may be renewed without preconditions, the reunion during a Christmas occasion can serve as fitting moment for therapy. If each party to the reunion would attune to thoughts of delight founded on devotion, then the occasion would be subtly therapeutic.

That’s why Christmas is so important an occasion, not only for Christians but for men and women of all faiths and persuasions. As I declared in another article, Christmas should be globalized as a multi-cultural holiday. No matter what happens, let there be Christmas holiday every year, as it contributes to building psychosocial wellness at the family and friendship levels (friendship is marked by fraternal bonds).

So for this year’s Christmas holiday, let there be family peace unto all families on Earth. Let this family peace be a timeless testimony to our personal efforts to build peace at all levels of life.

Peace, love, Light unto all of you!

[Philippines, 16 December 2010]

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ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]