I can’t speak of all countries and cultures, of course. But when I lived in the Philippines I learned of a cultural trait called Utang na loob. Translated literally it means something like “debt of one’s inner self”. Others describe it more as “reciprocity”. Both work. Essentially, if you’re all poor, you’re all “in it together”, there’s this sense of solidarity. Then someone in your family makes it big. And it is expected they help you. To assist you in getting to their level.
After all, you helped this person, too! The parents, who worked hard to get their child through school. The older sibling who took an extra job and dropped out of school so his or her younger sibling could finish college. They all sacrificed. Now, it’s your turn to “pay back”. The same thing is true with leaders, with businessmen, with those who find themselves on top of their world, masters of their universes, politicians… they have to remember who got them to where they are. They have to pay back. So they steal, shamelessly, and they enrich their families. And people are remarkably forgiving of this… because they, themselves, would have done the same thing.
You can’t help everyone. You can’t uplift the whole country. But you would be selfish not to at least uplift your own family, relatives and friends, right? In cultures like this, everyone is expected to help their relatives. It is expected from the teacher, the nurse abroad, the store owner… and even the President. People tend to forgive the corruption because put in the same shoes, many of them know they know they’d do the same. And having witnessed extreme poverty, it’s honestly hard to shake such tendencies.
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