There is an unwritten rule in Western nations regarding the smiling Oriental. Simply stated, the rule is that Europeans and other Caucasians must not mistake the Oriental smile as a sign of friendliness, for one is never sure what real emotions lurk just beneath the surface.
With Filipinos, however, and some Caribbean and Central American people, the smiles are genuine. What you see is what you get.
The Philippines and Costa Rica always rank high in happiness indices as measured by the Happy Planet Index. So do 10 Central American and Caribbean countries. Out of 13 countries that outranked the Philippines in the 2009 Happy Planet Index survey, ten were Central American and Caribbean countries. Vietnam, which ranked fourth, and Egypt and Saudi Arabia were the exceptions.
Costa Rica was number one out of 143 countries ranked, which was not surprising because that little country has consistently landed on top or among the top countries in survey after survey. A country that abolished its army in 1949 and instead invests heavily in education, Costa Rica has also increased the area of its forests from 20% in the 1980s to 50% of its total land mass today. A crash tree-planting program over the last couple of decades made a decisive impact on the quality of life in that tiny Central American country.
A separate survey made recently in the Philippines can explain the phenomenon of a dirt-poor and largely uneducated Philippines scoring high in its overall happiness index. The Survey, called Personal Happiness Index, noted that Filipinos consider family and health as the most important determinants of happiness, followed by religion and friends.
Factors such as politics and sex, the juiciest topics in the Internet - especially among Filipinos in the diaspora - rank relatively low in Filipinos' psyche.
I think we just hit upon the clearest explanation for the seeming disconnect between the obvious consternation among global Filipinos and the happiness index of Philippine society in general. If one were to survey the Philippine mood based on Internet discussions alone, one would think that Filipinos are some of the unhappiest people in the world.
Survey after survey confirm that Filipinos are generally happy, much happier in fact than people in the United States. The U.S. ranked number 114 in the same Happy Planet Index survey out of 143.
The preponderance of evidence that Filipinos are happy in most surveys ignores the Filipino sense of humor. If sense of humor were to be included, I predict that Filipinos would soar further in the rankings.
On a hunch, I explored the mood of the country during the Estrada presidency, when much of the country knew that they were led by a crony-hugging, mistress-splurging President who held nightly meetings with his true Presidential advisers: his friends and campaign contributors and boozing buddies.
The evidence was all there. While President Estrada mismanaged the economy, drove away investors from Subic, Mactan and other free-trade zones through a perceived capricious judicial system and anti-foreigner policies, slowly dismantled the structural improvements made by his predecessor, Narciso Ramos, the Filipinos held contests on who could come up with the best Erap (President Estrada) Jokes.
I revisited those jokes yesterday and I must confess I got up from my computer entertained and happy.
Some Erap Jokes:
"Why does Erap keep empty beer bottles in his fridge? Answer: They are for those who don't drink."
"How do you confuse Erap? Answer: Stick him in a round room and tell him to sit in a corner."
"Why did Erap stare at a can of frozen orange juice? Answer: Because it said concentrate."
There are tons of these Erap Jokes, with one particular zinger standing out as the finale:
"Why was Erap proud for finishing a puzzle in only six months? Answer: The box said 2 to 4 years."
The Filipinos knew that Erap was plundering their Treasury and lavishing taxpayer-financed gifts on his many mistresses yet they continued to smile and were generally happy.
In Costa Rica, there is a saying that a grudge - even the worst kind of grudge - must not last more than three years. The Filipinos, it seems, simply couldn't hold a grudge in the time of Estrada.
Filipinos scored high in the 2009 Happy Planet Index because of a relatively high life expectancy, a low carbon footprint, a top quartile personal happiness level. The same survey, however, showed that the personal happiness level of Filipinos had slipped. More Filipinos reported unhappiness over their personal circumstances in the 2009 survey compared to the level in 2006.
Thus, although politics and the economy rank rather low as two of the determining factors in gauging personal happiness, there appears to be a correlation between the deteriorating politics and economy of the Philippines and the people's personal happiness.
The correlation - or coincidence - is striking. The Philippines is led by a President whose approval rating is a minus 60: 80% negative, 20% positive. The President apparently has no endearing qualities that can cushion the impact.
How do we know this? There are hardly any jokes about President Gloria Arroyo going around that are remotely equivalent to the Erap Jokes. While Erap's critics - there were many - let go of their steam by simply laughing and mocking him, Gloria's critics just want her to go away.
I googled Pandak Jokes, the usual jokes that are aimed at President Arroyo's shortness of stature (she stands 4 feet, 11 inches on stockinged feet), and got nothing. No one is coming up with Pandak Jokes the way Filipinos used to endearingly make fun of their favorite dunce, former President Estrada.
The Garci tapes, which for the uninitiated refer to President Arroyo seemingly caught on tape talking to former Elections official Virgilio Garcillano and commanding him to change the outcome of the 2004 Presidential election in Mindanao to reflect a one million-vote lead for Arroyo, doomed the Arroyo presidency from the moment the tapes were released to the press in 2005.
Add to that the allegations of the First Gentleman (Arroyo's husband) being in charge of the much-ballyhooed 20% commission (or tong) system in the awarding of government contracts and you have a salacious mix of accusations, lies and videotape. No sex, thank God.
What do these recent developments portend? For the first time, there appears to be hope for the Philippines. There seems to be a growing congruence between people's objective station in life and what they think of their own lives.
The United States is number 114 out of 143 countries in the Happy Planet Index. That appears to be consistent with objective reality, because considering the many problems in front of the American people, they should be unhappy.
For the Philippines, there is no such congruence - not yet. They are happy despite themselves and their circumstances.
Progress can come to the Philippines when Filipinos start to feel unhappy. As long as they are happy, they will not seek to change the circumstances of their lives. They will not change the way they process their world. They will not seek the transformative change that starts with everyone asking, "how can I change myself to become a better citizen, a more productive partner in my country's drive towards a better economic and political future?"
Change the Filipinos must, else they wake up in 2050 and there's more than 200 million of them wondering each day if their food supplies will take them to the next scheduled arrival of imports of rice, fish, canned goods and other foodstuffs.
