I remember that the great Jose Rizal, the Philippines’ greatest hero according to our history books, said something about the youth being the hope of our country. Indeed, we are not the only culture to view the next generation as such. Unfortunately, in this day and age, I can no longer agree with this sentiment unless something is done with the kind of mindset that is prevalent with the youth of today.
I’m not saying that they’re hopeless of course. My apprentice and his sisters are among the youths of this country and they themselves are self-admitted “squatters” but they shine with an intellect I have all but rarely seen. However, my apprentice and his gifted siblings are just a handful of individuals compared to the ocean of stupidity the youth of the Philippines has become in recent years.
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Being part of a growing gaming community, I often come into contact with the younger generation of other countries. Many of them also come from struggling middle-class families who are still studying to earn their degrees but one can note a sense of purpose and determination in the way they talk about their plans for the future. One of them has plans to become a veterinarian in her community since she lives in one of the more rural parts of the United States where agriculture and livestock are an all-important commodity. Somewhere in South Korea is a young woman who studies hard to become a guidance counselor as she is all too aware of the high suicide rate in her own country and knows that even a small amount of counseling can have a great impact. Then, in Canada, there is a young man who works at an outlet of Starbucks while he studies to become a programmer so that he can one day become a vital part of a company and earn a good living for his troubles. Again, these are just a few individuals but this is extremely far from what you’re likely to see in the vast majority of Filipino youths today.
I lose heart for the youths of the Philippines because the following is all too often what I see in them:
Materialism
Granted, there’s nothing wrong with wanting things for yourself. There’s nothing wrong with having good or beautiful things like a good camera phone, a nice car or some awesome shoes. However, what I find deplorable is that they seem to be the only things in the minds of our youth today.
Nice things, at the end of the day, are just that: Nice Things. They aren’t major necessities because a basic Nokia phone can still allow you to call for help when caught in a bad situation, an old but reliable Toyota can still take you places and even a pair of cheap slippers can last you for quite a while. Nice things are things you can have when you have the money for them and don’t need to worry about things like food, shelter and medicine.
The way many youths today seem to value materialistic belongings is often disturbing. There are some who will choose not to eat for days at a time just to get the latest model of smart phone and there are those would rather be stuck with old and torn clothes just so they can buy a new pair of branded shoes. Of course, as long as they use their own money, I suppose I shouldn’t be complaining. But then there are those who steal from either their parents or other people their age just to get what they want.
Lust
One of the saddest things about our youths is that, thanks to our romance-centered media from the love-songs constantly blaring on our radios to just about every movie that is made these days that doesn’t contain hilarious ghosts, they seem to be hell-bent on breeding and very little else. Indeed, I find it utterly ridiculous when there are so many youths discussing their “relationship goals” even though they have so little in the way of “career goals” which is actually more essential in the long run. What’s worse is that majority of the youth can’t even tell the difference between lust and love.
Look, I’ll admit, I’m not really an expert when it comes to love. However, I do know that love is less about looks or platitudes and essentially more about “trust” than anything else. It’s about having confidence that your significant other will be there for you when you need them and less about them looking like Daniel Padilla, Katherine Bernardo or Alden Richards. Remember ladies and gentlemen, we will all age and that pretty face you’re looking at now may very well change in the next few decades of your relationship. It’s better to have someone you can laugh with and trust completely in your sunset years than someone who has no sense of humor with a sagging face and an overall bad attitude.
Stupidity
Well surprise, surprise, eh? And no, I’m not just pulling this one out of my butt. I’ve met my share of smarter youths of course, my apprentice and his sisters included. But, as I’ve already mentioned, they are easily outnumbered by those who couldn’t tell the difference between an elbow and an oboe.
Most of the youth of today are so preoccupied with senseless things like neuron-destroying TV shows, showing off their latest gadgets and simply bonking with one another that they are unable to see the consequences of many of their actions. They fail to see that not finishing school will make finding a job in the future very difficult. They fail to surmise that being unemployed will leave them and their family in perpetual poverty. They fail to deduct that poverty will make them vulnerable to all sorts of problems from disease, starvation to being victimized by others.
Then I run into a bunch of youths who seem not just content but happy in their stupidity, believing that being smart means they’ll have more problems. They never realize that being smart means you’ll be able to find a solution to said problems and that, just because you can’t see the said problems, doesn’t mean they aren’t there.
I HAVE RETURNED TO LAY WASTE TO OUR ENEMIES!
I doubt it. The youth have no–or very little–recollection of this country’s past. What little today’s youth know has been fed to them through the brainwashing techniques of the media and the internet; they don’t even like to read and would rather tinker with their cellphones and i-pads.
What’ll happen is these youth will go to school, try to go abroad and work, adopt a new culture and live out the rest of their lives as far away from this “Hell Hole” called the Philippines as much as possible.
The oligarchs politicians and Chinese businessmen–who have established their own political and economic dynasties in this country–will continue to churn out educated, skilled, but stupid youth work force for overseas and local employment to keep the feudal system going; and to brainwash the Balikbayans and OFWs into thinking that they’re also part of the elites when they come back to visit and spend their remittance monies.
I once lived with a woman in this country for almost 3 years. This woman exactly fits your description. When I met this woman from Biliran (a province nobody has ever heard of or knows where it is) she already had her caregiver certification but was working in Las Piñas as a live-in babysitter. In my opinion, that is underachieving of the first magnitude. She got with me because I am a foreigner and no doubt she viewed me as a way out of poverty.
In the 3 years we were together I asked her many times, “When you were a child what did you want to be when you grew up?” I still do not know the answer to that question. Another question was, “What do you want out of life?” I DID get an answer to that question. “I want a house & lot.” What a high ideal to aspire to!!!.
Well now she has my child AND when her sister, who married a Norwegian and moved there visited us, she convinced my lady to find a Norwegian with more money than I will ever have; so now she has her house & lot while my son is gone from my life. I am happy for his future but most certainly NOT for the lie she told the Norwegian embassy so she could spirit my son out of the country without me having any say in the matter.
Living with that woman was the most boring 3 years of my life and I wish I had never met such an uninteresting women. She was content to lie around the house all day watching telenovelas like Rita Negrita and similar garbage every day. Just for something to do and to have someone to talk to I would walk downtown in Malaybalay (which isn’t very exciting itself) and would stop at any one of 3 or 4 restos where I could sit outside with a beer and engage in conversation with whoever happened by. That is no kind of life for anyone but maybe I should have taken up with one of the many attractive girls who would have been happy to live with me and enjoy a comfortable life on my small pension.
People here need to stop thinking college is only for a specific job, and realize that an actual education that stimulates thinking is more important than TRAINING for a job. At some time a person needs to think about a job, but I don’t think anyone should choose a major until at least after their second year of college. Maybe if a person has always wanted to be a doctor or some kind of scientist, then perhaps they need to at least take the proper courses that will qualify them to eventually major in those fields.
“People here need to stop thinking college is only for a specific job, and realize that an actual education that stimulates thinking is more important than TRAINING for a job.”
You didnt apply those rules yourself when you met your Ms. Right. The pot calling the kettle?
Actually I was on the rebound from a long term relationship with an intelligent woman who turned out to be a thief and member of the PBMA cult. I don’t know which was worse, the thievery or the PBMA.
Yes I agree that I was not selective enough when agreeing to meet the latter woman in the first place, but criticism of me after the fact and failing to simply think about my comments themselves is disingenuous at best. I’m almost certain Mr. Haighton is not Filipino, but this response IS a typical Filipino response and an attempt to divert attention away from the question and put the blame where it does not belong.
The fact of the woman’s single-minded pursuit of only a “house & lot” remains the point of the post, not the fact that it took me some time to realize she really had nothing to bring to the relationship besides the bedroom. Once she was IN my house and I was bored out of my skull, at least I did not do the Pinoy thing and just kick her out and go find a few more companions that would have offered me the same bedroom satisfaction, and possibly a more enlightened conversation.
Mr. Lynch,
she conned you. And you were there when it happened. Kalas. In my book we call that naivity. You are a non-Filipino (like me) and you are dealing with people coming from a different country and a different culture. I made the same mistakes as you, only it didnt cost me a dime and it didnt ‘cost’ me a kid.
Well lucky you, but you still are not addressing the points made, only reveling in your better luck.
Mr. Lynch,
Okay I will address the points discussed by Mr. Grimwald.
I am sure Mr. Grimwald can write the exact same story each fucking year. In stead he should focus himself on the that tine part of the PH population that have a different agenda. That small part that focuses itself on success, progress and improvement of the the individual. I just think, Mr. Grimwald, doesnt know that many people who are applying the ‘rules’ of Maslow’s pyramid. Because Maslow’s pyramid doesnt mix well in a collectivistic system. That is why, Mr. Grimwald can write such stories every day and every week.
Mr. Lynch,
one last thing:
Luck (+ good luck and bad luck) are words that do not appear in my dictionary.
Mr. Lynch,
“The fact of the woman’s single-minded pursuit of only a “house & lot” remains the point of the post,”
Fine, lets talk about that issue. She wasnt the first Filipina who used that ‘tactic’. So you should have been warned. We (the entire global population) are not all the perfect, non lying, law-abiding, ‘ethical’, ‘moral’ people.
My Pinay GF was only intrested in 1 thing: a kid and a marriage. For me that was too shallow. And on top of that she also wantd to send moneyu back home, once we were settled in my country That was also a big no-go. I am not working for her family.
I wrote about this sort of thing about the way Filipinos regard their future lives as productive members of society from the perspective of career fads like Nursing and all other types of professions that are seen to be “migration tickets”. Here is an excerpt from that article, God’s plan for the Philippines: infesting the world with desperate Filipino nurses…
Indeed Benign0, I was actually one of those nurses before, as well…
Just a couple of days ago I had a conversation with a prospective landlady. She is 83 and retired from working as a nursing assistant in the US when she turned 76. She said that Filipino nurses when they get to America are almost universally unable to function there and need to be completely retrained because the schools in The Failippines are generally very poor quality.
Ooooooohhhhhhhh d*mn…I’m currently in online classes for accountancy (which is probably 4 to 5 years), and I am planning to leave at the age of 24…6 years from now. Honestly my parents are the one since I was a kid who pushed me to take this course. I remember since when I was four in kindergarten, all they say is that I should take that course because it is the most practical and most needed. I hated it two years ago but know I think it’ll suit me best…hopefully It’ll be useful in America especially when I plan to do business/entrepreneurship.
What a weary time those years were — to have the desire and the need to live but not the ability.
@Grimwald, I think they are “not” the hope of this country, the education itself is the last line of defence in this country. The elites are the ones should be enlightened since they hold the media, newspaper, etc.
Just a tiny fraction of the youth.. And I am one of them;)
I believe Filipino teens/ young people are somewhat similar to teens elsewhere – but without proper parental guidance. If young people are obsessed with smart phones / stupid tv shows instead of basic necessities, they probably learned this from their parents, kuya, tatay, etc. I have noticed, ironically, that older people/ parents often act as immature/ irresponsible as the kids. In my wife’s city there is a sari-sari store with a woman owner; her daughter, who is probably 8, runs the cash register. She was running it when she was about 5. Some parents teach their kids responsibility and maturity – but many don’t.
Unless kids are taught self-respect by their parents, they will probably have shallow values. Work ethic (I will probably say this 100 times) is vital because it enables one to work hard and progress in life, gain self-respect and avoid a life of begging/ whoredom. Without good parenting you will have parents exploit their kids for pera. There are millions of parents who would rather their kids do slave labor/ whore themselves than have to work themselves. I have seen this personally. I think the major issue in the Philippines is horrible parents, not necessarily just lazy teens.
Totally, Greg. Dumb, lazy parents cranking out dumb, lazy kids, sending their kids to schools where they are taught that being dumb and lazy is a-OK. And on goes.
I find that to be the epitome of irresponsible parenting. The child is doing the job the parent is too lazy to do and while the child should be in school learning how to do something more productive than sell sachets of shampoo and bottles of gin or rum.
Well, true. But what would the kid learn at school? Revised history, Pinoy Pride, and religious claptrap. I’ve seen plenty of high-school kids who need a calculator to work out 50 minus 20.
I find it quite depressing that rural kids get sent off to the classroom to learn completely useless facts (usually by rote rather than with any real understanding).
Their future interests would be better served learning practical things – like how to farm properly. If they’re going to be stuck out in the provinces, knowing how to manage farm water would be far more valuable than learning about the chemistry of H2O.
In reply to the person talking about education and their claim that some people need a calculator for 50-30, let me add that once here in Tagaytay (hardly a rural area) I once had a clerk need a calculator to figure my change from a P100 when my item was P99.
What I find in this new generation of Filipinos is: no good goal in life, and no good role models for them.
What good role model can you find on Kris Aquino? She is whore; and talks and talks nonsense of her TV show.
How about our leaders? They are corrupt; liars and no sense of responsibilities.Most of them are incompetent…
How about our Media? You can view all day: telebasuras; stupid shows; YellowTard propaganda; wowoowee / giling giling; etc…
We have false heroes and false saints; being peddled by the YellowTard media. We have a Cult of Personality shrine, for our youth to pay homage to false heroes and saints.
We have greed outrageously committed by our leaders…
What can you expect from a dumb down generation?
Ughh stupid and dank memes I suppose
as an 18 year old, I’m so glad to be different…I’m still regretful of the fact that memorizing was the way of learning I was subjected to do in high school… well now… Hi college!
i read 2 days ago that pnoy finished his book about the aquino’s legacy to be included in the deped social studies. what will the youths to learn about their legacy? a legacy of fabricated lies? it’s nothing but a subversive book. a book to reverse history of traitorous acts to Motherland.
The Aquinos/Cojuangcos are just a bunch of title conscious and legacy-creating morons, that will try to put their names on everything under the sun. This is a sure-sign of a megalomaniac insecurity.
In my opinion, the color yellow (associated with being a coward, Chinese or jaundiced) should be outlawed.
I second that with a loud, Hear Hear!
What legacy ? Hacienda Luisita ? DAP, PDAF, Pork Barrel Bribery, electoral cheating in 2016 election ? Mamapasano massacre, Mendiola massacre, Hacienda Luisita massacre ?
Maybe he omitted those…and painted a rosy picture of his Jaundiced Reality ! What a moron ! And, he will continue to deceive the next generation of Filipinos…
His ghost writer , may had been paid well, to lie for him !
what’s pnoy is doing? building up a yellow partisan assigning his outgoing cabinets be its generals?
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/571078/news/nation/continue-to-do-part-in-nation-building-pnoy-tells-outgoing-cabinet-execs
I’m not sure if I have the right to say this because I am not of any importance and just a mere young child, but here are my thoughts:
Yes, the current generation is not the brightest and I admit they are more focused on personal gains than being the hope of our country, but I think this shouldn’t be the mindset to this generation. If we’re going to be negative, it will dim the hope left in this youth. What I mean by this is we should try lifting their spirits up, we should try giving a solution and not just pointing out the problem. If you think a majority of the youth is like this, then be the minority that outshines them and maybe others would follow suit.
I’ve noticed that people these days have this mindset, and it breaks my heart to hear that many Pinoys are no longer proud of being Pinoy because we are becoming hopeless. We shouldn’t give up simply like this.
But then again, i’m just a child and who am I to say this? I do hope I’ll have the courage in the future to make an impact and prove that there’s hope for us after all.