After quietly celebrating Christmas Day, many people must now face reality and ask themselves: What’s ahead in 2019? How are we going to cope?
The year comes to a close and the new year approaches the United States with dark clouds in the horizon. Washington is at a standstill as a stalemate prevails between President Donald Trump, who insists on building a $5-billion wall across the border with Mexico, and the Democrats in Congress, who vehemently oppose it, forcing a partial government shutdown that threatens to stretch well into the start of the new year.
The stock market plunged dangerously last week and is now on track for its worst year since 2008 and its worst December since 1931 during the Great Depression. The plunge was a reflection of investors’ concerns about a slowing global economy, the continuing trade dispute with China, and another interest rate increase announced by the Federal Reserve just before Christmas.
The stock market plunge also reflects a general pessimism over what former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg described as Trump’s “recklessly emotional and senselessly chaotic” administration that in the past few days have resulted in the following: the shocking decision to a full withdraw of US troops from Syria and partial pullout from Afghanistan, the resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, the firing of White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, and the firing of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, among others.
With no clear end in sight for the partial government shutdown, fears of a looming recession, and an expected larger divide between a soon Democratic-dominated House and Trump, Americans must now dig deep into their reserve of optimism to welcome the new year with hope.
In the Homeland, on the other hand, despite uncertainties raised by the escalating political violence ahead of the coming May elections, the constant threats of political repression, a possible shift to federal form of government, continuously rising prices of goods and services, and fears of even higher prices with another tax reform bill in the horizon, Filipinos remain as hopeful as ever of the coming year.
Year after year, hope springs eternal for Filipinos as shown by surveys in the last few years. Surveys every year conducted by the Social Weather Stations show that at least 93 percent or more than nine of ten Filipinos face each coming year with hope.
Last year, the percentage was 96 percent, the highest since SWS started the hope survey in 2000, while in the previous year it was 95 percent. In 2015, it was 92 percent and in 2014, the figure was 93 percent.
Hope surveys had customarily been at high levels, starting at 87 percent when the SWS first polled about hope in December 2000, and 88 percent in December 2001. In December 2002, New Year hope reached a record high of 95 percent before declining to 90 percent in December 2003. It slumped to 81 percent at the end of December 2004, but rebounded to 85 percent in 2005 and to 91 percent in 2006. In 2009 and 2010, 89 percent of Filipinos showed the same optimism about the coming year, which was slightly lower than in the three previous years—91 percent in 2006 and 2007, and 92 percent in 2008.
Except for that period following the Garci cheating scandal in 2004 when street protests nearly toppled Gloria Macapagal Arroyo from Malacanang, Filipinos have been traditionally hopeful of the coming year.
It may be worthwhile to note that in Germany, where the first survey about fear and hope was made in 1991, hope among Germans never topped 58% in any year from 1991 to the present. It is ironic that the Philippines, one of the poorest countries in the world, has a much higher hope rating than Germany, which is the world’s fifth largest economy, next only to the United States, China, Japan and India.
Analysts cite the resiliency and the traditionally happy disposition of Filipinos as the reason for their eternal optimism in the face of poverty, disasters, calamities, corruption and inefficiency of government, and the prolonged separation of families because of the export of labor. This was clearly shown during the typhoon Yolanda disaster in Central Visayas and was recognized by CNN’s Anderson Cooper, US State Secretary John Kerry, UN chief Kim Ban-moon and many others who witnessed how the Filipinos “dusted off the dirt” and went on with their lives in the midst of extreme deprivation, devastation and death.
That Filipinos remain hopeful despite all these negative factors is indeed a testament to the resiliency of Filipinos, which was first noted by the late President Manuel L. Quezon who described Filipinos as “pliant like a bamboo,” in reference to the bamboo tree, which bends with the wind and survives the storm. This inherent characteristic of the Filipino enables him to survive disasters and calamities that confront him, enabling him to adjust to life’s difficulties and move on.
In fact, in a Gallup Poll survey released last year, the Philippines came out as the third happiest country in the world behind Fiji and Colombia, two equally poor countries where people remain happy despite depravity.
But whether such eternal optimism and resiliency is good for the country or not is another thing.
In an editorial about the Filipinos’ endless optimism in 2005, the Philippine Daily Inquirer said: “We may be incurable optimists because we expect too little of the future, or from ourselves. We let alleged crimes slide because we do not demand an accounting; we are happy to continue eating two square meals a day and call that progress. Enough already. If this is optimism, let’s all get real.”
And that precisely is the problem with the Filipinos’ eternal optimism. Because we have set the bar too low, we tend to be satisfied with what we have even though it is clearly not enough, and in this situation, it is not difficult to be hopeful. And because of our ever-hopeful spirit, we tend to ignore the problems of the past and move on, only to encounter the same problems in the coming year.
Add this to the Filipinos’ “bahala na” attitude and we know why many Filipinos tend to be contended with what they have and just ignore the problems and dangers that they confront every day.
The problem with these hope surveys is that they are usually conducted in the first week of December, when a festive atmosphere prevails over the Philippines because of the coming Christmas season. At this time of the year, Filipinos put their problems under the rug and put a happy face for the most festive of all Filipino celebrations. And besides, many of them enjoy a moment of satisfaction at this time of the year, having just received or about to receive 13th month pay, bonuses and other perks.
While hope is generally a good thing, too much of it can bring bad results. After all, isn’t it a fact of life that anything in excess is not a good thing?