Filipino Culture and Its Interrelation with Planning: Essay

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According to Elie Wiesel, “Without memory, there is no culture. Without memory, there would be no civilization, no society, no future”. That being said, we need memories to be able to recall and recollect our culture, doing so would lead us to history or our past. Some historical books and accounts discuss culture as a whole and culture in different parts of the world. These accounts would help us understand, comprehend and appreciate our values, principles and beliefs. These accounts will also help us understand why we act what we act today. David P. Barrows’ book presented a lot of historical accounts from before the Spaniards came to the Philippines up until the moment we, the Filipinos, gained our independence from our conquerors. It was written in there the way of living of our ancestors, the way they hunt, migrate for food and build their own shelter. The book also contains the characteristics and traits of the early Filipinos without the influences of the Spaniards. We can also read there the things that were passed on to us by our conquerors, such as their religion, way of living, languages, songs, music, and even architecture.

What Is Culture?

Andrew Reimann wrote that culture is a set of perspectives shared by a group of people and reflected in their actions, relationships, communities, and artefacts. The key to understanding culture as it relates to communication is developing an awareness and acceptance of different perspectives. The world consists of different types of people, groups, countries and even religions, which makes culture so diverse and various, and as an individual, it is hard to understand totally different cultures from different types of people and groups. According to Paolo Coelho, “Culture makes people understand each other better. And if they understand each other better in their soul, it is easier to overcome the economic and political barriers. But first they have to understand that their neighbour is, in the end, just like them, with the same problems, the same questions”. Culture can be destructive and really damaging for two divergent parties, it can break them, but it can also bind them together if these two parties learn to appreciate and recognise that they are different in a way but also similar in most aspects.

The Filipinos under the Conquerors

Our beloved country and countrymen were heavily influenced by the colonization of Spain and the United States. It is stated in a lot of history books that because we were under the regime and reign of the Spaniards for almost 400 years, our own Filipino culture was almost stripped away and forgotten by our ancestors that being said Spanish culture is being greatly reflected by our Filipino culture, we inherited various traits, behaviours, even languages from them, and even if there ruling ended, that did not mean we were already free, and we will never be free. After the Spaniards the Americans came, and our country once again fell into the hands of its new conqueror, and because of this occurrence, once again we acquire a different culture and language that is totally new to us and we barely knew. Fortunately, after years of fighting for our independence, the Americans granted us the freedom we wanted on July 4’ 1946. But because of American dominion for 50 years, the Philippines and the Filipinos continue up until now to mirror American as well as the Spaniards’ influences. Ethnically, the Philippines is the most diverse country in Asia. Filipinos generally descend from the Malay, Spanish, Negrito (indigenous group) and Indian, Chinese, and Indonesian groups. Because Filipinos are naturally diverse, our culture and values are also diverse and broad.

Filipinos’ Beliefs and Values

Filipinos often enlist the opinions of others because group consensus is crucial. Pakikisama, or maintaining good feelings and getting along with others, is a dominant cultural theme; smooth interpersonal relationships are valued above all else. This value is often portrayed when a certain situation happened, and in that situation, we have to choose whether the comfort ourselves or the comfort of others, and because we Filipinos are known to be good at pakikisama, of course, we will gladly choose the comfort of our companion than ourselves’ comfort. Filipinos’ sense of justice, fairness, and concern for others is manifested in the concept of pakikipagkapwa-tao. Interpersonal relationships are seen as the primary source of happiness and security. Because of this, Filipinos will usually be indirect, hide their anger, and avoid confrontations. Hiya, or shame, involves a loss of face with the accompanying feelings of embarrassment, inferiority, and alienation. If a Filipino does not respect his or her elders, does not reciprocate favours, or engages in other inappropriate behaviours, he or she is said to be walang hiya. Hiya is closely related to amor propio or a high degree of sensitivity that causes one to have easily wounded pride. Filipino families are extremely hospitable; Filipinos are known internationally for their hospitality to visitors. Maybe the reason why we got invaded by our neighbouring countries is because we are so hospitable and welcoming. Up until now, this trait is visible. We welcome foreigners and other strangers in our country with open arms, which is why the Philippines is also a home for a lot of Chinese, Americans and even Middle Eastern people. We value punctuality less, this trait is sometimes called ‘Filipino time’ where we love to pass the time and move slowly. Assembly in the Philippines may start late due to latecomers. The embedded cultural concepts of bahala na (‘leave it to God’) and ganyan lang ang buhay (‘life is like that’) are often interpreted by Americans as passivity or fatalism. Bahala na and ganyan lang ang buhay may cause some Filipinos to appear as though they are unwilling to take action and be proactive, when in fact these beliefs enable Filipinos to survive great difficulties, tolerate hardship, and accept change gracefully.

Planning

According to Peter Hall, planning is an extremely ambiguous and difficult word to define. Planners of all kinds think that they know what it means; it refers to the work they do. The difficulty is that they do all sorts of different things, and so they mean different things by the word; planning seems to be all things to all people. We need to start by defining what exactly we are discussing. Planning is the art and science of arranging the physical space and environment to influence human behaviour. Jeff Speck narrated in his talk ‘4 Ways to Make a City More Walkable’ the story of planning, the story of the formation of the planning profession. When in the 19th century people were choking from the soot of the dark, satanic mills, the planners said: “Hey, let’s move the housing away from the mills”. And life spans increased immediately, dramatically, and we like to say that the planners have been trying to repeat that experience ever since. We could say that planning is just a matter of common sense and creating a better strategy to attack some present problems. Based on the story, the planners came up with a very simple solution that saved a lot of lives. But as time goes by, life in the urban and rural are turning a bit more complex than the years before. It may be a fruit of technological advancement and people being more civilised. The needs and wants of people before are very different, and this changed drastically. If we were to compare past problems and 21st-century problems, we will see very clear differences between the two, but it does not mean that the solution should also be different. The principles and objectives of planning will never change, no matter the time, problems and hindrances, it needs to resolve changes.

What Affects Human Behaviour?

Human behaviour is complex and a very broad matter to discuss. But the reality that we are humans made from flesh and blood leads us directly to the first factor or influence and that is biological influences, it is about our genetic makeup and the factors from our physical environment. We may notice the difference between the behaviour of a normal person and a person with a disability or, for example, someone who has Down syndrome. While social influence on behaviour includes those that took place historically in our lives. People who suffered abuse during their childhood may develop different types of behaviour when they grow up. Socially, humans are practically shaped by our environment; it can be the natural environment or the built environment. This is the nurture part of understanding human behaviours, then again, biological factors can be considered the ‘nature’ aspects of human behaviour.

Planning and Human Behaviour Correlation

The study of how both the natural and built environment affects human cognition and behaviour is known as environmental psychology. Traditionally, the bulk research on environmental psychology has been concerned with built environments rather than naturally-occurring settings. The decisions that are made concerning the materials to be used and the building system to be used can have far-reaching effects on the natural environment, as well as on the health and well-being of the building users. That being said we can conclude that planning a certain building or a certain environment for human’s sake really influences human health, behaviour and manners.

Example of Effects of Planning on Human Behaviour

On March 4, 2014, Cameron Allan McKean wrote about how blue lights on train platforms combat Tokyo’s suicide epidemic. The article is about a blue light at the end of the train platform and that its only purpose is not to aesthetically please commuters but to prevent them from jumping in front of oncoming trains and killing themselves. It was first installed on Tokyo’s Yamanote train line in 2009; these led lights are one example of Tokyo’s idiosyncratic response to the city’s suicide rate. In Japan, suicide takes more lives than natural disasters and traffic fatalities. It was recorded that in 2013, 2,825 people killed themselves in Tokyo. In Kanagawa, part of Tokyo’s suburban sprawl, a further 1,532 people committed suicide according to data released by the National Police Agency (NPA). Tokyo is a model of stressful urban living. Each day workers spend an average of 67 minutes commuting, according to a 2008 article in the Asahi Shinbun newspaper. Rush hour is the worst scenario commuters experience for they have to spend their time on a train that is so crowded, sometimes four times as many passengers as its designed rides the train. If we are going to think about its solution to stop the commuters from jumping is to put a barrier between the train’s platform and the railways itself. And if there is no research being done about how the blue led light affects the commuter’s behaviour, we will never consider such a crazy plan. But Tokyo’s city planner concluded that putting a platform barrier is not the best solution, plus it is more costly than installing blue led lights. Blue lights are believed to have a calming effect on people; they were installed for the same reason and expectation that they might calm agitated people. After some time of analysing the effect of blue light on suicidal commuters, it resulted in a decrease in the number of suicides by 84% (Matsubayashi et al., 2013). The findings suggest that the use of blue lights can be effective in preventing railway suicide.

Conclusion

With the help of some research and this paper I, therefore conclude and I firmly agree and support the definition of planning which state that it is the art and science of arranging the physical space and environment to influence human behaviour. I was able to analyze that a certain plan can affect human cognition and behaviour and it can have a short or long-term effect on us humans. It can give us good or bad results, and it can alter the way we think and the way we do things. So, for future planners out there, you should be very careful and cautious about planning certain surroundings for it may produce future human behaviour problems if it is not done properly and correctly and if you did not do proper research about planning. In planning things that may have a drastic effect on a large scale of people, planners should bear in mind the difference between reactive and proactive. Reactive strategies are those that respond to some unanticipated event only after it occurs, while proactive strategies are designed to anticipate possible challenges. Some problems that occurred in the Philippines showed how our very government attacks it. The Philippines’ government can be categorized as reactive for they only solve a certain problem or situation right away without proper research and study; as a result, the problem bears more problems instead of it being solved.

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