Why Are Filipinos Happy?

According to Antonio Abaya's article entitled "HAPPINESS" published in Manila Standard Today, dated August 01, 2006, "Filipinos were the happiest people in East Asia and the Japanese, the unhappiest. An everyone else - the Koreans, the Chinese, the Taiwanese, the Singaporeans, the Malaysians, the Indonesians, the Thais—were somewhere in between. You can read more of this discussion at: http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=antonioAbaya_aug01_2006 Another report was compiled by Robs Troy in his blog "MY DAILY DOSE OF BLOGS" concerning Filipinos being happier than any other asian nationalities. You can read Rob's blog at : http://robstroy.blogspot.com/ 2007/01/why-are-filipinos-happier.html And i quote: "They say that Filipinos are a happy and contented people. And when Survey Research Hong Kong released its Asia-wide happiness survey early this year, it proved just that. The survey showed that despite poverty, 94 percent of Filipinos are more contented with their lives than other Asians. In the same survey, almost a third of the Japanese admitted to being “generally miserable,” even if their per capita income of US $38, 980 is highest in Asia, and over five times more than that of Filipinos. Why are Filipinos are happier than the Japanese or even their wealthier Asian neighbors? Dr. Ly Sycip, chairperson of the UP Department of Psychology, explained some reasons. 1. Economic Needs- Filipinos are happy being poor. Look at our past, we had experienced all the difficulties in life, governments changed, with all the brownouts, floods, typhoons and things are getting damaged, YET, you look around us, you can see a lot of FILIPINOS still smiling. Though most of us are in the poverty line, we remained to be patient, forgiving, loving and smiling people. 2. The family: Happy together Based on the UP Department of Psychology’s preliminary findings on well-being, Sycip says that the family and other social relationships are “very important” to Filipinos. She says that it’s from there that they draw a lot of their strength. Filipinos rely on their families during their most difficult times. “In the more western orientation, you’ll think that you’re responsible for yourself, or all the burdens are there for you to carry. Dito, you’ll say that you have a family to take care of you. You’re not the only one responsible for yourself." 3. Cultural systems: To cope and to be happy According to Sycip, cultural systems like bahala na (whatever happens) and padrino (patronage) are also mechanisms for Filipinos to get fulfillment in life. 4. Religion: God can help us Sycip says that Filipinos look toward God to help them come by. We even leave everything to Him when things come to worse. “We are very religious. We believe that there’s the Almighty who will, in the end, decide. So in a way we don’t have to worry so much.” she says. 5. Attitude: But we are truly a happy people! Sycip agrees that Filipinos, despite all the ever-rising problems, are by nature a jovial and buoyant people. We’re happy, she says, because of the way we view life. 6. Filipinos are lighthearted. Sycip points out: The least expectations you have expectations, the very simple things will make you happy. In a way, many of us are like that. I think that’s a quality of a survivor. You’re easy to please so you don’t look for too much.” However, she add this has a negative effect in the sense that one may not be motivated to strive harder in life. Still, Sycip also points: “In a way, people who are at the bottom are also afraid to hope, to expect, because it won't be given freely.You will just be unhappy. 7. Filipinos have simple life. Filipinos are not very materialistic, says Sycip. “Our attachment to them are not yet strong. The desire (to have material things) is there. But when you really couldn't have them, you simply go back where you started. 8. Filipinos are always happy Whatever other peoples and the foreign media call us, whether we’re the “sick man of Asia” or we have the shattered culture,” Filipinos will remain happy because we value it more than anything else. “Filipinos are always complaining, but they also are always smiling. Schizophrenic behaviour. Sometimes are happy to be unhappy. If the leader will be there to solve our problems, we will reach a point that we wuld be culture shocked. But after a while, after we’ve learned to build more positive behavior, that will be good to all of us,” Sycip ends.

beacuse your Filipinos think everything well,hello, i want to visit Filipino,where is the famous place,can you tell me

Because most of the Filipinos are religious. They rely their happiness to God who is the source of everlasting happiness.

I guess masyado lang tayo sanay sa mga problems and we learn how to smile over our troubles. And at times, kahit na naghihirap, and then your neighbor is lending some amount of money from you, you can't say no, kahit 50pesos magpapaluwag tayo sa kapwa, and we feel happy about that... being able to help others even in a very easy way... Tawanan lang ang young problema... we always say that to ourselves.

maybe because of the strong family traditions.. or we really don't take life so seriously like japanese people do.. we love our family more than our job or even career.

im working as a seaman, and I worked with different nationalities like british, belgian, croatian just to name a few. the only thing different with filipinos with other nationalities is happiness. That is the questions many nationalities are asking why filipinos are still happy although we stay on a ship for 9 months? this foreign nationals' contract is only 3 up to 5 months but if they stayed too long on a ship their feelings deteriorate they loose their enthusiasm their happiness deteriorates too. But they see filipinos are still enthusiastic on their job, when filipinos gather they hear filipinos laughing even on a mile distant he he he.... I only said that filipinos happiness is very narrow, we are natural born happy people. We have our goals and hopes intact.

Filipinos are happy because generally we are not materialistic and we can afford to share whatever we have, even the few gantas of rice barely enough for the family. We believe in God and rely so much on God for our future. We are not as serious as people in other countries. We laugh even at our own mistakes. And we are satisfied with what we have but of course we do our best to progress.

another thing why we are such a happy people because generally Filipino people are a forgiving people. generally we don't hold any grudges against those who wrong us. once we hear to word "sorry" it is often enough to melt our heart. we are also happy because of our sense of humour. we often laugh at ourselves even in difficult times. we find humour in almost anything we do.

Because we find contentment on what we have. Being happy is our solutions on problems overtaking us, we have a positive outlook of life.