THOMASIAN cartoonist Pol Medina Jr. said it best in his Pugad Baboy series: We are a poor country pretending to be rich.
I remembered his character Polgas say that after I spent some time in a shopping mall recently. While paying for my new pants, the cashier asked if I had 75 cents. I didn’t, I said, and she proceeded to give my change. It was 25 cents short. I asked for it, but the cashier apologized, said she hadn’t any, and promptly ignored me to entertain the guy next in line. Funny how people act as if 25 cents had no worth at all.
Twenty-five cents also presuppose that there are lower denominations of money. The Bangko Sentral issues 10- and five-cent coins, but some stores do not seem to recognize these as money, and so refuse to accept them as payment. Result: hundreds of centavos in my drawer, which I can’t use unless I return them to the bank.
Of course, there is the issue about these coins not being able to buy anything by themselves. We seem to have forgotten that two tens and a fiver make 25, four of those equal a peso, and so on. You get my drift.
Therefore, it appears that these coins have value only in banks and shopping malls. Use them in sari-sari stores or elsewhere and the proprietors look at you like you are from another planet. There ought to be a law…
What’s my point? We are an extremely proud people. We consider it lowly to pick up a dirty peso on the street. We are ashamed that our neighbour might think we are desperate, and so leave ol’ Jose to eat mud and grime on the road.
We Ilocanos often get ridiculed because we are kuripot. But take it from this Ilocano: there is such a thing as valuing what one has, be it money or property. So “kuripot” might not be the exact word to describe us. “Thrifty” has a nice ring to it, I think. After all, the maxim “save for a rainy day” wasn’t thought of for nothing.
We Filipinos in general have expensive tastes. We were under the Americans. True, but that gives us no leave to think in dollars. American tourists come here and buy by the bulk because our products are cheap. We, on the other hand, often opt for imported products, which are more expensive — and oftentimes made with our own material, with our own labor. Ironic, isn’t it? But then again, maybe we fail to see that, either. Or we refuse to see it, because imported products are allegedly better in quality, and ergo must be given preference.
Sometimes it is wise to settle for second best, unless you do have money to spend. Most of us don’t. And while it is embarrassing for others to see our poverty, we are not solving anything by covering the hole in the wall with temporary, decorative paint every time an important visitor comes. We are missing the point. We are pretending to be what we are not. One does not race carabaos on the Formula 1 track.
So let’s go and overthrow the leader once again. Things might change with another in power.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. Something more basic and easily workable is called for. A change in attitude does wonders three revolutions can only dream of accomplishing. We cannot race carabaos on the Formula 1 circuit just yet. But who knows, if we do things the right way, maybe carabaos on the racing car track won’t look so out of place.
First, could we please change the way we look at our money? Admittedly, our coins are minute. But they do have value. And not just our money, our products, too.
Please. I think I already have five-, 10-, and 25-cent coins enough for several cans of Coke.
