Bayanihan spirit: Extended family and friends as safety net

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Bayanihan spirit: Extended family and friends as safety net

Written by Jojo Iglesia

The bayanihan spirit transforms the Filipino way of life, elevating it to a higher sense of selfless service to others who may need help. The bayanihan spirit as a safety net is highlighted even more in these hard economic times.

One day you are on top of the world, with the trappings of wealth such as beautiful homes, fancy cars and a good-paying job, and armed, though unwittingly, with the sense that nothing will go wrong. Then out of the blue, either suddenly or insidiously (depending on one's perspective), the overall economy sours and you lose your job. For others, there may also be other factors - such as forces of nature, eg, floods or storms, or health-related events, eg, heart attack, stroke, etc. - that may lead to or result in drastic life changes.

(Video from youtube.com; posted by WeakedWeak 10.01.09)

The common denominator is that life-changing events, sometimes on the negative side, can and do happen to anyone, even to the best of us. For example, in the Great Recession of the first decade of the new millennium in the US, we have been really affected as friends and family who had worked in good companies had been laid off. And in the Philippines, there are seasonal typhoons (eg,Ondoy, Pedring, Sendong) that bring havoc and considerable damage to life and property of Pinoys, whether in Luzon (eg, Metro Manila), Visayas, or Mindanao. In certain instances, these represent opportunities for friends and family to band together - as in the bayanihan spirit - and thus forge closer bonding and form an informal safety net. These would complement the donations to responsible organizations and other benefits (eg, unemployment, insurance, etc).

These are the kind of events that test us in practically all aspects of our being and can help best define who we are. And hopefully when the sun shines again and fortune smiles once more, we will be better off than ever before. Perhaps not just in financial terms but in the values that really matter as they relate to faith, family, and friends.