Philippine society: the alipin class and balato

(1) I’m a bit late with this one, but it’s important, so listen up.

The deaths of 74 people in a stampede at a TV game show in Ultra stadium has prompted some interesting soul searching, none more so than this piece by the Idiot Savant. As mlq said when he linked to the piece last week, this is a “must-read”.

The people who massed at Ultra had alternatives. To be sure, not very attractive ones, but they had alternatives nonetheless. Hungry people do not sit around for three days in a festive atmosphere waiting for a ticket to a game show; they go out looking for food.

Yet they chose to sit it out.

They were people of some means, otherwise they would not have made it there at all. They would not have lasted three days without some form of provisions. Again, I agree with you if you say they didn't have much; but I will disagree with you if you insist that they had nothing at all.

They chose to sit it out.

What kind of insane value system prompts such behavior? It is one that banks on patronage and entitlement, that thrives on false hopes and dependency, and that feeds on the simple, immature sense of good and evil in the universe at the same time disregarding the nature of actions and consequences.

This is the world of the alipin, the lowest class of the heretofore conveniently ignored caste system of the Philippines.

The piece traces this alipin caste to pre-Hispanic forms of servitude in the Philippines:

Slavery existed in the Philippines well before the Spanish came.

It wasn't quite the slavery that we normally associate with American slavery, possibly the nearest conception to the word we have today. It was a system of economic servitude whereby a person in debt would be required to render service to his debtor.

There was the aliping namamahay, who had his own house and who rendered service a few days in a week, a sort of a common laborer. And there was the more uniquely Filipino alipin sa gigilid (hearth slave) who stayed in with his master, a phenomenon which persists to this day with live-in househelp.

And what do you know, it was a class system that in structure was very similar to a caste system. To be sure, it was economic in nature rather than religious, but those divisions were all too real, and an integral part of Malay society then.

So, then, the question: aren't the people at the Wowowee tragedy just your modern-day equivalents of alipin?

You may not agree with everything in this article, but it’s hard to dispute the overall thrust of what it says or to admire the author for facing such an unpopular and unpalatable truth.

(2) How about this on Ultra, related by a friend of mine:

Some friends saw on TV a woman at a wake for her sister, who'd been killed, she said, in the Ultra stampede. She was crying and hoping for promised government help. Then a call came through the TV station's phone, which the entire nation (except me) heard. It was the woman's sister, in the province, very much alive, begging her: "Ate, ibalik mo na yung patay! (Older sister, return the corpse!)"

(3) Finally, Alan Robles writes occasional pieces onPhilippine life for the South China Morning Post. His most recent, on balato (sharing good fortune), is very good. Unfortunately I think you have to subscribe to the SCMP to read it, but here is a taste:

Last year, a radio news show reported the case of a married couple who had suddenly vanished, leading alarmed relatives to claim they had been kidnapped. It turned out there was an even more desperate background to their disappearance. They had won the lottery and had gone into hiding to escape their relatives. As well as their friends. And their neighbours. And their neighbours' acquaintances. And the neighbours' acquaintances' children. Did I leave anyone out? Not to worry ... they would have been there, too.

The pair was running from the custom of balato, a practice where one is obliged to share good fortune with just about anyone who comes forward and makes a claim. Of course, it's a global truism that when you strike it rich, you suddenly discover yourself blessed with an abundance of people close to you. In the Philippines, though, when you come into wealth you don't just become everybody's boon companion, you find yourself responsible for the social security system.

I liked Robles’s take on the possible origins of balato too:

I can't say for sure how the practice of balato came about. I suppose it goes back hundreds of years, to when the centre of existence was the small village where everybody knew and helped each other in a spirit of wonderful harmony and unselfishness. Or, who knows, maybe a fisherman was collecting his catch on the riverbank one day when the town bully came along and said: "Hey, I want some of those." When the victim protested, the thug hit him on the head, saying: "Let's call that balato."

Coming from an individualistic and selfish society, this is all a bit weird to me, but I don't think it is all bad. After all, how much is your money really "yours" anyway? Still, the sharing culture has reached epidemic proportions in the Philippines -- after all, what is the balikbayan (overseas worker) culture but large-scale and globalized balato?

Comments

[gonzo]

you're right, interesting take-- the alipin mentality, and i would say, as a filipino who grew up in the philippines, that it is quite accurate. we all know about the de facto caste system in this country because we all participate in it.

I suppose it is what the local Left refers to as 'semi-feudal'-- though we are currently living within a capitalist economy, the dominant cultural mindset is still feudal.

And if i ever won the lotto, it is a foregone conclusion that i would vanish without a trace on the very day of jackpot collection.

[sparks]

I've a reaction to Idiot Savant's post here:
http://caffeinesparks.blogspot.com/2006/02/in-wowowee-state-of-mind.html

[torn]

I’m glad Sparks raises the points she does, because I had similar thoughts when reading Idiot Savant’s piece. I’ll have to be careful not to misrepresent Sparks or Idiot Savant), but one of several points that she makes is that:

“Idiot Savant is right in claiming that it is an "insane value system." What he does not says is it's a value system that is "insane" from his view.”

Assuming you know what other people believe is a tricky business. Judging others’ beliefs is even riskier. I think most of us middle-class bloggers know what Idiot Savant was driving at, and most of us would probably believe in some of it, but it seems at times that his (our) values are taken to be almost a given, against which those of the “Alipin class” are to be judged. Yet there is a strong element of subjectivity in all of this; I am sure we all hold values that could be classified as “insane” depending on where you are coming from.

It all reminds me a little of the Marxist sleight of hand to explain why the oppressed proletariat did not rise in revolution – that he did not was a result of his “false consciousness”.

So are some values better than other? Is queuing for a game show any more insane than spending hours locked to a computer performing tasks that you do not really believe in (guilty)? These seem to me important questions.

Another point that Sparks makes is that in the unfair world we live in, a “rational response” to poverty (try to get a job and work yourself out of poverty) probably won’t help any more than queuing for Wowowee:

“Contrary to little "nuggets of wisdom" we, the educated folk, have been taught since birth, poverty cannot be overcome by simple hard work. An ambulant vendor can work 15 hours a day every day for fifty years and still die with nothing to show for.”

These points don’t necessarily make Idiot Savant’s piece invalid. I still think he wrote the most interesting piece on Wowowee. This is a very complicated area though …

[sparks]

'It all reminds me a little of the Marxist sleight of hand to explain why the oppressed proletariat did not rise in revolution – that he did not was a result of his “false consciousness”.'

Ah, you've been reading me for far too long. :)

I've a response on my blog.

[empress maruja]

The balato culture probably began even before the Spanish colonization, but it definitely went high gear with the onset of balikbayans. I remember one news item about an old Filipina who won a huge lotto jackpot and decided to share it with the community through balato. In about a week, around 80% of her winnings was wiped out because even people from far villages went to her house for balato (and it was featured on local news).

And this is quite peculiar in balato. We are familiar with the saying "beggars can't be choosers," but in balato, people who receive "charity money" complain on how little they get and would ask for more money.

[Dominique]

Hi, Torn and Frayed. Thanks for the link and the kind comments. More exchange over at {caffeine_sparks}.

[torn]

Over on her blog, Sparks has taken issue with the notion of the survival of pre-colonial values in the Philippines (see the addendum to her original post):

“how could you discount 400 years of "colonial rule" and the consequent value systems resulting from the social structures created at the time and the interaction of agents of history? For example, how does the concept of an all-knowing God, one that monitors your each and every move change your values? How does the innate, natural superiority of caucasians change your values? How does a State, previously unconceived of in the pre-colonial Barangay system, the supreme authority above everything and everyone you see change your values? How does the concept of property, of exclusive ownership of land for example, change your values?”

I think my verdict on this debate about the survival of “alipin values” would be a draw.

I do agree with Sparks that many of our values come from our immediate environments. Look at the difference between your beliefs and those of your parents—and that is just a difference of 30 years. (That’s not necessarily true of course—your values may be the same as your parents’, but most people I know feel very differently from their parents about many matters.) I also agree with another point that Sparks makes that nothing is likely to increase the value of material belongings so much as their absence.

On the other hand, I still think Idiot Savant’s point about the continuing significance of pre-colonial norms holds true in many societies. The best example of this is India, where the traditional caste system (which had nothing to do with the British colonial period) continues to drag the country down. Only this week, I was chatting to a friend who had just returned from seeing his elderly parents in Nepal, another Hindu country. His mother and father are having trouble taking care of themselves, so while he was there he arranged for someone to stay with them and take care of them at his (my friend’s) expense. Was his family grateful? No—the main concern was that his parents would now have to share a kitchen with an “untouchable”. And this was in 2006.

This also makes me think about the way we perceive history and historical causation. “History” (meaning the formal discipline) is happier defining causes in economic and political terms. Such matters are formally recorded and (in the case of economics) are quantifiable. Values, traditions, and other more nebulous factors are either ignored, or shunted off into a “social history” ghetto, while History remains centered on the politics and economics. As Idiot Savant has pointed out, that might not be the best way of figuring things out.

[torn]

Empress -- thanks for the interesting comments. That's rather a chilling observation in your last paragraph, though I am sure it is true.

Dominique -- there was synchonicity in the air this morning, your comment (and your well-taken points on Caffeine Sparks) went up at the same time as I posted my last comment.

[Dominique]

Ha, ha, yes, indeed.

Anyway, as I said, it's a theory. If someone wants to come up with a more academic approach to it (and it seems no one has), it might help.

By the way, it's helpful to read "In Search of the Pre-Hispanic Filipino" by the late Henry Scott. At P275, it's pricey for such a thin poor-quality volume, but the material inside is great. Available at Powerbooks and National. There's a long section on alipin society.

[sparks]

I've a new post which addresses the supposed causal relationship between "alipin class" and dependency. It also demonstrates what I've nothing better to do than engage in fruitless intellectual exercises. Ah. But it's fun :)

[Dv]

I never liked the balato system. Here's why.

I'm all in favor of kindness and generosity. I applaud those who give to good causes, and I myself support several such charities. However, that's not what the balato system is all about.

Rather, the balato system is a form of culturally accepted extortion. It amounts to forcing someone to share in his good fortune -- whether you need it or not. It is extortion and manipulation, pure and simple.

There are many things to extol about Filipino values. The balato system is not one of them.

[Balikbayan box]

This is a cool post!

-Stephanie

[abenk]

it's nice blog..... i like it..
pleased to meet your blog...
please VISIT ME...OK...thank u very much

[human hair extensions]

Lahat naman ng items mo ay taliwas sa feature ng erap museum. Poor you!