Well the Rizal Day holiday is now behind us for this year, but thank goodness Christmas is now coming up with its plethora of local bazaars and shopping opportunities. Another longer break to look forward to and yet more opportunities to go “malling” and spend on gifts for Christmas.

There is always a holiday or a special event to look forward to in the Philippines, and people do like to make the most of them. The day before a holiday the atmosphere is palpable, you can feel the holiday spirit gripping people, the increase of traffic at about late morning or lunchtime the day before, and the need to force your way through the throngs of people in the shopping malls.

All this is fine and nice and enjoyable if you really are in a position to make the most of it. Problem is that I suspect that most people are in fact not in any position to make the most of it, they continue to worry about their ability to meet the loan repayments, buy liquefied petroleum gas or firewood, get load for their cellphones, meet the ubiquitous Meralco (Manila Electric Co.) bill and handle all the other items involved in life’s challenges. But people are pushed to spend, spend and spend whether they can afford it or not. It is not right that they should not be pushed so hard. It’s strange that they don’t see the connection between their individual responsibilities to make a contribution to economic development and their “enjoyment” of life—don’t they care, have they just lost hope, or are they waiting for a miracle?

The Philippines consistently ranks as one of the happiest countries in the world. Filipinos like to party, to go out and meet their friends, to enjoy life or so it would appear. But underneath all this enjoyment the fiestas, the holidays, the drinking and joking are a people who really should be guided towards taking life a bit more seriously for their own best interests and who really cannot afford so much carousing if their life quality is to be improved.

There is little in the way of business activity that moves very fast in the Philippines at any time, let alone when holidays are in the air [apart from debt collectors, and even they frequently leap in based on incorrect information]. A holiday of which there are many—26 national holidays at last count, let alone the city holidays, fiestas and other events necessitating enjoyment, just slows business down and disrupts economic progress even further.

Of course, material things are not necessary in order to have a happy life, but neither should the state encourage hedonism in a socioeconomic environment weighted heavily toward poverty.

Business, and that includes the business of the state, should be encouraged to act in a way that brings about real economic development rather than the smoke and mirrors which sometimes is passed off as economic progress.

Admittedly Singapore, one of the beacons of fast and sustained economic progress, contains apparently the world’s unhappiest people, according to a recent survey.

The Philippines and its hedonism brings to mind Emperor Nero fiddling while Rome burns. My thinking is that the Philippines right now needs to take life a bit more seriously, not to become full of miserable people but to just cool off a bit with the holidays and the holiday attitude—“oh it’s a holiday, we can leave this matter over until next week then we’ll have a look at it.” Let’s “get real,” economic progress which everybody desperately needs, will not happen by itself, it needs lots of work and effort commitment, focus and determination (and a lot less of doing business the “Philippines way”) so let’s get moving please—don’t leave it until next week, do it now, today . . .

There are many people who actually work on holidays, at weekends and after hours and obviously that effort and commitment is admirable, but working in isolation of the rest of the Philippine business and government contacts, who are all off enjoying themselves in the malls at the beach, or otherwise, can be a frustrating experience. I do that and I do it because I enjoy my work, frustrating though it is.

I see that there are 10 national public holidays in Singapore [even more multi-ethnic than the Philippines]. Could this be why they are reported as the unhappiest nation I wonder, even though partly because of the lack of holidays, they do have the spending power?

Mike can be contacted at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.