Culture of Silence

Silence is defined as the absence of sound. On the other hand, culture is referred to as the way of life or the practices of a certain group of people. In a society, when silence and culture is combined, we will produce culture of silence or simply the practice of being silent. It is a phenomenon where in people chose to be unheard of what they feel, hear, see and experience.

In the Philippines, it is said that Culture of Silence is one of the biggest problems that we are facing right now along with poverty, corruption, malnutrition and others. More and more Filipinos settled to remain silent because of reasons like: first, they have lost their trust in the government especially those who are leading the country, second, they have become numb of what is happening around since for the longest years, the problems are the same old story, third, they have been preoccupied by their personal responsibilities in their family, friends, work place, etc. and last, which I think is the saddest of all, they have believed that there is no more hope for the Philippines.

This culture that we have can be rooted back in the Spanish Regime where in Filipinos were not allowed to speak up. Since the Spaniards considered themselves as the higher class, they were over us and they were controlling us, we being the idiots, our freedom of speech was suppressed although there were a few Filipinos who were able to fight for our rights- Rizal, Bonifacio, Aguinaldo and the likes. Another cause is the tradition of Filipino families where in the children are not allowed to answer back or explain their sides considering the fact that the father and or the mother is the authority in the house. Presently, there are still families who are training their children in that manner. It is also good to note that the declaration of the Martial Law although some said has disciplined the Filipinos, might also be the cause of the said culture of silence since freedom of speech during that time was also banned…Because of the reasons mentioned, they say that a culture of silence in the country is born.
However, during the process of writing this essay, I come to realized that the problem is not the culture of silence perse. In the Philippines, there is no such thing as culture of silence. When I interviewed people at random and when I texted friends regarding the topic: “May pag-asa pa bang umunlad ang Pilipinas? and “Paano mo nakikita ang Pilipinas sampung taon mula ngayon?” I got an overwhelming response! No matter what class of society they belong, or their age or even their educational attainment, or how busy they were during the interview, they all had the answers right away, both positive and negative even giving the explanations why they said so and their vision of what the Philippines will be in the future provided we change our leaders and practices. They also mentioned other problems which they think must be addressed. Those who seldom reply with my text message- “msta n?” flooeded my inbox with the longest answer they could give. Some even apologized for their late reply’s. A kubrador whom I interviewed expressed that if only GMA would step down in the presidency, the problems will be solved. A directress of a development center stressed that if we would all be patriotic, we will rise like in the case of Japan. The youth who are considered as party people, text addicts, and sometimes problems of the society did share their sentiments- amazingly, all were positive saying that if we could start disciplining ourselves, everything would be alright. The bottom line is this, the interview gave me the concrete picture that the problem the country has right now is not the culture of silence but the culture of knowing something about the problem and yet not doing anything about the situation. This problem is the hardest among the problems to be solved. Because in poverty, we could feel that people are indeed suffering- with all the documentaries around, we are likely to see that the Philippines is a striving third world country. In the case of under-employment and unemployment, surveys and statistics are everywhere giving us the percentage per year of those people who do not have work or are unemployed. But it the case of knowing something and yet not doing anything, there are no surveys, yes there are studies but not that comprehensive. This is because this problem is a state of mind. It is a mentality. It is hard to be seen. We know that there is problem, there is something going on, and yet we do not act. When housewives exchange chismis, sometimes it has something to do with any of the societal problems. Media practitioners do highlight the problems, do express their thoughts. You ask any Filipinos about what they could say in the country, you will definitely receive answers. Filipinos are not silent or are not reserved with what they feel. The problem is, Filipinos tend to be apathetic. Only a few act, most are only after self preservation. Unless we change this mentality, all the other problems will not be solved.