WHY ARE PINOYS SO STRESSED OUT!

             Everyday, Pinoys are confronted by stress mostly brought about by bad the economy.  Food prices and cost of services go up.  Added to this stressful situation is the increasing number of Pinoys who have no work, not that we are lazy, but work opportunities are simply not there. 

              The promise of good life is only for those who have access to powers and their very few fortunate extensions.

             Services are too poor that some of our “kababayans” do not even have clean water to drink and electricity to light their homes. Garbage and pollution ar eall over Metro Manila.  The pollution in Metro Manila is only matched by the pollution in every institution of government.  The pollution so stinks that even high court magistrates were sacked for indiscretion and government contracts are padded with nauseating commissions.

         Some sectors of Pinoys have long given up the prospect of getting a better life in the Philippines that they decided to seek employment somewhere else.  But with worldwide economic crunch, even overseas Pinoys are still stressed out but not as much as when they were in the Philippines. 

               So how do Pinoys overseas deal with stress?  I can only speak for some Pinoys who try to deal with their daily stress in Michigan. Or more specifically, how do we deal with our own stress here.

               We have a small Pinoy community with diverse membership due to intermarriages that make it a point every other weekend before winter time sets in, to go camping. Fish on the lake and play “beach” volleyball had the lake had been the sea.  Half of the afternoon would be spent sitting on collapsible plastic chairs around collapsible plastic table to play card games, sip a can of beer which is kept secret from the camp  guards because drinking is prohibited in the camp. While secretively sipping your beer, you  can engage in loud banter that makes you forget about your car and house mortgages or your credit card payables. 

       Or a special weekend is spent in carnival, at Ohio Ceddar Point.

        These weekends provide much needed relaxation from the day to day stress in the workplace, a group interaction, a nap or full night sleep inside the tent reeve up tired and weary souls so on weekdays these overseas Pinoys can cope with the stress again.

          Most local Pinoys would spend time brooding. When they cannot cope up with the stress anymore they would go commit petty to serious crimes that when caught and asked, they would confess that the deed was due “malaking pangangailangan”. ( economic necessities).

         The difference between Pinoy locals and the overseas Pinoys is quite stark in terms of credit facilities.  Most overseas Pinoys  can avail of credit denied of their local counterparts.  Locals have most of the time would live in squalor or one-room leased for home.  Apartments are expensive while building a home on credit, is even more expensive, if credit would have been available at all.  These are stressors to local Pinoys.

         Locals have to depend themselves in public transport because few can afford cars considered in some place as common possessions and a necessity.  In Detroit, known as the “motor city” of the world, public transport was not developed and only few percentage of the populace is dependent on it.  And quite admiringly, despite the battered economy in Michigan, Pinoys do not make use of public transport, unlike California and New York,  where trolleys, bus and trains serve the populace of all ethnic groups.

         Going back to campsite.

           Our group would eat Pinoy food of adobo, fried “daing”, “tortang talong”, fried tilapia or “bangus” “pansit”  or “dinuguan”.  No nitrate and sodium rich hamburgers and sausages.  Americans who married Pinoys are quite accustomed to eating  “dinuguan”, which they more vividly described as “chocolate meat” savored best with white “puto”.

          The camping ground is hundred acres of tall trees,  huge inland lake, hills, grassy grounds and several buildings for serving as bathrooms and restrooms.  It is rural all right but the amenities of the home the campers have left are being recreated in the campsite.

           Inside colorful tents are air beds, flashlights, coolers full of your favorite drinks and beverages and even portable heaters.

           I dreamt of being able to lit a fireplace with flint stone, brew a coffee in run down caldron and drink it in a chip off porcelain cup or aluminum G.I. canteen which would make the environment rustic and more rural, but even that yearning for real mountain adventure is denied of you because people simply would like to enjoy and bring the convenience of the home to this far place called camping grounds. So we have lighters, plastic cups, coffee brewers, water jugs, collapsible kitchen sink and even  patches of instant cold or hot compress.

          I would like to feel mounds of pebbles and light touch of sand on my belly or back as I retired inside a tent but that is not even possible because of the air-bed in the tent.

           These regular weekend camp adventures rejuvenate one’s tired body and mind.  Stress was gone to face another yet workplace stress when Monday comes. I wish our local Pinoys can find their own camping ground or carnival spot soon that are affordable. 

September 22, 2008
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