Asian Pride and Honesty

Some Asian nations like South Korea (And North Korea perhaps?) and Japan value pride and honesty. The Japanese have harakiri: a means to retain one’s honor after a disgrace, better even than doing good deeds during the times wherein being a samurai is still a craze. And even in the modern day Japan, honesty is still highly valued. Take this example:

Anywhere else perhaps, a shiny cellphone fallen on the backseat of a taxi, a nondescript umbrella left leaning against a subway door, a wad of cash dropped on a sidewalk, would be lost forever, the owners resigned to the vicissitudes of big city life.

But here in Tokyo, with 8 million people in the city and 33 million in the metropolitan area, these items and thousands more would probably find their way to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Lost and Found Center. In a four-story warehouse, hundreds of thousands of lost objects are meticulously catalogued according to the date and location of discovery, and the information put in a database.

Wow. I have actually seen a documentary about this before. The warehouse full of lost-and-found items is really really big and full of items, a proof that almost, if not all, the lost things in the Metro Tokyo are really kept for safety until the owners rant that they lost something and goes to the warehouse to inquire. Well, I don’t know if they actually rant considering the fact that they are confident that the lost item(s) would come back to them. Here in the Philippines, when someone we know lost something amidst the urban jungle, we would say to them something like this: Asa ka pang maibabalik pa sa iyo ‘yun (With a great emphasis on the word Asa).

And going to South Korea, a recent buzz in the political and social scene had the eyes of the world focused to the progressive Asian country:

After years of whispers which ultimately turned to shouts of corruption, Lee Kun-hee, Chairman of Samsung and son of Samsung’s founder, has resigned following an indictment on tax evasion charges. Lee said, “We, including myself, have caused troubles to the nation with the special probe. I deeply apologize for that, and I’ll take full responsibility for everything, both legally and morally.” Lee Jae-yong, the Chairman’s son and heir to the Samsung throne also resigned as did Vice Chairman Lee Hak-soo, Lee’s closest advisor. Lee Soo-bin, chairman of Samsung Life Insurance, takes on representation for Samsung Group although the group chairman position remains unfilled.

I at least appreciated what Lee Kun-hee have done. He directly apologized and he resigned–he resigned together with all those who are included in the confirmed scandal.

And here in the Philippines, this is what we got:

Pseudo honesty, selfish pride. GREAT.

I have read Lacson’s 12 Little Things Every Filipino Can Do To Help Our Country. Included in the list is Speak positively about our country or something like that. And my entry (and a lot hell of entries in the Filipino Blogsphere), to some extent, defies the message of that Little Thing. But this is not only for criticism’s sake, more for the sake of challenging the people to uphold and value honesty and pride. Dramatic and cheesy may it seem but as far as I have observed every little deed we have in everyday life, those two values are not upheld that much. And those little things translate to the bigger, more serious things. I, still have hope for the Filipino people. ∞

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Value Honesty! Cite Sources!

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CEED71131F93BA35752C0A9629C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1

http://img.timeinc.net/

http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/22/samsung-chairman-and-son-resign/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harakiri