Many Filipinos Need To Learn The Keep Your Honor Principle From Contemporary Japan

It's a few days after the failed promise of President Nobita Aquino which caused me to write the article on Sagasa 2016. What I realized is that sad to say, many Filipinos don't really have any sense of honor. After reading this article from Get Real Philippines, I felt compelled to at least write this current article. Why did the Webmaster, Benigno, mention Japan? Japan itself is known for contributing to the world some of its systems. Before some ultranationalists whiners will say, "Stop! Stop mentioning Japan! They invaded us! Get out of the Philippines." I could tell them that Imperial Japan had long been dead.

I don't agree to Hara Kiri where you must take your life if you fail to do what you have to do but somehow, samurais and ninjas from Japan have more honor than President Nobita and DOTC Secretary Pabaya. Didn't President Nobita say that if the expressway from Baclaran to Bacoor is not completed by the end of the year, he would allow himself and DOTC Secretary Joseph Emilio Pabaya to be run over by a train? Then after that, he says that it shouldn't be taken literally. While suicide for any reason itself is uncalled for (especially for people who want to commit suicide if they have to follow Singaporean-style rules), one might say that a samurai who kills himself for failing to deliver his word may have more honor than President Nobita and DOTC Secretary Pabaya to be run over and didn't do it?

Do you know why the Philippines hardly progresses and it's overtaken by some of its neighboring countries in terms of progress? Aside from the problem of a lack of economic liberalization and the problem of refusing to follow simple guidelines, a lack of accountability is another problem which in turn gets rid of the word of honor principle. Many times, you see men who court women promising to love them forever but the next time you see them, they are guilty of infidelity. Do you know why Japan is one of the most successful countries? You might consider them having their principle of following simple guidelines, economic liberalization with reasonable restrictions and a culture of accountability. These are some things that the Philippines needs in order to succeed. Then again, how can many Filipinos expect success if they don't follow simple guidelines, they hate foreign investment, they just love to play the blame game plus they love having that culture of impunity.

One of the many reasons why Japan progresses with foreign investment (which in turn contributes to progress, forget about leftist logic, it's useless) is because aside from economic liberalization and people who can follow simple guidelines is that Japanese value their sense of honor. Even if they may not commit hara kiri for being late, they would still be more or less keep their word of honor. Many Filipinos fail to do it all in the name of nationalism. Please, as I said, don't call habitual tardiness as "Filipino time" because it's just being late plus one hour late is a lot of time. When you're being late even by just a minute, remember you're late and you've broken your code of honor. If there's a five to ten minutes allowance, respect it and don't go beyond but try to be on time. This trait eventually displays itself in current Japan politics and countries who follow it. Because people practice the, "You mess it up, you clean it up. " principle, they are bound to learn their lessons faster than the stupid culture of impunity that's heavy encouraged in the Philippines.

In Japan, you've read of politicians who resign over a scandal. Not so in the Philippines because of the rule of impunity. Do you remember Stinky Soliman's expired Yolanda goods scandal? Instead of resigning, she still stubbornly stays in power putting the blame somewhere else making Communist China look more moral by putting Zheng Xiaoyu to death for the melamine scandal while Stinky gets away with what she does. President Nobita and Joseph Pabaya have shown themselves to be incompetent fools who have no word of honor. In the first place, they should have not made that promise that if they can't complete their project by 2016 that they'd allow themselves to be run over by a train. If they wanted to be true to their words, they should have not even attached a preposterous promise with it. It's 2016 so really, what happened? He should have just said, "I don't mean it literally." when he made that speech. By taking back his word, President Nobita may have made a bigger fool out of himself first by making that preposterous promise then taking back his word at the last minute. Hmmm... maybe those samurais who committed hara kiri for failing their missions have more honor than he does?

If more and more Filipinos can learn that principle of honor, I can't imagine how a great leap forward would it be for the Philippines if more and more Filipinos know how to keep their word of honor. If people will just keep their word of honor instead of breaking it, just think how that will affect the political arena. Just think of what if Stinky Soliman decided to resign from her scandal and turn herself in than her being stubborn in power. Only if President Nobita would just take accountability for his mistakes then I don't think it would take Erap Estrada to apologize to Hong Kong to fix the soured up relations from the Rolando Mendoza incident. If everyone just practiced their word of honor by not making preposterous promises they cannot keep, we may have a greater destination. Is the word of honor principle endangered in the Philippines?