Bayanihan refers to a spirit of communal unity or effort to achieve a particular objective – Wikipedia
The Facebook page, Japan From Inside, shared this image with the following caption yesterday (July 23).
PUSH. for a common goal
“Yesterday (22nd July) at 09:15am, in Minami-ku, Saitama-Shi JR Minami Urawa station, a 30-year-old lady slipped into the gap between the train and the platform when boarding the Keihin Tohoku line. She was stuck at her waist.
About 40 passengers, both on the platform and from the train carriage, came out to help push the train away from the platform so as to rescue the lady. The lady was later brought to the hospital and was reported to have no significant injuries.
When the incident happened, the train staff made an announcement apologizing that the train has been delayed because someone got stuck in the platform gap. Instead of grudging or complaining about the delay during the rush hour, several train passengers voluntarily got off the train to help the train staff rescue the lady. Within moments, everyone got off their seat to join in the rescue.
Guess what?
The Keihin-Tohoku line went back into service within 8 minutes.”
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I borrowed the title from Bogart the Explorer. 😀 I think we shared the picture at the same time when the post appeared, I captioned mine as “Bayanihan ng mga Hapon” but I like his take on it better. We had a common idea, a concept, a characteristic that was believed to be endemic to the Filipinos: the Bayanihan. Now we see it’s not so endemic anymore.
TRADITION. Old-school bayanihan involves neighbors in the community literally move the house of an individual.
Bayanihan is about volunteering to help out a fellow “ka-bayan”, a fellow of the community. In our modern days, no one needs their now concrete houses moved (I am not sure about the rural areas today, but I think they’re pretty modern nowadays too). Today, it’s simply about helping one another reach a common goal. What the Japanese have shown here is bayanihan in the traditional sense, except that they were lifting the train. And to fix a problem in just 8 minutes? Wow.
Is this trait apparent in our society today? If this happened to our MRT/LRT’s today, do you think we’d have the same outcome? I’d say maybe but leaning more on no, and I am pretty sure I am not alone in this. I’ve seen the following comments on this image: *[] my own thoughts
“The big difference between them and us.”
“Kung sa Pilipinas yan maiirita pa mga tao dahil lalo silang malalate.” (If this happened in the Philippines the people would just be irritated because they’d be later than they already are)
“Kung dito yan, sasabihin natin ‘Nadamay pa tayo sa katangahan niya.'” (If this happened here, we’d say ‘Now we’re affected by her stupidity.'”
“And then some people would just take pictures” [Instagram? YouTube? Twitter?]
Then there are the proud Filipinos who would say that I’m a pessimist. That I look down too much on the Filipinos, that I am putting us down. Like this one! 😀 *[] are my own thoughts
“Halata naman sa mga comment nyo pati pagddown sa sariling lahi tsk.. Kung gan0n na nga bakit kelangan pang sabihin kung hindi kayo katulad nilang walang kapwa tao lalo na sa sariling lahi…tayong mga pilipino hindi likas na masasama katunayan nalang yung mga ninuno nating katipunero na nagkaisa para sa kalayaan nating lahat!” (It’s evident in your comments that you our putting down our own race. If that’s the case why is there a need to say this if you are like them who do not regard their fellow men especially with their own race [I am trying so hard to understand this second sentence. I think what he’s trying to say is why are we complaining that we can’t also help our fellow men, especially our fellow Filipinos :D] We Filipinos are not naturally evil, to prove it, our ancestors, the Katipuneros united for our freedom! [I do not get why the Katipuneros were needed to be brought up in his rant. XD He needs to know how to use punctuation marks as well. XD]
I can’t help it. I’m a witness to a lot of negative things in our society today. The simple gesture of letting the seniors, the injured and the pregnant women sit on the trains? Extremely rare today.
I had an acquaintance in Facebook one time, relaying her experience of getting held-up. As she was getting of a jeepney, she was approached by a man. There was a carinderia nearby with dining taxi drivers and she screamed for help. Did help come? No. People looked but no one came to help. It was a good thing nothing happened to her except that of her stuff being taken. Bayanihan indeed. To further drive my point of the dying concept of bayanihan in the Philippines, here’s another comment on the image.
“I remember witnessing something similar on the Cubao station, the difference being the guy was injured and was inside a train full of people. The train stopped for the emergency, opened its doors, and everyone inside just stood where they were. I wish they could’ve just alighted and the bunch of people at the doors to disperse, to give the guy some air and the medical personnel some space to work with, instead of just staying where they were as if waiting for the train to just get on with it.”
How about the pedicab driver who died near DLSU? Where was the help? The person who’s car overheated in the middle of the highway (this, I’m guilty of not helping out)?
So am I looking down at our society today? Yes. I’m not saying that everyone is like that. I remember the man who lost his life saving people during ‘Ondoy’. The student nurses who helped deliver a baby on the LRT. The Philippine Red Cross are volunteers who try to help. It’s just that it’s very rare in an everyday situation. There is hope for humanity, but maybe not in this lifetime.
What are we good at? Complaining and making jokes out of situations. Now what do we lack? I’d say respect, discipline and action. We complain but we do nothing about it. We get mad at our countrymen who put down Filipinos but we don’t do anything about ourselves. The simple gesture of even just NOT PARKING at areas assigned to the seniors and the PWDs is already an act of bayanihan, it’s a community effort to lighten the burden of these type of citizens in our country. Today, we may have the camaraderie to support and help in word, but what about in deed?
The Japanese do not know the concept of bayanihan, but they are definitely more Filipino in this sense.
Get Out From the Shell 