About Jon E. Royeca

(Part 7 of the “In Defense of the Filipino” series)

IT IS said that we Filipinos have crab mentality and so we do not attain the progress and prosperity we have long been aspiring for, that it is practiced only by us Filipinos, and that we will remain a poor nation if it is not plucked from our selves.

Allegedly, we pull those on top of us so that we can be the ones in the better position; or when it seems that we cannot all go out of our bad conditions, we pull everyone down so that all of us will share the misery; then, we relish it when we have pulled somebody down.

Neighbors defaming neighbors, reporters inventing stories about celebrities, businessmen performing unfair competitions, and professionals dislodging fellow professionals are among the crab mentality practices. Of course, there is the timeless neighborhood rivalry: If a resident buys something, his neighbor will try to outdo him by purchasing a similar but more expensive item. And when politicians fail to deliver their electoral promises of better lives, they chastise the people for not cooperating and rather pulling down others, hence the general failure.

There was that actress who became “world-famous in the Philippines” when she made striking feats in London’s West End and New York’s Broadway theaters.

Her countrymen, who were very proud of her, prayed for her to win the most prestigious stage-acting award in New York. Her victory overwhelmed them. But years later, she pointed out in a television interview that she achieved all those glories because she came out of the Filipino attitude of pulling each other down.

What about the millions of Filipinos who were very proud of her and prayed for her?

Universal attitude. Crab mentality is a human habit similar to what crabs do when put in a basket. If the basket is left with no heavy cover, the crabs inside it will all have gotten out fast in less than an hour. If the basket is weak, they go to one side and cause it to fall toward it, thus freeing them all. If the basket is designed against their escape, they cannot all go out.

They all try to get out of where they are, and in that process pull each other down, whether they succeed in getting out or not. For them, pulling down or stepping on others is a fact of their existence. It is natural for them in the quest for success or when confronting failure.

Crab mentality is also part of humanity. It simply is envy. (Crabs do not envy one another; they just want to be free.)

Humans envy and try to outdo each other because of selfishness and greed, but not all the time. When one envies somebody, one of his natural reactions is to knock him down, but this does not always happen. Each one of us may envy, yet we do not always pull others down. We usually just keep to ourselves those envious feelings and then let them go away.

Crab mentality is a universal attitude happening in every corner of the world. Localizing this attitude in only one country proves the narrow-mindedness of people doing it. Their minds are that narrow because they can conclude only from what they see around them, and they can no longer think beyond that.

British crab mentality. In its issue on November 20, 1960, London’s The Observer reported a survey made in Woodford, a middle-class London suburb, which revealed the timeless neighborhood competition.

Woodford residents were leading ideal, happy, and prosperous lives. Many were members of civic, cultural, and sports organizations. Yet, the survey said, one husband complained that as soon as their next-door neighbor knew that they got a washing machine, that neighbor got one, too. Then a few months later, he bought a fridge, and their neighbor also purchased the same appliance.

One housewife got irritated because her neighbor bought a refrigerator after she did. She added that her neighbor always worried if they had anything new. “When she got a fridge, she made a great fuss of showing that she could make ice-bricks too,” she wailed.

One woman said that because their neighbor had recently bought a new car, she and her husband were also thinking of buying a better one. “That’ll be a knock in the eye for them!” she thundered. The said survey found out that cars were the constant barometers of neighborhood rivalry.

Those were crab mentality practices—imitating or outstripping neighbors. They happened in Great Britain, one of the richest and most celebrated countries in the world.

American crab mentality. The story between figure skaters Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding is a classic example of American crab mentality. The two Americans were scheduled to compete in one same event at the 19th Winter Olympic Games in February 1994 in Norway.

Weeks before the Games, Harding commissioned her former husband, Jeff Gillooly, to attack Kerrigan’s feet with a pipe so that Kerrigan would not be able to compete and it would be easier for Harding to win the gold medal in the women’s individual figure skating event.

On January 6, 1994, Kerrigan was clubbed above the right knee. Although Gillooly and his hired attackers were already charged in court, Kerrigan and Harding still managed to practice in their training venue but under tight security.

The incident affected both of them. Instead of making a 1-2 finish for their country, a Ukrainian won the gold medal. Kerrigan bagged the silver; Harding finished eighth.

Gillooly later confessed in court that his former wife was behind the attack. In a plea bargain, Harding admitted guilt to avoid imprisonment. She was fined, ordered to do community service, and was banned for life from any sports competitions.

Tonya hired her former husband to hit her fellow American competitor’s feet so that she could be the best—that was a terrible crab mentality act.

Before competing for the 1992 Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain, American sprinter Gail Devers underwent treatments for her feet, which were then suffering from Graves’ disease. Her feet could have been amputated had they not been cured earlier.

At the Barcelona Games, she won the gold medal in the women’s 100-meter run; but right after the race, a fellow American athlete, Gwen Torrence, who also competed and finished fourth in the same event, charged that two of the three medal winners had used illegal performance-enhancing drugs (AP, August 2, 1992).

The three medal winners denied the accusation. An American making a serious accusation against her fellow American who got what she did not was an act of putting down the one on top. This crab mentality practice was done while they were abroad.

During the Barcelona Games also, the high-profile U.S. basketball “Dream Team” was criticized by the most prestigious daily newspaper in the United States, The New York Times.

Instead of praising the impressive performances of Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and other players, the newspaper in its editorial on August 1, 1992, rather scored them for elbowing, ganging up, and giving pierce looks to their opponents. It called them “a boorish pack of prima donnas” and also criticized them for staying in expensive hotels and not at the Olympic Village, saying that it was a sign of overblown self-esteem (UPI, August 5, 1992).

Bill Clinton was already on top—reelected for one more term (1996-2000) as president of the United States, yet his enemies still kept searching for things that could demolish him.

On December 18, 1998, his enemies in Congress impeached him for lying in a special court which investigated him of sexual misconduct. His illicit sexual practices inside the White House, the presidential residence, with many women were unearthed.

One of those women was Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern, who testified that she and Clinton got involved in intimate acts. This scandal made headlines around the world and put America in funny conversations; however, Clinton’s adversaries still kept pulling him down. Clinton prevailed in the end by winning in the Senate the impeachment case slapped against him.

Racism is the worst form of American crab mentality. Since white is the dominant race in the U.S., if one is not white there, he is an outcast, relegated as a lower-class citizen.

Prejudices in U.S. communities, schools, careers, opportunities, and places of work are common and centuries-old. Many blacks and other non-whites are picked on or bullied in white-dominated schools.

A number of non-white professionals, even if they have excellent qualifications, do not get the same treatment, breaks, and benefits the whites do. There are many Christian churches where non-whites cannot enter and worship God. Those churches’ doors warn:  “Excuse me! Whites only!”

Irish crab mentality. When the all-male Irish singing group Boyzone first interpreted in the mid-1990’s their revived versions of the songs “Words” and “Father,” many of their countrymen threw bottles at them, hating and calling them copycats. But they did not mind them and just went on singing until their popularity surged worldwide.

Japanese crab mentality. Mitsuko Yamada, a 35-year-old housewife, strangled to death her two-year-old neighbor Haruna Wakayama in a public toilet and traveled 200 kilometers from Tokyo by train to bury the body in her (Yamada’s) mother’s backyard. Yamada later surrendered to the police after having been convinced by her husband to do so.

The reason: Haruna passed the entrance test to an exclusive kindergarten school, while Yamada’s two-year-old daughter did not. The Yamadas and Wakayamas were rival neighbors, and too much envy forced Yamada to kill the poor little child (AFP, November 27, 1999).

This tragedy, which gossip television shows in Japan made a feast of, would seem incredible to anti-Filipinos who sincerely believe that the Japanese are so honest, gentle, and kind that they would never harm even an ant.

Chinese crab mentality. Two Chinese-born medical practitioners were supposed to win the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1999, but the Chinese national government appealed to the Nobel Prize Committee, charging that the two U.S.-based doctors were subversives and traitors to the Chinese nation. The prize was rather given to a German-American, Günter Blobel.

The Nobel is the world’s most coveted prize in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, economics, and the promotion of peace. Dozens of nations, especially those in the Far East, have been dreaming to win at least one. It was already China’s golden chance to win this prize for the very first time then, yet its very own government pulled down two of its citizens.

Indian crab mentality. In a letter to U.S.-based international newsmagazine Time, M. Chandra Shekar, an Indian citizen, said:

“India is endowed with many resources, has some of the best brains, and one of the most tolerant cultures. But it is the Indian attitude that has prevented the nation from achieving the progress attained by other developing nations. The state of India is similar to a group of crabs. None can get out because each one pulls the other down. We spend more time fighting among ourselves than working for the progress of the nation” (quoted in Teodoro M. Locsin, “We Are Not Alone,” Philippines Fress Press, November 28, 1992, p. 23).

Crab mentality is not the cause of poverty. If it were, then the rich nations that also have it must also be poor by now.

Singaporean crab mentality. In 1997, when Singaporean Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong unveiled his plan of making the National University of Singapore the Harvard of the Far East, it was criticized by a number of Singaporeans for allegedly being too arrogant and ambitious—the university was not even Asia’s most outstanding college institution (China’s and Japan’s universities were). Instead of supporting that Singaporean plan, Singaporean eyebrows were rather raised.

For lack of space and resources, it cannot be proven here the crab mentality acts in the more than 200 nations, but the presented facts are enough evidence that they happen anywhere.

Ant-Filipinos claim that crab mentality acts in other countries are isolated cases only, unlike here in the Philippines where they are very common. The problem with these narrow-minded is that if other peoples commit mistakes, those mistakes are just isolated, and if it is the Filipinos who do wrong, then the Filipinos are already the worst citizens and the world’s laughingstock.

Crab mentality is a fact of life and a universal attitude. It happens in every country, but not as a coordinated national activity. Only the few envious ones commit it.

TnT. Anti-Filipinos claim that because of crab mentality, Filipinos allegedly report to the immigration authorities their fellow Filipinos who are staying illegally in the countries where they are. Those illegally staying are fondly called TnT or Tago nang Tago (always hiding from the authorities). This has led many Filipinos abroad to rather be afraid of their fellow Filipinos than the authorities there.

Is it only the Filipinos who are caught staying illegally in other countries? Don’t other countries spend huge amounts of money to initiate programs and espionage, and employ personnel against illegal immigration?

For anti-Filipinos, if it is illegal Filipino immigrants who are caught by the authorities, it is because of crab mentality. But if other nationals are caught, it is because the authorities spend considerable funds and many hours of surveillance, and deputized enough number of personnel to identify, arrest, prosecute, and deport illegal immigrants.

There are people who love going the wrong channels when they can get through the right ones, and when they are caught, they blame not themselves but their fellow Filipinos. An advice to those who want to go to, work, or live in other countries: Do it the legal way.

Bayanihan. We Filipinos have a time-honored trait called bayanihan or unity. It takes place during activities like fiestas, foundation days, fund-raising projects, religious processions, seminars, conventions, beauty pageants, stage plays, and concerts in which everyone involved lends his time, effort, and resources to ensure success.

This dedication for success is also evident during work on farms, in factories, in offices, in schools, etc. The people involved unify for the good outcome of their works, establishments, and endeavors.

Bayanihan is also proven during times of personal agonies, incidents, or natural and man-made disasters. When such misfortunes occur, there will always be people eager to help according to their means.

The government and private sector provide information, seminars, funding, and other assistance on how to start, run, and become successful with small-, medium-, and large-scale industries. Filipinos are helped—not pulled down—by their fellow Filipinos.

Recognition. We also honor good deeds and brilliance.

In schools, the best students are recognized through honor roll, medals, certificates, ribbons, or scholarships. There are contests in languages, literature, science, mathematics, social studies, music, art, health, physical education, home economics, values education, and technical and industrial courses to discover and exploit youthful talents.

The annual awards for the most outstanding young men and women, teachers, school principals, lawyers, judges, accountants, engineers, doctors, dentists, nurses, policemen, soldiers, employees, workers, farmers, and others are meant to honor such people who have meritorious intellect, efficiency, honesty, creativity, and dedication to their respective professions, occupations, and vocations.

There are awards that hail the most globally competitive products Filipinos manufacture and export. Winning them means recognition of excellence and strong endorsements of products.

Yearly, there are prizes for the best companies, most efficient agencies, and the cleanest and greenest barangays, municipalities, cities, and provinces.

In the motion picture and television industry, there are the awards for the most outstanding films, programs, performers, personalities, stories, scripts, cinematography, editing, musical scoring, sound effects, setting, custom, production design, and make-up.

The sports sector has regular tournaments to discover, select, and train the best athletes that can give our country glories here and abroad.

Many competitions acclaim our writers, painters, sculptors, musicians, dancers, architects, scientists, engineers, technologists, inventors, technicians, mathematicians, and researchers.

The highest and most prestigious art and science prizes in the Philippines are the National Artist and National Scientist Awards, respectively, in which the recipients are given state honors, benefits, and lifetime pensions, and are elevated to the national pantheon of greatness where our national heroes and great men and women are forever immortalized.

We Filipinos do not pull our countrymen down. We admire, help, or extol them. If there are envious ones pulling down others, they are just few, and they will always be around because crab mentality is part of human existence. If an envious person pulls you down, confront and fight him.

Crabs In Our Midst. There are people who love pulling down others—people who always knock down, ridicule, bash, and belittle the Filipinos. They always think negative of them. They always have something bad to say against them.

There is no need to guess who they are. They are none other than the anti-Filipinos. They are the real crabs in our midst.

Other articles by Jon E. Royeca