Friday, December 28, 2001 11:03 PM ZE8
Smile, you're a Filipino
Many westerners are puzzled that despite being a Third World nation and much poorer than their economically progressive countries, Filipinos never seem to fail to smile at almost every turn.
Certain clues have emerged in a recent national survey by the Social Weather Stations Inc. for the fourth quarter, done from November 3 to 21 among 1,200 statistically representative adult respondents (error margin of 13 percent at the 95-percent confidence level).
Considering life in general, 50 percent of Filipinos feel fairly happy and 35 percent feel very happy, or a total of 85 percent who are fairly or very happy.
Nine out of every 10 Filipinos are hopeful, rather than fearful, about the year to come; 5 out of every 6 feel either fairly happy or very happy; 2 out of every 3 are very proud to be Filipino.
The remaining 15 percent comprises 12 percent not very happy and 3 percent not at all happy. Again, these results are hardly different from past years.
Happy as they are, 68 percent say they are also very proud to be Filipino. Although lower than the 87 percent of the July 2001 survey, the percentage was still very positive.
So it was no surprise that most Filipinos disagreed with the statement: "There is no hope for the country; if possible, I would migrate to another country." Disagreement was 64 percent in November about the same as in September; agreement was 19 percent with the balance undecided. Only one of 5 prefers to migrate.
Filipinos are very thankful for many things, chief among them their state of health, their economic well-being, and having survived in life. Eleven out of every 12 Filipinos consider their health anywhere from fair to very good.
Data for these include 47 percent, who said they are happy with their good health, have a satisfactory economic well-being (34 percent), are surviving in life (33 percent), have good family relations (14 percent) and have peace (11 percent).
The results hardly changed from December 2000, when the question was first asked by SWS.
For the second successive year, SWS asked respondents whether they feel that they are entering the new year with hope or with fear. Eighty-eight percent said they enter the new year with hope, and only 12 percent said they do so with fear, a result no different from December 2000.
In Germany, where the survey questionnaire originated, those expressing hope have been at most a bare majority.
SWS said the survey was not commissioned and done on SWS's own initiative. TODAY
I found when you're around smiling people it's hard not to smile too! Just remember not to smile too much when you return home to the states people will think your BUANG!
