The Irony the Philippines Starts the Christmas Season in September BUT Many Filipinos Love Last-Minute Christmas Shopping

Uproxx

As Christmas is just around the corner--I feel more stress coming in! It doesn't help when people try to use the late Andy Williams' "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" to try and skip the problem. It's already known that most Filipinos love to start Christmas in September. However, the irony is that Filipinos start Christmas early but do their Christmas shopping late. If they began the Christmas Season early, shouldn't they think about what to do before December strikes?

Two years ago, I wrote a post discussing last-minute Christmas shopping. Many Filipinos tend to do last-minute Christmas shopping. They had all of November (when the Christmas sale usually begins) but why do the Christmas shopping in December? One of the things I blame is the one-day paycheck lifestyle (see here). It can be observed that many Filipinos never learn to prioritize more important things. One can get their stars when they see their paychecks. However, they carelessly spend the money on what doesn't matter over what matters. Instead of thinking about paying bills--they go out on the payday. They'd go out, celebrate lavishly, and then the paycheck is good as gone. That kind of mentality may explain why such people rally for higher salaries while demanding prices of goods be lowered (read here). Such people fail to realize that a salary increase is only feasible when there's a higher demand for labor (read here). Prices of goods can only be lowered when there's a higher supply and lower demand. That can also be triggered by economies of scale. However, I feel such people still mock supply and demand, as if doing that will change the laws of economics!

It's possible that the excitement for Christmas overrides logic. They get so excited for Christmas that they wish it was Christmas every day. Please, Christmas every day is definitely bad economics (read here). If one seeks to have fun all the time--priority is never key. They only think of how to have fun. It's not just when the -ber months strike. It's a year-round condition that imitates the foolishness of General Tomas Mascardo during the Filipino-American War. Mascardo knew better than to leave his post. However, it's said by historians that Mascardo decided to attend a town fiesta in the middle of a war! I wouldn't be surprised if some people died during typhoons because they chose to celebrate anyway, even when a storm is coming. They could've canceled the feast but no, they had to have the feast! I believe that too made COVID-19 hard to combat--because of people who wouldn't follow basic protocols!

Even worse, they often have that old Filipino saying, "If it's bitter, just add sugar (read here)." I was often told that stupid phrase by my childhood nanny. Right now, I can't be sure if she's still alive or not. After all, Filipinos tend to have a sweet tooth. There's the tendency to add sugar to almost everything. However, you can't sugarcoat the bitter truth for too long. They might be thinking about Christmas and its associationg with sugary treats. One of the songs using the tune of Frosty the Snowman" is "Puto at Suman". Puto and suman are two kinds of Filipino treats that's associated with Christmas. They think that any problem can be solved by just adding sugar. However, it's not just on Christmas but a whole-year round foolish behavior. Lots of debt? Lots of homework? Forget about it and just add sugar.

It's a shame that only a few Filipinos ever escape this irony. I can only expect more and more foolishnesss during Christmas. Even worse, people might be expecting their impunity to be understood "because it's Christmas". Sorry to say but Google Christmas day disasters and find out how real they are. Christmas isn't a magical team of the year where nothing goes wrong. The only reason why Christmas season disasters get hyped up is because people expect nothing wrong to happen during Christmas. That's even if there have been far worse disasters that happend outside Christmas.

Get Stuck with EDSA, End Up Like Nokia

Yes, we should never forget what history teaches us. A classmate of mine, back in high school, wrote a simple and blunt essay called "History: A Teacher". I doubt he still has a soft copy, given it was already more than 20 years ago. I'd like to quote Duterte critic Andrew James Masigan wrote this in Philippine Star --something that should remain relevant: I would never undervalue the 1987 Constitution. It dismantled the legal framework of a repressive regime and established the democratic institutions we enjoy today. For this, I am grateful. The 1987 Constitution was crafted with the best of intentions. It sought to put the Filipino first in all aspects of governance and to level the playing field amongst sectors and peoples. But it is far from perfect. It failed to consider the importance of foreign capital and technologies and the stiff competition we would have to face to obtain them. In short, its economic provisions were short-sighted . So despite the Constitut...

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