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Casting Away the Myth of Filipino Envious Spirit
(A Journey from Crab Mentality to Co-operation Among Co-operatives)
Crab Mentality is an adapted idiom attributed to a person with selfish, individualistic and envious spirit who would not allow others to stand in his/her way or overtake him/her towards attaining success.
Co-operation Among Co-operatives – Co-operatives serve their members most effectively and strengthen the co-operative movement by working together through local, national, regional, and international structures. – Sixth Co-op Principle, ICA Statement on the Co-operative Identity.
Crab mentality may be described loosely as a person’s unwillingness to give way to another person out of envy. The image of crabs getting tangled one with another, as each tried to get ahead of the others to the top of the basket and out of it, was a popular description of this negative personality trait.
One Co-op leader used this image to introduce his analysis of the Co-op sector’s debacle in the electoral exercise (2000) for Party List representation in the Philippine congress. He shared this story of his visit to Singapore where he was treated by a Singaporean restaurant owner to a delectable dish of imported crab, he himself selected from the restaurant aquarium. He was surprised to find the crabs of uniform size and asked the Singaporean entrepreneur of his secret in growing his imported crabs. The Singaporean entrepreneur showed him to the restaurant kitchen where several baskets of crabs were lined up for the restaurant’s clients. “What do you notice about the crabs?” the Singaporean asked him. “No, nothing unusual,,,” he answered. And the Singaporean entrepreneur told him, “Don’t you see, the crabs are in uniform-sized baskets? After their growing period in the pond, I put them in uniform-sized baskets for finishing. There it would be impossible for any of them to outgrow the others.” As they headed back to the dining area, he noticed the baskets were without covers. Thinking that the Singaporean entrepreneur just forgot to tell his kitchen help to cover the baskets, he called his attention to it. To his surprise, the entrepreneur assured him, “No, don’t worry, not one of the crabs will be able to escape.” He asked, “Why?” And the Singaporean entrepreneur said, “Because those crabs are from the Philippines!”
The application should be questioned as it is certainly clothed with deception. We suspect that the imaging was deceptively used to depict colonization as an act of benevolent intervention and to falsely insinuate that Filipinos do not enjoy its full benefit because of their patently envious spirit – mainggitin, isip talangka kasi. Worse, it was used to justify the colonizers prolonged stay in the country to guide the Filipinos to full maturity and independence???
The image therefore needs to be re-interpreted to cast away the myth covering the true character of the Filipino. The captured crabs, more so, the colonized Filipinos would certainly do everything left within their powers to regain freedom. The basket tumbled down as the crabs discovered its weakest side and put their collective weight against it. Similarly, the balance of power tilted to the side of the people as they showed their solidarity at EDSA. The crawling of the crabs and the marching of the people were chaotic only in the eyes of the captors and the authoritarian powers. In the eyes of the rest of the free and democratic world, certainly these were acts of valor worthy of genuine freedom and independence.
And the Journey from Crab Mentality to Co-operation Among Co-operatives continues…The ICA report cannot overemphasize the truth that while this principle was first articulated only in its 1966 congress, it has been followed to varying degrees since the 1850s…Co-operatives must be free, particularly from government interference, as they work out allegiances, mergers, and joint ventures among themselves as they try to achieve their full potentials… Co-operatives must also recognize, even more than that in the past, the necessity of strengthening their support organizations and activities. It is relatively easy to become preoccupied with the concerns of a particular co-operative or kind of co-operative. It is not always easy to see that there is a general co-operative interest, based on the value of solidarity and the principle of co-operation among co-operatives. That is why general co-operative support organizations are necessary; that is why it is crucially important for different kinds of co-operatives to join together when speaking to governments or promoting “the co-operative way” to the public (ICA Report, 1995, p.25)
A hard-working people forced to migrate and cover the world for lack of opportunities at home should find the wisdom of this Co-op principle of co-operation among co-operatives. The collective strength of their dollar remittance helps sustain our present economy and for this they are acknowledged as modern day Filipino heroes but the social cost of their ‘heroism’ is greatly undervalued. Their individualism and dividedness to a large extent negate their achievements. The co-operative way of working together to fully harness and nurture the OFW potential is certainly the better way.