7
Casting Away the Myth of Filipino Individualism
(A Journey from KKB to Co-op Concern for Community)
KKB (Kanya-Kanyang Bayad) is an adapted idiom for the practice of a foreign culture – the Dutch Treat which requires a person to pay his/her own share of the cost of a group undertaking, ie., meal or transport cost.
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Concern for Community - Co-operatives work for the sustainable development of their communities through policies approved by their members.
– Seventh Co-op Principle, ICA Statement on the Co-operative Identity.
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Culture adaptation should be critically handled. It may involve some costly, unfavorable, even irreversible consequences. An example is the KKB—kanya-kanyang bayad or Dutch treat which became popular in the 60s. Obviously it was an adaptation of a foreign culture that caught the fancy of many Filipinos at that time. Little did they consider any negative effect. But it literally killed Filipino chivalry. Suddenly only boy scouts were expected to offer their seats to ladies and the elderly, (pare-pareho lang naman kaming nagbabayad.)
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And soon, there were not enough boy scouts left in the land to propagate the value of chivalry. KKB led to kanya-kanyang buhay, (buhay ko ito, ano ba ang pakialm nyo?) and thereafter, it led to its worst form: kanya-kanyang bulsa…
We need not complete our list of citations. Now we can honestly say that some of the myths we task ourselves to cast away are of our own creation. Individualism is one of these. It must be a chosen trait, no one need to impose it on us. Can we therefore plead guilty on this one count of violation of our well- respected culture of Filipino chivalry? Can we show true remorse and help rectify the serious error? Can we take the first step towards a solution – that of conquering our individualistic inclinations?
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Taking the Journey from KKB to Co-op Concern for the Community could be a most embarrassing and painful course of action. But if it is the most responsible thing to do to rectify the error, then it seems we really have no other option.
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The Co-op principle of Concern for the Community is the latest principle to be included in the re-formulated statement of Co-operative principles passed in the ICA centennial congress of 1995.
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The ICA report asserts that Co-operatives are organizations that exist primarily for the benefit of their members, often in a specific geographic space, co-operatives are also often closely tied to their communities. They have a special responsibility to ensure that the development of their communities – economically, socially and culturally – is sustained…It is up to the members to decide how deep and in what specific ways a co-operative should make its contributions to their community. It is not, however, a responsibility that members should seek to avoid (ICA Report, 1995, p.27)…
A closely-knit people innocently swayed into exchanging its bayanihan spirit for an innocent looking foreign culture promoting ‘practical’ individualism should recapture its noble spirit of chivalry and heroism with the help of the Co-op principle of concern for community.
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