Filipino GAPI mentality and Efren Penaflorida
Almost like clockwork, the moment Efren Penaflorida was declared CNN’s Hero of the Year, fellow filipinos scrambled to try and topple him from the peak of Filipino media acclaim. Critics focused on the fact that the online voting was somehow skewed because of the perceived rampant vote mobilization in the Philippines. Others attributed his success in the poll to the lack of nominees from countries with larger online populations. The critics of these critics lash back with the familiar charges of crab mentality and INGGIT.
Not all Pinoy haters are motivated by inggit. While many may hate to admit it but many are also motivated by GAPI mentality. This cultural trait of ours brings out our animosity against our peers of the same class or of a lower class. We try to rationalize and bring them down “to our level” because their success is a slap in the face of our own failed efforts to achieve anything noteworthy with our lives. The more obvious manifestations of this is to explain away others’ sucess (which they bought and paid for by their hard work, sustained efforts, faith in themselves and God, and self-confidence) as products of LUCK, IMMORALITY (cheating on taxes or sharp business practices), or in this case some sort of demographic trickery. What animates the GAPI mentality? People resent others who rose from their own class level or from lower levels to something higher either in terms of class or appreciation because it casts a negative light on their own lack of achievement or appreciation in their lives. They imagine the rise of others to be products of forces other than the forces the haters themselves feel they lack–hard work, foresight, perseverance, self-sacrifice, etc.
Indeed, some of the animosity against Pempengco, Pacquiao, or Villar (all who come from humble beginnings who rose up from their early station in life) share the same patterns of GAPI mentality-based hate.
While this mentality applies to other nationalities via other terms (the most famous being schadenfreude for jews/central europeans), this fact shouldn’t detract from the reality that it is a big cultural reality in Filipino culture.
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