Antus, mag-antus, masantos.
The Bisayan word antus means to suffer or to endure. As a root word, antus can be constructed to nag-antus or mag-antus which means to have suffered or will suffer.
Surely, one who is unable to immediately or regularly satisfy one’s basic needs or even desires for material things is suffering from kawad-on (impoverishment).
And more than half of Filipinos are on this state–nag-antus sa kawad-on. In fact, they are also called kabus, which may have been coined from kawad-on and antus.
On the May 10-13, 2012 survey of the Social Weather Station, 55 percent, or an estimated 11.1 million Filipino families consider themselves as pobre, which is 10 percent higher than the 45 percent registered in December 2011.
Having the words antus, nag-antus or mag-antus and kabus in our vocabulary suggests that suffering has been a way of life, particularly, to many poor Filipinos. And the children of these families have been raised not only with these vocabularies but with the real experience of sufferings and sacrifices.
How material suffering is viewed by members of the lower and middle classes is interesting to examine for drawing out lessons how to respond to poverty.
In a general sense, poverty can be viewed either as a challenge that drives one to overcome it, or a barrier that conditions one to accept it as a destiny.
Let me analyze these views in the context of getting formal education, particularly that the K-12 curriculum, which added more years in school, is now implemented. Many poor parents see this as an additional cost to them which may limit further their chances of sending their children to school.
Using economic reason as a barrier for being in school is an expression of resignation or the acceptance that the poor has no chance of getting out from the vicious cycle of poverty.
And we have success stories to tell of poor students who make it, eventually taking them to some key positions in the government, private organizations, or in the academe.
Anthropologists and sociologists have shown that in societies where social stratification is not rigid, changing social mobility is possible when one has any or a combination of qualities such as outstanding skills, mental abilities, educational qualifications, and social networks (koneksiyon or kaila).
Thus, the poor or the lower class can never be viewed as static composed only of members who unquestionably accepted the kind of life they endure which they often attribute to God’s will–an expression of fatalism.
Meanwhile, members of the middle class are often stereotyped to have positively responded to material deprivation. But if the middle class has members who had moved up, then they were originally with the lower class.
Our tendency to stereotype people into categories makes us forget exceptions, and to lump the poor as those who are fatalistic.
I propose that the composition of the middle class is a product of the struggling lower class, privately or collectively done, who view poverty as a challenge, rather than a barrier. Therefore, not all those in the lower class are fatalistic or resigned.
Delayed gratification pattern, which is associated to people who are economically successful, describes a behavior of postponing something pleasurable at the moment to give way to something that would bring greater pleasure in the future.
It is not a monopoly of the middle class but also present among the lower class. For example, money is saved by poor parents or used for the education of their children rather than for immediate pleasure of having new clothes, television set or a motorbike.
This is also seen in a student who avoids a romantic relationship or even marriage until after finishing college.
In one of my papers Not an Easy Way Up: A Life History of a Middle Class Filipino Family (Silliman Journal volume 46), I described how a couple with a poor beginning weathered all odds to be able to send all their children to Silliman University, who successfully became professionals.
And there are several cases of this kind of parents at present who defy the hypothesis that the quality of one’s education depends to a considerable degree on parents’ socio-economic status.
The history of the couple I traced in the paper demonstrated the concept of social mobility because the children are now engaged in salaried professions or business, away from the kind of life the couple had when they decided to get married.
But it is not that easy to go up; it was full of sufferings and sacrifices on the part of parents and children who both believed that poverty is not a barrier but a challenge that can be overcome.
All other things being equal, as social scientists would always say to make a point, success is a product of perseverance, and hard work because ang mag-antus, masantos. Meaning, the one who endures will be glorified in the end.
This cultural teaching must be an inspiration to all.
