Words, numbers, statistics

This piece is inspired by a poem, “The future is first shaped by words,” newly written by the multiawarded poet Gémino “Jimmy” H. Abad, National Artist for Literature (2022), as his personal contribution to the 39th anniversary celebration of Social Weather Stations (SWS).

What is Jimmy Abad’s connection to SWS? Under his name in Wikipedia is a very long, yet incomplete, account of his works and career. One thing missed is that, way back in August 1985, he was one of the SWS co-founders.

However, in fairness to Wikipedia, under SWS’ name it has the full list of our co-founders, which includes Jimmy and his wife, Mercedes “Mercy” Rivera Abad. Mercy, a pioneer of Philippine market research, was my survey consultant when I was an officer of the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP) in 1981-84; she has lent SWS so much of her technical expertise.

Jimmy and Mercy have been dear friends from when they were still single, in our University of the Philippines Diliman days. I don’t know how poet and market researcher got together, but am so glad for it. Jimmy’s first personal acquaintance with surveys was, I think, when he edited for publication the social indicators book “Measuring Philippine Development” (DAP, 1976).

The poem’s beginning. The poem has 21 lines (to be duly posted in full at www.sws.org.ph). Its first stanza is:

The future is first shaped by words

Whose meanings shift as ourselves change,

Word for word,

Out of the ashes.

Words come first; numbers follow, and then statistics. To explain the meaning of a number, one needs words. To explain the meaning of a number formed by combining several numbers through arithmetic, one needs words. To explain the meaning of plus and minus, and how they work with each other, one needs words.

Mathematics works by an extension of words. Statistics is a branch of mathematics. To explain a statistic, which represents an entire group by observing a sample of some members of the group, one needs words.

Charts and diagrams are means of visualizing a series of numbers, or the composition of a number, or the relation of some numbers to other numbers. They are also extensions of words, and can be summarized in words.

Accompanying his poem is an essay—“Why poetry? Or, why write at all?”—where Jimmy says (italics his): “I write to get real. Language is our imagination’s finest invention: they are one. But words are abstractions: we need to imagine what they express. The word evokes an image; the image lights up its meaning. To think well is to imagine well.”

Like words, survey numbers and statistics also have contexts and subtexts. Like words, their sequences, gaps, and frequencies matter, and their interpretations change with the circumstances.

Survey data are collected from people through words. Field interviewers are trained to ask questions precisely. Trusting “China” is different from trusting “the Chinese” and trusting “the Chinese people.” Being satisfied with the performance of a certain public official is different from intending to vote for that person. Feeling satisfied with life is not the same as feeling happy—although the two are somewhat (i.e., imperfectly) related.

The words, numbers, and statistics collected from survey respondents do not depreciate, deteriorate, or die. They are only asleep in the archives, for retrieval when relevant again. They are like the books in a library: at all times one should keep them, and never lose them, nor lose the language by which to read them.

SWS tries to state its survey findings in careful words and shares them with all who care to listen. It will continue doing so. Regardless of whether and how these findings get used, they are part of the country’s continuing history.

The poem’s ending. Jimmy Abad’s final stanza is:

Our future lies in how we use our words

Hope too is a blank page,

The womb where words sleep

To shape all eventfulness.

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