‘Kawang gawa’ uniquely, naturally Filipino

Many years ago on Salcedo Street, Legazpi Village, a woman standing on the curb could not get into her car because of the heavy rain.  Then a man with an umbrella proffered his umbrella so she could get into her car. Tucked safely inside, her hand waved out into the rain with a P20-bill to give the man. The man just walked away and another man watching, just looked incredulous and said “kawang gawa” lang ’yun.”

It was the first time I heard the phrase. I asked my driver Mang Frank what the phrase meant, and he said “gawaing walang anuman, na hindi humihingi ng kapalit, na galing sa puso.” There is no real English equivalent for it and it roughly translates to: “work that expects nothing in return or work from the heart.”

I realized that I had just witnessed a cultural trait that Katrin de Guia, in her book “Kapwa: the Self in the Other,” expounded on—a trait that most urbanized Filipinos who grew up in Manila are not familiar with anymore.

De Guia is the German-born wife of Kidlat Tahimik, the renowned filmmaker.  She took her doctoral studies in UP with Virgilio Enrique, the renowned professor who developed “Sikolohiya Filipino.” She explores the kapwa trait that she says is so uniquely Filipino and is something that Filipinos can offer the world as an alternative to the “me, myself  and I culture” that defines modern life, because our indigenous world-view is so life-enhancing.

SWS surveys have documented the giving trait of the poorer Filipinos as being more generous than the rich. This has been more pronounced with the floods that Tropical Storm “Sendong” caused, with the small folks giving from the little they have versus the rich giving from their plenty. Then too, the Algires of Cabuyao who took the lost Tata Leo in and reconnected him with his family are perplexed why reward was being offered or the Inquirer was interviewing them for “kawang gawa.”

Since that rainy afternoon in Makati, I have explored this kapwa world more and I have realized that our culture is so rich with goodness and wonderful practices that we who grew up in the urbanized, exclusive subdivisions have forgotten or never even knew. We tend to look down on people we consider poor, keeping them away from us with guards at the gate and demeaning people with the frisking practices at malls. Yet the truth is, we “the people who forgot,” are the poorer people. By denying people the respect and dignity due them because we consider them “poor,” we deny our rich culture that has so much to teach us.

—JACQUELINE C. VEGA,

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