McKay Jenkins

Music 1040
10/31/2015
Cultural Semester Project Term Paper

Rahden Bertulano moved from the Southeast Asian country of the

Philippines to the United States in November of 2014. However, their
journey to the United States was not an easy or speedy one. For three years
previous to the day that they were finally able to make the move, Rahden
and his family spent most of their time getting all of the approvals to move
to the United States. Rahden realized that life in the Philippines was often
times dangerous, and realized that his family would have a much better life if
they moved to the United States. I met Rahden while serving a church
service mission to the Philippines. I lived in the Philippines for two years and
gained several insights into their culture because of it.
The Philippines is an island nation in Southeast Asia. Filipinos are
considered Asian but at one point their country was taken over by Spain.
Because of this, the Philippines is a big melting pot of Asian and Spanish
culture. One thing that is unique to the Filipino culture is their high level of
poverty. The Philippines has some of the poorest living conditions in the
world with more than half the country living on less than one US dollar a day.
(cnn.com) Filipinos are known for being laid back and lazy. There is an
unusually high unemployment rate in their country and there is very little

outlook for employment, forcing the people to be creative with ways to make
money and support their families. Most Filipinos are entrepreneurs not by
choice but because it is the only work they can find. Filipinos are also a very
shy people which is common amongst Asian cultures. They are more often
than not passive aggressive when it comes to conflict and have very tender
feelings so they are easily offended.
Family is everything in the Philippines. Often there are three or four
generations of family living under one roof. Filipinos are also known for being
very childlike. They are easily amused and love to play games. Even people
in their seventys arent above going out into the street and playing games
like kick the can. Although they live in poor living conditions and live a hard
life, Filipinos are a generally very happy people. In fact, compared to
Americans, Filipinos are much more content with what they have and rate
much higher on the happiness scale. (pri.org)
There is a whole slew of social problems that the Philippines deals with
including poverty, substance abuse, theft, corrupt government,
homelessness, hunger, prostitution, unemployment, sweat shops, workplace
violence, etc. The list goes on and one. For the purpose of this article, we
will focus on one of the bigger problems they have and that is disaster relief
and recovery. On average, the Philippines is hit by a typhoon twenty times a
year. That is just typhoons which do not include tropical storms that can also
be very damaging. The Philippines also sits along the ring of fire, meaning it

is prone to earthquakes. There are also eighteen active volcanoes in the

country which threaten the citizens who live close by. (usaid.org)
All of the many natural disasters that plague their nation each year is
one of the biggest reasons Filipinos like Rahden and his family decide to
move to the United States. The United States does not have nearly as many
natural disasters as the Philippines does and therefore alleviates much stress
from the Filipino people that move here. The fear of a natural disaster
almost disappears depending on where in the United States they choose to
move. It is much different than the way they live when they are in the
Philippines, where disaster preparation is a must for all citizens. Even if
there were to be a natural disaster in the United States, our government
sends relief immediately which is very out of the norm for the Filipinos. In
the Philippines when a storm strikes and the town is destroyed, the Philippine
government does little to nothing to help its citizens leaving them to fend
for themselves or wait for the relief goods from other countrys if the storm is
bad enough.
Music is a large part of the Filipino culture as well. Just as discussed
earlier with the Philippines being a melting pot of Asian and Spanish culture,
their music is an even more diverse melting pot of different musical genres.
One thing that characterizes Filipino music is it is extremely upbeat. There
are very few Filipino songs with a slow tempo or softer dynamics. Most of
their songs are forte and extremely upbeat. The lyrics of their songs are
very happy and they use instruments like drums and the ukulele. Singing is

a big part of their musical culture. Even if someone is not that good at
singing they are still encouraged to sing. Karaoke is a big part of the Filipino
culture and on any given night in the Philippines you can always hear
someone in the background singing karaoke.
One piece of music that I feel is a perfect example of a mixture of
Filipino and American music cultures is a piece titled Dati by Samuel
Concepcion and Tippy Dos Santos. Dati in Tagalog, the language of the
Filipino people, translates to before or previously. The song is about a
couple that leaves their Filipino roots in search of a better life. It does not
specifically state where they move off to but it can be inferred that it is the
United States. Even though they are living a much more prosperous life in
their new home, the couple sings about how even though life was hard
before they wont ever forget the memories they have and how much fun it
was living in the Philippines. This song shows that even though Filipinos live
a hard life and deal with many problems in their country, they look for the
silver lining in everything and try to be happy. This song is heavily
influenced by American culture and music. As you first listen to the song, it
sounds much like a pop song that you would hear on the radio in the United
States with a heavy bass sound and pop style vocals. Filipino music has
been very influenced by American pop music, however Filipino music has not
had much effect on American music with very little Filipino music actually
becoming popular in the United States. Only amongst Filipinos living in the
United States is Filipino music popular.

It is easy to feel bad for the Filipino people. They live a life of poverty
and only a small percentage will be able to afford an education that will allow
them to make enough money to bring them and their family above the
poverty line. But one thing that is important to remember is that they are
happy the way they live. You would think Americans would rate higher on
the happiness scale since we have much more material things than the
Filipino but surprisingly studies show the exact opposite. Americans have
much higher stress levels and report being much unhappier than the average
Filipino. It goes to show that it is the material things in life that make us
happy. This idea is perfectly presented in the fun upbeat style of Filipino
music. Even though life can be tough sometimes, you choose whether or not
you are going to be happy. And being happy is something that Filipinos have
all but perfected.

Work Cited
"CRS." Philippines. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.
Bertulano, Rahden. "Cultural Semester Project." Online interview. 11 Oct. 2015.
"Extreme Poverty in the Philippines." Extreme Poverty in the Philippines. 16 Sept. 2014. Web.
27 Oct. 2015.

Lorano, Cris. "Typhoons Economic Impact on Philippines." Indonesia Real Time RSS. 30 Nov.
2013. Web. 2 Nov. 2015.
Palatino, Mong. "How the Philippines Hid Social Justice Issues from Pope Francis." Public
Radio International. 19 Jan. 2015. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.
Palatino, Mong. "How the Philippines Hid Social Justice Issues from Pope Francis." Public
Radio International. 19 Jan. 2015. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.
Turuc, Paolo. "Economic Issues Top Filipinos' Concerns - Pulse Asia." Cnn. 27 Mar. 2015. Web.
27 Oct. 2015.
Wingard, Jessie. "Philippines: A Country Prone to Natural Disasters | Asia | DW.COM |
10.11.2013." DW.COM. 11 Oct. 2013. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.

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