The Ugly Habit of Being Late

Aristotle, the Greek Philosopher, said that “we are what we repeatedly do; and that “excellence is not an act. . . it’s a habit.”
Rightly, so. However, this piece is not about how to achieve excellence by way of habits. I do not have the right fitness to talk about the subject. My limitations are enough to make me aware of my boundaries. So, this is just about habit.
But really, the same would apply to excellence as it is a product of habit. So is vice and other negative acts. Habits, positive or negative, as most of us know, are things we do without self-analysis, and therefore could be done unconscious.
Next to “weder-weder lang yan” — an Erapspeak for “panahon-panahon lang yan”— Pinoys next excuse to peccadillo is “nakasanayan na kasi”. By saying and believing that, forgiveness comes easier since ‘ganyan na talaga siya kasi’. Then the failing keeps on repeating because it has become a habit encouraged by Pinoys’ leniency towards bad habits.
President Pinoy aims to correct this by prosecuting to the fullest the corrupt. By demonstrating that no crime goes unpunished, the cycle of continued corruption that begets poverty could still be broken— the current Philippine president vows to accomplish. But that’s another story.
Let’s go back to our main point here.
Take for example a Pinoy habit of being late. Why? While some socio-anthropologists theorize that Filipinos’ penchant for lateness came as an offshoot of the Spanish rule others believe that it is just his nature or something ingrained in the Filipino psyche.
The first belief says that when the Spaniards ruled the Philippines, they believed in their own superiority just like the Aryans and hence the rest of the Caucasian race believed as well. Since they are above the rest everyone below them should be at their beck and call.
Society then was pronouncedly stratified, the most important members of society being the rulers and the subjects at the bottom of the social order.
In social gatherings those who belonged to the highest stratum were the most important and therefore had to arrive last with everyone else waiting. This self-imposed self-superiority is of course being followed to these days. Only it is no longer the Spaniards who always come in late but the Filipinos themselves.
Secondly, there are those who believe that being always late is in the nature of Filipinos carried over from our ancestors’ way of thinking what time is. Originally, ancient Pinoys had no concept of time as time is not measured scientifically as in through the clock which is western invention. I wonder how the clock would have looked like if it was invented by a Filipino? But again that’s another story.
Time then was measured by seasons or by events: hunting time, planting time, harvest time, or time for merry-making. Some unschooled old folks in the hinterlands when asked when asked about an event let’s say birth of a child, the answer would have been, “noong panahon ng hapon yun.”
This concept some people say are so ingrained among Filipinos that until now most of us still have no concept of time.
Well, panahon nga ng Hapon yun. We are now in different times. No matter what the origin of the Filipino habit of always being late is now irrelevant.
When you are late you are being selfish. When you are late you are being inconsiderate and being uncharitable not to mention rude and disruptive. Unless you are yourself the Queen of England. Well, she has a protocol to comply with.
Time is precious. We are paid by the hour and letting others wait for your arrival is stealing from them hours which could have paid hours elsewhere.
I wonder how much in terms of Canadian dollars has been wasted all these years for those hours of waiting for those people who always came late in meetings or community functions.
Such a habit. A very ugly habit. Sorry I have to end here. I am late.
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