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The standard Filipino perception of indebtedness or “utang na loob” was tackled in a podcast episode of the Nationwide Public Radio, an American-based public radio, final Could 18.
The episode titled “The Utang Clan” was launched on NPR’s Code Swap, a podcast about how race impacts each a part of the society hosted by journalists of coloration.
The podcast episode was hosted by Malaka Gharib, Gene Demby, Leah Donnella and Christina Cala.
Gharib was the one who launched the subject of “utang na loob” primarily based on her experiences as an immigrant with Filipino and Egyptian mother and father.
She additionally shared tales about familial indebtedness from different Filipinos born from immigrant households.
Within the overview through NPR’s web site, the “utang na loob” is outlined as “the Filipino idea of an everlasting debt to others, be it household or buddies, who do a favor for you.”
This perception is then in comparison with the People’ tradition of independence.
“It goes again to pre-colonial instances within the Philippines, and may go from one era to a different. And a few Filipino-People need to dispose of utang all collectively, particularly when it butts up towards ‘American’ values of independence and self-reliance,” the outline reads.
🌟 NEW ON THE POD 🌟
How a lot can we owe the individuals who have helped us in life? Can we owe them our loyalty? Our cash? Our time?
On this ep, @MalakaGharib explores the Filipino idea of Utang Na Loob — typically translated as “debt of the internal soul.” https://t.co/LRTblaIVBZ
— NPR’s Code Swap (@NPRCodeSwitch) May 23, 2022
What ‘utang na loob’ means
When requested for the that means of the phrase, Gharib shared a tough translation of “utang na loob” from Tagalog to English.
“It actually means debt of your internal self – your soul – in Tagalog,” she mentioned.
Gharib additional expounded that this sense of obligation doesn’t simply contain owing folks cash.
“Possibly it takes the type of you serving to somebody pay their payments, babysitting their children, serving to them repair their automotive – it might be many alternative issues. And the explanation why you’re doing that is possibly, at some earlier level, they gave you cash or helped you get a job or allow you to crash at their place for some time,” she mentioned.
The “debt” is also something “significant”, together with being a mother or father of that particular person.
Gharib additionally expounded how this sense of obligation differs from merely returning the favor.
“I’d say that what makes utang completely different is that it’s probably not concerning the favors. It’s concerning the relationship between the one that owes and the one that is owed,” she mentioned.
Transient historical past
Even students are usually not sure when this age-old idea began within the Philippines, in line with Gharib.
What she knew was that it’s “a core precolonial worth” of the indigenous peoples earlier than, in line with a research by an anthropology professor named Charles Kaut of the College of Chicago within the Nineteen Fifties.
“It’s a approach for folks to maintain one another, to guard one another from poverty, hazard, outsiders, and to carry one another accountable. By upholding your finish of the change, that’s the way you present care to folks in your group,” Gharib mentioned.
Throughout the Spanish colonization, nevertheless, this observe was used to govern and exploit Filipinos into Catholicism.
“Some students argue that Spanish colonizers might have even taken benefit of utang na loob to transform so lots of the native folks to Catholicism as a result of Filipinos felt this want to offer again to the Spaniards for, quote, unquote, ‘civilizing” them, enlightening them, educating them,” Gharib mentioned.
This “warped” or poisonous view of “utang na loob” ultimately manifested into the current Filipino tradition.
A Filipino-American creator named E.J. David of the College of Alaska Anchorage, additionally joined in to share his personal insights on the subject.
“Folks can undoubtedly make the most of this cultural worth to govern different folks, to bully them or stress them, , to get them to conform or to obey or – , or do issues that they won’t need to do or are troublesome for them to do,” he mentioned.
David identified that “utang na loob” ought to be extra on acknowledging the favor somewhat than repaying the favor itself.
“So it’s not the cost that issues. It’s acknowledging that you’re indebted to someone, he mentioned.
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