Thursday, January 03, 2008 Malig: Hope and the New Year By Jun A. Malig Cognition
FILIPINOS, who are known for their adaptability and steadfastness, usually welcome the entry of New Year with hope and enthusiasm. Change, for most people, is good, especially if it's about improvement or betterment.
Every December 31, we welcome the New Year with loud explosions, merry-making, laughter, and pleasant greetings. Many view the New Year as a new beginning -- a new chapter in their lives, which could bring welcome development and happiness, if not contentment.
The latest survey conducted by the Social Weather Station (SWS) showed that 91 percent of Filipinos are entering 2008 with hope rather than fear. The top resolutions are to strive for a better family life (12 percent) and to work harder or look for work (12 percent).
As expected, fewer people belonging to the ABC socio-economic class have New Year hope (88 percent) compared to the DE class (91 to 92 percent).
Folks who expected sad Christmas are mostly looking forward to 2008 with hope (95 percent).
While 12 percent of the respondents in the survey are resolved to have better family life and 11 percent are resolved to work harder, 26 percent of the respondents do not have any New Year's resolution, according to the SWS.
Other resolutions include: To have a better life (eight percent), to improve attitude or to become a better person (eight percent), to have better health or live longer (seven percent), to stop smoking, drinking or gambling (six percent), and to control their temper (five percent).
The SWS said other responses include: To have better relationship with God or to be more religious (three percent), better conditions in the Philippines (two percent), to study harder or go back to school (two percent), to be more happy (one percent), better finances or be more thrifty (one percent), peace and unity (one percent), and other responses (eight percent).
SWS said that its survey question on hope versus fear about the New Year was patterned after the polls conducted annually by the Allensbach Institute of Demoskopy, a pioneering opinion research center in Germany.
The SWS added that since 1991, German hope in the coming year has not exceeded 58 percent.
The SWS survey was conducted from November 30 to December 3, 2007 using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults divided into random samples of 300 each in Metro Manila, the Balance of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The area estimates were weighted by National Statistics Office (NSO) medium-population projections for 2007 to obtain the national estimates.
