International Frugal Fun Day is an unofficial holiday celebrated on the first Saturday of October. The movable feast falls on Oct. 4 this year.
The holiday kicked off in 1999 when Shel Horowitz created the concept of frugality working hand in hand with fun.
Horowitz is qualified to spearhead the idea of frugality with fun. He is an award-winning author and an international speaker. The holiday stands on a solid premise: fun need not be costly. The dictionary meaning of frugality — “the quality of being economical with money or food; thriftiness” — gives the holiday its serious face.
Frugal fun points a finger at those who have more in life. The concept teaches people not to show off their wealth and for one day endure simplicity. But what if it is a lifestyle of constant penny-pinching not borne out of laziness but of painful circumstances?
In real life in the Philippines, just how fun is frugality? How many millions of Filipinos enjoy being frugal?
This is in the light of the recent flood control project controversy and the millions of pesos fattening the pockets of those involved in the conspiracy to gain illegal wealth.
While people scrimp because of frugality — nay, poverty — those involved in the flood control fake constructions have fun with their designer clothes, imported cars and luxurious houses.
Down below, those in the low-income level to which I now belong, those in the poverty level, and the below-poverty level swim for dear life while coping with abject frugality.
It is simple to say, “You are poor because you are lazy.” That is not always the case. We applaud the handful of rags-to-riches stories, but the millions who scrape off the last grain of rice from the sooty pot remain Have Nots no matter how hard they try to get out of the floodwaters of poverty.
How I wish our government servants, from top to bottom, will try social immersion: for one week live and eat with a poor family. How I wish they would go to a public hospital to get a check-up under a disguise to taste free service.
The floodwaters caused by the flood control project controversy have not yet subsided. Will those involved continue to enjoy virtual frugality? What about the victims of the failed projects?