class divide

i’ve been hither and yon, have stared at the face of abject poverty too many times as well as hobnobbed with the scandalolusly  rich and powerful.  yet i havent felt the same degree of snobbishness displayed as in negros-bacolod.  its just me of course and how i react to a reality found everywhere, born and bred as we were in a semi-feudal socio-economic order, but not of the blue-blooded tabula rasa.  

bacolod-negros represented a micrcosm of the class divide in philippine society, where 10 percent of the population control ninety percent of the island’s wealth.  bacolod’s elite rode high in the country’s creme de la creme social  circle.

with  the collapse of the sugar industry (entonces  the hacendero class) and the rise of the OFWs with their newly-found spending power , i’m not sure whether the structure has changed or how much. 

definitely, a good number of those who belonged to the “buena familias” are no longer soaring as high. many in fact have become “nouveau poor”  who are struggling to maintain the image but haven’t lost a whit of their uppity noses. that’s sorry enough.

sorrier still are the” nouveau riche”  who look rich - because they are - but can hardly disguise gauche and kitsch in speech and manner.  

sorriest of all are the social climbers who are ” nouveau neither”  - never old rich nor new rich -  who are trying damn hard to look, speak and behave like the rich and the classy.  they speak with a whiny colegiala (convent school girl) accent, hang out in gourmet coffee shops and fancy restaurants, walk the malls like those girls in shampoo commercials, whose pre occupation is to snag rich boyfriends/husbands,  tripping over to be  “in” with the “haves”  while fiercely shunning the “jologs” (the un-classy)

class divide i see not only in the poli-econ sense.  someone, somewhere, sometime said :  

Class is about how you treat other people, how you carry yourself in public (even in private i deign to add), and knowing what to ignore and what to give emphasis to.  It’s about having an innate sense of “appropriateness” in varied social situations.   It’s about being charitable in spirit.  For me class is also about personal integrity. Further more, all “polished” folks ain’t always classy!

 to distinguish between the “classy” and the ‘unclassy” ones therefore, according to writer Jennifer Banks  :  

» CLASSY PEOPLE don’t repeat everything that they hear or see.  They recognize that people’s reputations and lives are at stake.  They follow the Golden Rule.

» CLASSY PEOPLE are honest without being unnecessarily brutal.  Got something sensitive to share?  Consider how you would want to be told, and whether it has a constructive purpose.

» CLASSY PEOPLE respect others’ time and opinions.

» CLASSY PEOPLE are not elitist.

» CLASSY PEOPLE are not boastful about their success or social standing. They don’t have anything to prove.

» CLASSY PEOPLE know when to speak and when to hold their peace!

» CLASSY PEOPLE don’t take big stands on little issues.

» CLASSY PEOPLE don’t compare or compete.

» CLASSY PEOPLE have a good sense of humor and know when and how to use it to lighten the mood.

» CLASSY PEOPLE have an innate sense of appropriateness.

» CLASSY PEOPLE are not always popular, nor do they care.

» CLASSY PEOPLE don’t hold grudges.